One of the side effects of moving from Colorado to Alaska was the necessity of finding a new doctor. I had been fortunate to have the same doc for almost 30 years in the Denver area; he knew me, I knew him, and he had all my history down on paper from my late 20s to my late 50s. But the move north coincided with my doc's retirement, and when I first met my new doc - a nurse practitioner - one of the first things she asked was if I was taking a Vitamin D supplement. I was, having done my homework on life in these latitudes, and told her so. "Good," she said. "If you live in Alaska, you need a Vitamin D supplement."
You can get Vitamin D from your food and, of course, through supplements, but the primary way to get it is from sunlight. In the far north and the far south, not only are people exposing less of their skin to the sun even in summer, but for much of the year, there isn't much sunlight. That's one of the consequences of living at the planet's northern and southern latitudes.
There are others, like the daylight hours.
It's actually good, as long as there's a little fresh snow and not too many storms, it's very comfortable. But we definitely lack energy in the morning because it's psychologically hard to wake up when there's no difference between midnight and ten in the morning.
We also get less vitamin D. Some people even have less energy because of it. And we get whiter and whiter. If you're a red-haired Celt, you'll literally look like a ghost after two months.
But the interesting thing I felt during this period was the influence of the moon. Every time the moon was full, I suddenly became more energetic, could stay up late, and overall became more positive (I could also see things outside - Amazing!). I remember one day, I took tourists to see the northern lights, and then the full moon came out ... I could barely look at it directly. I was ... blinded by the moonlight! It was an interesting experience!
I can't speak for people in Norway, where this author lived, but I suspect it's the same as it is here; people, by this time of year (early March), are pretty pale. That effect was pretty noticeable at, for example, last month's CPAC, where my wife and I looked decidedly pale compared to my colleagues from warmer climes. I will agree with the comment about the moon; I've never seen a full moon so bright, so radiant, as here.
See Related: A Field Guide to Identifying Alaskans, In and Out of the Great Land
That is, incidentally, how our bodies adjust to the Vitamin D/sunlight issue. Melanin, our skin pigment that makes us more or less tan, blocks the UV radiation that helps us generate Vitamin D and can also cause skin cancers.
Turns out there are psychological issues as well. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a sad thing indeed, and while it can affect people anywhere, the long winter darkness at the higher latitudes can aggravate it.
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that's related to changes in seasons — seasonal affective disorder (SAD) begins and ends at about the same times every year. If you're like most people with SAD, your symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody. These symptoms often resolve during the spring and summer months.
At these latitudes, the summers are short, and the winters long and dark. It's not always an easy adaptation for a species - us - who are still, biologically, a species adapted to warm, sunny climates. With SAD, some of the folks hereabouts forestall that by wearing odd little headband lights that shine a very small light into your peripheral field of view, and some claim that helps. I've never felt the need to try them.
Going without sunlight, though, can discombobulate a lot of folks. It's not a life everyone can lead.
See Related: Driving the Alaska Highway - a Study in Perspective
Here, we don't ever get the 24-hour darkness. Even on the winter solstice, there is still a tad under four hours of daylight, as the sun traces its low arc across the southern sky, barely coming a hand's breadth above the horizon. In summer, at the peak, we get 20 hours of daylight, and since the sun rises and sets at a steep angle, it never really gets dark; the sun is just below the horizon, still lighting up the sky. We've gotten used to it and now enjoy it as another feature of living at these latitudes, but not everyone can.
The really interesting thing about this is the testimony to human adaptability. Before the Industrial Revolution - before even the Agricultural Revolution, for the most part - people, adapted to warm, sunny climates, have moved into every habitat the planet has to offer, from pole to pole. It's a testament to human ingenuity, to our adaptability, to our intelligence. We are the only species that can do this.
