Up North the daylight sifts from 12 hour days to 2 hour 30 minutes. This is where I live now.
For a Finnish person the darkness of the winter is a natural thing.
Since midsummer the daylight has been reducing and in the end of November the daylight was only four hours. How does it feel, you may ask. It feels crazy! In midsummer the day did not end at all, and now we barely have it at all. For a Finnish person the darkness of the winter is a natural thing. Now since the move to the arctic circle (900 kilometres Norther than where I am originally from), it finally feels unnatural.
Normally, you basically cannot see anything on a cloudy and rainy day/night. All the rain and darkness takes away energy; your body starts to tell you it is time to bed even if it is five o’clock in the afternoon. Same goes in the mornings; you need to wake up at six o’clock, but your body is in the state of mind of sleeping still few more hours.
As soon as the first snowfall comes, the pain of the darkness gets easier. The snow lights up surroundings and reflects the light making the outside look brighter when the sun has gone down. Here in the North the snow comes early and allows to have more time outdoors.
This year the darkness did not feel so depressing; I had so much to wait for at the darkest times of the years.
This year it made me drink earlier. It was probably about two o’clock and my inner clock said it was more, time to start enjoying the night and have fun, stop working at least.
Pros & cons of the darkness
Pros
- You can fool yourself to drink earlier
- Starry sky
- Northern lights
- It means the snow comes soon
- It only lasts for a few months
Cons
- You feel more tired
- You might feel depressed for a while
- You don’t see anything
- It lasts for a few months
Cheers,
Saara
