Full Moon and Kids' Sleep: What the Research Says

It’s 3:57 am 2 of my 3 kids are wide awake, ready to party. They don’t usually wake up until at least 7 am. Yesterday, they were CRAZY, full of energy, and didn’t want to go to bed. On any normal day, they would have been exhausted from playing, running around, and normal daily activities. But not today! As their mom, I’m trying to figure out what the heck is going on. Did I feed them too much sugar, are they over-tired (I will never understand why children don’t sleep when they are overtired)? Then it hits me. FULL MOON! 

Does the full moon affect kids' sleep?

Maybe a little, but far less than a 4 a.m. wake-up makes it feel. The largest study in children so far followed 5,812 kids aged 9 to 11 in 12 countries, including the US, who wore activity monitors around the clock for a week. Around the full moon they slept about 5 minutes less per night than around the new moon, roughly 1% less. Their activity levels barely changed, and the researchers questioned whether a difference that small matters.

So if your kids are up for hours, the moon is unlikely to be the whole story. It's worth looking at the things you can change, like screens before bed and how much light gets into the bedroom.

Children get wacky during a full moon. I’m no research scientist, but 10 years of parenting, and I am here to tell you, it’s a real thing in my family. You’ve heard the myths and legends about what happens during a full moon. Werewolves and such. Some people call this the lunar effect, but the science is less settled than the stories. The Lunar Theory is the idea that there is a correlation between the moon cycle and human/animal behavior. 

Researchers have been looking at how the moon affects behavior for centuries. It has been concluded that because of the bright light that comes with a full moon, our bodies want to be awake instead of asleep. This desire could date back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors who woke with the sun. Makes sense to me. Don’t just take my word for it though. One study concluded that around the full moon, deep sleep decreased by 30%, time to fall asleep increased by 5 minutes, and total sleep duration was reduced by 20 minutes. 

Other theorists say the pull of the moon’s gravity when it’s full causes humans to sleep less. Now, I can see how the increase in tides of the ocean could be attributed to an increased gravitational pull from outer space, but to my kids’ lack of sleep….I am not so sure. 

So what do I do when my kids are up in the middle of the night during a full moon? Well, I used to get really frustrated and try to make them go back to sleep. But after several times, I realized that it was a losing battle and I wasn’t interested in participating anymore. Pick your battles, right parents? We all have nights when we have trouble sleeping. So instead, we get up. We watch a movie on the couch. Have a snack or a cup of milk. And then we go back to bed.  Does it mess with our overall schedule? Not really. My oldest has seemed to outgrow it. Right now he and my husband are fast asleep. And I will be honest, I am kind of sad he isn’t up with us. I remember our full-moon-middle-of-the-night-shindigs fondly and it’s given me the hindsight to cherish these moments. I hope one day all of my babies will too. 

How to help kids sleep around the full moon

Whatever the moon is doing, the basics that help on any restless night still apply:

• Keep bedtime and the routine the same, even when your kids seem wired. A simple "brush, book, bed" routine works well for young children.
• Turn off screens at least an hour before bed, and keep them out of bedrooms at night.
• Dim the lights before bedtime. If moonlight or streetlights shine into the room, curtains or blinds that block light can help.
• Keep the bedroom comfortable. The AAP suggests 68°F to 72°F for infants and children.

If it's your baby who's awake, keep things calm and quiet, and talk softly if you talk at all. Feed or soothe them, then lay them back down on their back in their crib or bassinet with nothing else in it. If you're exhausted, don't settle onto the couch or an armchair with your baby. It's easy to doze off there, and those are among the riskiest places for a baby to sleep.

If sleep problems go on for weeks, or your child seems tired during the day, mention it to your pediatrician.