Do you sleep worse at full moon? What the studies say

Lots of people say it: "I can't sleep a wink at full moon." For years it sounded like superstition. But over the past decade several serious studies have found something surprising: they may be right.

What the researchers found

Basel, 2013. A team at the University of Basel reviewed data from people who had slept in their laboratory, with no windows and no idea what phase the moon was in. When they cross-checked it against the lunar calendar, they found that around the full moon, people took longer to fall asleep, slept about twenty minutes less and their deep sleep was lighter.

Argentina and Seattle, 2021. Researchers at the University of Washington used sleep wristbands to follow Indigenous Toba-Qom communities in northern Argentina (with and without electricity) and students in Seattle. In every group, people went to bed later and slept less on the nights leading up to the full moon, when the moon is already shining at dusk.

Why it might happen

Nobody knows for sure. The most likely explanation is evolutionary: for thousands of years, full-moon nights were the only ones with natural light for staying up, moving about or gathering together. Our bodies may have kept that rhythm, even though today we have light bulbs.

Other studies haven't found the effect, so science doesn't yet consider the matter closed. What's interesting is that it can no longer be dismissed.

How to look after your rest with the moon

• Before the full moon, go to bed a little earlier and dim the lights at home from dinner onwards.
• At full moon, if you can't sleep, don't fight it: write. It's a good time to empty your head onto paper.
• At new moon, make the most of sleep that tends to be deeper: it's the best phase for truly resting.
• Note how you sleep for a few months: that way you discover your own rhythm.

I check it every month with the wheel in my journal, which draws each night's moon next to my mood. The dates of every full moon in 2027 are in the lunar calendar.