Alaska’s
Best Cities for Sleep

The largest US state by area is Alaska, where extreme temperatures and spectacular vistas reign. Fish still jump from pristine rivers in this former Russian territory, the most sparsely populated state in the country. With national parks like Denali National Park, Glacier Bay, and Kenai Fjords, Alaska boasts over half a million square miles of mountains, tundra, and rugged coastline.

Some interesting facts about Alaska:

• More than 5% of the population speaks one of the state’s twenty native languages
• Oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay in 1968, and has since become an important part of the state economy
• Alaska has no county fairs because it has no counties. Instead, the state is divided into six regions
• As part of the “Ring of Fire” of seismic activity in the Pacific Ocean basin, Alaska has many active volcanoes along its nearly 34,000 miles of coastline
• The lowest temperature ever recorded in Alaska was -62.2 in January 1971

Alaska’s long, cold nights seem tailor-made for restful sleep — or does the state’s famed midnight sun make slumber difficult? Let’s look at how Alaskans sleep by city and find out.