Abstract
Human activity in Antarctica has increased sharply in recent years. In particular during the winter months, people are exposed to long periods of isolation and confinement and an extreme physical environment that poses risks to health, well-being and performance. The present study aimed to gain a better understanding of processes contributing to psychological resilience in this context. Specifically, the study examined how the use of coping strategies changed over time, and the extent to which changes coincided with alterations in mood and sleep. Two crews (N = 27) spending approximately 10 months at the Concordia station completed the Utrecht Coping List, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), and a structured sleep diary at regular intervals (x 9). The results showed that several variables reached a minimum value during the midwinter period, which corresponded to the third quarter of the expedition. The effect was particularly noticeable for coping strategies (i.e., active problem solving, palliative reactions, avoidance, and comforting cognitions). The pattern of results could indicate that participants during Antarctic over-wintering enter a state of psychological hibernation as a stress coping mechanism.
Highlights
Antarctica is the darkest, coldest and most hostile region for humans on Earth
Scales means and 95% confidence intervals from the repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance are presented in Figures 2, 3
The findings from this study suggest that coping strategies, sleep quality, and positive affect (PA) were influenced by the environmental conditions to a smaller or larger degree during midwinter
Summary
Antarctica is the darkest, coldest and most hostile region for humans on Earth. Antarctica has no permanent residents, but many of the nations that are signatory to the Antarctic Treaty send personnel to conduct seasonal (summer) and all year round research on the continent and the Southern Ocean environments. While there are large individual variations in psychological resilience, foregoing research has long since documented that personnel overwintering on Antarctic stations are vulnerable to mental and somatic health problems (Palinkas and Suedfeld, 2008; Arendt, 2012; Chen et al, 2016). Reductions in mood, adaptation problems, and sleep difficulties account for 60% of all diagnoses in Antarctica (Palinkas et al, 1995; Lugg, 2005). As these reactions seem most prevalent in the cold and dark season, this cluster of symptoms has been referred to as the ‘winter-over syndrome’ (Palmia, 1963; Palinkas et al, 1995)
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