It’s not that I feel depressed during this season. I like the darkness. It can be so cozy to light up a few candles at home and hear the relentless rain beat on the windows outside. But it would be so much better to have real winter like they have in the north of the country. Snow is the gift of the north. It brightens up the darkness and invites people to go outside and play. Go skiing, snow sledding and build snowmen and snow houses for the children.

However, this season disturbs my body clock. By now I know what happens. I can’t go to sleep at night. Usually I go to bed between midnight and 1 am. But when winter sneaks up on me and I just lie there thinking, unable to sleep until 2 or 3 am.

If I were my own master I would not wake up until 10 in the morning when there is dawn. But I am not. My daughter has to go to school at 8.30 and my little one is wide awake at 8. This makes life a little bit difficult for a night owl like me.

But I have simply chosen not to let this get on my nerves. I have turned to solace to my grandfather’s saying, who simply said: “Who needs sleep? You can sleep when you are dead.”

The main thing is not to let this disturb you. Your body needs the rest; it can do without sleep. So I just lie and rest and wait until sleep conquers my mind. It’s not that I can’t sleep because I worry too much, although I do solve many problems when I’m contemplating. My body clock simply follows the natural light.

The same happens to me in spring when the days get longer. I hardly need any sleep from the middle of June to the middle of July. Three to four hours are plenty. But in winter I definitely need six to eight hours of sleep. I have solved this by taking a nap in front of the telly when I am watching the news between 8 and 9 pm.

In the morning I take two or three cups of really strong coffee in and I’m ready to go.

I once had a really interesting conversation with a Finnish woman who had stayed in Iceland for a while. She could not understand why we did not move our clock forward like they do in Scandinavia. She said it meant that darkness-wise Icelanders really woke up at 6 am when they actually woke up at 8 am.

Forwarding the clock would mean that there was light when most people woke up. I could not agree more. But then again during our darkest hours in late December we hardly have any daylight at all. So we just have to put up with the long dark days.

It can be a bit strange, though. Some people just adjust to this by not using much light at all. I am not sure how healthy that is. My mother for instance would not turn on the lights until it became pitch dark. She grew up with no electricity and was used to the darkness. I once worked with an editor who would sit in near darkness in his office only using the glow of his computer. He said he did not like the noise of the fluorescent lights.

The darkness makes many people in this country drowsy and tired. They say they can sleep forever during this time. These months are difficult for the old people, many of whom give up midwinter and go and seek the light on the other side.

I was born just after the winter solstice so I guess I’m kind of a winter creature. I like winter and cherish the contrast between the white and the black.

One of my favorite books in the world is Moomintroll Midwinter by Finnish author Tove Jansson. The Moomintroll wakes up in the dead of winter before he is supposed to while the rest of the family is soundly sleeping. It’s a very melancholic account of winter but incredibly true and philosophical.

When I roam around my home in the darkness late at night and everyone around me is sleeping heavily, I sometimes feel a bit like him.

BB – bjarni@icelandreview.com