When I was pregnant with my firs
t I had to have the amniotic fluid check and be on bed rest for a couple of days. I bought the book “The Red Tent” and I was so fascinated by this amazing concept of how women on their periods go to the red tent and rest. Besides the fact that I think that is an amazing book about Dinah, a less known sister of the 12 brothers, 12 tribes and her strength. Somehow that reminded me of the time I moved to the big city. I was in my early 20s living with a female roommate and slowly, but surely, our cycles started to sync. Have you ever experienced that? No wonder there were many women in the red tent at the same time as their cycles must have been syncing as they lived together. But what does the moon have to do with this? Where does the saying “Moon Cycle” come from?
The more I am doing this work, I start to see the power we have in our body and how we are in fact connected to nature and its rhythms.
Does the Moon Correlate with our Cycles?
I started to investigate the correlation between the moon and our cycle and I found that there was some research done on this and I would like to share some of these things with you. They took 312 students who kept records of their cycles over 14 weeks. Out of those women, 68 had lunar period cycles in terms of length and 47 of them menstruated in the light moon which means ovulation tended to occur in the dark phase of the lunar period which is defined as the half-cycle of the month from the last quarter, through new moon. One explanation is that a natural rhythm of electromagnetic radiation has its origin in the lunar cycle and may be reflected in phase-locking of the human menstrual cycle.
In another study, they checked 825 women between the ages 16-25 where 28.3% menstruated in the new moon and ovulated around the full moon.
It is believed that Charles Darwin perpetuated this belief by claiming it proved our ancestors lived near the ocean and needed to sync with the tides.
Christiane Northrup, M.D the author of “Women’s Body Women’s Wisdom” and many other books, wrote in one of her articles “Even in modern society, where we are cut off from the rhythms of nature, the cycle of ovulation is influenced by the moon. Studies have shown that peak rates of conception and probably ovulation appear to occur at the full moon or the day before.” During the new moon, an increased number of women will start their bleed and she explains it as the moon rules the flow and fluids, the ocean and individual fluids, so it influences us too. In one study of 2000 women with irregular cycles, more than half achieved a 29-day cycle when they slept with a light on near their bed during the three days around ovulation. The explanation for that is due to melatonin production and hormones though.
If we correlate the phases of the moon to the different phases of our cycle, we can definitely see the correlation even if it does not correlate exactly with how the moon physically appears.
Blue Lights and Other Light Influences
However; many other places say it is all myth. One thing I did notice was that the research I found was quite old and the new ones say there isn’t a correlation which brings me to think that there was definitely a correlation in the older days between the moon and our body, our cycle. Since there weren’t so many lights back then, blue lights in particular, we were more connected to the light from the sun and moon and our body reacted to those changes. Since we started using electricity with screens more and more, our bodies got confused and we lost the connection to the moon. Is it a good thing or a bad thing?
