Study sheds new light on suicides

Too much sunlight in places like Greenland where long summer days often cause insomnia appears more likely to drive a person to suicide, according to Swedish researchers.

Despite a belief that suicides tend to rise in late autumn and early winter months because of darkness, the new findings suggest that places where constant sunlight in summer seasons is a fact of life, may be just as dangerous.

"During the long periods of constant light, it is crucial to keep some circadian rhythm to get enough sleep and sustain mental health," Karin Sparring Bjorksten of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and colleagues reported in the BioMed Central journal, BMC Psychiatry.