Lunar Lore: Separating Myth from Reality
Inquest into Lunar Impact on Human Emotions
Berlin - This spring's first full moon will grace the sky on April 13th. For millennia, the celestial body has captivated humans and shaped cultural narratives. Despite its pervasive influence on our sense of time and artistic expression, the moon remains a subject of enduring mystery.
A peek into linguistic history sheds light on our fascination: The English term "lunatic," indicative of a person suffering from madness, is derived from the Latin word "luna" for moon, reflecting medieval beliefs that the lunar influence extended to emotions and behavior. In German, "mood" persists in the language, as evidenced by Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" and Matthias Claudius' poem "The Rising Moon," which convey an emotional undercurrent. However, a definitive scientific consensus on the moon's emotional sway remains elusive.
Swiss chronobiologist Christian Cajochen, an expert in human circadian rhythms at the University of Basel, is cautious when exploring the realm of the moon and sleep. Cajochen discovered a full moon effect in a retrospective study focusing on Alzheimer's, where participants in an isolated lab exhibited heightened evening activity and sleep troubles during the full moon. This result caught Cajochen off guard, as he harbors no esoteric leanings and initially sought to debunk the age-old superstition. Cajochen's hesitation delayed publication of the findings until 2013.
"Media interest was intense, but scientific interest was minimal," recalls Cajochen with a smile. In 2021, an American study mirrored Cajochen's findings by comparing the lunar impact on rural Argentines and Seattle students. Despite these findings, other studies have failed to reproduce similar results, leaving the topic shrouded in enigma.
"It's still a mystery," summarizes Cajochen. "To definitively establish whether humans possess internal lunar clocks, researchers would need to observe the same individuals throughout two complete monthly cycles under lab conditions. This concept, known as circalunar in science, has already been proven in some animal species. However, for humans, the proof is elusive due to practical concerns of volunteer recruitment and funding."
The moon's influence on timekeeping, on the other hand, is more straightforward to elucidate. The moon plays a roles in the etymology of the word "month," taking approximately 28 days to orbit the Earth. This lunar-based division of time was the standard in many early calendars, yet the Gregorian calendar adopted a solar year, with most months featuring 30 or 31 days. Nevertheless, the date of Easter remains tied to the lunar cycle, falling on the first Sunday following the ecclesiastically defined vernal full moon, allowing the festivity to appear earlier or later in the calendar year.
Lastly, the moon's impressive size relative to Earth is worth noting. Despite its considerable dimensions—approximately 3,476 kilometers in diameter—the moon's distance from Earth varies due to its elliptical orbit, ranging between roughly 356,000 and 407,000 kilometers. As the moon draws closer, it appears slightly brighter and more expansive. Yet, the moon provides little of its own light; it is illuminated by the sun. Its size and luminescence pale in comparison to the moon's early Earth era, around four billion years ago, when it was only 60,000 kilometers away from Earth, appearing colossal. Regrettably, no human witnesses graced this astonishing astronomical spectacle.
The unexplored connection between the moon and human emotions, as outlined in the inquest into lunar impact on human emotions, extends to fields of study such as science and health-and-wellness, as the moon's influence on sleep has been observed but not conclusively proven. Moreover, the moon's role in shaping cultural narratives spans across disciplines, including science, health-and-wellness, and space-and-astronomy, being deeply connected to the etymology of the word 'month' and its significance in timekeeping.
