As Northeast Ohio prepares to experience the total solar eclipse on April 8, social media chatter is buzzing with conspiracy theories about so-called "eclipse sickness."
If you have been on a certain side of social media sites TikTok, Reddit or YouTube recently, you may have seen people talk about feeling "off" after a solar eclipse, like a user called DiscoSean21, who posted about his symptoms on YouTube.
"I’m here to tell you guys eclipse sickness is real. I have been in the bed ever since the day I went out and watched the eclipse," he said in a video posted in 2019.
Another user who goes by DivinelyMagnetic warned her followers on TikTok.
“You guys cannot physically move your body," she claimed. "Like, your body feels like it weighs a million pounds."
Similar symptoms have been reported by people who said they couldn't explain what caused them to feel that way after solar eclipses.
Historical accounts of solar eclipses document a deep fascination with total eclipses and speculation about their potential impacts on humans that span the globe, said Chris Hartenstine, NASA's Glenn Research Center's public engagement lead.
“There’s been (in the past) far less scientific knowledge about what actually is happening during an eclipse, so it became this concern of bad omens or things that are... foretelling serious concerns," he said.
In 1955, newspapers reported about 6,000 Sri Lankens were hospitalized with so-called "eclipse sickness," but it was due to an elixir they all drank. In some cultures, pregnant women have long avoided eclipses due to fear that seeing one would cause problems in their child.
Eileen Anderson, a bioethics professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, said various cultures and belief systems have associated celestial changes with impacts on the body.
“Even the term lunacy was developed, I believe, in the 1400s, meaning something is off mentally, psychologically," Anderson said. "It was thought to be related to cycles of the moon.”
Some research has proved a scientific connection with the moon’s gravitational pull, which affects tides and impacts the human body, which is two-thirds water, she said.
Many people will dismiss eclipse health concerns from people on social media because they don't trust what's said on those platforms, but Anderson said she's open to the idea that people may experience an effect.
“Many scientists will tell you, I anticipate feeling awe, which may supersede it. Maybe something metaphysical, not just this is a scientific fact," she said.
“Even the term lunacy was developed, I believe, in the 1400s, meaning something is off mentally, psychologically. It was thought to be related to cycles of the moon," said Anderson.
But Hartenstine said he doesn’t believe the solar eclipse will have any physical effect on people.
“There isn't any different radiation. There isn't any new so-called cosmic effects or anything of that nature," he said. "It's just that there's less sunlight making it to the earth in the path of of the moon's shadow for those minutes of the total solar eclipse."
Most medical doctors, including Dr. Najee Abou-Arraj, medical director of Mercy Health Lorain's emergency room, feel there’s no reason eclipses should affect human health. However, he urged people to go to the ER if they are having a medical emergency, regardless of what may be causing it.
“We want to make sure that we're not attributing this all to an eclipse, maybe a somatic symptom, that may be due to other causes," Abou-Arraj said.
It’s also possible people may feel ill afterward because of excitement or anxiety from the eclipse, Anderson noted.
“We know that the mind and the body are intimately tied, and the mind is so powerful that if we’re thinking, 'I'm going to feel a certain way,' or 'I have to watch out and hyper monitor my body for if I'm going to have certain symptoms,' then those things are more likely to happen," she said.
Still, no matter what these experts say, they won’t be able to convince DiscoSean21, who vowed to "never, ever, ever watch the eclipse ever again in my life.”
