Sex difference in response to stress by lunar month: A pilot study of four years’ crisis-call frequency

Author: Nicholas Kollerstrom PhD and Beverley Steffert PhD
Abstract: This study looks at whether the moon can influence daily levels of
stress. Four years of telephone-call frequency data were obtained from a single crisis-call centre. The method of lunar-day numbers 1 to 29 was used for analysis. We tested the concept of ‘strong moons’ as occurring when the Syzygy was near to the lunar-node axis. This is the only study published of crisis calls versus the lunar cycle that scored calls from men and women separately. An increase in calls was recorded from females during the New Moon period, suggesting a sex difference in response, and there was a smaller peak in calls by men two weeks later. A swing of comparable magnitude in the male/female call-ratio on a weekly basis, over Fridays and Saturdays, was also present in the data. Limitations of staffing at the call-centre prohibited any comment on seasonal correlations. Without separating these calls by sex, the lunar effect would have been more or
less invisible. Distress-calls by women were more strongly linked to the lunar month than were those by men.
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Publication: BMC Psychiatry
Issue: Vol 3 No 20
Dated: 2003
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