
What Life Looks Like When Night Lasts for Days - walkingolof
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/reader-center/arctic-winter-night.html
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randcraw
Growing up in central Michigan, followed by career years mostly in the mid
Atlantic, I see both sides to immersion in white winter and its short days.

In the north, Winter is an opportunity to shift gears, don different threads,
and turn your attention to cold, footing, visibility, and gloom.

But there's also skating on prepared rinks and for miles along snow covered
frozen rivers, hiking and cross country skiing through thick stands of snow
covered pines in dead silence at 15F, and cold play in a wealth of activities
that exist only where cold and ice can pile up and last for months. And then
you return home, slip into toasty togs, and warm yourself from within with a
host of drinks that can't fully be enjoyed any other way.

Winter does have a certain magic to it.

~~~
tinbad
It does. But after growing up in freezing winter Russia, then cold rain
Holland and now living in California, even though I do miss some of those
wintery things, I’m sure glad to be back to no season coastal California every
time I spend even a few days in a cold/dark northern hemisphere place.

~~~
eliben
Hey, we definitely have seasons here - like now it's "raining once a week and
sorta cold in the morning" season. Summer is very different ;-)

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jessriedel
The weak expert consensus is now that the largest contributor to near-
sightedness is reduced exposure to sunlight as a young child which causes the
eyes to grow slightly differently. Do places above the Arctic circle have
higher rates of near-sightedness?

EDIT: apparently there is a correlation, but it seems to me it's not as strong
as the sunlight theory would have suggested.

[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1395-3907.2003....](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1395-3907.2003.0151.x/full)

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taneq
I can't understand how sunlight exposure could be more of a problem than
excessive close-range work (reading books, etc.) during formative years.

~~~
NiklasMort
That is a misconception and has been debunked (same goes for reading in dim
light), I been a kid like that and I basically spend all day since the last
15y in front of a computer and I have near perfect eye sight. The "screen
time" is not at fault per se if you get enough outside time. The reason is not
just any "sunlight exposure" but it is about UV radiation that is important
for the development of the eye.

~~~
leereeves
The linked study doesn't agree that "that is a misconception and has been
debunked". It says it's true:

> As indicated by other reports, myopia was found to be associated with ...
> education and nearwork.

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jessriedel
The above linked study is from 14 years ago. (I linked it because it addressed
arctic communities.) It's the more recent work has mostly ruled out the near-
work explanation.

> ...for many years there was an assumption that long hours of study indoors,
> staring closely at books (near work) and never focusing on distant objects,
> led to myopia. This study belied that error.

[http://sunlightinstitute.org/research-shows-sun-exposure-
red...](http://sunlightinstitute.org/research-shows-sun-exposure-reduces-
myopia/)

> ...increased load of near work was not significantly associated with odds of
> myopia when factors including parental myopia, demographics, and outdoor
> activities were adjusted for.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3930282/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3930282/)

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rypskar
At least in my opinion the best part about living north of the Arctic circle
is the months where it don't get dark

~~~
luisramalho
That's interesting. Moving from Southern Europe to Northern Europe that was
one of the worst things for me. I simply could not get any sleep. One would
think that they would have nice blackout curtains but in fact the curtains let
all the light in, making sleeping impossible.

~~~
CalRobert
These do the trick pretty well. Considering the cost could you not install
them?

[http://www.ikea.com/ie/en/products/textiles-rugs/curtains-
bl...](http://www.ikea.com/ie/en/products/textiles-rugs/curtains-
blinds/tupplur-block-out-roller-blind-white-art-60349115/)

~~~
e12e
I don't mind the change in light (dark or light) - but a friend recommended
sticking alum foil over windows with normal house/floor cleaning soap for glue
(doesn't hurt the glass, makes for easy removal). Worked for me when I worked
night shift and went to bed around 10 am.

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weeksie
I grew up in Alaska, though not far enough north that night never ended.
Still, when you go to a mostly windowless school (yay 70s brutalist
architecture), you arrive in the dark and leave in the dark. I'd get a peek at
the sun sometimes but effectively I'd only see the sun on weekends.

Both the winters and summers were surreal, the days bled into one another. I
don't miss it at all, though I wouldn't mind going back home for a week in the
middle of winter just for the memory jog.

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magicbuzz
I haven't spent any time in the Arctic Circle but it's been an itch I want to
scratch. The last 10 years I've been based at about 19° S but I went and spent
half a year in 46° S. Arriving in summer, my brain kept thinking it was 4PM
all the way to 9PM :-) Short winter days would race by. I found myself
thinking 'day over already?!' a lot. The advantage was you were always
discussing the dawn beauty with neighbours as everyone saw it.

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Razengan
Speaking of endless night, an idea that has always intrigued me is the
prospect of some rogue planets [0] out there, that don't get any light from a
star but may still support life through their own geothermal activity and
other chemical processes.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet)

