Alaskan winters mean daily darkness for most or all of the day. The extreme lighting condition of Alaska, especially as you go north, affects our lives in many different and important ways:
While we generally associate darkness with sleep, endless darkness is actually bad for sleep. This is due to the fact that melatonin, the hormone that regulates sleep, is light sensitive, and either increased production in changes from light to dark, or decreases production in changes from dark to light.
Lacking any kind of change in light, the extreme darkness can cause poor melatonin regulation and result in sleeping disorders (or the exacerbation of existing ones) in many people. Winter sleeping disorders that are most common in Alaska include:
Insomnia is the persistent feeling that you cannot:
In the case of Alaskans, insomnia tends to be:
The major concern with insomnia is severe sleep deprivation.
Restless leg syndrome (RLS) is a nervous system disorder that causes uncomfortable feelings in your legs (and other extremities) during the night. RLS usually causes enough discomfort to interfere with sleep (causing sleep deprivation) and so it is considered a sleep disorder as well.
Some of the symptoms include feeling the following on your legs at night:
Like insomnia, the primary problem associated with restless leg syndrome is sleep deprivation because RLS causes you to wake up and move your leg to ease the discomfort.
Your circadian rhythm is the same thing as your “biological sleep clock.” This biological sleep clock is a part of your brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus, and sits right behind the nerves of your eyes.
Circadian rhythm disorders include insomnia, but also encompass any type of sleeping problem you may have, such as:
A good example of this is Jet Lag, which is a temporary circadian rhythm disorder that makes it difficult to sleep at “regular” times, but once asleep you don’t have trouble getting enough sleep.
As we have mentioned in other articles, here is a list of good things to do to prevent or mitigate sleeping problems:
Some sleep disorders require more than self-management to overcome. If you have tried everything, take this free online sleep test to get started in the road to better sleep in Alaskan winters.