Modern life can be very hard. In the past, our ancestors worked during the day and rested at night without major problems.
Now, stress, traffic, poor diet, family conflicts, troubles at work, and several other things cause us problems of sleep.
But, there is another reason for not being able to sleep comfortably our 8 recommended hours, something that apparently also affected our ancestors, neither more nor less than the lunar cycle.
It is true that the lunar cycle prevents us from sleeping? According to science, this idea is true, and it affects men more. Here’s why.
(Photo: Pixabay)
The lunar cycle and lack of sleep
As we mentioned above, one of the great problems of modernity is the difficulty of sleeping.
But, according to a new scientific study conducted by experts from the University of Uppsala, Sweden, the culprit of our sleep problems is the very old moon, especially if you are a man.
The Swedish researchers monitored the sleep of both men and women on opposite sides of the lunar cycle.
During the experiment, more than 800 participants were analyzed while they slept, either during the waxing moon (when the amount of illumination on the moon is increasing) or during the waning moon (when its visible surface area is getting smaller and smaller).
The researchers found that both men and women slept worse during the waxing moon, taking longer to fall asleep.
However, this effect was particularly pronounced in men, according to the team.
Why does the crescent moon affect sleep?
Experts believe that human brains are likely to respond to moonlight when it increases its illumination during the waxing moon, making it easier for us to stay awake.
Furthermore, they believe that this effect is more pronounced in men because male brains respond more to ambient light than female brains.
Thus, although many believe that the effects of the moon on human beings is something closer to pseudoscience, this experiment would verify that it does affect us, although not for the causes that astrologers or other similar characters claim.
The experiment
The study was led by Christian Benedict, associate professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Uppsala University, and was conducted over the course of several months, comparing the lunar cycle with trouble falling asleep.
In addition, to have more data, the researchers recorded the night activities in the home of 492 women and 360 men, between 22 and 81 years old.
The participants were equipped with polysomnography equipment, which measured brain waves, breathing, muscle tension, movements, heart activity and more, as they progressed through different stages of sleep.
In general, men whose sleep was recorded during the nights of the waxing moon had worse sleep than the men whose sleep was measured during the nights in the waning period.
That is, during the waxing moon, men had lower sleep efficiency and spent more time awake compared to women.
More tests
The Uppsala University experiment serves to give more strength to a previous study, from the beginning of the century, who studied the effects on humans of sunlight reflected from the Moon.
In that experiment, led by Dr. Ronald L. Cowan of the McLean Imaging Center in Belmont, Massachusetts, it was concluded that sunlight reflected off the Moon affects sleep, but did not elaborate on the subject.
The same experiment suggested that the male brain was more sensitive to ambient light than the female brain. So the conclusions of both experiments would be practically the same.
On another study of this same year, researchers from the University of Washington carried out a statistical report, showing that people go to bed later and sleep for shorter periods on nights with a crescent moon.
So, especially if you are a man, you already know that once a month you will have more problems sleeping in certain weeks.
