Daylight Hours (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Barrow: work, home, banks)

[Magnum Mike]

I don't live in Alaska, and I'm sure others have asked you about this before, but I'm wondering how you folks, especially in the northern extremes of the state, handle the long daylight hours in the summer, and the very short daylight hours in the winter? I'm a native of Arizona and I've lived here most of my life (except the 1 year I lived in Oregon) and it would be a little tough for a native of lower latitudes to get used to the drastic differences in daylight hours.

I also have never been in Alaska before, but I wouldn't mind visiting sometime in the near future.

[warptman]

Duct tape and tin foil on the windows in the summer works the best if you need sleep. The winter dark never bothered me before, don't know about anyone else.

[Tressa]

The daylight hours you get use to fairly quickly, you will find that in the summer months you can live quite well with 4 hours sleep but when it comes to the winter months you will need at least 8 hours to function properly.

[Magnum Mike]

So how long are daylight hours in the Winter and Summer in cities like Anchorage and Fairbanks for example?

[Tressa]

in the winter you can have 5-6 hours of daylight but in the summer you will see 19 - 21 hours I mean looks like 6 pm at 11pm.

[ltdontcare]

Just as a visiter in the summer, you just keep going, looking, etc. We drove an rv around for a couple of weeks seeing the sights.

What got me most was how much your body is affected by your surroundings. Almost every evening, we started getting hungry because it looked like dinner time and sure enough, it was 10:00 pm again and the restaurants were closed. We ate a lot of pb&j's.

[Alaskan_Adventurer]

Yes, getting used to the summer daylight is a lot easier than getting used to the darkness in my opinion. There are times when I head to work in the darkness and get home from work in the darkness. You definitely get more sleep in the winters. It is very hard to force yourself to go to sleep when it is broad daylight outside. Even at 2am, you can still see well enough. I have fished all night on more than one occasion. YAY!

[Magnum Mike]

Originally Posted by Alaskan_Adventurer

Yes, getting used to the summer daylight is a lot easier than getting used to the darkness in my opinion. There are times when I head to work in the darkness and get home from work in the darkness. You definitely get more sleep in the winters. It is very hard to force yourself to go to sleep when it is broad daylight outside. Even at 2am, you can still see well enough. I have fished all night on more than one occasion. YAY!

LOL... you might as well take advantage of the long daylight hours.

I remember one time when I was a kid, my parents took us to London, England. Latitude wise, it's not as far north as Alaska. Anchorage is at 60 degrees north, and London is at 51 degrees north, but I remember it was mid June of 1971, at 10:00 PM and it was still daylight outside! I was only 14 back then, and as a kid from Arizona, who is used to seeing the sun set around 8:00 or so, I got a little curious.

I'm sure in some areas of Alaska, that are close to the arctic circle and the north pole, I heard in the summer the sun is out pretty much all day, and hovers just above the horizon at "night", and in the winter you'll only get a couple of hours of daylight with the sun hovering just above the horizon, and darkness for the rest of the day. That might be a little tough to get used to, even for some Alaskans.

[wan2Batraveler10]

I must be nuts! Because I think I'm in love with Alaska. One day I will find out if it is true. But for now I will enjoy the fantasy from my safe haven here in the lower 48 state of Tennessee.

[mal_flisk]

Extremes include a solid 84 day night in winter in Barrow in which the sun never rises above the horizon and a 92 day "day" in summer. The strange things done under the midnight sun are not the men who moil for gold, it is midnight softball games, restaurants staying open later in the summer. It's fishing for 24 hours and nodding off at 6 AM, because you never noticed. It's kids claiming that they shouldn't go to bed 'cause the sun's still up. It's having 5 hours of twilight during the dead of "night" and having kids play outside until they HAVE to go to bed.