"Werewolf mode on!" ? No myth: full moon and sleep deprivation
Often the full moon must serve as an excuse if we have not slept again. It's also so easy to blame the round ball in the night sky. But is it really the full moon factor?
Bad sleeper
Yes! Den has a Swiss research team demonstrated in 2013. Granted in a relatively small study with only 33 subjects, but at least. The result: on full moon nights, subjects slept 20 minutes less on average and needed 5 minutes more to fall asleep. In addition, the subjects rated their overall sleep worse.
Why is that? The research team found a reduced level of melatonin in their subjects. Melotonin is a hormone that is secreted more in the dark. It promotes ejaculation and is involved in the control of sleep and waking phases. So, when the moon shines through the window, can it cause the melatonin production in the brain to be diminished? so we turn back and forth without coming to rest. However, other sleep researchers have found that a healthy sleeper is not at all interested in whether it is full moon or not. So all but head thing?
The other sleeping robbers
One way or the other: sleep today often robs us of other things: stress in the job, the irradiation of TVs or cell phones, noise. So, best of all, we go to bed with a good old book, pull on the thick curtains? and ignore the moon, even if it shines like a bullet through the window.
