A full moon is coming. What will it do to you? The idea that the phases of the moon are linked to the human psyche is one of the oldest and most pervasive examples of folk lore and mythology. It is woven into the fabric of our classic literature, poetry and music.
Even today, a surprising number of people believe that our deepest emotions and mental states are influenced by the lunar cycle, and there are plenty of police officers, doctors, nurses and prison guards who would swear blind they’ve seen evidence of it in their everyday lives. But is the lunar effect real? How and why does it work?
Humans have spent thousands of years discussing the lunar effect in stories and legends, and the last 40 years documenting it in the academic literature. So what’s the verdict? How does the moon affect us? The moon’s effects date back to legends and mythology of ancient civilizations. The full moon has been associated with strange or insane behavior, including suicide, sleepwalking and violence. The lunar theory, otherwise known as the lunar effect, is the idea that there’s some correlation between moon cycles and human behavior.
Many people dismiss myths concerning the influence of the moon, but real effects are being found through science. Lunacy and lunatic stem from luna, the Latin word for moon. It is believed that people were more likely to show erratic behavior during a full moon. The Werewolf legend is an example of our most primitive understanding of a link between human behavior and emotion and the moon. It captures our idea that during the full moon, man becomes wild, violent and instinctive, a reversion to a more basal, less civilized version of ourselves. This is probably the most pervasive aspect of the myth, that the moon controls human aggression, impulsivity, violence and mood.
But the lunar effect has also been proposed for a range of scenarios so broad it will make your mind boggle. A quick google search will tell you that the moon controls our fertility and reproduction, influences violent crime, suicide and even traffic accidents, affects seizures, blood loss, sleep quality and even our political leanings. A publication on the National Criminal Justice Reference Service titled lunar effect- biological tides and human emotions, shows extensive analyses of data on human behavior. Lunar astronomy accurately indicated that the repression of the moon’s gravitational influence brings about social tension, disharmony and bizarre results. Another study looked at data over a 5-year period from police records in Florida, which showed an increase in cases of homicide and aggravated assault around full moons.
It’s very hard to completely disregard it because the tides on this Earth, the oceans, everything follows the moon’s gravitational pull and things like that. So it can’t be totally doing nothing to us. Two studies found evidence that those with mental disorders i.e. Schizophrenia generally exhibit 1.8% of increased violent or aggressive episodes during the full Moon. Police in Ohio and Kentucky have blamed temporary rises in crime on the full Moon. In January 2008, New Zealand’s Justice Minister Annette King suggested that a spate of stabbings in the country could have been caused by the lunar cycle. Researchers followed 1,000 births in a hospital in Kyoto, Japan, where the mothers were not induced. Their study showed more babies were born when the moon was the closest to Earth, when the gravitational pull is the strongest. According to theories that persist to this day, full moons cause a moon-induced baby boom.
An effect of the moon on the menstrual cycle is controversial: Some studies show it, some refute it. Science is slowly showing moon myths hold some truth. Possibly, the moon affected people and animals more before modern lighting. The light of a full moon kept people up at night, leading to sleep deprivation that could have caused other issues, according to one hypothesis. Regardless the moon does have an effect, but how big the effect is unknown. Feel free to leave comments and be sure to hit the “Like” button at the bottom of this post.