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Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Healthy Pregnancy, Baby & Child / Using Lunaception to Improve Hormone Health and Fertility

Using Lunaception to Improve Hormone Health and Fertility

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Lunaception in a Modern Setting
  • What Exactly Does Sleeping in Darkness Mean?
  • How Lunaception Helps Nursing Mothers

 

lunaception for fertilityIs lunaception, or harnessing the power of light to normalize menses and improve fertility, untested anecdotal bunk or a valid approach to hormone health and family planning?

Much of the answer may depend on your particular worldview when it comes to health matters in general. 

Light, after all, plays a crucial role in many aspects of human health so it’s not such a stretch to consider its role in the process of ovulation and conception.

For starters, the pineal gland in the brain produces melatonin, that critical hormone that controls the 24 hour day/night cycle also known as the circadian rhythm. Melatonin production is suppressed when the retinal ganglion cells of the eye detect sunlight and produce the photoreceptor melanopsin.

Proper synchronization of the day/night cycle based on the detection of sunlight by the eyes governs the following bodily functions:

  • Endocrine rhythms
  • Body temperature
  • Glucose homeostasis (critical for blood sugar control)
  • Lipogenesis (the process of converting simple sugars to fatty acids)
  • Locomotor activity

Disruption of circadian rhythm can have a profound effect on health. Nighttime shift work or exposure to light at night, for example, has been found to increase the risk of certain cancers.

How then does light affect hormone health?

According to Louise Lacey, author of the book Lunaception, ancestral women understood that the menstrual cycle was governed by the cycle and light of the moon and that our bodies have naturally adapted to respond to its light and dark rhythms.

Lacey’s research also uncovered that the sexual cycles of some primates include peaks of activity relating to the lunar cycle.

Research by Dr. John Rock MD and physicist E.M. Dewan discovered that women who suffered from irregular menstrual cycles could normalize them by alternating sleeping in complete darkness with 3 nights of light.  The protocol required sleeping in complete darkness on days 1-13, sleeping with a 100-watt lightbulb turned on all night in the bedroom for days 14-17, and then sleeping again in complete darkness for the remainder of the cycle.

Lacey tried variations of Dr. Rock and Dewan’s experiments on herself and a group of over two dozen other women and found that sleeping in complete darkness punctuated by three nights of light each cycle triggered ovulation.

The light intensity that was necessary replicated the light of the full moon and could be as mild as the light from a 75-watt lightbulb beaming into the bedroom from a nearby bathroom.

Lunaception in a Modern Setting

Lacey called this process lunaception and found that it could be used to effectively direct personal fertility.  Lacey and 27 of her friends developed regular, healthy menstrual cycles by implementing the principles of lunaception including successful avoidance of pregnancy in all cases until menopause.

According to Katie Singer, author of Honoring Our Cycles, “other clinical researchers have also found that sleeping in the absence of light (introducing it for a few days each cycle, or sleeping only in the absence of light) can help women in a variety of situations to strengthen their cycles”.   Noted improvements included:

  • Women who were not ovulating became ovulatory.
  • Cycles that had been very short (26 days or less) or very long (35 days or more) normalized at between 27-31 days long
  • Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels normalized
  • Problems with mid-cycle spotting were significantly reduced
  • Progesterone levels were strengthened
  • Women with a history of miscarriage were able to sustain pregnancy.
  • The intensity of premenopausal symptoms, including hot flashes, sleeplessness, and mood changes were reduced

What Exactly Does Sleeping in Darkness Mean?

Sleeping in darkness can be quite a different experience depending on whether one is in an urban or rural environment.  To experience the benefits of lunaception, Katie Singer defines sleeping in darkness as follows:

  • Fifteen minutes after turning out the lights, you can’t see objects in the room, including your own hands.
  • Bedroom windows are covered with room-darkening blinds or curtains backed by light-blocking fabric.
  • Cracks of light from under doors can be covered with a towel.
  • Cracks around the edges of windows can be covered with aluminum foil.

Room darkening shades or blackout curtains (such as these that block 99.9% of light) can be purchased if the amount of outside light during the night is especially bright for those living in busy, urban settings.

How Lunaception Helps Nursing Mothers

Sleeping in complete darkness can also help support lactational amennorhea, or lack of fertility while nursing. Another method is frequent nursing all day long, including nighttime, but this can be rather exhausting particularly if baby is a good sleeper.

According to Katie Singer, author of the Garden of Fertility,

During pregnancy and while breast feeding (until menses resumes) it is best to sleep in the absence of light. If you need light in the middle of the night to nurse or use the bathroom, use as dim a light as possible. A red bulb (like those used in a photographer’s darkroom) purchased from a camera store, can be helpful.

Have you implemented the principles of lunaception in your living environment?  If so, what has been your experience with regard to the effect on your hormone health and fertility?

Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist

 

Sources and More Information

Lunaception: A Feminine Odyssey into Fertility and Contraception, Louise Lacey

Honoring Our Cycles, Katie Singer

Fertility Awareness, Food and Night-Lighting

Circadian disruption, shift work and the risk of cancer

Dewan, E.M. PhD, Miriam Menkin, MA, and John Rock, MD, “On the Possibility of a Perfect Rhythm of Birth Control by Periodic Light Stimulation,  American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 99 (1967): 1016-19

The Three Best Herbs for Fertility

6 Little Known Symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue

Natural Birth Control Using Herbs

Could this be the simplest way to balance hormones?

Photography Credit

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Category: Healthy Pregnancy, Baby & Child
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: the bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

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Reader Interactions

Comments (9)

  1. Lacey

    Jan 14, 2018 at 1:30 am

    My husband and i have been trying to get pregnant for almost a year now and I turned to Google for assistance because I have a history of miscarriages, when I stumbled across this page. I did have a question about the cycle: for the 13 nights of darkness and 3 nights of light and then the remaining 14 nights of darkness, does it and there? Or do you start counting the days again (13 dark, 3 light and the remaining dark)?

    Reply
    • Sarah

      Jan 14, 2018 at 10:20 am

      Yes you restart the counting process with each cycle. I think that is what you mean?

  2. tosola

    Feb 1, 2017 at 10:51 am

    How and where can I get lunaception.

    Reply
  3. Lori

    Jan 5, 2015 at 9:31 am

    Can any day be considered “Day 1” or does it have to correlate to a cycle? (Meaning, Day 1 would be Day 1 of bleeding.)

    Reply
  4. Meagan

    Dec 30, 2014 at 9:37 pm

    My cycle is habitually long (34-35 days) and it’s so annoying! I might try this so that I can get myself regulated again.

    Reply
  5. Barb

    Dec 30, 2014 at 1:56 am

    Hi Sarah,
    I am just trying to understand why we need to sleep in total darkness. If you were to sleep in a forest in a tent, it is not going to be completely dark. There is always some light from the moon for the most part. Therefore wouldn’t sleeping in total darkness be “against nature”?
    Thank you.

    Reply
    • Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist

      Dec 30, 2014 at 1:46 pm

      Sleeping in the forest in a tent would be completely black for many nights of the month if there weren’t the effect of nearby cities or town lights. If you are having hormonal issues, it is very important to sleep in total darkness. If you are trying to conceive or having fertility issues, lunaception can definitely help to regulate the situation in your favor.

  6. Justin from Extreme Health Radio

    Dec 30, 2014 at 1:37 am

    I love this idea of reconnecting with the moon and with nature itself in our modern world. We try our best to use sleeping masks when possible and wake up with the sun as much as we can. I also love using low blue light glasses in the evening when getting ready for bed. Thanks for all your research that went into this article. I know it’s a lot of work! 🙂

    Reply
  7. Jeannette

    Dec 30, 2014 at 12:08 am

    Are there any effects on regulating diabetes or hypothyroidism using this method?

    Reply

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