By Nicola Winters
Modern day life can cause havoc with our body clocks. People no longer have the luxury of sleeping a full eight hours in darkness, refreshing both the body and mind, due to work commitments, busy family life and looking after children. Working nine till five is no longer the norm, with many people having to work night shifts to care for their children in the day or those who attempt to fit studying around work. Sleep and essential rest is now done when and where possible, meaning all distractions need to be eliminated.
Sleeping at unusual times of the day is not as easy as it may seem. The human’s biological clock works in mysterious ways and factors such as temperature, sunlight and sleep can all affect it in harmful and unwanted ways; therefore blocking out the sun and outside light when sleeping in the day is essential. This means that it’s not only the individual that needs to make changes to their routine simply to ensure they have enough rest, but homes need to adapt to this problem too. The choice of furniture we decide to display and use within our houses can have a direct impact on the amount of sleep that we encounter.
For example, the type of window treatments used in the home can play a massive part. Standard curtains, roller and vertical blinds all struggle to successfully block out all unwanted sunlight, streetlight and outside distractions, leaving a person feeling groggy, moody and under serious risk of health problems. Blackout roller blinds offer an inexpensive and desirable solution to this common problem.
It is not just those who are working at unsociable hours who will need to re-energize during the day, but parents and babies too. Mothers and fathers are only too aware of how difficult it is to get a new born bay or a toddler to sleep at lunchtime. Noise, light and other unwanted interruptions cannot be entirely wiped out, leaving both mother and baby in need of a serious session of offloading.
The level of privacy within your home will also be heightened due to the elimination of silhouettes and unwanted light seeping through the thinness of the fabric or the gaps at either side of the blind.
A common misconception of blackout blinds is to imagine dark, unappealing thick blocks of fabric hanging from unwelcoming buildings but the variety and choice on offer will be sure to suit any home décor or style, making it easier to adequately rest whilst not having to sacrifice on the look of your house.
Noise can be another inconvenience for those who are wishing to savor those few minutes of shut eye. Noise will never be completely absent; however there are a few things that can be placed in the home to deal with these. By keeping a fan on, either in the bedroom or wherever you normally sleep, noise will be reduced. Although this isn’t ideal in the summer months, most fans can be pointed away from the bed to avoid chilling.
Noise eliminating headphones can now be purchased online; another way to ensure that you experience enough peace at times of rest. However, these will only suitable for adults. Those with children may choose to leave a radio on in the background, focusing both parent and child onto one thing and one thing only. Other, distracting noises will be less noticeable with the radio playing.
So here’s to a modern day life…..tiring don’t you think?
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Great article! I have never been one to be bothered too much by light waking me up in the morning since I am really a natural early riser. I will have to say that something like this would have come in handy for me back when I was working 12 hour night shifts in the ICU. It was hard enough to try and sleep during the day with all the normal interruptions. Add the light streaming in during the day to the mix and you have a lot of tired nurses working the night shift, LOL. Great suggestions!
I wonder if the Blackout Blinds would have helped me. For 3 years I worked the graveyard shift and sleep just wasn’t the same. I never felt right event though I had a black sheet covering my closed blinds and I had the house to myself I was still off kilter.
14 years ago I did this with my son and have with my other 2 children. People thought I was nuts, that I was messing with their sleep patterns…they should awake with the sun. I never ever had a kid wake up before 7:30 am unless they had too. They have pretty much, unless they were sick, had very good sleep patterns and don’t have any problems falling asleep. They also use sound machines. Great article!
I basically knew about a majority of this, but with that said, I still assumed it was helpful. Nice job!