I just came back from my vacation in Alaska. Here are one of the posts that I was hoping to put up while in Alaska, but chose not to after realizing that it would cost me $0.75 per minute to use the internet on the cruise ship.
June 28, 2008
Upon embarking in Alaska for my vacation, I realized the mind blowing fact that there is no night time in the summer. After 3 hours of sleep, 12 hours of traveling and 7 hours of touring around Anchorage, Alaska (and that was just my first day here), my body was dead tired, but my brain seemed to be confused. My body knew it should be sleeping, but my brain kept on telling my body that it’s still day time!!
In a region where there is nearly 24 hours of daylight 6 months of the year, and nearly 19 hours of darkness the other 6 months, I wonder what kind of holistic effect this has on life?
– Psychological Effect: Does work productivity decrease during the dark winters?
– Sociological Effect: What about our natural patterns/locations in creating community? In the Winter and Summer, I found out that the city of Anchorage puts on lots of carnivals and festivals to provide opportunities to build community and get people out of their homes. They will also create skating rinks and trails.
– Physical Effect: Our personal body clock – is it natural to experience these kinds of extremes? What about our natural body rhythms?
– Spiritual Effect: Depression and suicide? Are there higher rates in these regions?
If there is anyone who has any insight on this, either first hand or second hand, let’s talk about it.