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Mental health and the moon

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  • 09-10-2014 2:03am
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 945 ✭✭✭


    A mate of mine told me that the moon affects people with mental disabilities.. He was genuinely serious! Anybody ever hear of this before?


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Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,720 ✭✭✭Sir Arthur Daley


    Heard of it but dont have a link.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,749 ✭✭✭Smiles35


    lunacy


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,066 ✭✭✭Firewalkwithme


    WhiteWalls wrote: »
    A mate of mine told me that the moon affects people with mental disabilities.. He was genuinely serious! Anybody ever hear of this before?

    You're nuts.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,373 ✭✭✭✭foggy_lad


    Noblong wrote: »
    lunacy

    lunarcy


  • Registered Users Posts: 135 ✭✭Albertofrog


    I've worked in A&E around the full moon.
    It does!
    Sure you'll have to be a lunatic to think otherwise 😉


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,425 ✭✭✭guitarzero


    Yep, it's what I normally do when I freak out and do regrettable sh*t, blame the moon.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,720 ✭✭✭Sir Arthur Daley


    The moon disproportionally affects the cerabal cortex.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,537 ✭✭✭Gyalist


    A quick search of the internet on the "lunar effect" will sort you out.

    The Latin word for moon - luna - is also the root for lunatic.


  • Registered Users Posts: 945 ✭✭✭WhiteWalls


    There is a grand moon out tonight


  • Registered Users Posts: 769 ✭✭✭Frito


    Yeah I've heard of this. Biological tides theory I think it's called, where because the moon has a gravitational pull on large bodies of water it could have some effect on the water in our bodies. But as a theory it's widely criticised. There's little evidence for lunar effect in mental health save a confirmation bias.

    There is a set of behaviours known as sun-downing that occur frequently in people with dementia. Iirc this is more to do with hormonal interruptions of the circadian rhythym that manifest as confusion, agitation etc.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 11,028 ✭✭✭✭--LOS--


    I'll let Neil deGrasse take that one....

    On crazy behavior associated with a full Moon:

    People say, Oh they acted crazy, the Moon pulls the tides, the tides are made of water, the human body is mostly water, the Moon must affect the human body. (...) You can ask the question, what is the tidal force of the Moon on your cranium? (...) Because if that were severe, it could be messing with you, right? So you do the calculation, and it turns out, if you were one of these people who sleep with a lot of pillows, and one of the pillows is kind of leaning on your head overnight, the pressure from that pillow on your head is a trillion times greater than the tidal force of the Moon across your cranium. But nobody talks about the effects of down pillows on your behavior the next day.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,090 ✭✭✭jill_valentine


    Statistically I don't think it's something that shows up, but I know a lot of emergency worker first responder types, and they all swear it's true.

    The suggestion an old lecturer of mine had was that it's simply easier to get up to divilment on a bright night.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,000 ✭✭✭fizzypish


    I have been known to go nuts if I drink during a full moon.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,714 ✭✭✭Balmed Out


    I spent a night in Dublin airport unfortunately sitting next to some guy called Bonzai, he had all sorts of newspaper stories about him and had them in a scrap book. Anyhow he banged on about this all night despite me never arguing the fact. He was positive that it was especially true of Irish people.

    Load of crap


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,888 ✭✭✭AtomicHorror


    Statistically I don't think it's something that shows up, but I know a lot of emergency worker first responder types, and they all swear it's true.

    Because they're human and humans do this:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,469 ✭✭✭tigger123


    T'is a myth.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,503 ✭✭✭Sinister Kid


    I've worked in A&E around the full moon.
    It does!
    Sure you'll have to be a lunatic to think otherwise 😉

    My mother works in a residential unit for kids with high support needs, all the staff will swear the kids go extra troublesome during the full moon.

    I have noticed my dog goes a bit mad too...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,825 ✭✭✭Timmyctc


    --LOS-- wrote: »
    I'll let Neil deGrasse take that one....

    Two points on that. I often complain about my pillows cause it makes me cranky **** when it leaves me with an ache in my neck the next day :P

    Secondly. Neil de Grasse Tyson annoys the absolute **** out of me :pac:


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,537 ✭✭✭Badly Drunk Boy


    A lot of it is just psychological. Stuff is getting a bit frenetic, A&E is like a madhouse, "I acted like a lunatic after a load of beer last night". Wait...wasn't there a full moon last night? That must have been the reason for all that stuff!!!


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,830 ✭✭✭ShagNastii


    My dad worked for the coastguard most of his career so he had to deal with suicidal bridge jumpers often. He said he didn’t believe it to be coincidence that it happened an awful lot more when a full moon occurred.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    Scientists can stick their confirmation bias up their holes. Here in the real world, the moon has an effect.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,888 ✭✭✭AtomicHorror


    Scientists can stick their confirmation bias up their holes. Here in the real world, the moon had an effect.

    Yeah those scientists and their checking to see if stuff actually happens so we can make decisions based on objective evidence instead of a bunch of stories people swear by.

    **** them, right?


  • Registered Users Posts: 22,275 ✭✭✭✭endacl


    I've worked in A&E around the full moon.
    It does!
    Sure you'll have to be a lunatic to think otherwise 😉
    Confirmation bias.


  • Registered Users Posts: 22,363 ✭✭✭✭Akrasia


    ShagNastii wrote: »
    My dad worked for the coastguard most of his career so he had to deal with suicidal bridge jumpers often. He said he didn’t believe it to be coincidence that it happened an awful lot more when a full moon occurred.

    First of all, did he colate the data to prove that there were actually more calls on a full moon?

    Secondly, what did he believe was the cause if it wasn't a coincidence?

    thirdly, when people say 'it's a full moon' do they mean an actual full moon, or any night when the moon looked like it was full?

    http://www.moonconnection.com/moon_phases_calendar.phtml
    between the 4th and the 13th of this month, the moon has been significantly more than half 'full'. Between the 6th and the 11th, the moon would have looked like it was full to the casual observer.

    That's a significant portion of the month when unusual events could be linked to the moon via confirmation bias.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    Yeah those scientists and their checking to see if stuff actually happens so we can make decisions based on objective evidence instead of a bunch of stories people swear by.

    **** them, right?

    Exactly. All they do is 'gather evidence' and 'deduce' and 'objectify'. They don't have any ideas about what's going on, they are just surmising like the rest of us.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 1,269 Mod ✭✭✭✭Blackhorse Slim


    Scientists can stick their confirmation bias up their holes. Here in the real world, the moon has an effect.

    You have it backwards, man


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,830 ✭✭✭ShagNastii


    Akrasia wrote: »
    First of all, did he colate the data to prove that there were actually more calls on a full moon?

    Secondly, what did he believe was the cause if it wasn't a coincidence?

    thirdly, when people say 'it's a full moon' do they mean an actual full moon, or any night when the moon looked like it was full?

    http://www.moonconnection.com/moon_phases_calendar.phtml
    between the 4th and the 13th of this month, the moon has been significantly more than half 'full'. Between the 6th and the 11th, the moon would have looked like it was full to the casual observer.

    That's a significant portion of the month when unusual events could be linked to the moon via confirmation bias.

    Jaysus I didn’t say he conducted an experiment. I’d imagine, leaving the house he looked to the sky and if there was a big white full faced moon looking back at him he probably said to himself “going by pass experiences we’ll surely be dealing with a few lunatics tonight”.


  • Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 23,219 Mod ✭✭✭✭GLaDOS


    Did a quick search and this paper suggests a correlation between schizophrenia patients and their condition deteriorating around the full moon. Don't have access to the full paper though.

    Cake, and grief counseling, will be available at the conclusion of the test



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 715 ✭✭✭Cianmcliam


    Surely all a full moon is is a moon with the fully lit face pointing straight at us. It's not going to be closer or further or in any way different from any other night just because we're looking at the lit face. The only effect then could be the extra light levels at night which would be fairly insignificant if you are indoors or there is street lighting. My vote is it's a myth.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,345 ✭✭✭Hoop66


    Do people who think that full moon affects behaviour think that the moon is somehow heavier when there's more light shining on it?


    EDIT: Great minds!


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