LONDON – A full moon may be to blame for sleepless nights, after all.

Scientists at the University of Basel, Switzerland, say they have found the first reliable evidence that sleep patterns are influenced by lunar changes.

Additional Photos Scientists at the University of Basel, Switzerland, say they have found the first reliable evidence that sleep patterns are influenced by lunar changes. Press Herald file photo

The study, published in Current Biology, shows brain activity related to deep sleep in volunteers dropped by 30 percent around the full moon. The study subjects also took longer to fall asleep and had shorter nights.

“It could be important,” said Eric Chudler, executive director of the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle.

The researchers aren’t “saying the moon controls the person’s sleep pattern, they’re saying the body has an internal clock that’s similar to the lunar cycle. It’s different to the traditional myth.”

The full moon has been blamed for murder and mayhem since ancient times. The term lunacy was coined in the 16th century to refer to an intermittent form of insanity believed to be related to the moon.

For generations, people around the world have passed down tales of werewolves and other moon-related curses. Scientists have tried over the years to discover a link between the satellite’s impact and human behavior. These latest findings may provide a boost to the field.

Researchers at the Centre for Chronobiology at the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel originally set out to examine 33 volunteers’ circadian rhythms, which are physical, mental and behavioral changes that respond to light and darkness over a 24-hour cycle.

Several years later, the research team began talking about how the moon could affect sleep. Christian Cajochen, head of the Centre for Chronobiology, said he came to realize several of the scientists believed there could be an impact. The team decided to go back over their study data, which included electroencephalograms of patients’ non-rapid-eye-movement sleep and hormone secretions related to sleep, and match it up with a lunar calendar.

The results showed a steep drop in brain activity related to deep sleep. The volunteers took five minutes longer to fall asleep and their sleep duration was reduced by 20 minutes, according to the research. Their bodies also produced less melatonin, a hormone known to regulate sleep.

“I was very skeptical until we saw the data,” said Cajochen, the lead researcher on the study. He said he didn’t “dare publish it right away because the issue is very controversial. Until now there hasn’t been a peer-reviewed study like this.”

He wants other researchers to confirm his team’s findings. An ideal study would look at patients over the full lunar cycle, which is 29.5 days, he said.

Send questions/comments to the editors.