Washington researchers find the phase of the moon affects how long we sleep
University of Washington researchers are beginning to peel away at the mystery of how moon cycles affect sleep, and what they’ve found so far surprised them.
Despite the option of “extending the end of the day” with artificial lighting in highly urbanized Seattle, scientist Horacio de la Iglesia said UW students slept shorter hours in the days before a full moon, as did indigenous Argentinans with no electricity.
De la Iglesia, a UW biology professor , led the study published in Science Advances Jan. 27, which pooled efforts from scientists at UW in Seattle, the National University of Quilmes in Argentina and Yale University.
Researchers observed the sleep habits of 98 people in Toba-Qom Indigenous communities in Argentina over a period of one to two moon cycles. One group lived in a village without electricity, one was partially electrified and one was urbanized, de la Iglesia said. Then, the scientists aggregated data collected on UW students’ sleep to see if the patterns held in an American city. They did.
Read more: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/feb/26/washington-researchers-find-the-phase-of-the-moon-/
