The introduction

After many years of irregular cycles lasting anywhere from 1 month to 4, I started looking up natural ways to regulate my cycle. When clicking on one hyperlink led to the next, and the next to the next, I stumbled upon Lunaception and decided that I had to give it a try.

What is Lunaception you may ask? Well it's the belief that women used to menstruate with the new moon and ovulate with the full moon. But then enter the light bulb, and our cycle became unsynchronized with all the use of artificial lighting. Often times, even when we turn out our lights for bed, we still have light pollution from alarm clocks, cable boxes, cell phones, street lights, and many other places that affect the amount of light in our rooms. The problem with this is that melatonin production is affected by even the smallest amount of light and our body picks up light even through our closed eyelids and skin. This imbalance affects our menstrual cycles. Lunaception is therefore the practice of getting our cycle back to the way nature intended it: in tune with the moon. This is done by manipulating our sleeping environment with a variation of complete darkness on most nights, and a soft white light on a few nights.

Although there were some resources and how-to's on the internet, I decided that I wanted to learn the method from the source; Louis Lacey's Lunaception - A Feminine Oddyssey into Fertility and Contraception. The book had long been out of print, but the author was offering photocopies of her book for $11 (now available as an e-book on her site), including postage. So I quickly ordered one up for me. Although the book was long, the method can really be summed up into just a couple of steps. Basically, here they are:

LUNACEPTION HOW-TO'S

1. Sleep in total, pitch black darkness Days 1-13 of your cycle. Day one is the first day of your period. By pitch black I mean 15 min. after turning out the lights you can't see your hand in front of your face, let alone the furniture in your room. Just an eye-mask might not do it because studies have shown the our bodies respond to light "unseen".

2. Days 14, 15, and 16 - Put a small white nightlight, 15 to 25 watts, on the other side of the room and sleep with it on. Try to get the whitest light you can find to mimic moon light. Lampshades work fine too.

3. The rest of your cycle, go back to sleeping in pitch black darkness. If you still haven't ovulated in 2 weeks, you can try the lights again. Caution: Using the lights in less than 2 week intervals might actually delay ovulation.

*Louis Lacey states that your cycles should naturally align to that of the moon's. However, if you want to speed up that process, sleep in darkness until your cycle matches that of the moon's. It'll align much more quickly. Then use the night light as above. So basically, wait until the full moon to turn on the light...although I imagine you should wait at least a couple of days after your period begins.

**Another person named Joy deFelice also studied the effects of light on our cycles. Although I haven't read her booklet, which is available for only $5. She says much of the same things except that the first 3 months solid you should sleep in total darkness.

After almost 2 years I decided to get serious about lunaception and judge for myself once and for all if it worked or not.

So why the blog?

When I first began doing lunaception I researched and researched to find people's stories and experiences but found very few complete pictures. I did find a few random testimonials, but they were short and felt like there wasn't really anything that was documented. A lot of people also either began lunaception and soon after stopped or got pregnant shortly after (congrats!) or did the method but weren't strict about sleeping in total darkness and turning on the light. Others introduced a lot of different vitamins and supplements into their cycle so you weren't really sure which one worked. Also, many had fairly regular cycles to begin with.With all that, I feel like I wasn't able to really evaluate if Lunaception works or not. I'm determined however to follow lunaception to the T, without introducing anything new into my very irregular and long cycle. And I don't plan on getting pregnant so you'll be able to see over a greater span of time what lunaception did for me, and will possibly do for you.

In another blog I'll update where I currently am right now with lunception and how I feel things have changed. I'll also put up some super useful links to the right for anyone who wants to pursue lunaception.