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00:00November, high on the cliffs of the fjord, overlooking Hammerfest, the world's northernmost
00:10city. In a few minutes, it will be noon. The Arctic sun barely skims the horizon. Soon,
00:16it will set for the last time this year and won't rise again until late January. The next
00:21two months will be pitch black, day in, day out. The city nestled in the fjords sinks
00:28into darkness. The last rays of light dim over the gas-rich island of Melkøya, an Arctic
00:34Circle treasure house. It's a straight shot from here to the North Pole. The area's gas
00:38fields are a viable alternative to Russia's. All of Europe envies Finnmark, Norway's northernmost
00:44county, and one of the world's richest regions in the world's richest country.
00:49Not quite 2 p.m., night eternal has fallen. We head across the bay to Andy Sambi's house.
00:55Sambi is a lawyer and a member of one of the Great North's minority groups, the Sami.
01:02My people are the Sami people, and our presence here is a very long presence,
01:13and we live in the northern part of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. We have a common
01:21language, and we have been living as Arctic people, as an Arctic people, hunting
01:31sea mammals, doing reindeer herding, Arctic farming,
01:40and also gathering. And our subsistence has been based on that.
01:48So here we have been living for long, long times in this strange world that sometimes have
01:59the day that never ends, or the night that never ends.
02:08It's very important for our cosmology, light, because light carries so much
02:17information here. It's so dramatic. For example, now when we have the blue time,
02:27some call it the dark time. It's a very dramatic human experience. So for us, this time is a very
02:35sacred time. It's a time of meditation. We used to say that this time when the sun is under the
02:44horizon, it is the time of thoughts. You have to think on existential things, on practical things,
02:57on what you are going to do with your life, what you have done with your life so far.
03:03My hero in that respect is a bird that is called the growth bird. During wintertime,
03:10it's white as the snow, and that is a very amazing thing to be
03:18in the same rhythm as the nature. And I can even yoik this bird, the growth bird.
03:40No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
03:53An odd character welcoming these dark hours.
03:57It would be tempting now to return to southern Europe, and wait things out in a land where
04:02where winter nights last no more than 12 hours,
04:05wait it out, and return in early January.
04:19A tad south of Hammerfest, in the city of Tromsø,
04:22Finnmark's administrative center, population 100,000.
04:26They're in their 45th day of the dark season.
04:29One wonders how any civilization could spring up
04:31where there is so little light.
04:34Early in the morning, on the edge of the city,
04:36anywhere else you would see signs of dawn breaking.
04:39Here, nothing will change.
04:41It will still be night, night leading into night.
04:45It's disconcerting.
04:48Many claim that it can cause mentally unstable people
04:51to lose their points of reference
04:53and slip into psychosis.
04:56How do you anchor yourself to reality in perpetual darkness?
04:59Do you check the clock frequently to stay moored,
05:02or do you simply let go and go with the flow?
05:10Yeah, we are living beyond the Arctic Circle, that's for sure.
05:14And there is a certain variety of climate
05:19attached to living here.
05:21And we may call it a little bit extreme at times.
05:27Some people may also actually call it exotic.
05:30When I ask people what is exotic about northern Norway,
05:34it's particularly the light.
05:36But we try to socialize, we try to focus on other things,
05:39and we get through the dark season as well.
05:47Tromsø is somewhat unique in the northern part of Norway
05:52because it is somewhat also a international city.
05:56And it has long traditions for being open towards the world,
06:02not only open towards the Arctic as a gateway to the Arctic,
06:05but actually in the 1840s, it was called La Paris du Nord,
06:11the Paris of the North,
06:12because here people picked up fashions from abroad
06:17and just were walking in the streets
06:19as if they were in Paris, so to say.
06:22It's a vibrant city up in the north.
06:27I think we shall not pathologize living in the northern part of Norway,
06:33even though there might be some sleep disturbances,
06:36even though loss of energy,
06:38even though, you know, you feel that,
06:41OK, the dark season lasts long enough.
06:47Adaptation is very important.
06:49We have developed coping skills to live here,
06:52otherwise we'll have to live somewhere else.
06:57Dr. Kai Krog is one of the world's leading experts
07:00in psychoses and traumas of all sorts.
07:03As a social psychologist, he rejects the notion
07:06light-deprived Arctic regions favor mental illness.
07:09Most people get along quite well here, he says.
07:12Nevertheless, the city of Tromsø is home to the largest
07:15psychiatric research center and hospital in northern Europe.
07:19This is where we met Lise, a regular.
07:21She doesn't fare well during the dark season.
07:24Her psychiatrist, Dr. Vig Hansen,
07:27also questions the widespread idea of seasonal depression.
07:54Some experts say that,
07:56if you have seasonal depression,
07:58you'll get to link it to medicalisation,
08:02which we're quite concerned about.
08:04We usually cause problems to a disease.
08:09And I'm concerned that we shouldn't make it sick
08:13the way we have it here in northern Norway.
08:15I think it's important that people don't get the impression
08:18that they'll get sick during the dark season.
08:20No.
08:23Those who work in the field,
08:25both practitioners and psychiatrists,
08:28have noticed that there is a lot of depression in the winter.
08:32Actually, most of the depression is in the spring and autumn.
08:36The theory is that...
08:38It's easy to make theories in the fall,
08:41but the theory is that in the autumn,
08:44it goes naturally, right?
08:47It becomes sad, and it increases your own sadness.
08:52But in the spring, it's the other way around.
08:55When spring comes, and everything is in full bloom,
08:59and the birds are singing, and people are loved,
09:02there's a bigger contrast between what's around you
09:06and what you yourself have.
09:08You become more depressed by not being able to follow along.
09:12It's not that those who come here are depressed.
09:15They come with very deep depressions.
09:18It can be people who haven't eaten for weeks,
09:22who feel guilty about things they shouldn't feel guilty about.
09:27It's a psychotic depression, as we say.
09:30Or many come here because they've tried to take their lives,
09:35or think about taking their lives.
09:37They're put here to prevent them from taking their lives.
09:41Thank you for your time.
09:43Yes, it's very serious stuff we're working on here.
09:47I hope I'll never be so sick again.
09:50Me neither.
09:55As a psychiatrist, he doesn't think that the unending night here
09:59is a cause of depression.
10:01In his opinion, the matter is more nuanced than others claim.
10:05But reading between the lines,
10:07this universe of violently bipolar seasons
10:10might not be the ideal antidepressant.
10:18I'm very tired in the morning.
10:21I have to get up at 8 a.m.
10:24Unfortunately, I only get up at 10 a.m.
10:27because I can't get up early in this climate.
10:33So I sleep a lot.
10:35And in the summer, I sleep a little.
10:38It's like the life of an animal.
10:40I don't know what it's called.
10:42There's a period when it sleeps a lot,
10:44and another when it doesn't.
10:46I don't know.
10:49When I arrived here in 1991,
10:52I thought of Norway as America, the United States.
10:56Very high dwellings, a lot of traffic, like in the movies.
11:01When I arrived here, I was very shocked.
11:05You can imagine a man who comes from Morocco,
11:07with a wonderful climate, the sun.
11:10So to come here, I really cried.
11:13I really cried. I felt a lot of depression.
11:20I don't know so much about it, but...
11:28Of course, the police in Tromso have to deal with
11:32people that want to take their lives.
11:36And for many years, we have a situation on the bridge
11:41from Tromso to the other side.
11:44People go to the bridge and jump over.
11:48And we have many people that have lost their lives.
11:52I think it's something to do with the drug abuses.
11:59We also have a bridge from Tromso to another island.
12:03And also from that bridge,
12:05we have experience with that kind of situation.
12:10The environment here won't recharge your batteries
12:12if they are low and you're frail.
12:15It's nearly 11 a.m., and still not a single photon
12:18to be absorbed by the eye.
12:20Not the slightest particle of natural light.
12:23Standing on street corners, our eyes search for clocks.
12:26We check our watches for the 10th time in an hour,
12:28just to be sure we're not in a dream.
12:32Young cyclists race through the streets of Tromso
12:34on the longest night on the planet.
12:37There's a festive ambiance in the streets.
12:39They don't seem to have problems adapting.
12:42In the land of Alice and the Mad Hatter,
12:44you're better off keeping a clear mind,
12:47sleeping during standard hours only,
12:49and not having any psychiatric background.
12:51The place seems to have more folks with suicidal tendencies
12:54than any other place on Earth.
12:59We head to the University of Tromso,
13:01pride and joy of the county of Finnmark.
13:04Its School of Biology has a solid reputation.
13:07One of the school's biochemists is conducting advanced research
13:10on how people adapt to extreme environments.
13:13Despite a rare genetic skin disease,
13:15he is fighting the long night with scientific weapons.
13:18He is both the researcher and the guinea pig.
13:21When I came here the first time,
13:23when we were from Southern Norway,
13:25moved to Tromso in 1972,
13:27my imagination of the dark
13:29was that I could work all the time,
13:32even late at night,
13:34and at night even.
13:36But I realized soon that I didn't function very well,
13:40and I said I could go hibernate instead
13:43because I was very sleepy all the time.
13:47Then, after two years,
13:49I had the opportunity to go back to Los Angeles,
13:52where I had been working for three years before,
13:55and I realized that I had no problems
13:58going back into Southern California,
14:00live there with normal light and normal darkness.
14:05And after four years,
14:07I was coming back to Tromso
14:10and got the same problems.
14:13So five years ago,
14:15I bought this special lamp with 10,000 lux,
14:19and I used it only for a short time in the morning,
14:22at the beginning,
14:24but now I am using it the whole day,
14:28and I usually never leave it.
14:30If I hadn't, I think I would have to move somewhere else.
14:42Many people say that there is no problem to live in Tromso,
14:45but I think for a few people, there is a problem.
14:49It's called the sad syndrome,
14:51seasonal affecting disorder.
14:53In my opinion,
14:55this is caused by too high production of melatonin,
14:59because we don't get normal light in the daytime.
15:02You need melatonin to adjust your body rhythm,
15:07because we see that a lot of people during the darkness,
15:10they get very confused by sleeping behavior.
15:14They sleep during the day and stay awake at night.
15:20Melatonin, he adds, is a sleep hormone
15:22that is secreted by the pineal gland,
15:24located in the center of the brain when night falls.
15:28This hormone regulates our waking and sleeping cycles
15:31in a normal 24-hour period.
15:33In the long Arctic night,
15:35melatonin is produced round the clock
15:37and can disrupt normal sleep patterns.
15:39Some people experience a permanent sense of jet lag.
15:43Social psychologist Kai Krog
15:45points to the delicate balance of sleep patterns
15:48in this sort of environment.
15:51If we look at the sleep,
15:53sleep is an important part of many,
15:57not to say most, of psychological, psychiatric disorders.
16:02So let's say that one starts to lose sleep.
16:07That can be the entrance to some other developments
16:13if one is vulnerable in advance.
16:17I know of one specific case very recently.
16:20An elderly woman got up in the night to go to the bank,
16:23and when she came to the bank, it was closed,
16:26and it turned out it wasn't 2 o'clock during the day.
16:29It was 2 o'clock at night,
16:31and she realized she had mistaken the day and the night.
16:36I really like this place.
16:39You know, it's like being in southern Italy or Portugal,
16:46or I can almost imagine that there is a swimming pool
16:51down here that I could throw in the water.
16:56It's a very nice place.
16:59I can almost imagine that there is a swimming pool
17:03down here that I could throw stones.
17:08I can almost hear the sound of it.
17:15You can hardly imagine that it's the North Pole outside,
17:19when it looks like this, so cozy and nice inside.
17:30It might be late already.
17:39A lot of people already have their dinner.
17:43It's probably time I go and pick up my daughter.
17:50Ah, no.
17:54Strange.
17:59Strange.
18:04You check your watch twice just to be sure
18:07that it's not 7 in the morning
18:09when this deceptive dawn glows over the horizon.
18:12Living in this upside-down world can give you a headache.
18:16It's not a bad thing.
18:18Starting in mid-January, there's a respite.
18:21Fleeting, but significant.
18:23Around noon, there are a few blue hours.
18:26Two hours of pseudo-daylight.
18:28Arctic hues.
18:30But dawn is too soon chased by dusk.
18:33We're back to black again.
18:35Who could refuse a few photons?
18:37You do, however, need to remind yourself
18:40that it's time for the midday meeting.
18:43Adding to the confusion, the weather can switch
18:46from snowfall to quasi-stratospheric clear skies
18:49in mere minutes.
18:51The city lies at the tail end of the Gulf Stream.
18:54This explains the fickle climate
18:56and the relatively warm temperatures.
18:59A nearly temperate microclimate
19:01a few hundred miles from the city
19:03can be quite a challenge.
19:05It's not a bad thing,
19:07but it's not a good thing either.
19:13The North Pole.
19:15Nothing is really normal here.
19:43So in the sun
19:45Morning's just lame
19:47Morning's just lame
19:49Morning's just lame
19:51Morning's just lame
19:53Student in USA, 12345678910
19:55Hang a rope, 12345678910
19:57I myself am a strong person.
20:00Hang a rope, 12345678910
20:07Midnight sun, 12345678910
20:10You do it, Tanja.
20:12Sunbeam!
20:15You don't always know what time it is in the day
20:18because it's dark all the time.
20:21And in the summer it's light.
20:25All day.
20:26And you think when it's midnight
20:28you think, oh, it's 4 o'clock.
20:32You kind of lose track of time.
20:37I think it's something you just accept
20:40that you get tired from time to time.
20:45That's at least how I cope with it.
20:50I just accept, yeah, I'm going to be tired today.
20:53I just have to try and stay awake
20:57and get through the day.
20:59Then I can sleep.
21:01Sleep tonight and hopefully
21:03won't be so tired tomorrow.
21:06Actually once when I had a French glass
21:09I fell asleep so much
21:11that the teacher asked me to leave.
21:14So it was like, yeah, OK.
21:17She said I could sleep outside in the hallway or something
21:21instead of sleeping in the class.
21:24It's so exhausting, even at work, after school.
21:31So when you get home from school or work
21:34then you go to sleep then
21:36and then you wake up at 10 o'clock in the evening
21:39and then you're like, oh, I'm awake.
21:42And then you don't get any sleep at night.
21:46That's kind of exhausting.
21:48You have to use your spare time.
21:51Actually also at the time
21:54I wanted to try to stay awake more
21:58because it's like, how was it?
22:02Eighth of tenth part of your life you're sleep...
22:09You're awake, you're awake.
22:11So the two tenths of your life you're sleeping.
22:15And it's like 20 years if you live in 100 years.
22:19So it's a lot of time gone to waste.
22:24You've done your mathematics.
22:26Yes.
22:28Proverbial Scandinavian conviviality
22:31does indeed chase the winter blues away.
22:33Group participation helps you keep your bearings.
22:36It stimulates the brain and warms the soul.
22:39In any case, it's better to stick to a regular schedule.
22:42This far north, it's a matter of survival.
23:01If I can only not think about anything,
23:04then it feels as if I'm OK.
23:32I'm afraid I would feel a lot worse
23:35if I tried to do something.
24:32Diaphanous light, and yet the city is animated.
24:35Modern, western, up-to-date.
24:38The combat against the never-ending night
24:41is one with joie de vivre, a miracle of adaptation.
25:01Traumso
25:24Nevertheless, Traumso is home
25:26to northern Europe's biggest psychiatric hospital.
25:29The long, dark winter is anything but beneficial to patients here.
25:32They hail from all parts of the Arctic Circle.
25:35Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.
25:38They stay for varying lengths of time.
25:40It remains to be seen if walking this kilometer-long corridor
25:44helps restore mental health.
26:00I became very uncritical
26:04and did things I regretted afterwards.
26:11I moved a lot from place to place
26:17because I didn't find peace anywhere.
26:23And then it just said, bang, one day.
26:26In this sub-Arctic area,
26:29the sun is away two months during the winter.
26:34And some people, they think this is just OK.
26:38It's fine. They appreciate the nature,
26:41beautiful differences in the seasons.
26:44Some people, they think this is too bad.
26:47Maybe 10% have insomniac problems.
26:51And if they also have a sort of depressive vulnerability,
26:56I think some of them also can develop depressive symptoms,
27:00almost suicidal.
27:03And after a while you realized you needed help.
27:08Yes.
27:09And it was for real then that I came in here.
27:14Yes.
27:15The first time.
27:17You have the written master clock in the brain
27:21trying to coordinate different bodily rhythms.
27:24Because human beings are daytime people, yes.
27:28We are not rats.
27:47Yes.
28:17Yes.
28:35Some people are hyposensitive
28:37because maybe their threshold for registering light
28:41and use light as an entrainment,
28:44a time cue mechanism, is not so good as other people.
28:48And maybe that could be genetic,
28:50and we have to find out this in the bigger research now
28:53we will try to do in Tromsø.
28:55And we also have now the ability to maybe compare
28:58some of our data with research groups in southern Europe
29:03so we can see if the population living on different locations
29:07are different.
29:14People say, how can you grow things in a greenhouse
29:18in the north of Norway where you have no sun?
29:21Maybe like growing things on the moon.
29:24Of course we can do it in the north of Norway without the sun
29:28because it's an artificial environment in here.
29:30We can make it just what plants need.
29:34We live here way up north,
29:36we live here way up north,
29:38we live here way up north,
29:40we live here way up north,
29:42we live here way up north,
29:44we need to have the same kind of food
29:48that the rest of the country has in Europe.
29:51We also eat salad,
29:53and we also put herbs in our food,
29:55so we need to make it up here.
29:58Nice work for our family and for some people around us.
30:05As far as we know,
30:07in Norway there are no other greenhouses growing this.
30:15I'm the one that grew up here.
30:18My husband, I imported him from south of Norway.
30:24My father, he was the inventor.
30:28In this garden nursery he was an inventor for us to take over.
30:34So he's teaching us.
30:43It's looking good.
31:04It's looking good.
31:34How many are you to take care of your 17 maids?
31:50All in all, with municipal employees and schools,
31:54there are well over 100.
31:56But those who are added,
31:59those who are removed from prison,
32:01there are 73.
32:08I have worked for many years,
32:11in many different types of prisons.
32:15And what I noticed when I started here in Tromsø prison,
32:19is the good communication and cooperation between employees and employees.
32:28To the extent that it's pleasant to be in a prison,
32:33I think that's what it is in Tromsø.
32:36We have little quarrels,
32:39and both employees and employees promote a good relationship.
32:46Maybe it has something to do with culture.
32:49And maybe because of the dark times,
32:52and the extreme weather conditions,
32:55we stick together in a way,
32:57and we have a lot of humor,
32:59and we look for positive things in everyday life,
33:01instead of focusing on all the sad things.
33:04And maybe that's how it is now.
33:07But we see that it's long winters,
33:10it's dark, and it's special.
33:13And we find survival mechanisms,
33:16precisely because of the climate.
33:44In the worst months, it's like one hour, a little bit grayish.
33:48The rest is pitch black.
33:51It doesn't bother me, because I've been working a lot as a fisherman.
33:57And then you are six hours at work, six hours asleep.
34:05And when I go to jail in the wintertime, it's sort of going fishing.
34:11You have to find the positivities in the time of the year.
34:17Beautiful light we have now, and northern lights,
34:21and you're always looking forward to springtime,
34:25and I think that's a good thing too.
34:31But to live in an environment like this,
34:34there has to be something which keeps us.
34:37And for sure, nature is the reason.
34:42River, clear mountain river, stand to hear in the water.
34:47Midnight sun, you drink from the water,
34:50you see the fish swim by your legs.
34:53But these memories of experience we had in nature,
34:57and of course, beautiful women we have here,
35:00is what keeps us going now.
35:04Otherwise what do you have? You're in a rich country.
35:08Content. That's nothing.
35:12What a life. A4. What is that?
35:15Boring, huh? Very boring.
35:20It's completely set out. The air is so heavy in here.
35:24There's something wrong with the ventilation system.
35:27It's not going up and down, because it's supposed to be lively.
35:34Adventurer.
35:39I think to understand Northern Norway,
35:42one has to understand the dichotomy between autonomy,
35:47my hill, my mountain,
35:49the feeling of that one has nature and you has availability,
35:55it's not crowded when you are on the mountaintop
35:58and you see nobody that might fill you with happiness.
36:02And at the same time we realize that we are all in the same boat.
36:09We become who we are in interaction with the environment we live in
36:15and the communities that we are part of,
36:18informing the rules of socializing,
36:21informing how we view the world and how life should be.
36:26So I think the different communities develop different coping skills.
36:36Tromsø. A city on the edge of the world.
36:39A human community. A culture.
36:42A specific world view. A world in itself.
36:46A civilization on the scale of a small city.
36:50Darkness is its natural border.
36:53A micro-civilization. In any case, a rarity.
37:05Are you going to like it?
37:24Tromsø, Norway
37:40Hello!
37:41Hi!
37:45Hi!
37:53Fantastic!
37:58Are the lights always on?
38:00No, the roses must be in full bloom in the winter as well.
38:04They bloom for six hours.
38:15What do you think if this one passes?
38:22I doubt it, because it can't stand on its own.
38:31That was a really good cut.
38:34And you're happy to put it in the oven.
39:01Tromsø, Norway
39:07Now it's time for us to go back to Hammerfest,
39:10the small city nestled in the fjords.
39:12A city with gas fields.
39:14The city where the Sami live.
39:16Come January 21st, around 12 noon,
39:19the sun will rise over the horizon for the first time in more than 60 days.
39:23Here, in the far north, it's celebrated as a celestial event.
39:27Now we've come to the point where you can see the sun for the first time.
39:32Just here, you know.
39:36In these places.
39:39And now we get the Melker LNG plant in the back.
39:47And then approaching the Hammerfest city.
39:54The northernmost city of the world.
40:03In 1897, there was a steamship on the harbour.
40:09It was December, and it was the dark period of the year.
40:14Then this steamship was testing the electricity lights.
40:19And then the whole harbour was lightened up, you know.
40:24And the population thought, this is marvelous.
40:27We have to get this lighting in our town.
40:30In the summertime, they decided to make an official letter to the mayor of the city.
40:37That says that we won't accept one more winter without light in the street and in the house.
40:44And then they built a water gate and a water turbine.
40:49So they got electricity for the streets and for the house all the winter.
40:56And, in fact, Hammerfest was the first city in north Europe that had electricity streetlights.
41:15Hammerfest, Norway
41:27That's it.
41:29This is the sun.
41:32The symbol of this, this is the northern wind.
41:36It's windy, yeah.
41:38And this is the symbol of the sun.
41:41Today the sun is coming.
42:01There on the mountain now, do you see?
42:04There is the sun.
42:06Where is the sun?
42:08Up on the mountain there.
42:10There it's red.
42:12There is the sun now.
42:14One, two, three.
42:17And Marianna is here.
42:19And the boys are here.
42:21We are happy that you are here.
42:24In our village we have a lot of children.
42:28And the adults are here.
42:30It's good.
42:32It's good.
42:34The sun is here.
42:36Do you see the sun now?
42:38There.
42:39Up on the mountain.
42:40Yes.
42:41Look at the sun over there.
42:43The sun is coming.
42:45The sun.
43:04How does it feel to see the sun after this long, long night?
43:08To see the sun?
43:10Yeah, it's great.
43:12I haven't seen the sun since November.
43:17It's a good sighting to see the sun, of course.
43:26You've been living in Hammerfest for a long time?
43:29Born and raised in Hammerfest.
43:32In the summertime it's the midnight sun.
43:36The sun is in June.
43:40It goes up all the time.
43:42It rises from the east, goes high and sinks back again.
43:48And starts again.
43:51Then you've got the sunlight all the time.
43:54It's the greatest time.
43:56What is there?
43:58North?
44:00The Santa Claus.
44:02To the North Pole.
44:11What time is it?
44:181400 hours.
44:40It's getting dark now.
45:10It's getting dark.