Howl at the Moon

Jan 3rd, 2007 was a FULL MOON. I was on the phone with the Nurse Manager of the Psychiatric Unit here at my hospital, and she told me that it had been "nuts" up there (no pun intended!) and she wondered if it was the Full Moon? She said she wondered how much research had been done regarding patients/hospitals and the moon.
Let me tell you, no one wants to work on a Full Moon in the hospital, especially in the ER or Psychiatric Unit. Labor and Delivery is suppose to have more admissions during this Lunar Phase. When I worked night shift, this was the dreaded night to be scheduled right behind the Fall Back time change when your 12.5 hour shift automatically turned into a 13.5 hours shift. If your patients were squirrely.. you heard..."it must be a full moon". So I went out on an Internet search to see what research I could find on this theory. There is A LOT. Some of the research supports that it is a Legendary Myth and others support that this Lunar Phase does affect humans and animals. The increase in psychiatric admissions, epilepsy, GI bleeds, birth and labor, and moods seem to be tied to the moon's pull. I am a FULL believer that it is NOT a myth, for I have witnessed first hand the craziness of a FULL MOON.