Children sleep lesser during full moon, says study
Posted on: 20/Apr/2016 9:55:12 AM
A new study that was conducted on kids from 12 countries has said that children sleep less by a few minutes on a full moon night. The study was conducted by researchers at the Children`s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in Canada, and was published in the journal Frontiers in Paediatrics.
Information from over 5800 children was analysed. The children were aged between 9 and 11 years, and were from 12 countries. The countries are India, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Finland, Kenya, Portugal, South Africa, the UK and the US. All the children wore accelerometers, which are devices that are similar to fitness trackers that record body movement.
The results showed that children`s activity levels - including the amount of time they spent doing high- and low-intensity activity, and their sedentary time - were about the same during a full moon and new moon. However, children`s sleep time was about 5 minutes shorter on nights with a full moon, compared to nights with a new moon.
Say the researchers, This is about 1 per cent of children`s total sleep time. One possible reason could be that the brightness of the full moon interferes with children`s sleep.
