Blackout Blinds – Not Just For Vampires

There are many different reasons why a person would need to completely block out light from their rooms, and being a vampire is not one of them. Blackout blinds are a great invention, however the name implies that they are a single type of blind, and this is not necessarily the case. You can purchase blackout fabric that can be attached to existing blinds, and they can be used on many different styles of window coverings. If you personally can’t see any need for this solution that’s fine, but here are a few reasons that people may need to block out the sun that you may not have thought of…

You most likely don’t give this a lot of thought, unless it relates to you or a family member, but the world doesn’t stop at 5 o’clock. For many, as the rest of the world battles the peak hour traffic trying to get home in time for dinner and to spend a few precious hours with their kids, there are others who are just waking up and ready to start their “day”. I’m talking of course about shift workers, the unsung heroes that keep the wheels spinning while the rest of us are tucked up in bed. These people usually get home just as the sun is rising and have to battle the light in order to sleep through the day. For these people, a blackout blind in their bedroom is almost a necessity.

When a newborn baby is bought home, the parents have usually spent a lot of time preparing their house to make it baby friendly. This usually consists of buying lots of stuffed toys, a couple months supply of nappies, and tricking out the nursery with a cot, nursing chair, mobiles, baby monitors, and all the other paraphernalia that is needed during these early years. Quite often though, new parents don’t realise just how much their baby is going to sleep. There are exceptions, of course, and I sympathise with those of you that have a bubs that doesn’t like to sleep – I had one myself. However, for the vast majority of people, a baby will sleep the majority of the day. If your nursery is in a position that allows afternoon light to shine through the window, then you may very well benefit from installing blackout roman blinds or something similar. It will certainly increase your chances of having a well rested baby, which makes parenting just that little bit easier.

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Some people are in the unique situation where they get too much sunlight during the night, and have trouble getting to sleep. I’m reminded of the movie Insomnia, where Al Pacino visits a small town in Alaska to investigate a murder. In this movie, he has a lot of trouble sleeping, partly because of his guilty conscience, but also because the town he is in so far North that it experiences 24 hour sunlight. This is an actual phenomenon, and although some residents claim that they have gotten used to it and have no trouble sleeping, there are many in these communities that spend a lot of money on blackout roller blinds in an effort to get a decent nights sleep.

For a complete blocking of light, you may need to get runners down the side of your window frame. The reason for this is that with any blind, their is usually a small gap between the window frame and the actual covering, and light will tend to seep through this gap unless a guide frame is installed down the side of the window. The blind then slots into this frame and removes all gaps, giving you a total blackout solution.