Comment by scruple | Hacker News Reader

Comment by scruple | Hacker News Reader

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> I don't use a set of blackout curtains, but I know several friends that say it makes a real difference.

Maybe a year ago, I was planning on having a sleep study done. At some point in my 30s I stopped feeling like I was recovering when I slept. I decided, however, that there were some things that I could work on improving before having a sleep study.

Most of what I addressed falls under sleep hygiene: Blackout curtains, better sheets, better blanket/comforter, better pillows, a better mattress, a sleep mask, reducing noise. It took a while to sort all of this out. "Better" is also subjective.

I also slowly worked on getting to bed earlier. I used to get into bed around 11:30pm. Now I'm in bed between 9:30 and 10pm. I read a little bit and then sleep. I stopped having calories after ~7pm.

We have young children, too. 3 under 3. I sleep very well now. Despite the regular interruptions I actually feel like I am getting the highest quality sleep of my adult life right now.

The blackout curtains, though... The difference they made from one day to the next was immediately obvious. My wife and I both woke up feeling more refreshed, looked at each other and said, "Why did we wait so long to do this?"

Blackout curtains are great for sleeping, but I have trouble waking up and getting out of bed when the room is still completely dark (when it’s light outside in the AM).

Recently bought some Hue smart lights to simulate sunrise with blackout curtains which is helping. Next up, motorized blinds that open at a scheduled time.

(#firstworldproblems)

Here in Germany they have metal shutters that vertically descend and black out all light and sound. It’s common on most windows.

They are permeated with little holes that allows light and sound in if they have not fully descended. If they have then the little holes are folded shut.

I’ve found the same issue where if they’re completely down waking up is hard, so I leave the top two rows of holes open to let in natural light.

I think having a small amount of light gradually filtering in helps a bunch to wake-up.

Video of shutters - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_KePLmie7lE

> Here in Germany they have metal shutters [...]

Small correction: not metal, these are (mostly) made out of plastic nowadays, sometimes aluminum, and earlier, from wood.

But yes, the effect if they aren't fully closed, is nicely adjustable to limit light without making a room pitch fark.

I just moved to a new flat and, by design, the motorized shutters don't close fully and the top two or three rows of "holes" remain exposed when the motor disengages.

I was a bit annoyed at first and considered tweaking the mechanism to close the shutters fully, but in the meantime the impact this tiny changes has made on my and my girfriend's sleep patterns is tremendous and now I think I'll leave it that way.

We used to be very late sleepers, I work from home and regularly wouldn't wake up until 11AM or so. Now at 8:30 sharp I'm awake and ready to get up. It's a pleasant way of waking up too, I can tell that my body is sort of meant to be woken up that way instead of using an alarm sound. Obviously it also means that I get tired much earlier at night. But overall it seems like a positive change, especially since I'm in my mid-thirties and it's not like I regularly party all night anymore and I appreciate getting more time to do stuff in the morning.

You Germans have them too? Good! In Spain we have used them since forever, but it seems that most countries have yet to discover their wonders. They are one the things I miss the most when living abroad or traveling around.

I'm living in Germany and my wife really likes shutting them fully. That really makes it hard for me to wake up. I wish I could automate them. 2 problems: We don't own the flat we are living in and I wouldn't even know where to start hacking these fully closed electronic systems.

I live in France and we have the same shutters (metal plates rolling vertically with th esmall holes that can be uncovered).

I automate what I can at home - the CHO (Chief Home Officer - my wife) mostly disapproves because of some weird concerns about reliability (70% of availability for lights is that I call great, but opinions vary).

There is a simple solution for the shutters - you can use a Shelly 2.5 (https://shelly.cloud/products/shelly-25-smart-home-automatio...) that you connect in parallel to the shutter. It works wonders if you have a manual switch on the wall and probably with a remote too (I specifically asked for a manual switch on the wall). You can program the device itself to open the shutters at, say, 10 minutes before sunrise or whatever. You can easily remove them when you leave your flat and reuse somewhere else.

The Real Solution For Real Hackers (c) is to use Home Assistant (https://www.home-assistant.io/). <flamewar on> Do not settle for inferior systems such as jeedom, domoticz, ... </flame war off please do not hunt me>

I think you are looking for something like this. https://www.jalousiescout.de/gurtwickler/elektrische-gurtwic... I believe most tool stores (OBI, Bauhaus) have them. At least here in Austria.

> and I wouldn't even know where to start hacking these fully closed electronic systems.

If you have electronic shutters, most of these are a simple 230V based system: one neutral line and two 230V inputs, one for each direction. Hacking them is easy, get two programmable 230V relays (e.g. use a Raspberry Pi relay board) and never ever activate both relays at the same time.

My Apple Watch actually starts brightening up before the alarm goes of to 'simulate' some light. My Pixel phone before also had that, works quite ok

> They are permeated with little holes that allows light and sound in if they have not fully descended. If they have then the little holes are folded shut.

This too is a bit generalised, as ours do fully close. In fact they actually snap into place to activate a break in barrier. This makes it harder to break in, as they can not be easily pushed up or removed.

Rolladen? Yes, I remember those! My wife and I lived in Belgium at the time, but we visited her sister and brother-in-law in Germany on a few occasions.

Yes, I want! Have wanted for years, in fact. Hard to get here in the US, however.

Same here in Greece. I have no idea how people sleep without them, visiting the UK or US is always frustrating because I have to wake up at the crack of dawn.

I live in the arctic, and black out curtains in the summer is a must have (as it's daylight 24/7 for a month). And around december it's dark 24/7, so a sunrise lamp helps a lot to wake up naturally and not feel like total crap every morning.

Living in Seattle, having lights that turn on in the morning really help wake me up in the winter months. I use an Alexa routine which turns on NPR and turns the nightstand lights to ~50% so they’re providing light but not harshly so.

I've always wondered why both "sunrise lamps" (like the one you're referring to) and "light-therapy lamps" (i.e. lamps of 10000+lm with a diffuser) exist, but there are no sunrise light-therapy lamps, which 1. go from dim to holy-wow-that's-bright on a slow timer, and 2. which are designed in a shape where you could fit them around your bed somehow. (IMHO, they'd ideally be a flat ceiling panel!)

Accidentally set up android's new gradually lit screen alarm, and it really made waking up quite nicer. The kind of "oh wow, so simple yet so nice" feeling when it happens.

Have you tried a sleep mask? Once you lift it off the room will be light again.

I found that to help quite a bit and as a bonus they are portable and much more economical than motorized blinds or blackout curtains.

That being said motorized shades do seem pretty neat and may have a privacy advantage depending on where you live.

I got SwitchBot Curtain for a simple DYI motorized curtains project. Affordable and trivial to install. I let the light in 10 minutes before the alarm. Should've got it sooner.

Hue smart lights simulated sunrise was a game changer for me.

When I wake up and realize that in the morning, all I get for light is out of a smart-bulb, I get inexplicably depressed.

I did buy the motorized curtains. It is quite expensive, but works pretty well. I'm really happy about them, nothing beats natural light to wake up.

I've had great success with Wake-up Lights / Sunrise alarm clocks. They do get quite bright when fully lit.

My wife was complaining about waking up in the middle of the night. I grabbed some black out curtains. She woke up the next day feeling better than she has for a long time.

Turns out there was a streetlight that would hit her in the face and was causing her to wake up. We didn't realize it until we got the blackout curtains.

Would you say the blackout curtains made a bigger difference than the sleep mask?

Not OP, but had the same experience several years ago. The answer is yes.

If you want a cheap test, you can tape aluminum foil over your bedroom window(s) for a night (learned this from The Martian!). It will fully block all light, and you probably already have what you need to try it in your home. Note that it does have the downside that from the outside you look like a crazy person.

I also use this trick when traveling - some AirBnBs have crazy thin curtains.

Huh, that's kind of wild. I'd assumed that blocking all light out at your eyes would do the same trick, I'll have to try the blackout curtains. Thanks!

I use a mask too, but it moves around when I sleep. Even properly positioned I haven’t found a mask that doesn’t leak around the edges.

Your face structure may be different than mine but I found this sleep mask stays put and works well at blocking out the light — https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07D3M5TTZ

I have this problem, too. I've tried probably a dozen masks, the best was one that I got overseas in Southeast Asia and it has no branding, etc.

Yes, definitely, but I continue to use the mask. There are times when I need the mask, because I'm napping or sleeping some place that isn't blacked out, and if I haven't worn it in a while it is very bothersome / distracting.

+1 for the blackout curtains. Easily 20% better sleep.

And our only source of light at night prior was a street light outside our bedroom window.

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