It is currently the 'white nights' period in the city, the setting of the training base for England and Costa Rica during the World Cup.

This week, the sun over St. Petersburg has been setting at around 10:20pm and rising again by 3:20am - but with twilight taken into consideration, full-on darkness lasts just two hours, between midnight and 2:00am.

Butland insists the squad are coping with is surely a surreal experience.

"Close the curtains, lights off, it's okay... we are sleeping okay, it's good," said the Stoke City keeper.

England arrived at their team base camp on Tuesday. They begin their tournament against Group G rivals Tunisia on Tuesday at 4am AEST.

"The first game is the most important game," said Butland. "Tunisia are a good team, they've got a lot of goalscoring ability, so we need to be careful. To win the first game in the group is really important, it's a really good start. We'll be ready, I'm really looking forward to it."

Butland added that the England team have felt "a little bit stiff," and have thus far been working to adapt to their new surroundings.

"First training sessions are to adjust and get used to the pitch. Tomorrow we will start training hard to get ready for Monday," he said.