The Lunar Effect

The Lunar Effect: Does the Full Moon Really Make Us Feel Crazy?

On Tuesday, April 7th we saw the biggest and brightest full moon of the year- the Super Pink Moon. This means that the moon will be much closer to Earth than usual and will seem almost close enough to touch.  Spoiler alert: the Super Pink Moon won’t actually appear pink, but was given its name because it typically corresponds with the early springtime bloom of a bright pink wildflower, the Phlox subulata.  Better to find out now than when you’re searching the night sky for a bright pink sphere, right?

Full moons have historically had a reputation for creating “weirdness” here on Earth and are often blamed during times of turmoil.  We’ve all heard the phrase ‘it must be a full moon’ which typically means that someone is in a bad mood, conflict has arisen in an unusual way, or maybe a relationship is eliciting more stress than usual.  Is it true? Does the full moon really have an impact on living beings and our sanity?

The moon has a major influence on Earth’s tides- oceans, lakes, etc.  Humans (and many animals) are made up of about 75% water so it has been theorized that perhaps the full moon truly does have an effect on living things due to our water content.  Interesting theory, huh? Spoiler alert #2: many studies have been done to test the correlation between the full moon and sleep, the number of emergency room visits, births, deaths, etc., and not a single one has determined that there is a connection. Womp womp. It turns out that the full moon may just be our scapegoat for having a particularly bad day and we may even seek out hectic situations when we know that a full moon is approaching. A self-fulfilling prophecy, if you will.

So, there you have it. Apparently, the full moon doesn’t technically have the effect on us that it gets such a bad rap for.  Does that mean that we will stop blaming it for the fact that we spilled our lunch all over ourselves or snapped at our spouse?  Probably not.

Sources:

-The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
-LiveScience.com