Casiraghi Leandro, Spiousas Ignacio, Dunster Gideon P, McGlothlen Kaitlyn, Fernández-Duque Eduardo, Valeggia Claudia, de la Iglesia Horacio O
Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Sensorimotor Dynamics Lab (LDSM), CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Bernal, Argentina.
Sci Adv. 2021 Jan 27;7(5). doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abe0465. Print 2021 Jan.
Before the availability of artificial light, moonlight was the only source of light sufficient to stimulate nighttime activity; still, evidence for the modulation of sleep timing by lunar phases is controversial. Here, we use wrist actimetry to show a clear synchronization of nocturnal sleep timing with the lunar cycle in participants living in environments that range from a rural setting with and without access to electricity in indigenous Toba/Qom communities in Argentina to a highly urbanized postindustrial setting in the United States. Our results show that sleep starts later and is shorter on the nights before the full moon when moonlight is available during the hours following dusk. Our data suggest that moonlight likely stimulated nocturnal activity and inhibited sleep in preindustrial communities and that access to artificial light may emulate the ancestral effect of early-night moonlight.
在人造光源出现之前，月光是唯一足以刺激夜间活动的光源；然而，月相对睡眠时间调节的证据仍存在争议。在此，我们通过手腕活动监测法表明，生活在不同环境中的参与者，其夜间睡眠时间与月周期存在明显同步性。这些环境涵盖了从阿根廷托巴/孔姆原住民社区有或没有电力供应的农村环境，到美国高度城市化的后工业化环境。我们的研究结果表明，在满月前的夜晚，当黄昏后的几个小时有月光时，入睡时间会更晚且睡眠时间更短。我们的数据表明，月光可能在工业化前的社区中刺激了夜间活动并抑制了睡眠，而获得人造光可能模拟了傍晚月光的原始效应。
