Published 17 September 2021 at 12.12
Domestic. Men's sleep seems to be affected more than women's by the lunar cycle. A study conducted by researchers at Uppsala University shows that many men sleep worse during the first phases of the moon – while women's sleep was largely not affected at all.
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The researchers used polysomnography to measure the sleep quality of 492 women and 360 men who slept at home in their own beds. Electrodes attached to the head measured, among other things, electrical activity in the brain and eye movements.
The people whose sleep was registered did not know that it was the connection to the moon's movements that the researchers were interested in.
– We could see that men whose sleep was measured during the first phases of the moon had poorer sleep quality and woke up more often during the night compared with men whose sleep was measured during the waning phases of the moon. In women, sleep was largely unaffected by the lunar cycle. Our results were robust for adjustments for chronic sleep problems and sleep apnea, says Christian Benedict, associate professor and sleep researcher at Uppsala University and responsible for the study.
reflected from the moon around the time when people usually go to bed.
In addition, a recently published study has shown that men's brains may be more receptive to ambient light conditions than women's.
– Our study can not determine, however, whether it is the lunar cycle that affects sleep in men or whether the lunar cycle covaries with some other factor that affects sleep, says Christian Benedict.