Her friends could hardly believe it when Kari Leibowitz told them she was moving to the Arctic. As a PhD student, she traveled to the northernmost university in the world - Tromsø, Norway - to study how mindset can affect our health. Unlike the Jersey Shore - where she was brought up - Tromsø's winter lasts up to eight months and, between November and January, it is plunged into almost complete darkness.
![[Between November and January, Tromsø is plunged into almost complete darkness - the Polar Night]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/03/21/93684575-14244305-Between_November_and_January_Troms_is_plunged_into_almost_comple-a-5_1735938241422.jpg)
This period is known as the Polar Night. Until then, she'd been a lifelong lover of all things summer - from days on the beach, to ice-creams on the boardwalk and festivals under the stars. Winter, on the other hand, was her most hated season. So much so that, as a high school senior, she would refuse to drive her little brother to class until he had first heated her car to a required toasty temperature every morning.
![[Ice on a pier in Tromsø, Norway - the temperatures can drop to as low as 5 degrees during Polar Night]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/03/21/93723693-14244305-image-a-9_1735939129867.jpg)
‘I was drawn to the Arctic to try to understand how people who live through some of the darkest winters on Earth cope with the season,’ she writes in her book How To Winter. She assumed, of course, that the long winters had a negative effect on people’s mental well-being. But what she discovered was that the seasons had very little impact.
![[‘Look at winter for what it is, and let it be a time for slowing down,’ advises Kari]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/03/21/93684351-14244305-_Look_at_winter_for_what_it_is_and_let_it_be_a_time_for_slowing_-a-2_1735938241337.jpg)
Kari was a lifelong lover of all things summer, and dreaded the onset of winter. Between November and January, Tromsø is plunged into almost complete darkness - the Polar Night. Ice on a pier in Tromsø, Norway - the temperatures can drop to as low as 5 degrees during Polar Night.
![[Tromsø boasts the northernmost university in the world, 217 miles north of the Arctic Circle]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/03/21/93683687-14244305-Troms_boasts_the_northernmost_university_in_the_world_217_miles_-a-6_1735941237914.jpg)
