Its effects on the tides are identified by the scientific community but on bad humor this remains to be proven. Yet it has remained an object of fascination since the dawn of time. In the Middle Ages, locals suspected her of disturb the minds. Questions still pending for which science does not really have an answer.
However, it is not for lack of having studied the question. In 2013, a team of researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland became interested in this mystery. In a study, they found that in the four days preceding or following a full moon, participants lost twenty minutes of sleep. Scientists also note a deep sleep phase reduced by 30% as well as a longer time of 20 minutes to fall asleep.
“Under its influence, people became nervous, aggressive, strange to say the least; unreason took possession of them, sweat beaded on their faces, their attitude worried those around them. Very quickly, the Moon was associated with madness”
They blame the drop in melatonin, the sleep hormone in the blood, to explain this phenomenon. “The lunar rhythms have influences both on what is visible, lighting and also atmospheric conditions and the weather”, explains to Ouest France Dr Didier Cugy, sleep doctor in Bordeaux and member of the National Institute of Sleep and Vigilance. For this sleep specialist, the moon influences sleep.
Brigitte Bulard-Cordeaux, author of the book “Le petit livre de la lune” published by Chêne, explains to the media 20 minutes that in the Middle Ages, the Moon was suspected of disturbing minds. “Under his influence, people became nervous, aggressive, strange to say the least; unreason took hold of them, sweat beaded on their faces, their attitude worried those around them. Very quickly, the Moon was associated with madness. It was she who terrified the sick, transformed the shadows into demons. We did not know that from a scientific and medical point of view, these feverish people were victims of epileptic seizures“, she explains.
However, researchers from the University of Laval in Canada contradict this theory in a study published in 2013. Geneviève Belleville, professor at the School of Psychology, and her collaborators examined the relationship between lunar phases and the number of patients who present to the emergency room hospitals experiencing psychological disturbances.
Comparison of the number of psychiatric admissions and the lunar calendar
The scientists collected data from emergency patients at the Sacré-Coeur hospital in Montreal and the Hôtel-Dieu de Lévis between March 2005 and April 2008 in order to determine whether popular belief linking the Moon and mental health issues was founded. They selected the following reason for consultation: chest pain for which no medical cause could be established.
A psychological test provided to 771 patients helped establish that a large proportion of them suffered from panic attacks, anxiety, mood disorders or suicidal thoughts.
They then compared using lunar calendarsvisits and full moon days. The results of their analyses, published in the magazine General Hospital Psychiatry, do not reveal any connection between the incidence of psychological problems and the four lunar phases.
An unfounded popular belief
However, they note a 32% reduction in anxiety disorders during the last quarter moon. “It may be due to chance or to factors that we have not measured,” says Geneviève Belleville. “One thing is certain, we we did not observe effect of the full moon or new moon on the psychological disorders“, she specifies in a press release.
The conclusion of this study goes against the beliefs of a large part of the population, but also with those of 80% of nurses and 64% of doctors who are convinced that the lunar cycle affects the mental health of patients. “We hope that our results will encourage health professionals to put this idea aside, said the researcher. Otherwise, this belief risks coloring their judgment during the full moon and causing them to be less alert to psychological problems during the rest of the month.
