Every so often, I or someone I know will post a social media note about how they had a completely crazy day and just need to decompress. Then some usually well-meaning person will chime in with "Yeah, full moon's coming", as if that explains everything. Well, I hate to be a big fat Buzz Killington, but no, it actually does not explain it. Statistically, people do not lose their sanity more during the full moon, even though the terms "Lunacy" and "Lunatic" derive from the latin word for the moon -- Luna. Humanity is very tied to the moon. In fact, some have speculated that without the tidal forces between the Earth and the Moon, we humans may not have evolved. (myself, I don't try to speculate. It's one of those incalculables. ) So, we have ages of social conditioning and a considerable amount of confirmation bias which drives most people's belief in Full Moon Madness.
Except, there is simply no statistical evidence that any such phenomena occur. Hospital Emergency Departments, Fire stations, police dispatchers -- statistics gathered from all of those do not show any marked uptick in "madness" -- accidents, assaults, fires, homicides etc -- during the nights of the full moon.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1316181/
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