Insomnia 2009
This year I’ve made a conscious effort to cope better with the darkness of Winter. So far I have gone without seeing the sun for a month. But this doesn’t mean there is no light during the day. At around 11am to 1pm we have a blue light that can be classified as ‘day’.
Surprisingly, I haven’t missed the sun – yet. I have been going about my daily duties without stopping, wishing, longing to have real light again. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been affected. Even though my mind is aware of what is going on and is trying to manage it, my body is the thing that is making life hard in the darkness. I have fallen into a very bad sleep routine – staying up into the wee hours of the morning and getting up at lunch. In the last week I haven’t been able to fall asleep at all. I just doze and turn all night hoping that a new sleep position will be enough to make me fall asleep. I’m in the first stages on insomnia.
You can understand how people can get insomnia during the Midnight Sun season as the sun is up for 24 hours. No matter how dark you make your bedroom (blacking out the windows with reflective foil for a complete ‘in blackness sleep’) somehow the sun in the air can be felt on your skin that screams ‘Awake! Awake! It is a beautiful day!’ But getting insomnia in the darkness seems a little backwards.
It was only today that I realised why I was in this bad cycle of sleep. My body naturally rises when the sun rises. During the dark season the ‘sun rises’ (or the light comes) at around 11am. With my body being used to an eight hour sleep, I find it hard to go to bed before 3am in the morning. For my last week of no sleep (I am now officially a Zombie!) I have realised it’s because I haven’t been using up my energy. It’s been particularly cold this Winter. The last days have been down to -10C/14F – not a good temp to go outside to play soccer or sit on a swing. So the energy in my body is not being used, especially from all the good eating at Christmas, and therefore it doesn’t need hard-core sleep to rejuvenate. This is why you see Norwegians outside come rain, hail or snow. I guess I’m going to have to re-commission my alarm clock (since becoming a stay at home mum I never use it). You’d think the kids would get me up early but they are also on this weird sleep pattern. Moose’s studies have finished for the year – he has no obligation to get up and go early in the morning and therefore has fallen in sync with us.
Lets see if we can turn this around. It can’t be tonight as we are supposed to stay up being New Years Eve and all. But tomorrow is a new year (and some would call it a new decade) so I guess ‘now’ is the best time to start!
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The Tyholt Tower is the second biggest tourist attraction in Trondheim.
The Arctic Circle is an imaginary line.
There is an opposition in everything. At the darkest time of the year, we celebrate Christmas. And at the exact opposite end, when the midnight sun is at its highest, we celebrate Midsummer.
How Norway became a country is shrouded in mystery and folklore. The most well known tale is of Harald Hårfagre who gathered the small kingdoms of the north into a unified nation in 872AD – and of course, this story is about love.
I hear you on this!! I’ve been over or undersleeping since returning here to North Norway in mid-December. Sun returns in about two weeks, yes?
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from Moose:
The sun comes over the horizon here in Tromsø on the 17th of January, but because of the mountains we won’t see it from the city until about the 21st.
Hmmm. That makes sense. Here in my town I think it’s the 11th, but I’m moving up to Setermoen in a week. Do you know when the sun returns there, by any chance? Tusen takk og Godt Nytt År, forresten!
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from L-Jay:
You can usually find out from local newspapers or weather websites the different sun times in each area. (I think writing Godt Nytt År! is a lot easier for me than saying it…lol. It’s the ‘Nytt’ that stumps me every time.
As a sun lover, I can;t imagine an entire day without sun light. How do tourists cope?
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from Moose:
I’ve never heard of tourists having problems with the darkness – probably because that’s what they often come here to see. Also, a tourist would normally stay for just a couple of weeks, as opposed to the two months the locals have to cope with. I think Norwegians who struggle with darkness may have a thing or two to learn from tourists – to embrace the beauty of it.
Have you had any luck with the S.A.D. lamps and bright lights? My husbands family swears by them. My sister-in-law has a particularly clever one which you place at your bedside and it will work like an alarm clock, gently increasing the amount of light to imitate a natural sunrise.
Very clever!
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from L-Jay:
Interesting. But I’ve heard that you shouldn’t directly look into the light as it will wreck your eyes. I can just imagine me waking up to look at the sunlight…lol.
I was taught that the scientific way to beat this is to shine a torch behind your knees when you want to simulate day light. This is the way to reset the sleep/wake cycle.
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from Moose:
I’ve never heard that method before – think I need to try it sometime before the sun returns
Didn’t farfar have a really wierd sleep schedule back in the day?
I loved moerketid. Never slept better. Perhaps it’s because I could go through the whole day without really waking up.