A Simple LED Light Pollution Hack
Dark rooms = better sleep. Here's a simple trick for annoying LED lights.
If you read the Week #1: Sleep post, you know light pollution is a major problem that prevents getting good quality sleep. One of the biggest culprits of light pollution is the annoying LED lights on our electronic devices. This is a stupidly simple hack that took years before I actually tried it. The hack?
Cover the lights with duct tape.
That’s it.
See, I told you it was stupidly simple.
How I Implemented this Hack
By virtue of living in a neighborhood without street lights, Shelly and I already had a pretty dark bedroom. There were two light sources, though, that caused continual problems - a moderately bright white light on the charger of my Dell laptop, and a really bright green LED on the base for my work radio.
Together, the lights were bright enough for me to see obstacles on the floor if I woke up during the night to go to the bathroom. They were even worse if I looked directly at them. Both were bright enough to trigger a “wake up, it’s morning” response in my brain, which made it really hard to fall asleep again.
So I covered them.
This is the radio:
I covered that bright-ass light with a piece of black duct tape:
Then because I want to know if the charger is actually charging, I poked a small hole in the tape with a screw:
The results:
I used the same concept with the laptop:
A small price of tape wrapped around the charger did the trick. Like the radio charger, I left a sliver of light so I could see if the charger was plugged in:
It’s a super-simple hack that dramatically reduces the light pollution in our bedroom at night. So far, it’s made a difference by making it easier to fall asleep again after waking up.
Give it a shot. If it works, let me know! Or, if you have some hacks or other tips of your own, let us know in our Facebook Group!
~Jason
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