100% 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.

If anyone has recommendations for good (cupped) eye masks, I'd love to hear them.

I currently use the cheap contoured cupped kinds (I think Bucky, currently), which are adequate. I find the cups vastly preferable to having something pressed against my eyes, and I dislike masks that feel heavy. A cheap mask will keep out most light (but not all of it). For the most part, they work. Sleeping with a mask is better than sleeping without one.

The problem with the cheap brands is that they always inevitably fall apart 3-5 months after being purchased, especially if you wash them. They're almost all glued, not stitched. They use materials like velcro everywhere.

A while back I tried to do some research to see if there was a premium market for nice, really durable, stitched brands. I couldn't find anything that stood out, it was a big surprise. I've considered trying to find someone on Etsy to try and custom make something.

Right now I'm paying $10-16 every 4 months for a disposal mask. I'd happily pay a ton more for a lightweight, cupped mask that actually blocked 100% of the light and that would last me a few years.

These are my favorite: https://dryeyeshop.com/collections/nights/products/tranquile...

I went through about a dozen different masks over the course of 6 months and these were the most comfortable. I like the removable inserts -- sometimes I want the pressure on my eyelids, sometimes I don't. They completely block out the light. And they trap moisture so your eyes stay moist overnight.

Check out the Mindfold.

Just make sure to keep the eyemask clean. I got conjunctivitis once from wearing an old one I forgot to wash

Travel 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.

Black "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.

Came 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.

I 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.

Sleeping with an eye mask changed everything for me, making sleep possible under a number of conditions where it wouldn’t have been before.

I've never gotten used to wearing a mask, so when I travel I make every effort to get a room away from the street so I'm less likely to have either street lights or the hotel's own lights shining in the window. I unplug everything I can, and I bring tape for the rest. Nightlights built into bathroom power outlets have been a particularly annoying trend lately, and most kinds of tape don't completely block the light themselves, but the tape can hold whatever thickness of paper or cardboard I need. Band aids will work in a pinch, but tape is cheaper.

Black electrical tape is great for blocking light.

My silk eyemask totally changed how I sleep. Best $10 I ever spent. For me, my problem is I tend to sleep in later so when the sun is out, sometimes it's hard to get woken up midcycle.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GSO1D9O/

Also, noise is usually a problem for me. I keep a fan running at night to provide a good background hum of white noise to help drown out any external sounds.

I use the same eyemask. I travel a lot for work and find it psychologically reassuring because I only put it on when I'm ready to go to sleep.

I've found that if you sleep on the back and not move much, a light scarf can do the same job as an eye mask, which can be handy if you're traveling and don't have one.

Which mask do you recommend? I have big eyes and never found a comfortable one.

I have this one and would absolutely recommend it :

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015NZ6FK/

I use an eyemask that also has soft headphones, so I can listen to pink noise or meditations.

Is it comfortable? What's the brand?

I 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.

What 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.

There 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.

Artificial light doesn't feel the same. I imagine those configurable shades work based on time like an alarm; that's a good idea.

The shades I'm thinking of (both Ikea, and others) work with Apple's HomeKit (et. al.), so you can automate it however you like. Sunrise, five minutes before you wake up, fast open, slow open...

If you got something like the newer white grow light LEDs it might. I might suggest something like samsung LM301B LEDs for their excellent efficiency.

Do you know of any that can read the time of a phone alarm automatically and start opening slowly x minutes beforehand?

> However, I don't get that slow increase of light in the morning that wakes me up gently.

There's a specific type of alarm clock that does that. Philips Wake-up Light (e.g. https://www.usa.philips.com/c-p/HF3520_60/-) is the best known brand but there are others.

This. I'm considering building some system to open the blinds around my wakeup time, since the neighbor's floodlights are so bright.

I have the same issue. My complex installed very bright lights outside my window so I put up blackout curtains. It's great for sleeping but in the morning I have no clue what time of day it is, and I miss that "gentle wakeup" from the morning light.

I've got to say that the beginning of your post reminded me of this so much: 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.

Wow 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.

If 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/...

Those 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.

I love that idea, but I am not sure if my neighbors would! Too bad it isn't an engineer-only neighborhood.

Blackout 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...

Did you eventually make a request to your neighbors to dim down? We had a similar issue and what a headache... depends on the neighbor.

Nope. 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.

Man, I wish I could have hacked a solution together like this with my neighbor. We moved away 4 weeks ago because it ended up as the only viable solution. Story went like this:

Living in dense city apartments, large German city, our thoughtful upstairs neighbors decided to play very loud hardcore techno at 2am (!) during weekdays - every single day. They were students but the area is not cheap at all. Without external support, German students would have a very hard time paying rent in that area. This area is primarily for well-off yuppies with large incomes. For those students, I strongly suspected mommy and daddy pay for the rent (and the drugs, see below).

Aside from breaking mentally down and degenerating into thoughts of vengeance over this insane level of assholeness, we recovered and tried to be productive according to following steps:

1) Go upstairs, ask them to turn it down -> no response at the door, tried and retried 6 times in total over several days in between the following resolution attempts

2) Intermittently, random screaming and banging against our walls in frustration

3) After doors were never opened and a conversation was not possible, we emailed facility management/landlord -> quiet nights for a handful of days

3) After loud music started up again one day (because why not?) we finally called the police. A step which is somehow both radical and useless at once. Police, annoyed by our noise complaint, banged against the neighbors doors. It took > 5min of banging and police yelling until neighbors opened the door. You could hear the excuse: "Sorry, fell asleep with the music on."

That's like falling asleep in a laser-light electronic music club. Bullshit excuse for "we are drugged up as shit and don't care about our neighbors who have to go to work at 7am because <insert garbage justification>"

Well, it became quiet for 3 weeks. Thought they learned their lesson. Then it started over again and at that point we had exhausted all rational options.

Repeated complaints against landlord lead to nothing. So there was no leverage left. In the end we moved. Thankfully that wasn't our only motivation to move but if you're a bit unlucky, noisy neighbors can mess your life up. Finding apartments here is really hard and I don't want to imagine if we had built our dream apartment in our dream area and were screwed over by these people for no reason at all.

You have to keep calling the police to get documentation that the landlord can use to evict.

If you don't share a landlord their landlord will likely not care.

Well then you go through the HOA or at some point the cops or city will declare it a public nuisance etc... you know disturbing the peace.

Home ownership and dealing with neighbors is all about picking your battles. Getting into a war over a light is just not worth the effort, when you have a simple solution. Chances are someone else will bitch anyhow. Save your ammunition for the inevitable future issues.

> 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

There's no real evidence of this. I could argue that bright, blinding lights actually help conceal criminals by the sheer lighting difference.

I’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

There 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/...)

Your 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.

I use black nail polish to cover up bright LEDs (particularly blue ones)

Nail polish; why in the hell didn't I think of that instead of ugly black electrical tape? That's an awesome idea, thanks.

Also, 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.

Yup! 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.

I'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.

Or turn it off at the socket so it's not even on standby, using (a small amount of) power all the time?

We 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.

I really miss the shutters they have in Italy:

https://blog.therealitaly.com/2007/08/09/window-technology/

Not 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)

, 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/

A famous example of their (early) use is Casa Milà in Barcelona (Spain) by Gaudì:

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/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/

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/

They are internal and completely darken the room if closed.

I 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

Buy a sleep mask and you can dispense with the garbage bags.

Those fall off all the time if you roll in your sleep.

I 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-...

I 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.

A sleep mask is a simpler solution. Works very well, I have the same issue.

2 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.

BB Gun might also have solved the problem. Of course, I jest.

Do houses not have rolling shutters in general?

I've always had those and they fully black out any room too.

I typically just tape some aluminum foil around the window. It's pretty effective.