Phases of Moon May Influence Duration of Sleep, Menstrual Cycles, Scientists Say in New Study
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A new study suggests that the myth about the Moon influencing menstrual cycles and sleeping patterns may be true after all. According to a study conducted by scientists from the University of Washington, National University of Quilmes, and Yale University, it has been found that moon phases affect our duration of sleep and menstruation patterns in the female reproductive system.
The paper, published in Science Advances on January 27 suggests that sleep cycles in people fluctuates during the 29.5-day lunar cycle. In the days leading up to a full moon, people go to sleep later in the evening and sleep for shorter periods of time, says the study. The research team consisted of seven scientists: Horacio O. de la Iglesia, Leandro Casiraghi, Ignacio Spiousas, Gideon P. Dunster, Kaitlyn McGlothlen, Eduardo Fernández-Duque, and Claudia Valeggia. To draw their results, the research
Credit: University of Washington
For centuries, humans have blamed the moon for our moods, accidents and even natural disasters. But new research indicates that our planet s celestial companion impacts something else entirely our sleep.
In a paper published Jan. 27 in
Science Advances, scientists at the University of Washington, the National University of Quilmes in Argentina and Yale University report that sleep cycles in people oscillate during the 29.5-day lunar cycle: In the days leading up to a full moon, people go to sleep later in the evening and sleep for shorter periods of time. The research team, led by UW professor of biology Horacio de la Iglesia, observed these variations in both the time of sleep onset and the duration of sleep in urban and rural settings from Indigenous communities in northern Argentina to college students in Seattle, a city of more than 750,000. They saw the oscillations regardless of an individual s access to electricity, though the variation
(Courthouse News photo / Bill Girdner)
(CN) The moon has played an outsized role throughout human civilization. To the soothsayers of old, the moon was a sign of good fortune and bad. It promised hope and threatened despair. But more realistically, scientists now know it can affect how much sleep a person gets.
New research shows that oscillations in the lunar cycle may have a noticeable effect on a person’s sleep pattern. Even in brightly lit urban areas where the moon’s phase can only be detected by peering upwards, sleep patterns changed measurably in proximity to the full moon. Sometimes by up to 90 minutes.
Expert Proposes Techniques to Address Regulatory Concerns in Gene Editing January 13, 2021
Martin Lema, Adjunct Professor at the National University of Quilmes, released an article containing a detailed review of evidence on off-target effects and unintended DNA insertions in gene editing. The document, published in the
Journal of Regulatory Science, is a useful resource in proposing concrete regulatory criteria to address the issues.
According to Lema, there is an increasing number of regulatory systems worldwide that consider applications for the authorization of activities involving the use of gene editing for agri-food use. Several countries have progressed in creating regulatory criteria and collecting practical experiences in the field, but there is still a general need for regulatory cooperation on capacity building and forming with harmonized criteria. Thus, the article included a simplified introduction of genome editing from a regulatory perspective.