Look Up

With the full moon and July 4 coinciding on the same day over a restless nation, one can’t help but wonder, does the full moon affect people’s behavior? According to AccuWeather.com, it does. The full moon has long 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 have dismissed these myths, but real effects are being found through scientific research.

Again according to AccuWeather.com, lunacy and lunatic stems from luna, the Latin word for moon. It is believed that people were more likely to show erratic behavior during a full moon. 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 from police records in Florida over a five-year period and it showed an increase in cases of homicide and aggravated assault around full moons. In addition, roughly three-years ago, a study definitively showed that the moon’s phases affect human sleep. In most of the sleep studies, research participants were not aware of the moon phase or time cues. Lastly, 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.

They even went on to state the moon could affect a women’s menstruation cycle, however, as noted in May 30’s Look Up, its gravity isn’t strong enough to affects liquids or other items in our bodies. According to Clue, an app that tracks menstruation cycles, it’s not true. They state on their website, HelloClue.com, that they analyzed over 7.5 million cycles and concluded that the menstrual cycle does not sync with the lunar cycle. This was posted April 2019. It goes on to say that the lunar and menstrual cycles will correlate more or less for some people since their average cycle length matches the lunar cycle. In other words, the lunar cycle and the average menstrual cycle are basically the same. They also noted, that the terms “menstruation” and “menses” come from Latin and Greek words meaning month (mensis) and moon (mene).

Look Up appears in the weekend edition. If you have any astronomical questions or facts you’d like to share email news@smdailyjournal.com with the subject line “Look Up.”