How Does the Moon Affect Human Behavior? | The Old Farmer's ...

Does the Full Moon Make People Crazy? How The Moon Affects Us.
How the Moon affects human behavior
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How does the Moon affect human behavior? Does it make us crazy? Does it influence our mood and wellbeing? There’s new evidence suggesting that the Moon can affect sleep. Let’s explore the myths and reality of the Moon’s power.
The Luna-Lunacy Connection
Ancient authorities like Aristotle, Paracelsus, and Pliny the Elder thought some humans were driven crazy by the full Moon. The Latin name for the Moon—luna—is the root of modern words like “lunacy,” “lunatic,” and even “loon,” as in “crazy as a loon.”
Even today, many doctors, nurses, EMTs, police officers, and elementary school teachers agree that full Moons will bring out bizarre behavior—43 percent of healthcare professionals believe in what some call “the lunar influence,” as do 81 percent of mental healthcare specialists. But is there really a lunar connection to abnormal behavior?
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Unless you plan to ask a werewolf (which we don’t recommend), it might be time to separate facts from fiction.
The Moon and Sleep
According to one scientific study conducted in 2021, people go to bed later and sleep for a shorter period of time in the days leading up to a full Moon. Specifically, people would go to bed 30 minutes later than average and sleep almost an hour less per night!
This makes some sense because the light from the Moon after sunset is brighter on the days leading up to a full Moon. However, here’s the surprising part: Studies found that it didn’t matter if you lived in a rural or urban environment (where you might find more light pollution)! Sleep patterns were compared between people in two very different locations, from the country to the city:
Indigenous people in rural Argentina (the Toba/Qom communities) who don’t have any access to artificial light
College students living in downtown Seattle, Washington, where the glare from city lights dims the light from the Moon and stars.
If the Moon’s brightness isn’t a factor, why do we stay up later and sleep less? One theory goes back to our ancestors and our long history before the industrial age. People paid attention to the Moon and relied on its “night light” for hunting, fishing, and other social activities. Think of the “Harvest Moon” in the autumn, so-named because it provided several nights of light for farmers to gather in their crops at the height of harvest. Every month, the nights leading up to a full Moon bring more light to the evening.
Our sleeping patterns are controlled by our natural circadian rhythms— the day and night cycles driven by Earth orbiting the Sun. But there are also circalunar rhythms, which are tied to lunar cycles. Certainly, some animals will respond to both a circadian rhythm and a lunar clock.
Many animal species’ behaviors are influenced by the Moon, too. Think of birds that rely on the Moon for migration and that will even time their reproduction to coincide with the specific phases of the lunar cycle.
Anecdotally, you have to wonder if less sleep (whether interrupted sleep or going to bed later) for several nights in a row might lead to some irritability—and what you might call moodiness!
The Moon and Lunacy
That leads us to weird behavior. There have been hundreds of studies about the Moon and lunacy. The few studies that suggest a connection are usually disproved or contradicted by others:
One study says more animal bites (from cats, rats, dogs, horses) occur at the full Moon; another says there’s no increase in dog bites.
One shows an increase in crime around the full Moon; others find no increase in arrests, calls for police assistance, prison assaults, batteries, or homicides.
Admissions for psychosis are lowest during the full Moon, and psychiatric emergency room visits decline; but calls to suicide prevention hotlines peak at the new Moon, not the full Moon.
We’re not quite sure how you’d actually prove the connection between the Moon and lunacy. But one explanation might be what psychologists call “confirmation bias.” In other words, people are more likely to notice things that confirm a preexisting belief.
If you’re working in an emergency room, and something weird happens on the full Moon, your older and wiser colleagues nod and say, “Must be a full Moon.” That’s what they heard from their elders when they were new at the job. (Psychologists have a name for that, too: “communal reinforcement.”)
But if something weird happens at a different phase of the lunar cycle, nobody says, “Must be the third quarter Moon!” And when nothing unusual happens on the full Moon, nobody says anything.
We call widespread beliefs that are unsupported by fact “folklore.” Erika Brady, who teaches folklore at Western Kentucky University, says, “it’s a way of imposing order on something that feels frighteningly out of control.”
How does a belief that strange things happen on the full Moon help us feel safer? The full Moon occurs only once every 29.5 days; that means the other four weeks of the lunar month should be less dangerous and unpredictable. See when the next full Moon is.
Therefore, this folk belief implies that our fears about everything from increased bleeding to werewolves may be limited to only 12 or 13 days per year. (Maybe that’s why the number 13 worries people!)
What do you think about the Moon? Does it influence behavior or emotions? Or, is it all in our imagination—and our dreams?
Comments
I'm a retired critical care RN with 36 years of experience, I practiced in hospitals, and in prehospital (EMS) environments. I have experienced, observed and researched the effects of the full moon on humans. I believe our body composition does play a role. Here are a few clinical facts; women go into labor in higher numbers during a full moon, consider the content of amniotic fluid. Heart emergencies occur more often. Suicidal tendencies (calls to hot-lines, attempts) increase. Domestic incidents are reported more often. Psychiatric patients (clinically diagnosed) are shown to "act out" against themselves and/or others. In my personal observations, my 2 cents, emotional outbursts are more prevalent, sadness, anger, feelings of doom. I can't explain why these things seem to happen around the Full Moons. Some, as I've stated are factual, others are just my experience over the years.
Thank you to The Farmers Almanac for all the informative articles and for raising my awareness. I truly appreciate your work and for the opportunity to continue to learn.
Being in retail all of my life, I can attest to "full moon" craziness. During my teen years my family had a neighborhood grocery. My dad would comment on the "moonies". Later when I worked for a major department store I experienced the behaviors and my more seasoned managers and co workers said it must be a full moon. So on and on the notion of full moon behavior continues whether perpetuated by myth or experiences thrives. Even today I find myself staying "in" on full moon cycles to avoid trouble.
Having run a steak house restaurant for many years I know that the Full Moon causes people to act strangely. My employees and I always dreaded the Full Moon. Sometimes it was just funny but sometimes it wasn't nice. Other restaurant owners said the same thing.
I've been an elementary school teacher for 25 years. I don't need to keep up with the moon cycles because the kids let me know. They are generally louder, more hyper and fidgety, and generally out of sorts. There is definitely a certain "feel" (like a sort of buzzing energy) to a school around the coming of the full moon. And if this coincides with stormy weather of any sort, you can expect to need a glass of wine when you get home.
I've been an elementary school teacher for 25 years. I don't need to keep up with the moon cycles because the kids let me know. They are generally louder, more hyper and fidgety, and generally out of sorts. There is definitely a certain "feel" (like a sort of buzzing energy) to a school around the coming of the full moon. And if this coincides with stormy weather of any sort, you can expect to need a glass of wine when you get home.
Disclaimer: this is not to put down anyone who believes that the Moon may affect a person’s behavior. What you believe is entirely up to you.
So, I do not believe that the Moon affects the behavior of people. If that were the case, the men that traveled around and landed on the Moon back in the late 60s and early 70s would have been strongly influenced by the Moon and therefore would have immediately been unfit for space travel (back in those days, psychological tests were very strict to the point of being unreasonable, so mental stability was a huge concern for astronauts). And they had plenty of missions to prove if the Moon affected the astronauts behavior if they wished to do so, particularly Apollo 8-10. But there is no indication of the astronauts being affected by the Moon’s light or the Moon itself. Therefore, I think it is potentially harmful to think that the Moon can affect your behavior, especially if you are interested in scientific research. It can potentially even be sexist if you go farther to say that the Moon affects a woman’s cycle- if that were the case, it wouldn’t be safe to send a woman to the Moon for fear that her body will react to the close proximity of the Moon! We do not need to go back 50 years in our thinking about women and space travel and especially what they can and can’t do. I probably didn’t explain it well, but I hope you understand my reasoning.
I was a pharmacist for many years. I could always tell when it was a full moon or on the waning cycle. People would act weirder and get more psychiatric meds at this time. I had a technician that didn't believe me. After about 3-6 months, she was convinced. I dreaded working at that time of month.
Interesting article! I would mention the natural woman’s cycle with the moon as well : white woman (ovulating with a new moon ) & red woman (ovulating with the full moon). Something to explore here ...
I have been bartending for over 43 years and believe me, I never have to look to the sky to know when it's a Full or New moon. People are a little crazier and a little weirder during these moon phases. They dance more, laugh more and are more outgoing.