You need your room to be as darkish as potential earlier than you go to mattress, Daniel A. Barone, MD, affiliate medical director of the Weill Cornell Heart for Sleep Medication in New York Metropolis, tells SELF. “Somewhat little bit of ambient gentle, whether or not or not it’s from a streetlight or the solar, will be sufficient to trigger any person to get up,” he says.

Actually, being uncovered to as little as 10 lux (which is roughly the quantity of sunshine you see throughout twilight hours) earlier than bedtime can have a destructive influence in your sleep, Kathryn Jean Reid, PhD, a analysis professor of neurology (sleep medication) at Northwestern College’s Feinberg Faculty of Medication, tells SELF. It’s for that very same cause that consultants discourage display screen use proper earlier than mattress—TVs, tablets, and telephones generate brilliant, blue gentle that may make it laborious to go to sleep or snooze soundly via the evening. Certain, a number of episodes of your consolation Netflix present would possibly lull you right into a state of rest, however any sort of gentle publicity earlier than you drift off goes to mess along with your sleep.

That’s as a result of the darkness can also be useful in relation to winding down and getting high-quality relaxation. Dr. Barone explains that darkness prompts your physique to make melatonin, a hormone your mind naturally produces that helps regulate the timing of your sleep-wake cycle. “When you will have blackout curtains, what you’re doing helps promote that [process],” he says.

Blackout curtains will assist block gentle from seeping into your bed room, so your physique’s melatonin manufacturing can run its course easily and you may get to sleep extra simply. Each Dr. Barone and Dr. Reid say that they’re price a strive for nearly anybody who desires a dimmer bed room, with a number of caveats. For one, they shouldn’t make your area so cavelike that it’s unsafe so that you can stand up in the midst of the evening (say, to make use of the toilet). Additionally they shouldn’t keep closed for too lengthy after you get up—getting a dose of brilliant daylight within the morning is simply as vital in your sleep-wake cycle as retaining issues good and darkish at evening is, Dr. Reid says. Lastly, no blackout curtains can be a cure-all for sleep problems like insomnia, however a set of light-blocking shades can play a helpful supporting position in an intentional pre-sleep routine.