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Original poster

It’s a full moon. Do you believe it makes people batshit?

113 replies

Thebigblueballoon · 28/10/2023 10:19

My partner is convinced that a full moon makes me act differently.
What do you think? Do you or others around you act batty at this time of the month? If so, how?

OP posts:
TicTacNicNak · 28/10/2023 15:20

Yes! The bloke that used to live next door to my elderly widowed mum was a crazy piece of shit anyway but he definitely became weirder and tormented her more when it was a full moon.

He died a few years ago. Only in his 60s. Not sorry.

Cumberbiatch · 28/10/2023 15:21

I have no idea but find it so weird when people are so keen to show off that they KNOW ABOUT SCIENCE that they invalidate other people's lived experiences. My job doesn't involve dealing with the public, so I'm not qualified to say whether this is a thing or not, but I'm not about to tell a healthcare worker who sees the effects of something every single month that they're imagining it.
Plus it's pretty unscientific to ignore anecdotal evidence...

JellyMops · 28/10/2023 15:22

HRTQueen · 28/10/2023 15:12

And again it’s small amount of studies and again when working directly with people studies just based on numbers doesn’t give the full picture (ask anyone who works in healthcare how bloody frustrating this is) as there are so many variables

How many studies should they do? If they all basically keep coming back with the same result maybe you should consider that you are suffering from confirmation bias.

This is an interesting short article detailing the conclusions of several studies. Full moon effects on the body, mood, sleep, and more (medicalnewstoday.com)

Growlybear83 · 28/10/2023 15:23

I accept now that the full moon definitely has an effect. When my late mother first started to show serious dementia symptoms I was looking for any possible links or reasons for why her confusion and agitation fluctuated so much and began to notice that it coincided with the full moon. When she was admitted to a care home, my daughter and I had several discussions about this with the care staff and team leaders and without exception they said that they dreaded full moons because all of the residents with dementia became very much more aggressive and confused.

Tulipvase · 28/10/2023 15:25

Wind and home clothes day! I’ll be aware to check the behaviour of the kids next full moon though.

SiouxsieSiouxStiletto · 28/10/2023 15:30

Work in public facing role. All of our regular "interesting" customers appear during full moon. In fact we comment if one of them hasn't shown up

HRTQueen · 28/10/2023 15:30

and there is plenty of studies that show that there is possibly a link what the link is isn’t known

just because it hasn’t been proved doesn’t rule it out

when working with people there are to many variables to just work on a few sets of numbers

you yourself may not believe it to be a possibility but that isn’t the experience of many who work in healthcare/on mh wards/working with children

waxeswanes · 28/10/2023 15:32

I'm not from the UK and this is my first time hearing about this. The unanimous responses really fascinate me. That said, I don't think it's true because it's not a universal observation – the lunacy thing is a solely European belief dating back to ancient Greek/Roman writings. In East Asian tradition, the full moon is a quiet and mystical time for gazing/admiring, calm and wistful inner contemplation, pondering and lovesickness, etc. Unless the gravitational pull effect or whatever is geographically specific to a certain continent, err there's a chance I guess.

Tiredmum100 · 28/10/2023 15:34

I always remember the most horrendous night shift I had in my 1st year as a qualified nurse. And yes, there was a full moon. I sat down in the early hours laughing at how manic it had been to see the glow of an Easter egg box on fire, with a patient trying to smoke it. I definitely blamed the full moon that night.

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 28/10/2023 15:34

MrsSkylerWhite · 28/10/2023 10:56

Remember reading somewhere reliable years ago that crime is higher during full moons.

That may be because in the past people relied on the moon for light , so there were more people around at night. This features in both Jane Austen and Shakespeare ( not the crime, of course).

Sellingbedtime · 28/10/2023 15:35

110%
Night shifts in a hospital during a full moon are always.... Interesting.

LemonLimeDivine · 28/10/2023 15:36

Two decades in the emergency services - it definitely has an effect on people 🤪

waxeswanes · 28/10/2023 15:40

waxeswanes · 28/10/2023 15:32

I'm not from the UK and this is my first time hearing about this. The unanimous responses really fascinate me. That said, I don't think it's true because it's not a universal observation – the lunacy thing is a solely European belief dating back to ancient Greek/Roman writings. In East Asian tradition, the full moon is a quiet and mystical time for gazing/admiring, calm and wistful inner contemplation, pondering and lovesickness, etc. Unless the gravitational pull effect or whatever is geographically specific to a certain continent, err there's a chance I guess.

Edited

Could it also be a self fulfilling prophecy? Is the full moon thing a common belief in the UK? So maybe people with mental issues, or even just normal people, subconsciously take a creepy full moon night as carte blanche / a sign to go wild?

Because I think people are probably better behaved in Asia on full moon nights as it's meant to represent a time of compassion, admiration, contemplation, reunion and togetherness, etc.

Cas112 · 28/10/2023 15:42

If you ask people who work in police stations and hospitals they will 1000% say yes

lwishyouwould · 28/10/2023 15:43

Yep, moons and the weather in my experience of working with adults and young people.

I used to dread a full moon night shift.

JellyMops · 28/10/2023 15:43

waxeswanes · 28/10/2023 15:40

Could it also be a self fulfilling prophecy? Is the full moon thing a common belief in the UK? So maybe people with mental issues, or even just normal people, subconsciously take a creepy full moon night as carte blanche / a sign to go wild?

Because I think people are probably better behaved in Asia on full moon nights as it's meant to represent a time of compassion, admiration, contemplation, reunion and togetherness, etc.

Edited
Show quote history

Yes, studies have found a link between believing the moon affects mood and it affecting your mood.

It's just like alcohol. In countries where they say alcohol makes you violent alcohol related violent crime is high, in other countries where they say it makes you friendly/loving/silly, there is rarely any.

EduCated · 28/10/2023 15:52

My entirely non-scientific and unresearched belief is it being related to hormones - given that periods run on a roughly lunar cycle (at least from what I was told in A Level Psychology back in the day), and we know hormones fluctuate and affect behaviour with periods, why not with everything else too?

Sharontheodopolodous · 28/10/2023 15:53

I never gave the moon a thought until I had children
They'd be little sods,hyper and piss each other off more than normal

Then I started working in retail-it gets really bad on a full moon

My son works as security in a hospital and it definitely gets worse at that time

He was telling me that they get at least one person a week,who will sneak off and try to kill themselves

On the last full moon,it was 7 in one night (thankfully,none where successful )

violent people seem to get worse too

His dog seems to be more scatty if the moon is full-i didn't belive him until I saw him

PeterRabbitt · 28/10/2023 15:57

Spent years working in pubs, town centre and village locals. Full moon weekend was always hard work, regulars who were never any trouble would be looking to fight over the fruit machine and the atmosphere was always bordering on unpleasant. I now work in healthcare, different presentation but same issues each month at the same time!

ThePlantKiller · 28/10/2023 16:07

My DH has worked on a care of the elderly ward for a decade now and without fail things will go a bit crazy on nightshift when it's a full moon. He's working tonight as well!

GrumpyOldCrone · 28/10/2023 16:07

the science doesn’t prove it is so often used to shut down an argument/discussion or used for perceived intellectual superiority

It’s not really about intellectual superiority. It’s about recognising expertise. If we don’t recognise or acknowledge expertise then of course we might come across as intellectually challenged.

stargirl1701 · 28/10/2023 16:10

Yes. I've been a primary school teacher for 25 years.

Windy days and the full moon are never good!

WetBandits · 28/10/2023 16:11

Oooh yes! I dreaded night shifts on a full moon as you could almost guarantee that every other patient admitted to my unit would be incredibly poorly, someone would crash overnight and have to be resuscitated, someone admitted for a MH crisis would abscond while I was busy with a poorly patient and there would of course be no 1:1 support staff member that night, someone would test positive for Covid and we’d have to quarantine the entire bay of patients and the fire alarm would go off.

I say that like a full moon made it worse…it was more or less a nightly occurrence and I don’t work there anymore Grin

Squirrelsnut · 28/10/2023 16:13

My friend who worked in a drop-in mental health crisis unit (decades ago) was paid double time on full moon shifts..

trulyunruly01 · 28/10/2023 16:15

Absolutely.
I used to work at the out of hours drs and full moons were always full-on.
I now work nights ina very different healthcare setting and every full moon it's chaos.