ArticleScience advances2021
Moonstruck sleep: Synchronization of human sleep with the moon cycle under field conditions.
Article in Science advances, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Proof of concept for a hypothesis that rapid cycling in a circular form of bipolar disorder is a pathological response to normal lunar cycles in sleep.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Evolutionary and physiological arguments for the existence of a circalunar clock in humans.BMC ecology and evolution · 2026Review
- Who Blames the Moon for Poor Sleep? An Exploratory Online Survey.Clocks & sleep · 2026Article
- Revitalizing the "biology" in "chronobiology".Npj biological timing and sleep · 2026Review
- Time after time - circadian clocks through the lens of oscillator theory.FEBS letters · 2026Review
- Time after time - circadian clocks through the lens of oscillator theory.FEBS letters · 2026Review
- Waning light, waxing pain: The lunar cycle's association with migraine headache occurrence.Headache · 2026Article
- Lunar gravity predicts sleep timing.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Global trends in human birth and death seasonality reveal climate-related shifts in reproductive timing.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Synchronization of women's menstruation with the Moon has decreased but remains detectable when gravitational pull is strong.Science advances · 2025Article
- Synchronization of women's menstruation with the Moon has decreased but remains detectable when gravitational pull is strong.Science advances · 2025Article
- Modern Times: Longitudinal Study of Toba/Qom Communities Reveals Delay and Shortening of Sleep in Real-Time Across Electrification.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Exploring the influence of moon phases and weather on mortality in a palliative care unit over a ten year period.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Cultural Approaches to Addressing Sleep Deprivation and Improving Sleep Health in Japan: Sleep Issues Among Children and Adolescents Rooted in Self-Sacrifice and Asceticism.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Effect of lunar phases on international normalized ratio in patients with deep vein thrombosis using warfarin.Journal of education and health promotion · 2025Article
- Chronobiotic and cytoprotective activity of melatonin in the cardiovascular system. Doses matter.Npj biological timing and sleep · 2024Review
- Re-Evaluating Recommended Optimal Sleep Duration: A Perspective on Sleep Literacy.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Time me by the moon : The evolution and function of lunar timing systems.EMBO reports · 2024Article
- Eating Around the Clock: Circadian Rhythms of Eating and Metabolism.Annual review of nutrition · 2024Review
- All Light, Everywhere? Photoreceptors at Nonconventional Sites.Physiology (Bethesda, Md.) · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Before the availability of artificial light, moonlight was the only source of light sufficient to stimulate nighttime activity; still, evidence for the modulation of sleep timing by lunar phases is controversial. Here, we use wrist actimetry to show a clear synchronization of nocturnal sleep timing with the lunar cycle in participants living in environments that range from a rural setting with and without access to electricity in indigenous Toba/Qom communities in Argentina to a highly urbanized postindustrial setting in the United States. Our results show that sleep starts later and is shorter on the nights before the full moon when moonlight is available during the hours following dusk. Our data suggest that moonlight likely stimulated nocturnal activity and inhibited sleep in preindustrial communities and that access to artificial light may emulate the ancestral effect of early-night moonlight.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.