The polar night occurs when the night lasts for more than 24 hours. This only occurs inside the polar circles. The opposite phenomenon, when the sun stays above the horizon for a long time is called the polar day, or midnight sun.

A common misconception is that the shortest day is totally dark at each point where the midnight sun occurs inside the polar circle. In places very close to the poles this is true, but in regions that are located at the inner border of the polar circles where midnight sun is experienced, this is not true. Because of twilight, these regions experience polar twilight instead of the polar night. In fact, polar regions typically get more twilight throughout the year than equatorial regions.

In regions inside the polar circles, the length of the time when the sun is below the horizon varies from 20 hours at the Arctic Circle and Antarctic Circle to 179 days at the Poles. However not all this time is classified as polar night, since there may be plenty of sunlight because of refraction. Also, one might notice that the time when the sun is above the horizon at the poles is said to be 186 days. The asymmetry in numbers is because the time when the sun is partially above the horizon is counted towards the "daytime".

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