7 Ways the Moon Affects Your Health, Sleep, and Mood
Turns out, a full Moon can affect our physical well being in many ways. See what researchers discovered...
Quick Reference: Moon and Health
- Sleep: studies show people sleep ~20 minutes less on full moon nights.
- Menstrual cycles: historically synced with the lunar month, less so today with electric light.
- Mood: the ‘lunacy’ link has been studied widely; modest correlations exist.
- Surgery: mixed evidence on healing rates and complications.
- Conception: folklore strong, science limited.
- Most consistent finding: full moon nights disrupt sleep across most studies.
Folklore has tied the moon to human health for millennia: from the words ‘lunacy’ (lunar madness) and ‘menstruation’ (lunar month) to centuries of farming and birth records keyed to moon phase. Modern science has tested most of these claims, with mixed results. Here are seven specific ways the moon may affect your health, what the research shows, and which folklore claims have held up.
1. Sleep on Full Moon Nights
The clearest finding: people sleep less around full moons. A 2013 University of Basel study found participants slept 20 minutes less, took longer to fall asleep, and had 30 percent less deep sleep on full moon nights. The effect appeared even when participants couldn’t see the moon. A 2021 Yale study replicated the finding across rural and urban populations.
2. Menstrual Cycles
The 29.5-day lunar synodic month closely matches the 28-day average menstrual cycle. Historical records from rural communities show menstrual cycles often synced with the new moon (menses) and full moon (ovulation). Modern studies in electrically-lit cities find less synchrony, suggesting artificial light may break the link.
3. Mood and ‘Lunar Madness’
Studies of emergency room admissions, police calls, and psychiatric crises around the full moon are mixed. Some show small upticks; others find no effect. The most consistent finding is that mental-health professionals believe the lunar effect even when statistical analysis is ambiguous, which influences reporting.
4. Surgery and Healing
A 2013 Rhode Island Hospital study found cardiac surgeries performed during the waning moon had slightly faster recovery times, but the effect was small. Other surgery studies have found no link. The folklore tradition strongly favors avoiding elective surgery near the full moon.
5. Conception and Birth
Folk tradition strongly associates conception and birth with the full moon. Statistical studies of birth records find no consistent peak in full-moon births, but the perception persists in maternity wards.
6. Pain and Inflammation
A small Italian study in 2018 found self-reported pain scores in chronic pain patients increased slightly on full moon days. The mechanism is unclear; researchers speculated about sleep disruption as an indirect cause.
7. Tides and Body Water
A popular but unsupported claim is that the moon influences body water the way it influences ocean tides. The math doesn’t work: the moon’s tidal force on a 150-pound human is roughly 10 millionths of the force gravity exerts on a single soda can. Real effects on the body are not gravitational.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the full moon really affect sleep?
Yes, according to multiple peer-reviewed studies. People sleep 20 minutes less and have less deep sleep around the full moon, even when they can’t see the moon.
Is there science behind ‘lunacy’?
Mixed. Some emergency room studies show small upticks in admissions on full moon nights; others find no effect. The perception is stronger than the statistics.
Should I avoid surgery during a full moon?
Most surgeons would say no, the evidence isn’t strong enough. Traditional gardening-by-the-moon practice avoids any work that ‘cuts’ the body during the waxing phase, but this is folklore.
Why do menstrual cycles match the lunar month?
The synchrony is biological, not gravitational. Pre-industrial populations spent more time in moonlight, which may have set a circadian rhythm. Modern artificial light has largely broken the synchrony.
Cynthia McMurray
Cynthia McMurray is a freelance writer and journalist, and publisher of a national health magazine. She has written books for leading health professionals and is the owner of Write Words, a consulting business for writers. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her article, Animals' Amazing Sense of Direction appears in the 2021 Farmers' Almanac.
- Cynthia McMurray
Desde hace años cuando hay luna nueva ó llena yo me siento muy mal de mi cabeza,
Siento fobia porque siento que me hablan dentro de mi cabeza, son varias voces y no les entiendo bien que dicen ó me dicen, siento muchísimo miedo creo fobia.
Actualmente tengo 70 años pero esto me empezó desde que tenia 16 años, Dr. Neurólogo me dijo era epilepsia, aunque yo jamas eh convulsionando, perdía conocimiento por 2 minutos lo máximo, desde el año 2020 no pierdo conocimiento, pero la luna me sigue dando problema, como me calmo es colocar un paño color rojo a mi cabeza y así no siento tan mal el efecto de luna nueva ó llena. Tantos años luchando con la luna me siento cansada.
Dios les Bendiga por toda la eternidad. CHAO.
Being a diabetic, I chart my weight, my blood pressure and my blood sugar daily , started to notice a pattern I would get a headache every time we have full moon , for about three nights my blood pressure is elevated I do not take BP med every day only as needed,
My doctor told me that I was one of a small number of people that could feel BP going up.
I can take 1/2 pill BP goes back to normal in a hour , will stay normal until the next night full moon goes back up,
WOW! What an observation! Thank you for sharing!!
I know of a woman..88 years old. Who gets migraine headaches two weeks before a full moon. She says this started when her daughter was born in 1960.
Sore Throat Or Coughing
I always either have one of these few days before or during or after full moon since I started tracking it for 4 years now.
And a heart break too.
This happened decades ago, I was attending University and working part time in a suburban library. One evening the library was more noisy than usual, I mentione this to one of the older librarians and she said – oh it must be a full moon! I laughed and poo poo ed the idea, I went and looked it up and guess what? IT WAS A FULL MOON. I checked on this a number of times after that and it generally was a full moon!
I am a Permanent Makeup artist. After observing the different pain levels of my clients, I found if I had performed the procedure during the week of or week after the full moon it was much more painful. I now will not preform any procedures during this period. Makes it inconvenient but my clients love me for it.
Our family members do not sleep as well and we are more tired and short fused. I worked in a retirement home and on a full moon, our residents with psychiatric disorders were more prone to outbursts. Many of the children in our families were born the night of a full moon. I have also observed when I was trying to meet deadlines when I did freelance translation, I encountered problems with my computer such as freezing text, typing text differently than what I had typed. For instance, K1E, the E automatically changed to a lower case e and in an algaebric format.
WOW! Thank you for sharing your experiences with the Full Moon. It always amazes us how it can impact people!
A few years ago, something made me look this up. I thought those who believed in planets were nuts. Well, I went thru my emails: nothing during a full moon, but exactly 4 days EVERY TIME before a full moon, I go berserk! I start having panic attacks, anxiety attacks, randomly yelling and breaking relationships etc. Since then, I have monitored it all these past 5 years and it’s sheer terror. I know it’s coming & trouble finds me. Ex: whackjobs are attracted to me. I try hard to control my environment. I’ll have some idiot middle of the night knocking on my door. I rip the door open then tear a new one onto them, verbally. I can’t sleep so I have to sleep during the day. I’ll have some idiot yelling outside my bedroom window, even one time, the manager WALKED IN ON ME SLEEPING! WTF? For no other reason that “I haven’t seen you in a while”! WTAFF!? Yeah, well if I wanted to be seen, you’d have seen me, I DON’T want to see ANYBODY, it’s morbid. I will hurt you if you mess with my alone time during full moon season. Day of the full moon, i’m ok. One time I was ok and then it happened 2 days after. Not sure why. This time it was very foggy and cloudy and it still affected me. It seems they increase in intensity and I can’t control myself at all.
I’d like to hear from anyone who has symptoms exactly 4 days before. I believe that’s when it’s pull is at the strongest. I’ll be going “I’m ok, I’m ok, I’m ok” and I really am peaceful. Then I’ll get an email, usually from some tard insulting me on YT, and then someone knocks and I totally lose it, or if I’m playing cards online and the computer beats me, rage triggered. Anyone else attracts crazies and becomes one themselves exactly 4 days, when the moon pull is at its strongest? Reply to me, please.
Yep. Got here looking for info about always getting a cold after a full moon.
It is uncanny…
I work at a school and when kiddos start to misbehave me and the other teachers attribute it to a full moon.