FROM PAGE 12

Nights leading up to the full moon resulted in less sleep and going to sleep later, the experts found, while nights leading to the new moon led to longer sleeps and earlier turn-ins.

The experts say evenings leading up to the full moon have more natural moonlight available after dusk, acting as something of a surrogate for sunlight – but this can be disturbed by our access to electricity.

“We see a clear lunar modulation of sleep, with sleep decreasing and a later onset of sleep in the days preceding a full moon,” said study author Horacio de la Iglesia at the University of Washington.

“Although the effect is more robust in communities without access to electricity, the effect is present in communities with electricity, including undergraduates at the University of Washington.”

The findings may also explain why access to electricity causes pronounced changes to our sleep patterns.

“In general, artificial light disrupts our innate circadian clocks in specific ways – it makes us go to sleep later in the evening, it makes us sleep less,’ said de la Iglesia.

“Those are the same patterns we observed here with the phases of the moon.”

The research has been published in Science Advances.