Does the Moon Really Affect Your Sleep?

People have blamed the full moon for bad sleep for a long time. So is there anything to it? The honest answer is: a little, but less than the stories suggest.

What the research found

A few studies have noticed that around the full moon, some people take a bit longer to fall asleep and get slightly less deep sleep, even when they cannot see the moon from their bed. The effect is small, often just a few minutes, and not everyone shows it.

The simplest explanation for part of it is light. A full moon is bright enough to light up a room through thin curtains, and light is the main thing that tells your body when to sleep.

What is probably a myth

The idea that the full moon makes people act strangely, the old "lunatic" belief, does not hold up. Big reviews of hospital visits, births, and crime find no real full-moon spike. What tends to happen is that people remember the wild nights that landed on a full moon and forget the quiet ones.

If the moon does bother your sleep

• Use blackout curtains or an eye mask on the brightest nights.
• Keep a consistent bedtime. A steady routine matters far more than the moon.
• Track it yourself. Note how you slept against the phase and see if there is really a pattern for you.

You can check which nights are near a full moon on moontrack, and jot a note on those days in the app.