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Wed 4 Aug, 2004 07:47 pm
I was recently thinking about the corrolation between full moons and such events as murder and such. I think the full moons somehow affect the human thought process but I'm not quite sure, what do you think?
I think the full moon and the days leading up to it make my hair grow faster. I keep wanting to quantify that thesis.
okay, sorry, you were asking about crazy behavior, not hair growth. But, perhaps they're tied together?
I think this is complete lunacy.
I think they could be, I read somewhere that if it can affect tides than it can affect our minds and our organs. I'm curious to know if anyone has any real evidence.
Illicit activity at the time of the full moon was much more common before artificial lighting.
There is no statistical relationship between moonlight and irrationality.
Sounds like a bunch of hooey. When I worked audit shift in a couple of motels, I took it very seriously.
If the increased pull of the tidal force during a full moon does, in fact, have some effect on human bodies, then a new moon should have an equal effect.
There is always the possibility that some rituals were performed by certain groups of people during a full moon, which other groups described as "lunacy." Ancient peoples were much more intimate with the cycles of the night sky in terms of time and space orientation than we are.
I have also heard reports of increased libido during a full moon, is any of this true? If so, have you experienced it?
Crime rates do not wax and wane with the lunar cycle. There was a study around 20 years ago on the subject, and no correlation was found. Sorry, I've forgotten who did the study ... perhaps the University of Chicago, but its been a long time since I read it. Though there is no statistical evidence for weirdness during and around the time of the full moon, many patrol officers and EMTs firmly believe in the proposition. This is, I suppose, another example of how easily anecdotal reports can lead us astray.
Well,I have also heard that women, on a natural cycle, tend to go with the moon's cycle. I do. Sometimes it switches around, but (do I really want to get into this here?) I ovulate with the full moon - could cause the increase in libido if there's a greater trend in that ovulation schedule.
Asherman wrote:Crime rates do not wax and wane with the lunar cycle. There was a study around 20 years ago on the subject, and no correlation was found. Sorry, I've forgotten who did the study ... perhaps the University of Chicago, but its been a long time since I read it.
That study has been done countless times, and all with the result you report.
Here are some, along with other refutations of the lunar myth. interested readers can search the titles and find their info online.
- University of Sydney in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 1998; 32:496-499 (data collected from "five inpatient psychiatric settings across the Northern Sydney Area Health Service")
- Criminal Activity as it Relates to the Lunar Cycle (Oxford Police data 1995 to 1999)
- Antisocial behavior and lunar activity: a failure to validate the lunacy myth.
- Full moon: does it influence agitated nursing home residents? Research Institute of the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington
- Aggression in a prison setting as a function of lunar phases. Texas Department of Criminal Justice
- Lunar madness: an empirical study. Climent CE, Plutchik R.
- Frequency of contact with community-based psychiatric services and the lunar cycle: a 10-year case-register study. Servizio di Psicologia Medica, Universita di Verona, Ospedale Policlinico, Italy
- Lunar association with suicide. Jones PK, Jones SL.
- Suicides and the lunar cycle. Departamento de Estadistica y Econometria, Facultad de Ciencias Economicas y Empresariales, Universidad del Pais Vasco, Bilbao, Spain.
- The moon and suicide. Garth JM, Lester D.
- Attempted suicide and the lunar cycle. United Medical and Dental School
- Human aggression and the lunar synodic cycle. Lieber AL.
- Variation in suicide occurrence by time of day, day of the week, month, and lunar phase. Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
- Self-poisoning and moon phases in Oslo. Jacobsen D, Frederichsen PS, Knutsen KM, Sorum Y, Talseth T, Odegaard OR.
- Trauma and the full moon: a waning theory. Division of Emergency Medicine, Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh
- Lunar cycle and poison center calls. Maryland Poison Center
- Moon phases and crisis calls: a spurious relationship. DeVoge SD, Mikawa JK.
- Investigation of periodicity in crisis intervention calls over an eight-year span. Michelson L, Wilson J, Michelson J.
- Lunar phases and psychiatric hospital admissions. Gorvin JJ, Roberts MS
- Lunar phases are not related to the occurrence of acute myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death. Department of Emergency Medicine, University Clinics, General Hospital Vienna
- Effect of lunar cycle on temporal variation in cardiopulmonary arrest in seven emergency departments during 11 years. Emergency Department, Morristown Memorial Hospital
- The influence of lunar phenomena on the incidence of emergency cases. Medizinercorps of the Austrian Red Cross, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
- The moon and its relationship to oral and maxillofacial emergencies. Butler S, Songra A, Hardee P, Hutchison I.
- A double-blind, controlled clinical trial of homeopathy and an analysis of lunar phases and postoperative outcome. Department of Dermatology, University of Graz, Austria
- Lunar phase does not influence surgical quality. Holzheimer RG, Nitz C, Gresser U.
- Drug overdose and the full moon. Maricopa County Medical Examiner
- Hospital-based toxicology: patterns of use and abuse. Department of Pathology, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio
- Declining rate of substance abuse throughout the month Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (SDH), University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia
- Cyclical calendar and lunar patterns in automobile property accidents and injury accidents. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.
- Geophysical variables and behavior: LXXII. Barometric pressure, lunar cycle, and traffic accidents. Departamento de Psicologia, Universidad de Oviedo, Spain.
- Don't pass the buck! the full moon is not responsible for an increase in the occurrence of untoward events in a hospital setting! Bonk JR.
- Barking mad? another lunatic hypothesis bites the dust. Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Sydney
- Modelling risk factors for injuries from dog bites in Greece: a case-only design and analysis. Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University
Nearly every one of those studies I read here in
PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine.
It is funny - I am aware of the studies debunking it, (though I swear I read one recently reporting a very small increase in psychotic episodes for schizophrenics at full moon - but I cannot reference it) and I have to believe them - but almost every crisis or emergency service worker will tell you differently!
This includes me! - especially when I worked as a rape therapist and also worked on the after hours emergency response roster there.
My last couple of shifts there (we did a week "on") were leading up to and during full moon both times.
I was having to get up to two or more rapes each night during those two weeks - and spent all day on both weekends at the hospital (where the emergency service was situated) - as well as dealing with assisting police and other counsellors respond to distressed victims by telephone from the country. ("Normal" incidence of call-outs was roughly 2-3 during the week, and a couple on weekends)
Given that we worked normally during the days on those weeks, I went seven days almost totally without sleep both times.
Obviously it evens out over time, but the quiet full moon times do not stay in one's consciousness as much, perhaps due to the pre-existing semi-belief that full moons will be nutso times(?) - leading to the distorted perception that all full moons are extraordinarily busy.
dlowan wrote:Obviously it evens out over time, but the quiet full moon times do not stay in one's consciousness as much, perhaps due to the pre-existing semi-belief that full moons will be nutso times(?) - leading to the distorted perception that all full moons are extraordinarily busy.
This would be the
cognitive bias factor referenced in so many of those studies.
There is also a problem with people not separating
correlation from
causation (e.g. a study that tried to assert the link was later shown to be using a data sample where the full moon occured on weekends at an inordinate rate, and the weekends explained the data more so than any lunacy).
Yep - now weekends DO cause upswings in the bad stuff!
But I am still very fond of them...
littlek--
Ovulation is much more likely to affect your libido than lunar gravity.
If lunar gravity were responsible, think about the crowds of crazed chubettes with all that flesh throbbing in tidal rhythms.
Walter, I think the gravitational pull of the full moon accounts for women going into labor at this time. Don't know about the rest of the effects. The full moon has always been a romantic thing, because of the beauty of it.
Interesting thread, CS.
Though the pre-artificial light thing is compelling...
Isn't creativity also supposed to peak during a full moon?
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