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> If you desire to experience such polar wackiness in a less isolated location, one place I can definitely recommend is the mainland Norwegian city of Tromsø.

Tromsø is great! I went there on vacation when I aspired to go to Svalbard and then discovered that that's rather difficult and expensive. So I went to Tromsø instead.

Tromsø is definitely thoroughly Arctic and life as a tourist there is still reasonably convenient and enjoyable. You can also take a ferry along the coast in either direction (either a short-distance commuter-oriented boat or a long-distance tourist-oriented cruise ferry). There's quite a bit to do in the vicinity!

> It is cold in Svalbard. The average temperature in summer is 5 degrees Celsius. During winter, the temperature can drop below minus 30 degrees Celsius. The polar night lasts from October to February.

Ah, so it is in there, I missed it. (I'm not cut out for life in Svalbard, for this and many other reasons) I love how condensed that statement is.

As someone who has pulled the night shift for a couple years, I could handle it no probs; black out curtains, a white noise box fan, a regular sleep schedule, and soft music are all you need. Just to get to live in a Scandanavian country, i could deal with it. Unfortunately, I'm not rich enough to buy my way in :) .

People always talk about the winters, but the thing that really messes with you is the summers, if you're light-sensitive then that's a really long period of not getting any proper sleep.

This is why virtually all Nordic households have blackout curtains.

I lived in Norrbotten for 10 years. Blackout curtains help, but it's not the same thing.

In Spain every house comes with 'Persian blinds' (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persiana) installed. They completely block the passage of light and are a perfectly adequate solution to this problem. It's a mystery to me why no other country in Europe seems to know or care. So much so that there's no English version of the above Wikipedia page.

Same in Portugal

I get how these blinds (or the shutters stavros talks about in a sibling comment) would initially be more popular in Southern countries, but one would think that places with 6 months of always-on daylight would catch up eventually.

In Germany every house, except maybe very old ones under historical preservation, has these too. Most often these are centimeter thick plasticky ones on the outside. They are thick and strong enough not only to block out all light but also protect the window glass from hail.

In English they are commonly called "venetian blinds". In northern Europe they are often installed between the panes in the triple glazing.

Different things: https://budgetblinds.com/puyallup/community-connection/blog/...

In Greece we have exterior shutters (as seen here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_shutter). They fit an outside frame, and modern ones don't let any light at all in (not even light bleed in the edges). The room is just always completely dark.

I'm similarly puzzled as to why many other countries don't seem to have these. I've never managed to sleep as well elsewhere.

My current apartment has them. They're far less effective than the worst-installed blackout curtains. When pulled down fully they block maybe.. half the light?

Blackout curtains themselves do a good job, but have a lot of side bleed. Blinds even out the problem by.. also adding side bleed between each of the sheets.

If you have "side bleed" between sheets we are not talking of the same thing. Really.

That depends a lot. I live in Oslo now, and have lived in Trondheim and Finnmark near Kirkenes before.

Never used blackout curtains in Oslo or Trondheim, absolutely needed them in Finnmark. I wouldn't say that blackout curtains are the norm in the Nordic countries, especially not Denmark.

But if you're in a place where there's midnight sun, I suggest getting some.

Blackout curtains are easily available in Denmark, and I have some, but I don't think that's common.

Which is a bit surprising cause they let plenty of light in. Roller shutters work much better for this purpose.

I never saw such in Finland growing up. Thick roll-up shade, sure, but the edges would leak light. I'd say most Finns at least learn to sleep with light in the room.

I'm light-sensitive but for me the problem of sleep can be remedied adequately with technology. Aluminum foil is one easy way to make a room extremely light-proof, and from there one just has to simulate the sunrise/sunset with lighting, for which there's a bunch of consumer electronics available these days that are good enough to trick my brain into sleeping correctly. Supplemental melatonin helps me to get back on schedule if I mess up, or switch schedules.

By contrast, in my experience artificial lighting in the polar night helps but just can not warm my soul enough to dispel the oppressive dark mood of winter.

Wouldn’t sleeping masks help? I love those (also earplugs and weighted blankets), but I’m not actually that light sensitive.

You don't put those on until you're actually in bed trying to sleep. It still messes with you that it doesn't get dark when it's late and bedtime is approaching.

That makes sense, thank you.

I'm happy that it works for you, but I've never been able to sleep at all with that kind of pressure against my face.

Have you tried those with space for the eyes? They should lessen the pressure. But personally, I enjoy it.

My eyes are fairly recessed already, the problem is more about the overall pressure on the face, which is a pretty inherent problem to that approach.