Donald Redelmeier And Moon Enchantments

Some studies, by Donald Redelmeier, show data that support the idea that more traffic accidents occur when there is a full moon. Likewise, the psychiatrists, Wehr and Avery, have also found evidence of another form of influence on the moon.

The British Medical Journal published some studies, by Donald Redelmeier, on the effects of the moon. According to these, the full moon increases the number of fatal traffic accidents. This is what scientists have concluded after collecting and analyzing a series of data from several countries around the world.

Donald Redelmeier’s studies made up the Christmas issue of the aforementioned magazine. These types of editions come out once a year and they include fun, striking and surprising research, always based on scientific facts.

Humans have known about the enchantment of the moon for a long time. It continues to inspire poets, lovers and scientists, just as it has done before. The moon shines at night, like an oasis in the middle of a mystery. But does it really have such an impact on people that it leads to fatal accidents? Donald Redelmeier’s studies seem to prove this.

The studies of Donald Redelmeier

Donald Redelmeier’s studies have a statistical basis. This researcher, who is a researcher at the University of Toronto, and his colleague, Eldar Shafir, another researcher but at Princeton University, have made a special analysis. They recorded traffic accidents between 1975 and 2014 in the United States, Canada, England and Australia. 

They searched for patterns and they found them, no doubt. However, they did not find exactly what they had expected. Thanks to their investigation, they discovered that the number of fatal traffic accidents seemed to increase during nights with full moon and, as a consequence, the number of injured and dead people.

According to their data, there were 988 nights where there was no full moon during the period they were studying. 8,535 traffic accidents occurred during this time, leading to an average of 8.64 full moon-related deaths each night.

During the same period, out of the 494 nights with full moon, 4494 traffic accidents occurred, giving an average of 9.1 deaths per night. The average during the so-called “supermoon” was increased to 10.6 deaths per night. 

They added them to the enchantment of the moon. In fact, they found that many drivers are enchanted by the beauty of the moon and are distracted. Therefore, it is this that leads to more accidents.

The enchantment of the moon according to Donald Redelmeier

Donald Redelmeier’s studies are an anecdotal way of answering a question that humans have been asking themselves for thousands of years. What influence does the moon have on human behavior? The legend of the “werewolf” is a great way to answer it: Most animal instincts appear in humans when there is a full moon.

Outside of the imagination, there are many who continue to claim the influence of the moon on animal behavior. Without going too far,  Aristotle was convinced that attacks of anger and epilepsy occurred in direct relation to the phases of the moon. Furthermore, Pliny the Elder, a Roman naturalist, completely agreed with this hypothesis.

In fact, the word “insane” is part of the general glossary, and it refers to a sudden change in behavior, especially during full moon nights. There are several scientific studies according to this. However, almost none of them are consistent, just one.

An interesting study

Psychiatrist, David Every, from England, had a rather special patient. He had a bipolar disorder and he was also quite systematic and loved doing scientific research. That is why he kept a thorough record of his extreme mood swings.

When Avery studied his patient’s notes, he noticed that fluctuations in sleep coincided with the fluctuations of the lunar times.

The conclusion seemed to be quite absurd to the psychiatrist, and he returned the subject. However, there was another well-known psychiatrist, Thomas Wehr, who published an article in which he highlighted that 17 patients with bipolar disorder had very striking regularities in their mood swings.

Not only this, but their changes coincided with the lunar cycle. This study was based on observations he made over several years.

Next, the two psychiatrists met and merged. After some time, they both presented their conclusions in several forums, and they are actually right, from an empirical point of view. There is, for sure, a coincidence, but other scientists claim there are some other factors that affect this phenomenon. They just have not found it.

Most of the scientific community refuses to consider the relationship between the moon and behavior seriously because there is no physical basis to confirm it. Furthermore, Wehr and Avery’s data could not be reproduced. There will, with certainty, be new studies that will shed some light on the places where there are still shadows.