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'Try to embrace it': How to survive Norway’s long winter nights

The Local Norway
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'Try to embrace it': How to survive Norway’s long winter nights
Photo: bublik_polina/Depositphotos"

The clocks go back in Norway this weekend, meaning shorter days and longer nights. The Local's readers have shared their tips on how to cope.

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In a poll we posted on Facebook, 44 percent of readers said they didn't mind the darker months of the year after the clocks go back.

The Twitter version of the poll returned a majority of 57 percent not worried by the long nights ahead.

Were were positively surprised by the enthusiasm for the winter, so we asked how the dark nights affect you and how you manage them. Thank you for your responses, to our survey and on social media.

Although some don’t feel much difference when the long nights close in, others made no secret of the fact it can be tough.

“It affects me a lot. Short days, dark nights plus minus temperatures for 3-4 months is always a big challenge,” wrote Sofia Hu, who lives in Oslo.

“I think it's cozy, might be a little more (tired) than a summer's day but it doesn't affect me much,” Daniel Alexander Tuck of Trondheim responded on the other hand.

Whether you find it tough going or look forward to the winter, plenty of readers offered tips on how to manage or even embrace and longer nights and fewer light daytime hours.

“Stay indoors with lights, as much as possible,” Hu wrote, while Tuck advised learning to “appreciate the cozy atmosphere”.

We received some excellent responses on our Facebook post about the poll.

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“Stop thinking about winter as of some sort of neverending frozen hell – learn and finally try to understand that it is a seasonal, part of a natural cycle and try to embrace it,” one reader posted.

Embracing the winter and the cold was a strong theme, with the same reader suggesting that getting in touch with Norway’s nature was a way to keep winter fatigue at bay.

“Walk in the snow, listen to the sounds of nature, have a sandwich or a cup of tea while sitting on a stone – during a heavy snowstorm is even better,” she wrote.

Several people recommended vitamin D supplements and warm foods and drinks such as soups, tea and cocoa.

Another reader simply advised “alcohol and good books”.

Others still were more straightforward, saying that Norway’s winter just has to be got used to.

READ ALSO: Why the shocking cold of winter bathing is a Nordic favourite

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