Rhythms

  Its that time of the year again, when daylight stretches out to take over the darkness.  Although the length of the day is just over 12.5 hours, its the time between sunset and darkness  that is the hard part

The sun rises and its fairly light by 9AM but its really not dark till almost 10 PM.  As we get closer to May, that will occur later and later until there may not be total darkness.  That is one difference  when living in Alaska and it takes quite a while between actual sunset and total darkness.  In other places this in between time is much shorter. 

One time I was up on Moana Loa and it took only 15 min. between sunset and total dark but Hawaii is much closer to the equator than Alaska.  Up here its can be more like 1 to 2 hours.  So at this time of year, it is often difficult to get to sleep before midnight or one in the morning.  On the other hand, as it gets lighter, its hard to sleep the whole night.  My body often moves to doing more napping when I'm tired, rather than trying to sleep all night long.

On the other hand, when it doesn't get light till almost noon and its dark by 6 PM, its so easy to want to sleep from 8 PM to around 9 AM the next morning.  When I first moved to Alaska, I slept so many hours, you might have thought I was depressed but the reality is that it takes a while to adjust to the difference up here.  Now, I'm almost normal in the winter but I still prefer summer.

Image being out to have a coke with friends at 3 AM and its light enough outside to see everything.  Its cooler at that hour because sunset is around 1 AM and sunrise is 3:30 AM and prime time for mosquitoes to fly around.

I love summer.  I enjoy napping my way around the clock according to when I"m tired.  I love curling up in the sunlight like a kitten on a window. Although I do have black covering on my window, its still hard to sleep normally.   The best thing about summer in the part of the state I live in.  Don't be shocked to hear that it can get up in the 90's in Fairbanks while Barrow gets up to 60 on a really warm day!

Anyway, my body is confused about when it should be asleep and when it should be awake.  Its confused because the sun is shining while its still cold and icy outside.  Honestly, I'm not sure I'm ever clear on the time or season which is normal.