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I very rarely have sleep issues so I never looked into blankets or gadgets but I will say this: Recently my neighbor got a really bright outdoor light on the s
by nickjj 7y ago
I very rarely have sleep issues so I never looked into blankets or gadgets but I will say this:
Recently my neighbor got a really bright outdoor light on the side of their house and even with black out blinds it wasn't close to enough blockage because light kept leaking through the sides and even pierced the blinds.
The first night I noticed that, I was like "jesus, why is it so bright outside" and I tried to sleep unsuccessfully. I was up until about 3am when I normally goto bed at 11pm'ish. I tried everything to block it on the spot like trying to pile up a sheet near my face but it had no effect since the light just illuminated the room. It was so light that I could see details across the room, like individual fan blades on a 12" fan. I typically can only fall asleep on 1 side but switching sides made no difference either.
So the next afternoon I decided to try an experiment. I took a black garbage bag and completely covered the window. I actually laughed out loud to myself at how dark it was when it was bright outside.
That night was remarkable. I didn't think a room could be so dark. It was the most peaceful sleep ever, except now my TV's little red dot is a distraction where as even pre-outside light it wasn't noticeable.
So if you have trouble sleeping, you may want to try to make your room as dark as possible as a test. Even in hostile lighting conditions a black garbage bag (one of the big ones you would use for leafs) can solve the problem. I hung mine with 2 nails, so when I wake up I just unhook 1 side to get natural light. The only problem is it looks completely stupid from the inside.
- TheSmiddy 7y agoYour TV probably has a setting to turn that light off, or do what I do and put black electrical tape all over anything with a useless status light.
- Kaibeezy 7y agoI've left a trail of 8mm squares of gaffer's tape covering literally thousands of LEDs around the world. If you ever see a semi-hairless sasquatch -- with what looks like one black fingernail -- climbing naked on a chair, that's probably me.
- legooolas 7y agoOr turn it off at the socket so it's not even on standby, using (a small amount of) power all the time?
- SECProto 7y agoI use black nail polish to cover up bright LEDs (particularly blue ones)
- mikestew 7y agoNail polish; why in the hell didn't I think of that instead of ugly black electrical tape? That's an awesome idea, thanks.
- squarefoot 7y agoAlso, a dark yellow nail polish should make those horrid blue leds appear green, which albeit not turning them off would make them much more gentle to the eyes.
- SECProto 7y agoYup! I used some red polish on one blue led, and it made it into a nice dim purple color. Actually it was quite a nice shade.
- fuzz4lyfe 7y agoIf you want something a little nicer than a trash bag. I've got these[0] in every bedroom in my house. Keeps the heating and cooling bill down as well as blocks out light really well. [0]https://www.amazon.com/Best-Home-Fashion-Insulated-Blackout/dp/B001A63XTS https://www.amazon.com/Best-Home-Fashion-Insulated-Blackout/...
- 14 7y agoThose would be great for blocking the main bulk of the light but I suspect would leak all around the sides and edges. They look identical to the curtains I currently own. I personally like aluminum foil to block out my windows. I apply it with a spray bottle just the bit of mist the foil will stick to the glass and quickly dry away leaving the foil stuck to the glass. It also works very well to reflect the heat where when I had blackout curtains they would radiate heat. I did have the numbers at one point but the difference between black and aluminum foil was massive.
- roland35 7y agoI love that idea, but I am not sure if my neighbors would! Too bad it isn't an engineer-only neighborhood.
- ChikkaChiChi 7y agoBlackout tint is wonderful, and looks great. It has the added benefit of taking care of bleed around the edges: https://www.amazon.com/Total-Blackout-Window-Film-Prevention/dp/B0725G9KS2 https://www.amazon.com/Total-Blackout-Window-Film-Prevention...
- alexhutcheson 7y ago100% agreed - this makes a big difference. It’s also worth getting a nice eye mask (one that’s comfortable on your face) for when you’re on the road. Hotels, Airbnbs, etc. are full of super bright LEDs now, and many of them (e.g. smoke detectors) can’t be easily covered or turned off.
- etrautmann 7y agoSleeping with an eye mask changed everything for me, making sleep possible under a number of conditions where it wouldn’t have been before.
- noknownsender 7y agoTravel with a roll of electrical tape. It may be a bit of an extreme solution, to go around a hotel room, covering every tiny LED with electrical tape, but if you are very sensitive to light while you sleep, it can make a world of difference in the quality of your rest.
- Buttons840 7y agoBlack "Gaffers tape" is a tape designed to hold things temporarily and be removed without leaving a residue (or as little residue as possible). You can tear off a perfectly square piece with your fingers since the fabric of the tape is aligned with the tape. It's great for covering those always on LEDs. It is better than electrical tape for this purpose IMO.
- ruminasean 7y agoCame here to say gaff tape, so seconding this. And I'm an actual gaffer, so you can believe me. I have it on every tiny spot of light in my room.
- jedimastert 7y agoI definitely thought you were going to suggest just putting electrical tape over your eyes. I'm so sensitive to light at night that I actually thought about it.
- theboulevardier 7y agoWe have done something similar at home. We live in an apartment with a small shared central courtyard, which is lit up (though not extremely bright) when someone walks through it. Our bedroom has those crappy Ikea Venetian blinds, which are terrible at blocking light and it's a rental so we can't change them. Instead we cover the blinds with a dark bedsheet and that does a great job of keeping the light out.
- JustSomeNobody 7y agoBB Gun might also have solved the problem. Of course, I jest.
- flycaliguy 7y agoDid you eventually make a request to your neighbors to dim down? We had a similar issue and what a headache... depends on the neighbor.
- nickjj 7y agoNope. We're not friends but we are on friendly terms (occasional hellos, zero tension, etc.). During that first night my thought process went something like this: - How the fuck can someone be so rude to put a light so bright on? - I'm going to get the loudest portable stereo I can find that can be remotely turned on / off, load it up with one of my favorite deathcore playlists and put it onto their roof tomorrow night - I'm going to leave passive aggressive notes on their door with shawshank redemption quotes (the light resembled a prison light) My mind just raced with scenarios that involved retaliating. Those were the highlight thoughts after spending hours ruminating on it. But then after a few nights with the bag I didn't care anymore about the light. I ultimately came to the conclusion that I was missing out for years by not blacking out my room and I would continue to black it out even if the light didn't exist. It's interesting to see the effects of something as trivial as a light being on at night to disrupt your sleep patterns and thoughts. Unintentional lack of sleep is no joke even in short doses.
- chaostheory 7y ago> How the fuck can someone be so rude to put a light so bright on From their POV, they probably think they’re doing the neighborhood a favor. Better lighting tends to reduce crime
- sneakernets 7y agoThere's no real evidence of this. I could argue that bright, blinding lights actually help conceal criminals by the sheer lighting difference.
- chaostheory 7y agoI’m not saying they’re right. I’m just pointing out that they’re probably not being purposefully inconsiderate like people playing really loud music Also there is some evidence https://urbanlabs.uchicago.edu/projects/crime-lights-study https://urbanlabs.uchicago.edu/projects/crime-lights-study
- afarrell 7y agoI have found that a sleeping mask is also really great. I find the particular pressure on my face is also a good "go to sleep" signal for my brain. https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/bucky-reg-40-blinks-ultralight-sleep-mask/1043238446?keyword=bucky-sleep-mask https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/bucky-reg-40-...
- btbytes 7y agoThere is a whole book on the ill effects of too much light in modern times -- Lights Out (https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Lights-Out/T-S-Wiley/9780671038687 https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Lights-Out/T-S-Wiley/...)
- knicholes 7y agoI typically just tape some aluminum foil around the window. It's pretty effective.
- grawprog 7y agoI recently moved to a place where my bedroom in front of a busy road with stoplights. I can't handle light when i sleep. I just went with a set of double layer blackout curtains myself and then taped the sides down to the window frame. It works pretty damn good. Before that I got them though I went with the garbage bag/cardboard box route. I found it hard to seal all the cracks though.
- LandR 7y agoI have blackout blinds and blackout curtains but still light leaks in! It seems to come in via the top of the blind, there is a gap between the top of the window and where the blind is attached and then this leaks out into the room via the side of the curtains. It's fine at night as it's dark anyway, but on days when it gets light early in the morning it's a pain. I like the room to be so dark I can't see my hand in front of my face. I have no gadgets or anything with lights on in the bedroom. I'm not quite prepared to tape black bags to the window though :D
- bluedino 7y agoI bought blackout shades and like you said, it's laughably dark even during the daytime. However, I don't get that slow increase of light in the morning that wakes me up gently. I wake up a little groggier.
- nickjj 7y agoWhat bothers me the most is that you tend to go from nearly pitch black to lifting the shades and now it's brighter than a billion suns because your eyes have no chance to react. Even leaving the room into a hallway that has minimal natural light from other windows is an issue. The natural progression of the sunrise is very helpful to have your eyes auto-adjust by the time you open them since it goes through your eyelids with your eyes closed. I'm not sure how to solve this problem in a way that's reasonable. Building a robot to unhook the trash bag based on the sunrise time is out of scope of what I want to do. Maybe some type of solar powered automatic curtain rod exists, I haven't looked but it's worth exploring. I wonder how others solve this. I feel like the solutions I'm thinking of are way harder to implement than it needs to be for such a common problem.
- mikestew 7y agoThere have to be uncountable numbers of lamps, timers, and home automation solutions that can gradually bring the lights up at sunrise or whenever you'd like to arise. Or if you insist upon the shades being raised as your solution, about five hundred US dollars will get you an automated shade that can be configured. Ikea has some coming out (oh, real soon now, they've said for the past year) that are less expensive, but I don't know how well they block light.
- nosleeptill 7y agoBuy a sleep mask and you can dispense with the garbage bags.
- Someone1234 7y agoThose fall off all the time if you roll in your sleep.
- apexalpha 7y agoDo houses not have rolling shutters in general? I've always had those and they fully black out any room too.
- ravedave5 7y agoA sleep mask is a simpler solution. Works very well, I have the same issue.
- sakisv 7y agoI've got to say that the beginning of your post reminded me of this so much: http://www.27bslash6.com/halogen.html http://www.27bslash6.com/halogen.html In all seriousness, coming from a Mediterranean country to the UK, the summers can be quite annoying with the light starting a little after 4am and if you don't have a good set of blinds it can get very disruptive. Your solution (ugly as it maybe ;) ) it's actually quite good as it does not require a lot of effort or DIY that a landlord could object to.
- nickjj 7y agoWow that's one of the best things I've read in a while haha. Yeah you could also replace the 2 nails with thumbtacks or even tape for less wall damage.
- davidw 7y agoI really miss the shutters they have in Italy: https://blog.therealitaly.com/2007/08/09/window-technology/ https://blog.therealitaly.com/2007/08/09/window-technology/
- jaclaz 7y agoNot really-really (JFYI). Those are not properly "shutters", they are (as you say) "tapparelle" (which translates back to "rolling shutters" or "roller shutters"), they are relatively "modern" and they have been used for yers mainly as a low cost solution to the traditional windows "sets". They were only widely adopted in Italy after WWII in new buildings. They were actually available in Italy - and of course in wood only - since the '20's but not widely used, actually intially they were considered "trendy" and used by "name" architects/designers in luxury or public buildings (example): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_del_Fascio_(Como) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_del_Fascio_(Como) , whilst later they became synonym with "poor/economic buildings". They are not "typically italian", as they are common also in other EU countries and were most probably actually invented in France: https://www.griesser.fr/en/products/rolling-shutters/ https://www.griesser.fr/en/products/rolling-shutters/ A famous example of their (early) use is Casa Milà in Barcelona (Spain) by Gaudì: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Mil%C3%A0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Mil%C3%A0 Interestingly our UK friends seemingly call them "continental" (another example): https://www.ukrollershutters.com/product-category/continental-roller-shutters/ https://www.ukrollershutters.com/product-category/continenta... Traditionally in Italy (but it depends on the area/region) we have "persiane" (on the exterior), that can give some shade from the sun while allowing the air to pass, like these (example): http://www.bglegno.it/linee-serramenti/persiane-legno/ http://www.bglegno.it/linee-serramenti/persiane-legno/ Then the actual window (with glass panes) and finally the actual shutters, which are called "scuri" (or "scuretti"), like these (example): http://www.bglegno.it/linee-serramenti/scuretti-in-legno/ http://www.bglegno.it/linee-serramenti/scuretti-in-legno/ They are internal and completely darken the room if closed.
- iaresee 7y ago2 years ago I started using a sleep mask to black out the room at night. It's amazing. Mask goes on. Mind goes quiet. I go to sleep. And as a bonus: no more dry eyes in the morning.