Skylights are a wonderful addition to your home, but can become more of a hindrance if you do not have skylight blinds installed in them. If you have a skylight in your house, or have been in a house that has one, then you will no doubt know just what a difference they can make. Because it is in the roof, it is a totally different thing to a window in the wall; the light that comes through really opens up your room and makes it feel like a part of the outside world. The main benefit to having a skylight is, of course, the light that comes through. No artificial form of light can compare to the healing natural rays of the sun, and it is these rays that we welcome into our homes during those cold winter days to help brighten up our room. Any doctor will tell you that although the sun can be dangerous with too much exposure, our bodies need a little bit of direct sunlight every day for good health. In winter, the added benefit is that the suns light warms our house up. It can be very difficult (and expensive) to get your house to a comfortable temperature after a cold frosty night, and a skylight can really help.
The only problem is that it’s not winter all year round, and when the hot summer comes, that same opening in your roof can turn your home into a pressure cooker. If you live in a climate that has extreme summers, then the last thing you are going to want is that sun peering through your roof and heating it up. In the winter, at night when the sun has gone down, you put the heater on. 
Any nine year old kid will tell you what they’ve learned about hot air in science – it rises. This means that if your skylights are exposed, then all the heat that your heater produces during those winter nights is going straight through your roof. Installing blinds for skylights in these affected areas will help alleviate this problem to a great degree.
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Reasons for installing a skylight blind are not limited to extreme weather conditions, however. Like any other window in your home, you need to be able to have the option of covering it up when you want to. Although privacy is not as much of an issue for a skylight window, it can sometimes be. In most cases, no one is going to be looking through your skylight unless they are doing a flyover. There are cases; however where your skylight is installed on an angle and neighbours can see through there, giving them literally a bids eye view. Many people don’t realise this, and go happily about their bathroom activities oblivious to the fact that someone is watching from above. For other people, watching television can become an issue in the living room at a particular time of the day, as the sun comes through and casts a glare on the screen. Even the moonlight can be annoying at times shining through your skylight. All of these are plausible reasons for needing skylight blinds and shades.
Unfortunately, not all skylights are created equal. There are standard sizes for these windows, but more often than not home owners will have them custom made to suit their particular needs. This means that you may have difficulty finding a blind that fits your particular skylight. For this reason, your first step should be to measure your window and compare those measurements to a table of standard skylight window sizes. If you find the size that matches your particular skylight, then all is good and well. If however, there is no match, you are going to have to look at getting custom made skylight window blinds.
As far as materials are concerned, this type of blind needs to be a lot stronger than your average window blind. The reason for this is that it is exposed to direct sunlight a lot more than the windows on the side of your house. Most skylight blinds are specially treated to cope with this extra exposure, but it is worthwhile asking the store owner to make sure before finalising your purchase.