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Does the Full Moon Effect your Dreams?
Tomorrow is the full moon, depending on your ancestral tradition it is known as the Buck Moon, Thunder Moon or the Hay Moon. In all traditions, it’s gonna be big and round. But more pertinently, will this rising stone of Artemis effect your dreams?
Studies on this subject are hard to find, but almost everyone has an opinion. So I am asking my readers to chime in with their opinions, perspective and stories on this ancient question.
The expectancy effect is often to blame for the lack of scientific consensus about whether the full moon could cause our dreams to be more memorable, more bizarre, or even downright magical.
Of course, we can quickly turn that around to suggest that it is very easy for us to use the moon’s patterns to incubate and remember our dreams. The great night-light in the sky has a historic association with witchcraft festivities, which are of course watered-down mis-perceptions of ancient shamanic practices which include dream incubation, soul-travel, and animal transformation.
So anyways, what will you dream about tomorrow night?
Image thanks to David Haworth
Topics: ecodreaming |
July 17th, 2008 at 2:07 am
It’s hard to say. It often seems like my dreams are being affected by the full moon, and then nothing happens the next month. There are so many confounding factors (quality of sleep, stress levels, etc.) that affect my dreams that I’d need to do a real controlled study.
But I like to think it does
July 17th, 2008 at 2:16 am
well put, Wogglesplark! here’s the abstract of a recent study that sez “nahh.”
Dream recall and the full moon, by SCHREDL M, FULDA S, REINHARD I. Perceptual Motor Skills 2006;102(1):17-8.
Abstract:
There is ongoing debate on whether the full moon is associated with sleep and dreaming. The analysis of diaries kept by the participants (N = 196) over 28 to 111 nights showed no association of a full moon and dream recall. Psychological factors might explain why some persons associate a full moon with increased dream recall.
I think we need more data.
July 17th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
I agree. I don’t think the moon phase effects my dreams in anyway except psychological. It’s awesome and gorgeous, and I think about the times when the moon held much more significance than it does now. An it inspires me to think of dreaming, darkness, and reflected light. But my dreams aren’t signficantly different.
And when I worked at a mental health clinic people would always say “the crazies” came out with the full moon, but I think that’s a myth. Any research to support that?
July 18th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Laura, check out this abstract:
The moon and madness reconsidered. Journal of Affect Disorder. 1999 Apr;53(1):99-106.
Belief that the full moon is associated with psychiatric disturbance persists despite 50 years research showing no association. This article traces the historical roots of belief in the power of the moon to cause disorders the mind, especially insanity and epilepsy. Putative mechanisms of lunar action are critiqued. It is proposed that modern findings showing lack of lunar effect can be reconciled with pre-modern beliefs in the moon’s power through a mechanism of sleep deprivation. Prior to the advent of modern lighting the moon was a significant source of nocturnal illumination that affected sleep-wake cycle, tending to cause sleep deprivation around the time of full moon. This partial sleep deprivation would have been sufficient to induce mania/hypomania in susceptible bipolar patients and seizures in patients with seizure disorders. The advent of modern lighting attenuated this lunar effect, especially in modern urban areas, where most 20th century studies of lunar effects on the mind have been conducted. The hypothesis presented in this article is open to empirical validation or falsification. Potential tests for the sleep-deprivation hypothesis of lunar action are discussed.
Reminds me that, without electric light, full moons really can be social events, illuminating that which is usually hidden!
July 30th, 2008 at 10:59 am
When I worked in a veterinarian’s office, we had clusters of accident victims, or fight victims, etc. which clustered around the full moon. The 4 days before and after the full moon are the active time. Personally, I definitely dream more and have more intense dreams during full moons. Have you had a strange or intriguing dream that you would like answers for? Come try out our free dream interpretation special for this week only.
August 16th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Does the Moon affect our dreams? The only reason I found this site is because 2 or 3 nights ago my dreams were becoming more active. I thought, “I wonder if the moon is full?” I stepped outside and it was close. So, today I started looking into it.
It is my belief that dreams are, or at times, can be contact within the actual spirit world. Two years ago, 2 people I didn’t know appeared in my dream. They were known by my roommate, who at the time, I only knew for a couple months. I was able to identify the people through pictures and questions without letting on to why I was probibg. Since then, my spiritual and psychic experiences have varied in intensity and methods.
I believe spirits are more perceivable during the twilight hours, 2 or 3 hours before the sun rises. The full moon provides that twilight during the whole night. You see, I didn’t know where the moon was in it’s cycle this month because sometimes I block these kinds of things out. They get to be a little much at times. So, like the other night, when my dreams become more vivid or I can’t sleep without explanation (i.e. caffine, too much sleep on prior nights) I step outside, look at the moon and ask, “What might I experience this month?”
Don’t ask if the Moon affects dreams or if the psychic world exist. Ask, “What can I experience through these and other medium?” The world is more amazing than our physical eyes can see.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Leprechaun, I like the way you parse what can and cannot be known through the senses. At the end of the day, truly we are left with our own experiences, and it’s up to us to make sense from them. Thanks for stopping by!
September 4th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I never connected my dreams with the moon, but when i did i found i was having some wierd and freaky dreams when there was a new moon. i have watched closely and i always have them at the same time.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:47 am
I have never connected my dreams to the full moon, but on the night of the last moon, i was having very vivid dreams, that even when i awoke i thought was real. Then when i was talking to two of my friends we had all had the same dream on the same night. Strange……..
October 15th, 2008 at 7:28 am
As someone who dreams every night I do notice that particularly a day or two before and after the full moon my dreams are very vivid and prophetic. I did some research 6 months ago to try and establish why. The theory is that it has to do with the effect on the earth’s geomagnetic field. This in turn stimulates the pineal gland which in turn stimulates the thyroid gland and may have effects on serotonin/dopamine levels.
An interesting article to read with respect to research conducted on gambling statistics in Las Vegas and the full and new moons follows:
http://www.bleepingherald.com/aug2007/mctaggart
October 31st, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I have incubus dreams with the new moon phases. Freaky.
November 14th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
My dreams over this past week in particular were becoming so intense - sometimes so detailed and complex as to seem real - that whilst enjoying these ‘trips’ almost, they were beginning to worry me(my brother has schizophrenic hallucinations). I was really quite relieved to realise that friends had had similar dreams and that they coinciding with this month’s full moon - which strikes me as especially prolonged and bright?
These dreams actually felt to me like a different order of experience - I find myself calling them ‘visions’. They seem to relate to my deeper subconcious in a more complex and meaningful way than normal - rather than surface anxieties of the day, the mind seems to be symbolically resolving long-term aims and motivations I wasn’t previously conscious of but that have clearly been on the back-boiler, as it were (needless to say, it hasn’t finished yet…!)
November 17th, 2008 at 1:36 am
thanks everyone for these stories…. Pauline and kimbirdlee are rocking the new moon, and Andrew and Tam have noticed full moon correlations.
I, for one, have noticed that traffic on this site increases dramatically during full moons, and not just because people are looking for moon/dreaming info…. search for dream info in general is way up.
and thanks for the link, Andrew - I didn’t know about this study by Dean Radin:
“Radin demonstrated a relationship between the earth’s geomagnetic field and the lunar cycle — at times of a new moon or a full moon, the earth’s GMF was at its quietest.”