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How to deal with midnight sun

Midnight sun is a natural phenomenon which occurs when the sun merely rotates around the sky, rather than rising and setting. This is experienced in the Northern Hemisphere and everywhere on the Arctic Circle will experience it, particularly around June 21st – the summer solstice. Hammerfest – Norway, Fairbanks – Alaska, Reykjavik – Iceland, Murmansk – Russia, Inuvik – Canada, are some of the only places in the world that you can see the midnight sun, and really is a fantastic phenomenon for any tourist. If the midnight sun is located in a EU country, then ensuring you have an e111 card is vital, so you can get any essential healthcare in that country if it is needed. If you’ve seen the midnight sun before, and you’re still in a country that shows the midnight sun, then you might need to find ways in order to deal with the midnight sun.

Have A Period Of Darkness Before Sleep

Although it might not be dark outside, using blackout curtains in order to block the light and having a scheduled period of darkness before sleep can helpful. Using an eye-mask can also help in this sort of situation, and that way you will be able to regulate your natural sleep cycle as you would if you were away from the midnight sun. Blocking out any form of light is the perfect way to deal with the midnight sun, and get the amount of sleep that you need to keep your body active and happy.

Exercise In The Morning

If you’re into your exercise, you should always think about exercising in the morning rather than late at night, so you can make your body tired as well as healthy. Exercising at night will end up waking you up more before your body starts to feel tired and doing so can keep you awake for a lot longer. Exercising at night can increase our adrenaline levels, boost your heart rate and body temperature which can make it difficult to fall asleep.

Exercising can help you to relax your body and moderate-intensity aerobic exercise has been proven to reduce the time it took to fall asleep and length of that sleep – even in people who suffer with insomnia. Even if you don’t exercise very often, you can use exercise as a way to help you to deal with the morning sun.

Melatonin

If you’re really struggling to sleep, then it might be worth taking melatonin in order to help you get a more regular sleep. Melatonin is essentially natures’ sleeping pill, and can be used to adjust the body’s internal clock and the inability to fall asleep – making it the perfect solution if you’re struggling to deal with the midnight sun and all other techniques have failed. The human body responds to the absence of light by secreting melatonin and by lowering the body temperature, which helps people to sleep.

Human beings sleep best a night when it is dark and melatonin levels are at their highest and their core body temperature is lowest, so the midnight sun can cause havoc to a sleep cycle, as it is never dark. Taking melatonin, if all other methods to sleep fail, can really help you to deal with the midnight sun.

1 Comment

  • thelonejeeper
    Posted April 11, 2018 at 5:29 am

    I spend most of my time working in Yukon, particularly at the North of 60° Parallel and I must say it’s awful to experience sometimes. Impossible to sleep in my Jeep unless I cover it all with a huge tarp. If you want to follow me in my Yukon adventures: https://www.thelonejeeper.ca

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