blackout shades

amccul20 · April 2014

are blackout shades a good idea or a bad idea in a nursery. my MIL was giving me hell about it because the baby will never be able to sleep anywhere except a completely dark room if I get them....but I can't imagine i'd have the shades pulled 24/7

so what do you think?

lindsayandjamie · April 2014

Here is my 2 cents. I voted yes because when DS was a newborn, he would wake up with sun. When we got blackouts for our room, he slept for another 2 hours - amazing. However, we don't have them in his room, so for his whole life, he's napped during the day in a room that isn't dark. He also naps in the car no prob.

What I'm finding now is that with the time change, it isn't dark at bedtime and at 2 years old he thinks its party time at 7 when it is actually bedtime. If we weren't moving, I'd install blackouts in his room NOW to get him to settle at bedtime and sleep longer in the morning. I think it's worth doing a blackout because even with a blackout, it's difficult to achieve a totally dark room during the day.

GoodWolf · April 2014

I accidentally voted no but meant "eh"! I'm curious to see what other people think. After reading @lindsayandjamie's response though, I'd lean towards yes if it brings more sleep for everyone

caseyandlizzie · April 2014

W naps all day in bright rooms and will sleep in the bright car with no issues. He usually sleeps in until 9 or so, when the sun has been up for a few hours. My only thought is that if he got used to only napping/sleeping when it's dark, what happens when he's away from the house during a nap time. Will he still be able to sleep if it's not dark?

amccul20 · April 2014

see I was thinking that I would leave the shades open most of the time and just close them at night. so in that case I would think he'd be able to sleep in light and dark places. and he'll be napping most of the time at daycare and its not dark there.

Whippet8 · April 2014

Honestly, I don't want blackout shades because daycare doesn't have them. Cora sleeps fine with whatever sun is in her room, and she has since she was a newborn. I want the baby to be able to do the same. Also, if we are traveling or somewhere that doesn't have blackout shades, I don't want to worry if my child is going to sleep or not.

FWIW, we do pull the regular curtains, but there is still a good amount of light. We pull them mostly so she isn't looking out the window.

smbenevides1989 · April 2014

We didn't use them. I actually leave the shades closed with a little light coming through. If we did close the blinds the room would be pitch black so we always used a night light. So no matter what, there was always light in her room. She sleeps in both dark and light just fine.

bobcee · April 2014

We have blackout shades in both the kids room and I do think it helps them sleep longer at night. Neither had a problem sleeping/napping during the day in light places either when they were young.

And now they are a lifesaver with Delilah. We put her down at 7:30-8:00 and it's still light outside. She has a mindset that you can't sleep when the sun is out because that's daytime and not nighttime. She reprimanded me this weekend when I slept in until 8 because the sun was up and it was daytime, so obviously she has pretty strong feelings about it - haha. I don't think we'd get her down without them now.

And it's not that she can't sleep in light places (she naps just fine at daycare everyday), it's just she equates sun to day and the moon to night and sleep, so if she can't see the light from the sun at night all is good.

wiggyslilsis · April 2014

Ava Nichol sleeps fine in the light but I am going to put blackout blinds in her new roombecause iI would prefer to sleep in a little longer. She doesn't wake up with the sun but if she wakes up and it is light she thinks it is time to get up and if it isn't she goes back to sleep.

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