It used to be widely considered that the phases of the moon
(one cycle being a month) could affect the personality and behaviours of both humans & animals this was dubbed the
"Lunar effect" and is where the word lunatic comes from.
It used to be believed that people became more violent
during a full moon, to the extent that this effect is still reported today. This
is probably observed due to confirmation bias as a full moon is more likely to
be noticed in accordance with an significant event than when there is no moon or
it is in a different phase, the person once noticing the moons phase happening coincidentally
with the event then assumes a link (post hoc ergo propter hoc).
These beliefs were propagated
through stories about supernatural & mythical creatures, even though their existence
seems silly to us they were widely held as fact for example: werewolves shape shift every full moon,
vampires are unaffected even empowered or healed by moon light where as
sunlight is lethally dangerous to them & witches can only cast certain
spells at a full moon.
One of the
main reasons people considered the lunar effect as fact was that the monthly
cycle of the moon would appear to be directly in accordance with women's menstrual
cycles (average of 28 days). This was believed to such an extent that some
authors believed in traditional societies without night lighting women ovulated
with the full moon and menstruated with the new moon one recommending that people
trying to conceive should try on the full moon. Today it is commonly believed
that the moon and human menstrual cycle having similar time scales is purely by
coincidence.
Most mammals
(I can count the number of exceptions on my hands) have some type of fertility
cycle humans & chimpanzees (our most common ancestor) along with a few
other primates are the only ones who exhibit a true menstrual cycle in which
the lining & *awkward cough* blood are released, mammals experience an estrous
cycle in which the lining is reabsorbed (probably to conserve the otherwise
lost proteins but can leave areas less fertile unless fully absorbed) by the
animal, the average duration of a cycle varies per species.
The word "menstruation" can be seen to be derived
from the moon. The terms "menstruation" and "menses" are
derived from the Latin "mensis" (month), which in turn relates to the
Greek "mene" (moon) and to the roots of the English words month and
moon.
No evidence has been found in multiple stringent scientific
tests/analysis of the lunar effect. Most explanations given to try &
theorise the individuals beliefs are based entirely on pseudo-science. One of
the main reasons given is the moon exhibits a tidal force (like the one on our oceans)
on our bodies though these theories faille to see due to the inverse square law
of intensity the gravitation effect of the moon on such a small body of mass
like our bodies is about equal to that of a mosquito landing on our skin.
Another reason given is that positive ions build up closer to a full moon,
however the difference is far less than ions caused by air conditioning or air pollution
and ion build up positive or negative does not effect human behaviour other
than static shocks.
Wow reading this makes me think I should have done an EPQ
hope you enjoyed a dive into some of the random stuff I have in my brain also I
must say thanks to Wikipedia for quite a lot of the stuff I didn't know about
the menstrual cycle (the one bit of GCSE science I didn't want to listen too).
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