Full Moon Plus Lunar Eclipse Plus Blood Moon = INSANITY!?

nrsang97, BSN, RN · Apr 5, 2015

Anytime there is a full moon the day before, day of , and a day or two after are usually crazy. If not just insanely busy, everyone admitted is insane to a degree and some of the staff working. I swear as a rapid response nurse the staff can be just as nutty as the patients.

CT Pixie, BSN, RN · Apr 5, 2015

Oh my, I could have written this. I work a surgical floor but we get medical overflow. I can't tell you how many geri ETOH pts I've gotten in the last few weeks!!! An alcoholic here and there I'm use to, but lately its the geriatric ETOH population I'm seeing.

I've been punched in the gut by 3 or 4 sundowners lately. No warning at all. One second they are lying in bed talking with me calmly being the typical cute little old lady/man, the next second they morph into Mike Tyson and I get a punch to the breadbasket!

I had one little geri lady the other night who would scream at the top of her lungs unless someone was singing to/with her. Needless to say after 8.5 hrs I was hoorifice and never wanted to sing anything ever again!

And your COPD people..well they must have decided my hospital would be a great place to go. I've had no less than 3 a shift!

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Apr 5, 2015

A hundred times NO â€“ the moon does not cause a crazy night

Moon Influences Hospital Admissions?

Posted: Friday, April 3, 2015, 4:00 AM

Philly.com

(HealthDay News) -- The belief that a full moon is linked to increases in hospital admissions and births is just an old wives' tale, an astronomist says.
"The moon is innocent," Jean-Luc Margot, a professor of planetary astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a university news release.
Yet the myth persists, even among a fraction of nursing professionals, Margo said. It's likely helped by studies such as a 2004 paper in a nursing journal that suggested the full moon affected the number of hospital admissions in a medical unit in Barcelona, Spain, he noted.
But Margot examined the study and said he found multiple mistakes in the researchers' data collection and analysis, proving that the number of patient admissions was unrelated to the lunar cycle.
Many studies have shown that the moon has no influence on events such as traffic crashes, hospital admissions, surgery outcomes, cancer survival rates, depression, violence, birth and criminal activity, yet many still believe the moon can affect human behavior, Margot said.
This may be due to what is called "confirmation bias," which refers to people's tendency to interpret things in ways that confirm their beliefs and to ignore evidence that contradicts them, he explained.
If people have a strange or hectic day when there is a full moon, they tend to remember it because it confirms their belief. But when such days occur when the moon is not full, people forget about them because they don't reinforce the belief, Margo said...

Journal - Nursing Research abstract:

March 10, 2015

doi: 10.1097/NNR.0000000000000086

No Evidence of Purported Lunar Effect on Hospital Admission Rates or Birth Rates.

[h=3]Margot, Jean-Luc[/h]

Background: Studies indicate that a fraction of nursing professionals believe in a "lunar effect"-a purported correlation between the phases of the Earth's moon and human affairs, such as birth rates, blood loss, or fertility.
Purpose: This article addresses some of the methodological errors and cognitive biases that can explain the human tendency of perceiving a lunar effect where there is none.
Approach: This article reviews basic standards of evidence and, using an example from the published literature, illustrates how disregarding these standards can lead to erroneous conclusions.
Findings: Roman, Soriano, Fuentes, Galvez, and Fernandez (2004) suggested that the number of hospital admissions related to gastrointestinal bleeding was somehow influenced by the phases of the Earth's moon. Specifically, the authors claimed that the rate of hospital admissions to their bleeding unit is higher during the full moon than at other times. Their report contains a number of methodological and statistical flaws that invalidate their conclusions. Reanalysis of their data with proper procedures shows no evidence that the full moon influences the rate of hospital admissions, a result that is consistent with numerous peer-reviewed studies and meta-analyses. A review of the literature shows that birth rates are also uncorrelated to lunar phases.
Conclusions: Data collection and analysis shortcomings, as well as powerful cognitive biases, can lead to erroneous conclusions about the purported lunar effect on human affairs. Adherence to basic standards of evidence can help assess the validity of questionable beliefs.

Jules A, MSN · Apr 5, 2015

I was also going to say that although you will hear this all the time on psych units I do not think the research supports it.

PaulBaxter · Apr 6, 2015

Thanks NRSKaren! I was about to post that topics like this make me despair for the nursing profession.

People argue about things like whether nurses who smoke or who are overweight reflect badly on the profession, but for me it's nurses who routinely reject science that I see as the biggest problem.

(and I'm not even an atheist)

BrandonLPN, LPN · Apr 6, 2015

I always try to give other nurses the benefit of the doubt when they say stuff like full moons=insanity, and assume they're making a little joke. The idea of a nurse truly believing such a thing is disturbing. I kind of hope the OP was being facetious when she said she "totally believes" in it.

Dany102 · Apr 6, 2015

My non-scientific theory goes like this: the human body is composed of roughly 65% water; we know the moon affect the world's oceans (tides are caused by the moon). I think it would be reasonable to assume we are affected by the moon as well. I know I often have a harder time falling asleep during the near-full/full moon period. Is this psychosomatic? I have no idea, but there it is...

BrandonLPN, LPN · Apr 6, 2015

My non-scientific theory goes like this: the human body is composed of roughly 65% water; we know the moon affect the world's oceans (tides are caused by the moon). I think it would be reasonable to assume we are affected by the moon as well. I know I often have a harder time falling asleep during the near-full/full moon period. Is this psychosomatic? I have no idea, but there it is...

From the Skeptic's Dictionary:

Misconceptions about such things as the moon's effect on tides have contributed to lunar mythology. Many people seem to think that since the moon affects the ocean's tides, it must be so powerful that it affects the human body as well. The lunar force is actually a very weak tidal force. A mother holding her child "will exert 12 million times as much tidal force on her child as the moon" (Kelly et al., 1996: 25). Astronomer George O. Abell claims that a mosquito would exert more gravitational pull on your arm than the moon would (Abell 1979). Despite these physical facts, there is still widespread belief that the moon can cause earthquakes.

* It doesn't; nor does the sun, which exerts much less tidal force on the earth than the moon.

The fact that the human body is mostly water largely contributes to the notion that the moon should have a powerful effect on the human body and therefore an effect on behavior. It is claimed by many that the earth and the human body both are 80% water. This is false. Eighty percent of the surface of the earth is water. Furthermore, the moon only affects unbounded bodies of water, while the water in the human body is bounded.

Dany102 · Apr 7, 2015

Party pooper! :yuck: (I did say it was a non-scientific theory)

But thank you, Brandon, for providing me with more information on this very interesting topic.

allnurses Guide · Apr 7, 2015

I remember those full moon nights on the psych ward _ A good time was had by all!!!!

allnurses Guide · Apr 7, 2015

I always try to give other nurses the benefit of the doubt when they say stuff like full moons=insanity, and assume they're making a little joke. The idea of a nurse truly believing such a thing is disturbing. I kind of hope the OP was being facetious when she said she "totally believes" in it.

It doesn't matter if the nurses believe it - The psych patients believe it so the mayhem is unleashed - We always saw increases in behavior during Full, New, Blue and Blood moons. We also had increases in behavior during heat waves.

No scientific proof just observation.

Hppy