Attribution: Gregory H. Revera, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, congratulates himself for helping the keeper and Phyllis survive the three-day harvest moon with its overpowering evening shows and its apparent effect on Phyllis’s sleep.
A skeptical keeper had only to do very basic research to learn of extensive studies showing that even when isolated from the moonlight, sleep can be influenced by moon phases. Further investigation is warranted scientists say, but there is evidence that humans may have a “circalunar” rhythm as built in as their “circadian” rhythm with sleep patterns responding to deep evolutionary signals. One researcher called our circalunar rhythm “an intricate dance with nature” which the keeper heartily endorses and suggests to Phyllis, who loves to dance, that she might want to go to bed earlier than usual during the full moon, especially one as dominant as the recent October harvest moon.
