The lyrics to this Bruce Springsteen song have been haunting me every morning. I sit here at 6am wide awake. I can't even call it the crack of dawn because that happened hours ago. Living in a country or state, for that matter, close to the Arctic is not all it is cracked up to be. I thought it appropriate to write about this today on this the summer solstice.
We spend about 4-6 months in relative darkness, tired, sleepy, becoming pale and yearning for spring and DST to arrive. Then, it arrives and for a few joyful weeks we come alive. The heavy coats are shed for the latest spring jackets. We feel a weight lifted off our bodies (those coats add at least 5 pounds). We are happier people, trees are growing, flowers blooming, animals are mating. The days start getting longer, the nights shorter.
When I originally arrived in cold, overcast, gloomy Warsaw, I sooo looked forward to this time of year. I mean, I am a Florida/Sunshine State - except for afternoon thunderstorms - native after all. But this year, a realization - I really don’t enjoy Mr. Sun shining down on me at 3-4am. I don’t enjoy my children waking at 5am because “there is light outside, mommy.” I curse the day I ever taught them “don’t get up until you see light in your window.” Now all I get is “…but you said…”
I have blackout curtains in every room but the two windows on our 4th floor do not and they bring in enough light to shine through the hall and into every room. I used to sleep with my door open in case the kids needed me, but I have pretty much had to close it and let them fend for themselves. These 18 hour days of sunlight is damn right annoying and from my observation, this sunlight phenomena affects more than your general sleep cycle.
Maybe it’s the sun or the effect of less sleep, but I have just noticed that overall, people just get upset more easily over these months. It is no wonder that crime rises over summer months and declines over the winter. It’s not just weather patterns – it’s plain sunlight or lack thereof. Couple that with less than an hour of rain since May and you can see why many people around here seem to be on edge. I now understand why our Embassy doctor warned people not to spend more than 15 minutes under the happy lights over the winter months.
I am only now thankful that we were not posted to Stockholm as it was originally intended. They don't call Sweden the "land of the midnight sun" for nothing. Despite the heat and humidity of a Florida summer, part of me is looking forward to traveling home, as short as it may be, to a place where the sun sets at a normal hour and doesn’t rise until about 6am.
We spend about 4-6 months in relative darkness, tired, sleepy, becoming pale and yearning for spring and DST to arrive. Then, it arrives and for a few joyful weeks we come alive. The heavy coats are shed for the latest spring jackets. We feel a weight lifted off our bodies (those coats add at least 5 pounds). We are happier people, trees are growing, flowers blooming, animals are mating. The days start getting longer, the nights shorter.
When I originally arrived in cold, overcast, gloomy Warsaw, I sooo looked forward to this time of year. I mean, I am a Florida/Sunshine State - except for afternoon thunderstorms - native after all. But this year, a realization - I really don’t enjoy Mr. Sun shining down on me at 3-4am. I don’t enjoy my children waking at 5am because “there is light outside, mommy.” I curse the day I ever taught them “don’t get up until you see light in your window.” Now all I get is “…but you said…”
I have blackout curtains in every room but the two windows on our 4th floor do not and they bring in enough light to shine through the hall and into every room. I used to sleep with my door open in case the kids needed me, but I have pretty much had to close it and let them fend for themselves. These 18 hour days of sunlight is damn right annoying and from my observation, this sunlight phenomena affects more than your general sleep cycle.
Maybe it’s the sun or the effect of less sleep, but I have just noticed that overall, people just get upset more easily over these months. It is no wonder that crime rises over summer months and declines over the winter. It’s not just weather patterns – it’s plain sunlight or lack thereof. Couple that with less than an hour of rain since May and you can see why many people around here seem to be on edge. I now understand why our Embassy doctor warned people not to spend more than 15 minutes under the happy lights over the winter months.
I am only now thankful that we were not posted to Stockholm as it was originally intended. They don't call Sweden the "land of the midnight sun" for nothing. Despite the heat and humidity of a Florida summer, part of me is looking forward to traveling home, as short as it may be, to a place where the sun sets at a normal hour and doesn’t rise until about 6am.
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