You get home from a night shift and the sun is already up, the garbage truck is doing its rounds and everyone else in the house is starting their day. Your bedroom was set up for people who sleep at night, so it's working against you.
There are three things to fix, the light, the noise and your hours. The light is the big one, and most of it comes through the window. Our Blackout Blind goes straight onto the glass with suction cups, no drill. The rest is below.
The light
A bedroom that's dark at midnight can be bright at 9 AM. The light comes in three ways, the window, the gaps round the door and the screens in the room.
The window
Regular curtains let light in round the edges and through the fabric, and blinds let it through the slats. The Blackout Blind sits on the glass with the suction cups along its top band, so nothing gets drilled and it comes off without marks on the frame. The window side has a PU blackout coating and the room side is soft black fabric.
It comes in 130 by 100 cm for C$44.99, and 130 by 200 cm for taller windows at C$54.99. Measure the glass, not the frame, before you pick.
The door
Light from the hallway comes in under the door. A rolled towel along the bottom deals with it.
Screens and little lights
Chargers, a TV standby light, the power bar. Turn the phone face down and put tape over anything that glows and doesn't need to be seen. Leave the smoke alarm alone.
Whatever's left
Someone opens the door and the light comes in with them. Our Eye Mask has moulded cups about 20 mm deep, so it doesn't press on your eyes or lashes and you can blink with it on. The band adjusts with a slider and it's feather light. C$13.99 in black, purple or pink.
Some people who work nights also wear sunglasses on the drive home, so the first thing they see after the shift isn't full morning sun.
How much daylight you're sleeping through
It depends on where you live and the time of year. In Toronto on June 21 the sun comes up at 5:36 AM and goes down at 9:03 PM, so a sleep from 8 AM to 4 PM is in daylight the whole way through.
Our sunrise calculator shows sunrise and sunset for your city on any date, and its night-shift mode shows how much of your sleep is in daylight.
The noise
Daytime is loud in a way nights aren't. Deliveries, lawn mowers, construction, the school bus, kids getting home in the afternoon.
- Earplugs. Foam ones go inside your ear. If you don't like that, putty earplugs press over the opening instead, there is a box of silicone putty earplugs in our Ultimate Sleep Kit.
- A fan running in the room covers a lot of the small noises from outside.
- A note on the front door saying you're sleeping and where to leave packages. Turn the doorbell chime off if yours lets you.
- Do not disturb on your phone, with your favourites allowed through so family can still reach you.
- Your hours on the fridge, so the people you live with know when you're asleep without being reminded every day.
Your hours
There are two common ways to fit sleep round a night shift.
One block after the shift
You get home, go to bed and sleep straight through to the afternoon. Say your shift is 7 PM to 7 AM and the drive is 30 minutes. You're home at 7:30, lights out at 8:00, and 8 hours later you're up at 4:00 PM. You leave at 6:30 PM, which leaves time to eat and get ready.
A shorter block plus a nap
You sleep after the shift but get up earlier, then nap before you leave for work. Some people do this so they're up when their kids get home.
Whichever you pick, keep the same times on your work days. It's easier to fall asleep at 8 AM when 8 AM is always bedtime.
Days off are harder. Some people stay on their night schedule, some switch back to sleeping at night and some meet in the middle. It comes down to your family and how many nights you work in a row.
Our shift sleep calculator does the math. Put in your shift times and your commute and it gives you a sleep window and a nap time you can save to your calendar.
If you work nights in Ontario, the clocks go back an hour at 2 AM on Sunday, November 1, so a shift that runs through 2 AM that night is an hour longer. Who changes and who doesn't is on our clock change page.
The short version
- Cover the window, the door gap and anything that glows.
- Eye mask for whatever light is left.
- Earplugs or a fan for the noise, and a note on the door.
- Same bedtime on every work day.
The Ultimate Sleep Kit is the Blackout Blind, the Eye Mask and the putty earplugs in one order, for less than the blind and the mask cost on their own here. It's C$54.99 with the 130 by 200 cm blind, or C$49.99 with the 130 by 100 cm blind. Everything for a dark room is in our blackout collection, with free shipping to 96 countries and 30 day returns.
To get the room dark first, read how to make a bedroom pitch black without drilling.