Darkness and Light: the challenges of living in the far north

Look on a world map and it is easy to see that all of Finland is north of the continental United States. Indeed, all of Finland is also above the major population centers of Sweden and Norway. This means that the entire population of Finland must content with constantly changing light conditions that are felt by only a few million people elsewhere (some Alaskans, Siberians, Icelanders, and a few Scandinavians). Experiencing these extreme light and dark conditions are hard on many Finns even though they have lived with them their whole lives. So it can be a wild ride for foreigners.

Among the effects of ever changing light conditions on humans are depression, insomnia, tiredness, and headaches. For those affected by the changing light conditions, there are three possibilities for when they may be affected. First, when the days get shorter in the fall. Second, when the days get longer in the spring. Third, if you are really unfortunate, in both the fall and spring. I have been fortunate enough to fair very well in regards to this phenomenon, but I am most affected by increases in light in the spring. During the fall as the days grew short and there were only a few hours of light in Southern Finland, I experienced nothing other than a simple desire to see more of the sun.

However, as the days are getting longer now I have begun to notice a few weird things. I have always loved sunny spring days and so it has been startling to realized that being in the sun now makes me feel tired. I would have assumed the opposite effect and yet experiencing tiredness as the days grow lighter is a side effect of living this far north. The second issue is the fact that the sun rises earlier and earlier each day. This is a problem for me because I have always woken up with the sunrise, unless I have dark curtains or set an alarm. For the past few weeks I have been waking up earlier and earlier. Soon I will have to buy very dark shades or I will not be sleeping at all. For a period of time during the summer the sun will never really set, even in most of Southern Finland. It will just disappear on the horizon while still lighting up the sky. Then it will rise again completely in a few hours. I will soon find out, but I have to wonder if I will become an insomniac for a month or two (if strange posts begin to appear in the middle of summer you can blame the sun).

When combined with cold winters, the changing light conditions have made for a harsh living environment. The quality of life here in Finland is high, but I have to wonder what it would be like if the weather was not constantly messing with human chemistry and psyche. Whatever the case, I think that the harsh weather conditions have contributed greatly to characteristics of being Finnish that I like the most, including: stoic, hardworking, and entrepreneurial. The more negative sides of the Finnish character may also be affected by the environment such as depression, self-loathing, and lack of confidence. Just as the light here fights to dominate the darkness, so the strengths of Finnish character battle with its weaknesses. The historic difficulties that Finland has overcome to make itself the world’s most stable country (see the Fragile States Index ranking) and one of its richest is testament to the fact that the positive characteristics of being Finnish are winning. And here I thought this was just a post about changing light conditions…