It’s that time of year again where the nights grow longer and Brits all over the country feel like they’ve spent days without experiencing sunlight.

But could you imagine living in a place where the sun doesn’t come up at all for over two months?

Welcome to the Polar night.

Could you imagine living here? (Getty Stock Images)

What is the Polar night?

The Polar night is a geographical phenomenon which occurs in the Northern and Southernmost regions of the Earth where the sun remains below the horizon for the entire 24 hours of the day.

When you think about it like that, the sun setting at 4:30pm suddenly doesn’t sound too bad after all.

One of the places to experience the Polar night is Utqiagvik, Alaska where this past Monday (18 November) the residents saw the sun set for the last time in 2024 earlier this week.

Situated around 71.17 degrees north of the equator and 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle, the 4,927 residents of Utqiagvik won’t see the sunlight again until the final week of January.

Residents can look forward to a few hours of ‘civil twilight’ – which is where the sun rises a tiny amount above the horizon – during these months, however it’s nowhere near the amount of daylight most of us are used to.

The town of Utqiagvik in Alaska, USA will not see sunlight until next (Getty Stock Images)

Temperatures in the Alaskan town also stick firmly in the minus figures for these months, while Utqiagvik’s unfortunate reputation for being one of the cloudiest places on the planet means they also experience an unfortunate phenomena named ice fog.

Again, a bit of perspective suddenly makes British winters sound so much better.

Utqiagvik isn’t the only town to experience such brutal winters either, with the city of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway also experiencing the same winter black out.

Living in communities which experience such extreme weather can also have a knock-on effect on your sleep quality, as a change in melatonin levels leads to a disruption of the body’s circadian rhythms. Disruption to your body’s circadian rhythm can cause poor sleep quality and difficulty concentrating.

Lack of sunlight during Polar winter can cause sleep issues (Getty Stock Images)

However communities which have resided in these climates have since adapted to make the most of the extreme climates, with Utqiaġvik Mayor Asisaun Toovak telling Time Magazine: “[I’m] kind of looking forward to it. I feel that it’s time for some good rest,” she said.

Meanwhile the town also enjoys celebrations once the sun finally reappears, with Toovak revealing the local college holds a ‘welcome the sun back dance’ in January.

“Seeing drumming and dancing in our traditional song and dance is very healing for people,” she added.