Lunar Behavior during Full Moons
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Throughout the ages, countless people have subscribed to the notion that the moon influences human behavior — accidents, homicides and crimes are more likely to occur, and hospitals for mental patients as well as jails report highly irregular activity when the moon is full. In fact, the word lunatic means ‘mad’ or ‘moonstruck’ and comes from the Latin word ‘luna’ for moon.
Recently, the county of Sussex in South East England has reported that additional police will be deployed to the streets during full moons after officers made a link between levels of violent crime and the lunar cycle.
Metro reports that police found a rise in violent and unruly incidents during full moons while investigating external factors which influence people’s behavior.
Full moons and paydays were identified as particular times when aggressive behavior rose among drinkers in local pubs and nightclubs (the latter most likely due to having extra cash in pocket to do the wild thing).
A Sussex Police spokeswoman said today, “Research carried out by us has shown a correlation between violent incidents and full moons.” adding that more officers will be out on the city’s streets during full moons.
Andy Parr told the Brighton Argus, “I compared a graph of full moons and a graph of last year’s violent crimes and there is a trend. People tend to be more aggressive generally. I would be interested in approaching the universities and seeing if any of their post-graduates would be interested in looking into it further. This could be helpful to us.”
The link between full moons and extremes in human behavior has been identified in past scientific studies.
Professor Michal Zimecki, of the Polish Academy of Sciences, analyzed dozens of studies that take lunar activity into account, and argued that a full moon could affect criminal activity and health.
In 1998, a three-month psychological study of 1,200 inmates at Armley jail in Leeds discovered a rise in violent 
incidents during the days either side of a full moon. But during the other period of every lunar month, there were far fewer incidents and none at all on some days.
Some believe that as humans are mostly made of water, the lunar gravity pulls them in the same way as it does the sea.
Miami psychiatrist Arnold Lieber published a book called ‘The Lunar Effect’ in 1978. Lieber wrote that he had tracked homicides in Miami and found rates were higher during times of the full and new moon. His theory of ‘biological tides’ — based on 15 years of study — suggested that the moon exerted a pull on the water within the human body and therefore altered behavior.
To further investigate whether this was mere coincidence, Lieber repeated the experiment using murder data from Cleveland, Ohio. The results were mirrored with his findings for Miami, revealing that more murders did indeed occur at the full and new moons.
Lieber’s findings may have been merely coincidence, as none have been able to replicate the findings elsewhere.
“Of all the research I’ve read, there’s no indication of any effect.â€? says Dr. John Palmer, a professor of physiology at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst who studies, among other things, the way lunar rhythms affect marine organisms.
But for all the studies that claim to have found a definite link between the lunar cycle and human behavior, no one has been able to explain it.
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Hi Debra, great post. Just wanted to let you know once more that I have linked to you on all three of my blogs.
Hi Ev, wow, thank you! I’ll come check it out very soon and see what I can do to reciprocate likewise.
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