Every twenty-four hours , the Earth rotates . The Sun appears on the celestial horizon in the morning , and then some sentence by and by , it sets . We ’ve ramp up our life and societies around this periodicity , with days that are divide into hours , minutes , and instant , all kept data track of by clocks . But in some home on Earth , the Sun rises only once per year , and set once per year . With their concept of a day already so estranged from the remainder of the world ’s , one Arctic universe started thinking : What if we ditched the concept of time altogether ?

That ’s the musical theme of Norwegian Kjell Ove Hveding , who last north of the Arctic Circle in a town call Sommarøy . The idea has since taken off , and has been featured by Norway’spublic news agencyand at least one of the land ’s largenational newspapers . Yesterday , Hveding met with his local appendage of sevens to reach over a postulation to get disembarrass of clock time in the town . The drive incentive , it seems , is to make Sommarøy a topographic point where people can do whatever they want , whenever they desire .

“ You have to go to work , and even after work , the clock takes up your metre , ” Hveding say Gizmodo . “ I have to do this , I have to do that . My experience is that [ the great unwashed ] have forgotten how to be madcap , to decide that the weather is good , the Sun is reflect , I can just live . ” Even if it ’s 3 a.m.

Kjell Ove Hveding (second from left) and others destroying a clock.

Kjell Ove Hveding (second from left) and others destroying a clock.Photo: Kjell Ove Hveding

https://gizmodo.com/heres-how-the-body-keeps-time-thanks-to-this-years-nob-1819055017

The proposal is thin on detail , and to be honorable , I ’m still not quite sure how serious it is . But it was in part connect to the word over the usefulness of daylight saving sentence , which the European Unionscrapped this year . These discussions are of no consequence to the the great unwashed of Sommarøy , since the Sun only sets once per yr . Without time , stores would be open whenever the storekeeper wanted , people could go outside whenever they wanted , and rather than by appointment , multitude could just meet up impulsively . This form of modus vivendi is apparently not for everyone , and Sommarøy has only 321 residents as of 2017 .

It still made me wonder — can homo unfeignedly ditch filaria ? The solution , in brusk , is no . Most importantly , we live in a society that relies on sidereal day broken into hours and minutes . bump off the clocks might make things feel more flexible for a chemical group that chooses to live outside these rules , but at long last undertaking , schooling , and transferral all rely on time . Hveding himself was about to bewitch a flight of stairs after our phone call , something that would credibly not be potential without clocks .

Photo: Jøran Mikkelsen

Watches on a bridge in Sommarøy.Photo: Jøran Mikkelsen

Then there ’s the health component . “ The problem is that humans did not evolve in the Arctic , ” Hanne Hoffman , supporter professor in creature scientific discipline who analyse the circadian rhythm method , separate Gizmodo . “ Our bodies have conform to this 24 - 60 minutes cycle generated by the rotation of the Earth . We ca n’t really go against evolution , and that ’s what is happening in those localization . You ’re going against what we ’re programme to do . ” Typically , folks in the Arctic compensate by close out the light in their home base during what would otherwise be nighttime hours .

A series of hormones and metabolic process answer to light and prison term , tell your body how to bear at dissimilar percentage point during the 24-hour interval . Even processes you might not think about , like your digestion and torso temperature , are linked to this beat . Circadian rhythm misalignment , where your body is working on a separate agenda from your mind , is a risk factor for disease , she explain . Hoffman was especially concerned that fry , who already face changes to their circadian rhythm method of birth control as they enter puberty , might suffer in school in such an surroundings .

And experiments have shown that humans do n’t misplace their musical rhythm , even in the absence of all Light Within . Nicola Smyllie , investigator scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the United Kingdom , reminded Gizmodo of the casing ofMichel Siffre , who hole himself up in a dark cave for calendar month . Though his docket lento went out of sync with the rest of the world , he still maintained an approximately 24 - hour rhythm .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

But aboveboard , I ’d do it to strain living without time for a week .

Ultimately , Hveding tell Gizmodo , he just wants people to see sentence from his position — and to be chiller and more brainish .

BiologyScience

William Duplessie

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