h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

~jwf~, is there any reason to believe that the invisible moonrays are stronger at the time of full moon?

I read that as "invisible monkeys"

The full moon always affects my sleep paterens. It has for years. I do believe there is a reason for that. I don't know what it is but I don't follow the moon's patterns but when I don't sleep I look at the moon and realize that there is some sort of pattern.

Recently I was told by colleagues about a very strong full moon shining through the bedroom curtains while they were in bed. It used to be believed that some people committed murder during full moons. I also remember reading about people on board ships sitting out under a full moon, getting a form of sun stroke. How true these tales are I cannot say.

Come on everyone- You may debate all you want but the truth is The FULL MOON affects sleeping patterns!!!! Don't look at your lunar calenders, Hell Chuck them out. Next month when you are restless, then you may look at the Calendar. Chances are your sleep disruption will co-incide with the moon.

Full moon near the equinox - a link to sleepwalking?

When I walked in full moonshine in the mountains of Spain, I felt that I was chasing the moon, my best friend.
Just keep walking and you'll be úp the moon itself; that was the basic emotion when I walked.

A poem about me and the moon.

If it is the full moon only that disturbs sleep, and not the new moon, then it must be due to light rather than gravity. The gravitational effects of the new moon are exactly the same as those of the full moon, so if any disturbance were due to gravitational or tidal effects, they would happen every two weeks, not every four. But the extra light at night is something that happens in a four week cycle. So light from the full moon disturbing the sleeper seems the most likely.

What strange power in those lunar photons causes mushrooms to appear in sudden abundance?

I've heard it said that nails and hair grow faster as the moon approaches fullness.

Some people reckon you shouldn' have a medical opeartion in the time of the new moon.

Is it the waxing and waning that affects us, I wonder?

Those who spend their evenings in cities should try and get into the countryside or at least into an area of parkland and observe the effect the phases of the moon on nature's creatures.

On the eve of the last full moon I observed an amazing increase in the number of moths.

Most of these effects you describe are imagined.

It's true. The full moon with its silent Edvard Munch scream stimulates our imaginations and the imaginations of the mushrooms too. We imagine witches on broomsticks, miaowing cats, howling wolves, long shadows creeping in corners and so on. No flaming wonder we can't get off to sleep. What the mushrooms imagine I've no idea.

I would get less sleep due to the light from the moon I imagine. And maybe the amount of nocturnal insects flying around in your room might change due to the light.

People who lived in the country in the old days looked forward to the full moon. That was the safe time, when you could walk through the countryside by moonlight. The evil time was the new moon, when it was completely dark at night and you had to stay shut indoors.

Safe except for the dangers of werewolfs of course.

I'm not scared of werewolves. They haven't met me on a dark night!

So to sum up: People who were where werewolves were were worried, when people who weren't where werewolves were when people who were where werewolves were were worried weren't.

(There's probably some punctuation missing )

Well I can't stay awake at the mo.................................

Never mind the effects on the human psyche of the full moon; what nobody is talking about is the 'full earth' effect on the human brain.
In 20 years when the moon colonies are firmly established and the various military are all up there, sitting up there in the Sea of Tranquility with nothing to do except keeping a jaundiced eye on all those computers (those computers that will be keeping a digital eye on the weapons of mass destruction orbiting the earth in stand-by mode)what then?
We know the word 'lunatic' comes from the effect of the moon on the unpredicatble human brain.
The whole unpredictable might easily go haywire at 'full earth'? Is Armageddon only a generation away?
Come back Dr Strangelove - all is forgiven!

When I saw the title of this convo, I thought it was 'Full moon effecting sheep'. Which, now I think about it, a far more 2legs kind of title.

By the way, you do realise that the real title 'Full moon affecting sleep' means that a full moon is pretending to be asleep?

However, apart from that I half nothing to add, as I'll been sleeping fine for the sleep week or so.


Geggs

>> ...is there any reason to believe that the invisible moonrays are stronger at the time of full moon? <<

Uhm.. yes. But perhaps we need to define 'stronger'.

All forms of energy 'radiate' away from their source in ever widening ripples (Eddy's not withstanding ) and their 'strength' is relatively constant albeit diminishing as the circle spreads thinner across the cosmos.

The moonrays I referred to are in fact reflected solar energies. And the strength of these at their solar source will be as variable as all solar activities which while remaining within certain parameters does indeed have 'stronger' days. And, whether the solar weather be flare or foul, our exposure to it via lunar reflection depends entirely upon how much of the moon's surface is exposed to us.

At a new moon there is virtually no reflected solar energy coming at us. No solar sourced light, x-rays, gamma rays, radio waves, 'solar winds', no EM plasmas of any kind are reflected back at us from a 'new' moon. And yet we still have tidal forces in action.

So even the moon sourced gravitational effects upon earth bound hydraulics do vary as the angle of incidence goes thru its monthly cycle. And every 28 days or so we get the full mirrored effect of reflected solar energies all night long! Higher tides and greener grass.

But 'stronger' is really more a question of volume than intensity, or quantity rather than quality. So it is not for nought that we call it a 'full' moon.


~jwf~