“Of all the patterns observed from the ghostly visage of Earth’s full moon, many cultures’ folklore identifies the shape of a so-called man in the moon.

“Now, a new study suggests a connection between men and moons that goes beyond the so-called man within.

“Researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden say that sleep issues in men may be correlated with the cycles of the moon. The peculiar study, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, is especially curious for its observations of differences among genders: Women, by contrast, seemed to be largely unaffected by the lunar cycle. This is in stark contrast with folk lore: Women have often been associated with the moon, from the ancient Roman goddess Luna to the term “menstruation,” which erroneously links periods with lunar cycles.

“As the scientists in Sweden learned by studying the sleep of 492 women and 360 men, men who tried to sleep when the moon is waxing (meaning in the phase where it is getting more full each night) tended to spend more time awake and have lower sleep efficiency. Because the same trend did not exist among women, it naturally raises questions about the exact nature of the moon’s role in promoting poorer sleep. ”

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“The full moon seems to affect men more than women, and no one is sure why”