Word: rketiden
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...only 650 miles and 100 minutes apart. The psychological distance, however, is much greater, for Tromsø lies 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, and its 40,000 inhabitants live two months of each year without seeing the sun. In this polar blackness or mørketiden* (murky time), the mentally unstable may slip over the edge into a temporary state of profound mental disturbance. Even those who are emotionally healthy the rest of the year may become unaccountably tense, restless, fearful and preoccupied with thoughts of death and suicide...
...beauty of mørketiden soon pales. Especially in the more isolated parts of the north, says Tromsø Sound County Sheriff Knut Kruse, "people seem to be different during winter. They become edgy, complaining, sour. They long for the light, talk about the darkness, condemn it. They display much more of a 'couldn't care less' attitude." In Tromsø, reports Psychiatrist Harald Reppesgaard of Asgard Mental Hospital, "the whole city slows down. People's concentration and work capacity are reduced, and they are always tired." Adds R. Kaare Rodahl, an Oslo physiologist...
Lack of sleep seems to cause much of the trouble. Explains Sheriff Kruse: "I get confused by the dark. I wake up and wonder whether it is time to go to work or whether I can go on sleeping. During mørketiden, I am dependent on my watch; the clock of nature is not working right." One youth became so deranged after four days of sleeplessness that he had to be admitted to Asgard Mental Hospital. There he could barely speak, shivered with apprehension, recognized no one and believed he had been poisoned-yet woke up recovered after...
Neon Daylight. The psychological impact of the murky time depends on individual temperament. Explains Kaare Torp, the pediatrics chief of Tromsø's Central Hospital: "If a person doesn't use mørketiden as an excuse for job failure, marital problems or just feeling low, if he takes it as a challenge, if he doesn't sit back and give in to the darkness, he will pull through." The most prevalent way of rising to the challenge is to turn on all the lights; electricity is cheap in Norway. Neon daylight tubes are often installed over...
...that have dance bands, are filled every night with fashionably dressed diners, and people sometimes drive a hundred miles and back in a single evening to visit friends or go to a concert. A favorite pastime is planning vacations in sunny climates-or even taking them during mørketiden, a practice that firms are beginning to encourage to help their employees get through the hardest time of the year...
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