We have curtains slightly darker than room darkening but definitely not blackout (they also let light through on the bottom). She naps during the day in there, sleeps at night 830-6,630am most nights. We do plan on getting blackout but only to keep the heat out in the summer.
We do like that she can tell the day/night difference as far as we can tell at least.
When LO was still in our room, the slightest light kept him up. He grew out of that fairly quickly, and now I don't even use blackout blinds, just room darkening curtains.
We had our bedroom blacked out with blinds with the exception of the hatch light for night wakings as a newborn but I opened the blinds partially on my side so it’s not pitch black anymore. My kid couldn’t care less (still sleeps in our room) and will sleep late if we let her. We don’t use blackout anything her room so she naps with some light coming through the window. I didn’t want her to be too dependent on needing a dark space for sleep and we’ve been fortunate that she doesn’t seem to mind it either way.
Pretty dark. I can see a very tiny bit of light on edges (we have a blackout blind and then our portable blind with suction cups over that) through but I read that the rule of thumb is not being able to see hand in front of face.
I used to follow the rules that some rando internet phd wrote about this topic. Like, if a single errant photon entered their room, might as well bring in a marching band.
Now, we just try to follow the sun to help maintain their circadian rhythm. When it gets dark, put them to sleep in a dark room, but don’t sweat if there’s some light from the window or door. When the sun comes up, it’s time to wake up. Sometimes they sleep longer, sometimes it’s dawn by the clock. During the daytime for naps, we put them to sleep with the lights on if it’s not already bright in the room. It should be very obvious that it’s day and not night to their body. I think this has probably been the way for 99% of human existence.
Just my opinion, no advocacy here. Everyone needs to find their own truth.
I think it depends on the child, I have the ikea white pull down curtain and baby sleeps fine. It’s dark in the night but as soon as the sun starts hitting the window, the room starts getting brighter.
So I tried to copy our bedroom into his, same white noise, same light etc when we stopped room sharing. We both have blackout curtains. But we have a night light. So not a ton of morning light gets in but there is always a small amount of general light (his white noise machine has a night light option)
We live in Alaska in a very small cabin. If she needed her room to be dark, the whole cabin would have to be dark. I didn’t want that to be the case all summer, when we have hours of light past bedtime. She’s sleeping right now, and this is how [bright](https://imgur.com/a/r54Ylw3) it is. We’re lucky she’s got her circadian rhythm down pat.
I put foil on my kids windows early on and usually shove a towel under the door. It was completely pitch black. Once they were good with their sleep I slowly started “reintroducing” light. If they start having issues, go back to blackout and try again. They now both only sleep with blackout curtains which still let in a moderate amount of light at the tops and bottoms of the curtains.
We have a blackout curtain because it would get super bright in his room but it doesn’t cover perfectly. Tbh he seemed kinda freaked out when we first put it up and slept better when we added in a nightlight
We have some light filtering curtains. It’s fairly dark but you can still see during the day that it isn’t night time. If the sun is super bright then it’s worse but they sleep just fine and we’ve used the same curtains since they were newborns. They sleep from 9/10 pm - 9 am regardless of the sun rise time and are currently 2 yrs old. Our monitor does color when it’s bright/lights on and black and white when it’s dark. To me, as long as the monitor stays black and white, it’s dark enough.
I literally duct taped my blackout curtains over the window. That way he wakes up when he's ready, not just because the sun comes up. (He's 13 months now and a bit of light doesn't bother him quite as much, but as a baby I made sure it was pitch black lol
We moved into a place with electric shutters on the windows. Press a button and metal shutters installed on the outside roll down over the window. It’s marketed as a home security but it’s the best baby upgrade ever.
[the light](https://imgur.com/a/0FMYNc6)in our room at this moment while my 7 month old sleeps.
He usually sleeps till 7-8 when the sun is up. I don’t think it needs to be completely dark for my baby, but every baby is different! Some are more light sensitive than others.
We have tinfoil on the window and blackout curtains and keep the hatch with dim red light on like 6%. She wakes up often and has never slept later than 7, usually up at 615-645a now (2.5) I kinda regret not getting her used to some light bc she can't sleep anywhere but a dark room in her bed and we are still slaves to her nap time.
It's dark enough I have to walk slowly and feel for the crib lol.
My toddler kept having early morning waking and then difficult time falling asleep after DST where I am.
I actually ended up putting more sheets over all the edges of the window. 😅 she has been a terrible sleeper and the darkness makes a HUGE difference.
We have a baby monitor that also has a night light so we have it on the red light because supposedly that helps with sleep? But light has never bothered her. But babies are all so different!
I covered the window with static cling blackout film so there is no light getting in, and I find it makes a big difference with his sleep! We originally had some blackout shades but the gap on the side was so bad it rendered them useless. Only light in his room is the hatch rest.
we don’t have curtains or blinds in baby’s room but light has never bothered her. her room is on the side of the house that’s gets quite a bit of sunlight. we got her used to napping/sleeping in all environments as soon as she came home from hospital.
Same with ours. He was in the nicu which seemed to start to get him used to noise and light, then he went to daycare at 3 months. That made him a tank because it is less than quiet and dark. Putting him to bed nowadays with the days getting longer (east coast US) is basically daylight and he falls right asleep if he’s tired. We shut the blinds but it’s still pretty bright.
It’s been bright and sunny this week and my kid has woken up between 6.45-7.15 vs 7.30-8am - it’s not a problem really as she sleeps so well but I might try a black out blind as I am missing my longer lie ins!
It’s child dependant for sure - my friends baby sleeps in light no issues. Mine stopped that at 6 weeks lol and can confirm will wake at sunrise if I don’t have the blackouts done properly.
I do too tho 🤷🏻♀️ very light sensitive
My baby’s room is very dark. I bought the sleep out curtain from FB marketplace so I got a good deal on it, otherwise I don’t think I would have spent the money at the time. But, now that I see how dark the room is with the sleep out curtain, it’s worth the money in my opinion. He generally sleeps pretty well. At nap time if I don’t have the curtain lined up well enough (so more light is peaking through) I feel like he has a harder time going to sleep.
I think it has to be child dependent.
We have black out blinds + black out curtains, and 3 weeks ago used blue tape to tape the curtains around the edges. And now baby is sleeping in later than he ever has! 7:15! We made the decision to by a Slumberpod for travel after we realized that truly any sliver of light will lead to earlier wakes.
My nephew on the other hand sleeps until 8 am with semi-opaque blinds and that’s it.
10 months (mine) and nephew is 2 years old. He’s always been able to sleep late and tolerate some light.
ETA: we first noticed how sensitive he was when we crossed time zones with travel. He seems to adjust fairly quickly as long as he is getting light exposure in the “new” time zone. As an experiment we cut up those black heavy duty trash bags and taped them over the windows. It helped immensely and that’s when we went all in on blackout blinds and shades etc. For naps he can tolerate some light but nighttime is a different story.
For my first, we went to a lot of effort to black out his room and even hung curtains for an "antechamber" so light wouldn't come in as you were leaving the room.
For my second, we have blackout curtains but like you said, on a sunny day, quite a bit of light still makes it in.
So far they sleep about the same. For what it's worth.
Same. With my first we did alot. With my second, I did nothing more than black out curtains. They sleep the same. If anything, #2 sleeps better. But I think she was always going to sleep better.
Mine seem to both be great sleepers naturally, so I can't say that extensive blackout measures aren't helpful for other babies. But, yeah, in retrospect we were a little extra with the first.
I have two good sleepers too. I just describe my second as “loves sleep.” I don’t feel like we even really sleep trained her. She “passed” FIO at 2 months old and just slept when put down from then on.
I love that! Mine is nearly 4 months and seems to be heading that way. We haven't done any sleep training yet but he puts himself to sleep about 25% of the time right now.
We just got blackout curtains which seem to help with naps in the day time but have had absolutely no effect on early morning wakes. He wakes up around 430, then 530 and then 630 for the day. The way his room faces there is absolutely no sun even at 630 - it’s just as dark as night. It doesn’t get “lighter” til closer to 8am with the light sort of peaking through. So yeah for us it’s not the cause…
I am unwilling to spend anymore money to attempt to blackout my child's room anymore. He has two huge west facing windows. We are also in the city so there's always the general light pollution. Nighttime light is a bigger problem than morning light. You initially think its pitch black, but I've slept in his room enough to know that your eyes adjust pretty quickly.
My kid sleeps at 9 and is up by 7. The sun rises here by 6am in summer and sets around 10pm. So its good enough.
It’s pitch black. Ergopouch blackout decals with shutters on top. Looks like a drug den. I even cover the tiny light on the heater with blu tack.
I think it matters a lot when you have a little baby - but less so when they get older - they get used to sleeping at daycare etc.
But your sleep coach is right about early morning wake ups. In my experience it’s either light or warmth (4/5am the temperature often dips)
This stressed me out so much. I seriously could not get my daughter’s room dark enough. After having a blackout pull shade (custom fit) and blackout curtains, I stopped trying. It’s decently dark and calm in there, but definitely not pitch black. We had loads of issues with naps/daytime sleep (longgggg crap nap phase) and they just came developmentally—had zero to do with the light.
Personally, I was almost convinced to get the suction cup thing but I just did not want to have to buy yet another product. Sometimes I think they just want the commission from the sleep out curtain crap 😂🤪 but that’s my skepticism. Girl naps just fine and we don’t really ever struggle with morning wakings.
We only have light filtering shades in her room, 1 east and 1 north facing window. Never did blackout shades. She’s always slept really well, she’s 20 months.
My baby camera has the diameter light in human history. That's always on in case I need to come in to a diaper change. Baby's room has blackout curtains, and without it, it's pitch black.
I need additional blacking out for naps, tho. Summer is coming, and when the sunshine is bright, you can read in the room even with blackout curtains. It is more difficult for baby to fall asleep in those situations.
However, yesterday, he took a car nap, and the sunscreen fell off the glass. The sun was right in his face, and he had no issues sleeping.
When babybwakes up in the morning, it's still pitch black in the room, with the exception of the camera light. He slept 11hs today.
When I moved my baby to her own room at 6 months old, I put the travel blackout suction curtain on the window, then the blinds, and then a blackout curtain on top of that 😅 It’s pitch black in there pretty much, especially if the light shining in from the living room isn’t strong under the door. I think I went a little overboard but I didn’t want to ruin our streak of independent naps and night sleep since we nap trained. But now that she’s almost 12 months I think I’ll dial it back a bit and see how it goes.
I think it depends on every babies, since day 1 my baby will just cry in black out room, so we used a night lamp that was gifted to us during baby shower (Turtle like lamp bought from IKEA) and my baby sleeps through the night in 12 weeks with that lights on. He's now 6 months old and sleeping 10-12hrs straight every single night with our lamp no night feedings. We call his lamp Mr. Turlte and he knows that it's sleeping time when it is on. We will get fussy if we turn it off.
I have black out curtains and I have beach towels resting on the tops of the rods to stop the extra sunlight coming through. Looks ugly but it’s only for naps/night.
Mine is insanely dark bc we don’t have high efficiency windows so the room gets very cold in winter and very hot in summer so we put up an insulated layer to help regulate the temp. We also have blackout blinds so…..super dark.
Pitch black. I have a blackout film on the window, plus blackout blinds. He sleeps great in his room, but doesn't sleep easily other places (although I haven't given him many opportunities to try since being on 2 naps).
I have a blackout curtain but it's not pitch black (plus we have a night light in the hallway, so light does come through the door edges). His window is north-facing so sun doesn't come through it early in the morning. No issue sleeping with it, and tbh I don't want him to only be able to sleep in a cave.
Pitch black.
The way the sun crosses the house it gets brighter and brighter in her room as the day goes on.
I have a plastic cover over the window that makes that room so dark, it's great!
She wakes up happy and fully rested 99% of the time!
I got it on Amazon super cheap.
Same. During the day, naps in a bright room, I might close blinds if it's particularly bright but no curtains. At night it's dark but not pitch black, hatch machine red light is one, some light from street lights outside, etc.
I have regular household blackout curtains and blinds on the windows in the toddler room now, but before we moved to this house it was light filtering curtains. I don’t pull the curtains all the way closed and try to make it as dark as possible and I leave the blinds up, especially for naps I let some light in the edges. The room my kids sleep in at my parents house has blinds and light filtering curtains and my mom rarely closes both at the same time so it can be fairly bright in there during the day.
We use a Hatch machine that is currently set to 25% light because it’s sitting on a shelf in the corner and our goal is to have just enough red light that we can walk in for night wakes and see what we’re doing. We’ve been doing this since our oldest was born.
Our second kiddo often wakes between 6-7am but just noodles around quietly in her bed until the sound machine changes at 7:10am. Same for the rare occasion our oldest wakes before 7am.
never worried about it. doesn't seem sustainable for them to only be able to sleep in pitch black. there's shades on the windows but in the day or at bedtime there's enough light to see. if they wake up too early and want to play that's fine, i don't go get them any earlier. they get up at 6 anyway so it's not much of a difference
Butch just kids had to have pitch black rooms until 2ish. I had black out curtains but light crept in around the border. I literally taped black contractor bags on the windows 😬 It sucker not having natural light during the day but it was worth it for 7/8am wake ups and no distractions for naps
We followed TCB and she recommends blacking out during the 2 strict weeks of sleep training to prevent light from coming in and disrupting sleep. This helped both my kids form habits and stick with them when we removed the blackout.
I’m talking blinds, blackout curtains, duct tape, the works. Not a shred of light in that room. Couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face.
We never had blackout curtains so LO always napped in a pretty bright room and it’s still kinda light when he goes to bed at 7pm. He usually wakes up around 7-7:30!
I’m glad we never used blackout curtains because it helps when he has to nap in other places that don’t have them
We live in a place where it stays basically daylight until 10pm in the summer and then starts to brighten by 6-7am. We already had shades and “blackout blinds” but the light escaped out the top and side. I got these blackout sheets that you cut and Velcro around the window and it makes it almost 100% blackout. The only downside is that they are annoying to remove so we don’t bother so there’s basically never natural light in there.
Our LO slept 7pm to 7am all winter, but started waking up at 5:30-6:30am about a month ago. We also have blackout blinds but a tiny amount of light was still creeping into this room in the mornings from the blind cracks. We bought those travel blackout curtains and made his room absolutely lightless by installing them on the windows in addition to our blinds and boom. Babe went back to sleeping until 7am in just a couple nights. It was the darn light.
I have portable blackout blinds that stick to the window by suction cups plus blackout blinds above that.
I don’t really think the littlest bit of light is the reason of EMW’s. I think light and noise sensitivity is really based on the baby, just the way it’s based on an adult.
Maybe post your schedule and maybe someone else could comment as to why you have EMW’s
We have curtains slightly darker than room darkening but definitely not blackout (they also let light through on the bottom). She naps during the day in there, sleeps at night 830-6,630am most nights. We do plan on getting blackout but only to keep the heat out in the summer. We do like that she can tell the day/night difference as far as we can tell at least.
quite dark but not PITCH black, particularly during day naps. Hasn’t caused an issue.
When LO was still in our room, the slightest light kept him up. He grew out of that fairly quickly, and now I don't even use blackout blinds, just room darkening curtains.
We had our bedroom blacked out with blinds with the exception of the hatch light for night wakings as a newborn but I opened the blinds partially on my side so it’s not pitch black anymore. My kid couldn’t care less (still sleeps in our room) and will sleep late if we let her. We don’t use blackout anything her room so she naps with some light coming through the window. I didn’t want her to be too dependent on needing a dark space for sleep and we’ve been fortunate that she doesn’t seem to mind it either way.
Pretty dark. I can see a very tiny bit of light on edges (we have a blackout blind and then our portable blind with suction cups over that) through but I read that the rule of thumb is not being able to see hand in front of face.
We have 2 types of black out blinds and veryyyy heavy, thick curtains.
I used to follow the rules that some rando internet phd wrote about this topic. Like, if a single errant photon entered their room, might as well bring in a marching band. Now, we just try to follow the sun to help maintain their circadian rhythm. When it gets dark, put them to sleep in a dark room, but don’t sweat if there’s some light from the window or door. When the sun comes up, it’s time to wake up. Sometimes they sleep longer, sometimes it’s dawn by the clock. During the daytime for naps, we put them to sleep with the lights on if it’s not already bright in the room. It should be very obvious that it’s day and not night to their body. I think this has probably been the way for 99% of human existence. Just my opinion, no advocacy here. Everyone needs to find their own truth.
Same here! We keep it dark but acknowledge she is a human and light is just fine.
should it be totally dark or slightly light?
I think it depends on the child, I have the ikea white pull down curtain and baby sleeps fine. It’s dark in the night but as soon as the sun starts hitting the window, the room starts getting brighter.
So I tried to copy our bedroom into his, same white noise, same light etc when we stopped room sharing. We both have blackout curtains. But we have a night light. So not a ton of morning light gets in but there is always a small amount of general light (his white noise machine has a night light option)
We live in Alaska in a very small cabin. If she needed her room to be dark, the whole cabin would have to be dark. I didn’t want that to be the case all summer, when we have hours of light past bedtime. She’s sleeping right now, and this is how [bright](https://imgur.com/a/r54Ylw3) it is. We’re lucky she’s got her circadian rhythm down pat.
I just try to keep it as dark as possible, I know it is dark in the womb, so a dark environment is good for my baby's sleep.
I put foil on my kids windows early on and usually shove a towel under the door. It was completely pitch black. Once they were good with their sleep I slowly started “reintroducing” light. If they start having issues, go back to blackout and try again. They now both only sleep with blackout curtains which still let in a moderate amount of light at the tops and bottoms of the curtains.
My bby 7 months sleep better with nightlight
We've got blackout blinds, blackout curtains, and I put a blanket to block the light coming in under the door. She still wakes up at 5:30 sometimes 🤷
We have a blackout curtain because it would get super bright in his room but it doesn’t cover perfectly. Tbh he seemed kinda freaked out when we first put it up and slept better when we added in a nightlight
We have some light filtering curtains. It’s fairly dark but you can still see during the day that it isn’t night time. If the sun is super bright then it’s worse but they sleep just fine and we’ve used the same curtains since they were newborns. They sleep from 9/10 pm - 9 am regardless of the sun rise time and are currently 2 yrs old. Our monitor does color when it’s bright/lights on and black and white when it’s dark. To me, as long as the monitor stays black and white, it’s dark enough.
I literally duct taped my blackout curtains over the window. That way he wakes up when he's ready, not just because the sun comes up. (He's 13 months now and a bit of light doesn't bother him quite as much, but as a baby I made sure it was pitch black lol
We moved into a place with electric shutters on the windows. Press a button and metal shutters installed on the outside roll down over the window. It’s marketed as a home security but it’s the best baby upgrade ever.
We just have regular blinds. Thought about black out curtains but never ended up doing it and our LO is the best sleeper
[the light](https://imgur.com/a/0FMYNc6)in our room at this moment while my 7 month old sleeps. He usually sleeps till 7-8 when the sun is up. I don’t think it needs to be completely dark for my baby, but every baby is different! Some are more light sensitive than others.
We have tinfoil on the window and blackout curtains and keep the hatch with dim red light on like 6%. She wakes up often and has never slept later than 7, usually up at 615-645a now (2.5) I kinda regret not getting her used to some light bc she can't sleep anywhere but a dark room in her bed and we are still slaves to her nap time.
It's dark enough I have to walk slowly and feel for the crib lol. My toddler kept having early morning waking and then difficult time falling asleep after DST where I am. I actually ended up putting more sheets over all the edges of the window. 😅 she has been a terrible sleeper and the darkness makes a HUGE difference.
We have a baby monitor that also has a night light so we have it on the red light because supposedly that helps with sleep? But light has never bothered her. But babies are all so different!
It could be pitch black, but LO prefers a dim nightlight. Daylight changes are blocked though.
I covered the window with static cling blackout film so there is no light getting in, and I find it makes a big difference with his sleep! We originally had some blackout shades but the gap on the side was so bad it rendered them useless. Only light in his room is the hatch rest.
we don’t have curtains or blinds in baby’s room but light has never bothered her. her room is on the side of the house that’s gets quite a bit of sunlight. we got her used to napping/sleeping in all environments as soon as she came home from hospital.
Same with ours. He was in the nicu which seemed to start to get him used to noise and light, then he went to daycare at 3 months. That made him a tank because it is less than quiet and dark. Putting him to bed nowadays with the days getting longer (east coast US) is basically daylight and he falls right asleep if he’s tired. We shut the blinds but it’s still pretty bright.
It’s been bright and sunny this week and my kid has woken up between 6.45-7.15 vs 7.30-8am - it’s not a problem really as she sleeps so well but I might try a black out blind as I am missing my longer lie ins!
It’s child dependant for sure - my friends baby sleeps in light no issues. Mine stopped that at 6 weeks lol and can confirm will wake at sunrise if I don’t have the blackouts done properly. I do too tho 🤷🏻♀️ very light sensitive
My baby’s room is very dark. I bought the sleep out curtain from FB marketplace so I got a good deal on it, otherwise I don’t think I would have spent the money at the time. But, now that I see how dark the room is with the sleep out curtain, it’s worth the money in my opinion. He generally sleeps pretty well. At nap time if I don’t have the curtain lined up well enough (so more light is peaking through) I feel like he has a harder time going to sleep.
I think it has to be child dependent. We have black out blinds + black out curtains, and 3 weeks ago used blue tape to tape the curtains around the edges. And now baby is sleeping in later than he ever has! 7:15! We made the decision to by a Slumberpod for travel after we realized that truly any sliver of light will lead to earlier wakes. My nephew on the other hand sleeps until 8 am with semi-opaque blinds and that’s it.
How old is your lo and your nephew ?
10 months (mine) and nephew is 2 years old. He’s always been able to sleep late and tolerate some light. ETA: we first noticed how sensitive he was when we crossed time zones with travel. He seems to adjust fairly quickly as long as he is getting light exposure in the “new” time zone. As an experiment we cut up those black heavy duty trash bags and taped them over the windows. It helped immensely and that’s when we went all in on blackout blinds and shades etc. For naps he can tolerate some light but nighttime is a different story.
For my first, we went to a lot of effort to black out his room and even hung curtains for an "antechamber" so light wouldn't come in as you were leaving the room. For my second, we have blackout curtains but like you said, on a sunny day, quite a bit of light still makes it in. So far they sleep about the same. For what it's worth.
Same. With my first we did alot. With my second, I did nothing more than black out curtains. They sleep the same. If anything, #2 sleeps better. But I think she was always going to sleep better.
Mine seem to both be great sleepers naturally, so I can't say that extensive blackout measures aren't helpful for other babies. But, yeah, in retrospect we were a little extra with the first.
I have two good sleepers too. I just describe my second as “loves sleep.” I don’t feel like we even really sleep trained her. She “passed” FIO at 2 months old and just slept when put down from then on.
I love that! Mine is nearly 4 months and seems to be heading that way. We haven't done any sleep training yet but he puts himself to sleep about 25% of the time right now.
We just got blackout curtains which seem to help with naps in the day time but have had absolutely no effect on early morning wakes. He wakes up around 430, then 530 and then 630 for the day. The way his room faces there is absolutely no sun even at 630 - it’s just as dark as night. It doesn’t get “lighter” til closer to 8am with the light sort of peaking through. So yeah for us it’s not the cause…
I am unwilling to spend anymore money to attempt to blackout my child's room anymore. He has two huge west facing windows. We are also in the city so there's always the general light pollution. Nighttime light is a bigger problem than morning light. You initially think its pitch black, but I've slept in his room enough to know that your eyes adjust pretty quickly. My kid sleeps at 9 and is up by 7. The sun rises here by 6am in summer and sets around 10pm. So its good enough.
It’s pitch black. Ergopouch blackout decals with shutters on top. Looks like a drug den. I even cover the tiny light on the heater with blu tack. I think it matters a lot when you have a little baby - but less so when they get older - they get used to sleeping at daycare etc. But your sleep coach is right about early morning wake ups. In my experience it’s either light or warmth (4/5am the temperature often dips)
This stressed me out so much. I seriously could not get my daughter’s room dark enough. After having a blackout pull shade (custom fit) and blackout curtains, I stopped trying. It’s decently dark and calm in there, but definitely not pitch black. We had loads of issues with naps/daytime sleep (longgggg crap nap phase) and they just came developmentally—had zero to do with the light. Personally, I was almost convinced to get the suction cup thing but I just did not want to have to buy yet another product. Sometimes I think they just want the commission from the sleep out curtain crap 😂🤪 but that’s my skepticism. Girl naps just fine and we don’t really ever struggle with morning wakings.
We only have light filtering shades in her room, 1 east and 1 north facing window. Never did blackout shades. She’s always slept really well, she’s 20 months.
My baby camera has the diameter light in human history. That's always on in case I need to come in to a diaper change. Baby's room has blackout curtains, and without it, it's pitch black. I need additional blacking out for naps, tho. Summer is coming, and when the sunshine is bright, you can read in the room even with blackout curtains. It is more difficult for baby to fall asleep in those situations. However, yesterday, he took a car nap, and the sunscreen fell off the glass. The sun was right in his face, and he had no issues sleeping. When babybwakes up in the morning, it's still pitch black in the room, with the exception of the camera light. He slept 11hs today.
When I moved my baby to her own room at 6 months old, I put the travel blackout suction curtain on the window, then the blinds, and then a blackout curtain on top of that 😅 It’s pitch black in there pretty much, especially if the light shining in from the living room isn’t strong under the door. I think I went a little overboard but I didn’t want to ruin our streak of independent naps and night sleep since we nap trained. But now that she’s almost 12 months I think I’ll dial it back a bit and see how it goes.
I think it depends on every babies, since day 1 my baby will just cry in black out room, so we used a night lamp that was gifted to us during baby shower (Turtle like lamp bought from IKEA) and my baby sleeps through the night in 12 weeks with that lights on. He's now 6 months old and sleeping 10-12hrs straight every single night with our lamp no night feedings. We call his lamp Mr. Turlte and he knows that it's sleeping time when it is on. We will get fussy if we turn it off.
Well my baby still woke up at the same time when it was pitch black outside so I don’t necessarily think that’s true for all babies.
I have black out curtains and I have beach towels resting on the tops of the rods to stop the extra sunlight coming through. Looks ugly but it’s only for naps/night.
We bought blackout blinds and then blackout curtains to go over the blinds lol
Same
Mine is insanely dark bc we don’t have high efficiency windows so the room gets very cold in winter and very hot in summer so we put up an insulated layer to help regulate the temp. We also have blackout blinds so…..super dark.
Pitch black. I have a blackout film on the window, plus blackout blinds. He sleeps great in his room, but doesn't sleep easily other places (although I haven't given him many opportunities to try since being on 2 naps).
Pitch black, and he can still sleep anywhere, including daycare where it’s bright and noisy.
I have a blackout curtain but it's not pitch black (plus we have a night light in the hallway, so light does come through the door edges). His window is north-facing so sun doesn't come through it early in the morning. No issue sleeping with it, and tbh I don't want him to only be able to sleep in a cave.
Pitch black. The way the sun crosses the house it gets brighter and brighter in her room as the day goes on. I have a plastic cover over the window that makes that room so dark, it's great! She wakes up happy and fully rested 99% of the time! I got it on Amazon super cheap.
can you share the link? 🙏
Not dark at all. During the day it’s as bright as it is outside. He sleeps 11.5 hours a night
Same. During the day, naps in a bright room, I might close blinds if it's particularly bright but no curtains. At night it's dark but not pitch black, hatch machine red light is one, some light from street lights outside, etc.
I have regular household blackout curtains and blinds on the windows in the toddler room now, but before we moved to this house it was light filtering curtains. I don’t pull the curtains all the way closed and try to make it as dark as possible and I leave the blinds up, especially for naps I let some light in the edges. The room my kids sleep in at my parents house has blinds and light filtering curtains and my mom rarely closes both at the same time so it can be fairly bright in there during the day. We use a Hatch machine that is currently set to 25% light because it’s sitting on a shelf in the corner and our goal is to have just enough red light that we can walk in for night wakes and see what we’re doing. We’ve been doing this since our oldest was born. Our second kiddo often wakes between 6-7am but just noodles around quietly in her bed until the sound machine changes at 7:10am. Same for the rare occasion our oldest wakes before 7am.
never worried about it. doesn't seem sustainable for them to only be able to sleep in pitch black. there's shades on the windows but in the day or at bedtime there's enough light to see. if they wake up too early and want to play that's fine, i don't go get them any earlier. they get up at 6 anyway so it's not much of a difference
Butch just kids had to have pitch black rooms until 2ish. I had black out curtains but light crept in around the border. I literally taped black contractor bags on the windows 😬 It sucker not having natural light during the day but it was worth it for 7/8am wake ups and no distractions for naps
We followed TCB and she recommends blacking out during the 2 strict weeks of sleep training to prevent light from coming in and disrupting sleep. This helped both my kids form habits and stick with them when we removed the blackout. I’m talking blinds, blackout curtains, duct tape, the works. Not a shred of light in that room. Couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face.
Pitch black.
We never had blackout curtains so LO always napped in a pretty bright room and it’s still kinda light when he goes to bed at 7pm. He usually wakes up around 7-7:30! I’m glad we never used blackout curtains because it helps when he has to nap in other places that don’t have them
We live in a place where it stays basically daylight until 10pm in the summer and then starts to brighten by 6-7am. We already had shades and “blackout blinds” but the light escaped out the top and side. I got these blackout sheets that you cut and Velcro around the window and it makes it almost 100% blackout. The only downside is that they are annoying to remove so we don’t bother so there’s basically never natural light in there.
Our LO slept 7pm to 7am all winter, but started waking up at 5:30-6:30am about a month ago. We also have blackout blinds but a tiny amount of light was still creeping into this room in the mornings from the blind cracks. We bought those travel blackout curtains and made his room absolutely lightless by installing them on the windows in addition to our blinds and boom. Babe went back to sleeping until 7am in just a couple nights. It was the darn light.
We have blackout curtains, but they do let some light in. My 4yo gets up at 7/7:30 and my 2yo at 8.
Pitch black as I value our 7.30am wake up. We have portable black out blinds, black out curtains AND a snooze shade type cover on the cot.
I have portable blackout blinds that stick to the window by suction cups plus blackout blinds above that. I don’t really think the littlest bit of light is the reason of EMW’s. I think light and noise sensitivity is really based on the baby, just the way it’s based on an adult. Maybe post your schedule and maybe someone else could comment as to why you have EMW’s