Sleep-e-Health

In an innovative study in which subjects brain patterns, eye movements and hormone secretions were monitored, chronobiologists found evidence that human sleep patterns are timed to the phases of the moon, and that people sleep 20 minutes less on average during a full moon. The findings also revealed that around the full moon, brain activity related to deep sleep dropped by nearly a third, and melatonin levels also dipped.

These findings could be evidence of a biological "circalunar clock" ticking inside of humans. Similar to the circadian clock that helps humans sync their physical and behavioral changes to a 24-hour day-night cycle, a circalunar clock would be synchronized with the changing phases of the moon.

For example, early humans might have been primed to sleep lightly during the full moon, when there is more light at night and potential danger from predators is more likely.

Although the study found a link between the moon’s phase and sleep quality, the reason for the degradation in sleep quality is still not known. Sleep-e-Health’s Sleep Meter App was developed to try and find out the cause of why we might sleep differently when there's a full moon.

Sleep-e-Health’s Sleep Meter asks the user to rate how well they slept (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst night of sleep, and 10 being the best). The Sleep Meter App picks up all of the scores (anonymously), and then correlates the results against the Navy’s Lunar Phase database. The results are displayed on a graph.

Users can also take advantage of the Sleep Meter’s free texting service; users input their ideal bedtime (or waking time) and have a text message sent with a reminder for the ideal time to get in the sack.