Bad news for the sleep of the French.
Sleep is such a fragile thing that it is enough for a small disturbance, such as a stress, a rai of light or a small noise, to alter its quality and cause chronic fatigue. Bad news: researchers predict a drastic drop in deep sleep time – the most restful – these next days. But why?
To achieve this conclusion, researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland analyzed the sleep of 33 volunteers for several months in a specialized laboratory. They measured the quality of sleep using an electroencephalography (EEG), allowing to record the electrical activity of the brain and to precisely determine the amount of deep sleep per night. They realized that the amount of deep sleep dropped on average 30% around the full moon (up to 5 days before and 3 days later). They also noted an extension of the falling time of 5 minutes and a reduction in the total sleep time of 20 minutes during this period.
The next full moon will take place on September 7. Your deep sleep should be particularly reduced between Tuesday September 2 and Wednesday September 10. If you are used to having 1:30 am deep sleep, you will only have 1 hour, so you will recover less. The researchers do not yet have a unique and final explanation but advance several hypotheses to explain this phenomenon. “”The simplest idea is that the full moon, brighter than other lunar phases, affects our hormones and reduces melatonin production, sleep hormone“, they explain in the scientific journal Current Biology. They also think that it could be due to an internal biological clock, a legacy of our ancestors which remained more active on full moon nights.
To avoid sleeping during this period, take certain measures now that will optimize your sleep: obscure your room as much as possible (blackout curtains, blinds or sleep mask to block the light of the moon), keep a strict sleep routine (bed and get up at the same time, even on weekends), make sure that your room is silent (good bedding), comfortable (good bedding) Fresh, and avoid heavy, fat or spicy dinners.
