We just learned about the moon that is hard to believe – BGR

• The effect the moon has on humans has long been debated, but new research suggests it certainly affects our sleep.
• A new study published in Science Advances suggests that the moon’s phase has a real, measurable effect on how much sleep we get and when we feel tired.
• Study participants wore sleep trackers and their habits were tracked for two months.

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It is often said that a full moon causes people to behave differently than on any other night during a different phase of the moon. Ancient civilizations often placed great value on lunar phases, and some believed that certain things only happened during specific lunar phases, such as a full moon. Now science provides serious support for these theories.

In a new study published in Science Advances, researchers had volunteers from Argentina’s indigenous communities wear sleep trackers for up to two months to keep track of their sleeping habits. About 100 people from the region took part in the survey. The data was also compared to sleep data collected from more than 450 Seattle residents, and the similarities were incredible.

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The study tried to pinpoint the differences in sleep patterns based on moonlight, and since the full moon and the days before are the brightest nights, it makes sense that the indigenous people (some of whom had no or limited access to electricity) stayed later on nights with a bright moon and slept almost an hour less than other nights of the month.

This finding would be quite interesting in itself, if only for the fact that it gives us a glimpse of how our pre-industrial ancestors behaved as a result of the moon’s different phases. However, the investigation takes an even more astonishing turn when the data from Seattle is included. As it turned out, city dwellers, despite having access to artificial light in so many forms, also showed different sleep patterns based on the moon phase.

“The fact that this modulation was even present in communities with full access to electric light suggests that these effects are mediated by something other than the moonlight itself,” said Leandro Casiraghi, lead author of the study. CNN.

But how can the moon affect people if light isn’t the only factor? That part remains unclear, but researchers have their theories. One such theory is that humans have internal clocks that are more regular than just the 24-hour daytime and sleep / wake cycles. Many animals instinctively react to the times of the year, even if seasonal changes don’t bring dramatic changes in the weather. It’s possible that humans have had a similar adaptation long ago, and staying up late when the moon is bright gets burned into our DNA. That’s just a theory, of course.