[Lewis Thomson (OP)]

Listener Sal wanted to know the answer to the question and submitted it to The Naked Scientists.

"Is the behaviour of school students affected by moon phases?"

What do you think? Is this something you've noticed among students? Discuss in the comments below...

[Eternal Student]

Hi.

You need some data to make any serious discussion here.

This is something that does seem to be based on hard data but I haven't looked at that data myself: 

.......despite the wealth of anecdotal evidence, numerous pieces of scientific research simply cannot find any verification to make a firm link between the moon and the behaviour of school children.

The most extensive study was published in ‘Frontiers in Pediatrics’ in 2016 looking at the behaviour of almost 6,000 children aged between nine and 11 from a dozen countries around the world, including the UK.

The researchers monitored the activity levels of the participants, but the only change which occurred was that the children were more likely to have their sleep shortened by five minutes, far too short a time to be considered a statistically significant amount.

Other analytical studies of hospital admissions, police arrests or dog bites show no correlation between their frequency and the phases of the moon.

Taken from:  "Teachwire"  website    https://www.teachwire.net/news/is-student-behaviour-worse-when-theres-a-full-moon

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   Next,  even if you did find a correlation between something like the number of detentions given out by a school and the phase of the moon,   there are still many possible explanations.    The most obvious one that comes to my mind is that there is more light when there is a full moon.   Students might be more adventurous at night and go off to cause some minor disruption at their local school on nights with a full moon just because you can see where you're going.  Additionally, the school care takers, security staff and surveillance cameras might be better able to identify the trouble making children in bright light - with a succesfull identification more detentions or school punishments can be given out.

Best Wishes.

[Eternal Student]

Hi again.

It now looks like the NakedScientists have put out a podcast on a similar topic:
https://www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts/question-week/does-moon-affect-student-behaviour

They seem to focus on sleep loss.  They mention that the moonlight makes only a small difference on average and such a small difference is not likely to be all that important.  However, they conclude the show with another comment about the importance of sleep.  This may serve to confuse the listener and reinforce the idea that moonlight does significantly reduce sleep.

Best Wishes.