![]() ![]() I first learned of Tromsø two years ago, as a recent college graduate looking for more research experience before applying to graduate school for social psychology. While there is some debate among psychologists about the best way to identify and diagnose wintertime depression, one thing seems clear: Residents of northern Norway seem able to avoid much of the wintertime suffering experienced elsewhere-including, paradoxically, in warmer, brighter, more southern locations. In fact, the prevalence of self-reported depression during the winter in Tromsø, with its latitude of 69°N, is the same as that of Montgomery County, Maryland, at 41°N. “That winter would make me so depressed,” many added, or “I just get so tired when it’s dark out.”īut the Polar Night was what drew me to Tromsø in the first place.ĭespite the city’s extreme darkness, past research has shown that residents of Tromsø have lower rates of wintertime depression than would be expected given the long winters and high latitude. “I could never live there,” was the most common response I heard. So, perhaps understandably, many people had a hard time relating when I told them I was moving there. After the midnight sun, the days get shorter and shorter again until the Polar Night, and the yearly cycle repeats. ![]() Then the days get progressively longer until the Midnight Sun period, from May to July, when it never sets. During the Polar Night, which lasts from November to January, the sun doesn’t rise at all. Located more than 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Tromsø, Norway, is home to extreme light variation between seasons.
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