It’s no secret that we are living under unique circumstances in Alaska: lots of light over the past few months, and lots of darkness to look forward to for the next six months. Though it might seem counter intuitive, winter in Alaska actually makes sleep more difficult for many people, especially as you move further north.
Simply put, the excess darkness can be extremely disruptive to three things that are essential for the onset of sleep:
Thus, there are many ways for your circadian rhythm to be negatively affected as winter approaches. It is crucial to understand this before preparing for and preventing insomnia as we head into winter because you need to know what and how to prevent it. Let’s look at circadian rhythm more closely.
Disrupted circadian rhythm quickly can quickly turn into erratic sleep and can either:
The reason insomnia is a primary symptom of dark Alaskan winters is because absence of daylight can interfere with the normal rhythm of your body’s production of melatonin. Melatonin is the hormone that helps regulate your circadian rhythm.
Changes in light and darkness help cue production of melatonin:
Melatonin is light sensitive – it responds to changes in light. In Alaska where winter darkness is either especially long or a permanent fixture in the sky, you lack the environmental clues to naturally start and stop melatonin production. This can lead to not producing enough melatonin before bed or producing melatonin too early, hence your circadian rhythm is inhibited.
Primary insomnia symptoms are fairly easy to recognize, and all involve not being able to get enough sleep:
But contrary to popular conception, symptoms of insomnia are not simply being unable to sleep, as listed above. In fact, secondary insomnia symptoms include [SleepEducation] many other symptoms that bleed into daily life, such as:
As we transition to the long Alaska winter darkness, you may find these symptoms slowly cropping up in your life. Or, if you already struggle with insomnia, you may find them exacerbated.
Considering the importance of light for combating erratic sleep cycles, one of the best things to prepare for and prevent insomnia during Alaskan dark winters is to start using light therapy.
Light therapy simply involves exposing yourself to bright fluorescent light bulbs encased in a box with a diffusing screen. This light is designed to simulate the intensity of light (10,000 lux) in a way that is safe for the eyes.
You can use this light box in virtually any capacity, such as:
The idea is to replace the darkness outside with artificial sunlight that you can turn on and off at about the times you see sunlight in a less extreme environment. In other words: timing is everything.
Make sure to pay attention to the intensity of your light box. Less intense light boxes (i.e., 2,500 lux) will require more exposure.
If light therapy, among other sleep techniques, fails to help relieve your insomnia in winter, there may be other underlying issues at play.
In such cases, further intervention is probably a good idea: