• Finns are a bit spoiled to have up to 24 hours of sunshine during the summer months.
• Up north the Sun doesn’t go down for up to 74 days! It is called summer’s nightless night.
• The length of the day will be as short as 5:51 hours in Helsinki and 2:20 hours in Rovaniemi.
• 40% of the Finns suffer from Winter blues
• ICD-10 categorized SAD as depression, 4-10% of people in Finland are suffering from it
• Some people have a clock in their genes that is slow – the day seems to be more than 24 hours.
• There are ways to fight the looming tiredness
• Light therapy: 5000 – 10 000 lux of light exposure right after you wake up in the morning for 30 to 60 minutes, between 5 am and 10 am
• Getting active!
• There is one legally granted 10-minute coffee break per working day in Finland

October – the daylight length is noticeably shorter here in Finland. People are starting to grumble. They complain about the long winter ahead and it’s not only the coldness but the darkness too.

Some people say the thought of a long winter and suffering, darkness, slippery roads etc. gets more difficult to bear as they get older.

Well, you can’t generalize; some people are like autumn. They concentrate on decorating with Calluna & heather plants, lighting a lot of candles and knit woolen socks, how cozy!

Finns are a bit spoiled to have up to 24 hours of sunshine during the summer months. The Sun doesn’t go down at all up in Lapland, northern Finland.

The length of the day on June 23rd is 18:56 hours here in Helsinki, after that date it will start to shorten. Up north the Sun doesn’t go down for up to 74 days! It is called summer’s nightless night.

Today, 17^th of October, the length of the day is 9:59 hours in Helsinki, so nine hours less than at summertime. Rovaniemi up in Lapland is still ahead of us with 9:21 hours of daylight.

It will soon change: the length of the day will be as short as 5:51 hours in Helsinki and 2:20 hours in Rovaniemi.

UtsjokiandNuorgam – the northernmost parts of Finland – the polar night starts at the end of November and lasts as much as 52 days.

Today, the length of daylight is the same as in Spain, but we have been used to the long daylight during summer, that’s why it feels like polar night already.

It has something to do with overall attitude and character too. There are some people claiming they are sitting outside without their long underpants only at Midsummer time, after the midsummer they put the long warmers back on.

It is quite normal to whine about the absence of snow; “ It would be so much lighter if…”

Anyway, your mental attitude too is affecting how you cope with the cold & dark winters.

Winter Blues

There’s a milder blues than SAD – winter blues, subsyndromal winter-SAD(Kasper 1989a, b, American Psychiatric Association 1994). 40% of the Finns probably suffer from this. Most symptoms appear and stay between November and February.

There is a medical diagnosis for the seasonal affective disorder (SAD), ICD-10 categorizes it as depression F32.0. 4-10% of people in Finland are suffering from it.

The symptoms are:

• Feeling listless, sad or down most of the day, nearly every day
• Losing interest in activities you once enjoyed
• Social difficulties, desire to isolate
• Having problems with sleeping too much
• Having difficulty concentrating
• Feeling hopeless, worthless or guilty
• Having thoughts of not wanting to live
• Appetite changes, especially a craving for foods high in carbohydrates
• Weight gain
• Tiredness or low energy

80% of the people feeling these symptoms are suffering from hypersomnia = sleeping does not result in feeling refreshed, feeling tired during the day and thus going to bed earlier.

Sami people up in the north of Finland (and Norway, Sweden) have less SAD than people living near the Arctic circle, more south. This could be because their genes have developed so (Lam ja Levitan 2000, Sher 2002, 2004), Saarijärvi etc. (1999). (Duodecim -lehti).

Some expert advice is useless:

“If you have a tendency towards SAD, outdoor exercise will have a double benefit, because you’ll gain some daylight.”

The fact for the working people is, if you’re working inside, there is no time to see daylight except the weekend or the days off! It’s dark when you go to work and it’s dark after work.

You can fight SAD and milder winter blues symptoms, here are some advice the experts are giving:

• Physical exercise
• Cognitive behavioral therapy
• Antidepressants
• Light therapy
• Sleep- deprivation therapy

Light therapy: 5000 – 10,000 lux of light exposure right after you wake up in the morning for 30 to 60 minutes, between 5am and 10 am. There has been research if this could be done using ear plugs which shine light inside of your ears.

There are also wake up -lamps available, they turn on half an hour before the alarm clock goes on, the light gets brighter and brighter.

Finns are very keen on travelling “to the south” for sunshine and light, the most common holiday destinations are Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, Turkey, Thailand. The sunshine helps a lot, but it fades away in a couple of weeks.

Exercise is always good for you, antidepressants seem not to be very useful if you’re only depressed at wintertime. It could be something else so you should consult a doctor if your life becomes impossible.

There is some research done about melatonin/serotonin and biological clocks inside us. Some people have a clock in their genes that is slow – the day seems to be more than 24 hours. That creates a problem of getting your sleep later and later over time.

There are other ways to try to cancel the looming SAD:

Get social! Going out to the museums, theatres, hiking in a forest with a friend (a good idea but if you are working, it’s not possible during the week), visit friends and relatives, or go to have coffee with your aunt.

Take on new hobbies, there are courses beginning every autumn, you make a clock, study languages, do Pilates, get a permit to boat Finnish archipelago, weave a national costume etc. Or join Dr. Shiva &Truth Freedom Health -movement and start being active!

Coffee – Plant alkaloids helping Finns to stay awake?

The Top Coffee-Consuming Countries

1 – Finland: 26.45 Lbs. Per Capita

“If you’ve ever met a Finn, you know that the national average of 26.45 lbs (12 kg) per capita is probably on the low end for most in Finland. If you were to take children out of the calculation, the national average would rise even higher!” (Read more: The Top Coffee-Consuming Countries – WorldAtlas ) “

After lunch breaks, coffee must be had. It’s also customary to enjoy at least two coffee breaks per work shift when on the job in Finland. One coffee break per working day – 10 minutes – is legally granted. You will usually also be entitled to a coffee break if your shift lasts less than 6 hours. A coffee break usually lasts 10–15 minutes. Coffee breaks are part of your working hours, which means that you will be paid for the time. You are not permitted to leave the workplace though.

Virtually every workplace and household has a coffee machine.

The coffee consumption doesn’t end at work – some people are brewing/boiling coffee even before they go to bed! They say it doesn’t affect their sleep at all. Having coffee gives people a reason to be together and talk to their workmates around the table. And it just tastes so good.