Are you a lights-on person or a lights-off person?

No, I don’t mean during sex. I mean to wake up.

When I wake up, I want to turn on all the lights. It helps me to wake up. I’m married to a guy, though, who likes to get up and leave the lights off until he is more awake. Our daughter is like that, too. She finds the lights too jarring. It’s like living with moles. Our son is more like me and wants the lights on.

I was staying in a hotel this past week for a work trip and it was so nice to be able to just throw the lights on when I got up.

What about you? Lights on or off? And if you live in a mixed household like I do, who wins? The lights-off crowd wins here.

I get up early and just turn on a minimum of lights so as not to bother anyone else - or the still sleeping dogs.

Yes I am considerate of my dogs too! They may have had a rough day the day before. Sleeping all day, and occasionally barking at someone. A lot of work to sleep with one eye open!

Owing to challenged vision, particularly acute in low light, I keep four lights on 24 hours. Two more I turn on in the morning and off at night, and a few more I turn on as needed.

In general I’m a “lights on” person … primarily to avoid tripping over the cats and stepping in their vomit.

Generally I’m a lights off person. When I wake up, the first thing I do is to turn on my computer and start watching video (in the past, I would just turn on the T.V.). I don’t turn on any other lights until I’ve acclimated to the light from the computer or T.V. If I do need to turn on a light immediately to do something, I find it very jarring and uncomfortable. Fortunately I live alone, so I get to make the decisions.

I’m usually up first so it’s lights minimum to avoid disturbing my still-sleeping wife. There’s enough ambient light in our bedroom bathroom for me to do my whole out-of-bed and ready to make coffee process with no extra lights on at all.

When I’m alone in a hotel room I usually use the minimum additional lighting available for the first couple minutes to avoid blasting my eyes. Then it’s full blast in the bathroom to support the wake up, clean up, and get going process.

You didn’t ask, but in the evening it’s very valuable to end all screen watching and reduce the lights for about 30 minutes before going fully dark for sleep. Your brain really appreciates twilight & you’ll sleep sooner & better if you give it some. Looking at any computer screen is far more harmful to good sleep than is conventional incandescent light of the same brightness. CFL is not quite as bad as a screen, but close.

Lights off. OFF! The evil light of the day star (and its surrogates) is painful to my eyes. I avoid light as much as I can. My daughter is like me. My son likes light and my husband is sympathetic to my issues.

I have to get up really early for work, and by extension on my days off as I’m acclimitised to the schedule. If I didn’t turn the light on It’d be too dark to do anything. If there was enough light to see I wouldn’t turn the light on for extra light though.

Off. I have 40 watt bulbs in all my lamps, and only use them when absolutely necessary. If the TV is no, the light isn’t. I never use my ceiling lamps, and have a night light in the bathroom.

I’m a “lights on right before rolling out of bed” person. Sometimes I like spending a bit of time still in bed, sometimes I jump right out as soon as I realize I’m awake, but in either case the first stop once vertical is the bathroom and it’s a lot easier to find it with the lights on.

Your username does not suit you, then! :wink:

Yeah, she gets dazed by the sun. “Aaaaah the lights!!!”, vampire-movie style but without turning into ashes.

Lights on. How else am I going to keep myself from falling back to sleep?

Lights off. I stumble to the bathroom and turn on the lights there only if the sun isn’t already up.

What amuses me is movies/TV where the person gets a call in the middle of the night, and turns on the bedside light to answer it. Hello, who would want that kind of jarring light – answer it and then turn on the light only if it requires further action. I know part of it is to light the scene, but I prefer unrealistically bright moonlight for that!

This is what my husband does, exactly, and it’s enough light for him.

I always defer to the lights-off crowd, but on rainy and dark days, I find it gloomy. I think I just need more light than they do. I even have one of those SAD lights that’s sometimes use in the winter.

nm lorene beat me to it

Tell it, brother!

(I’ll accept dim lighting…but it has to be over the threshold that clearly says “Daytime, dude!”)

Lights off. I love sunlight, but artificial lighting always feels harsh and unpleasant to me and I’ll only turn it on at night, and only if I’m doing something that requires it. If I’m watching TV or using the computer, I’d rather do so in the dark.

I used to have a set of auto-on LED candles scattered around my apartment, and that was a perfect setup for me. Now I have a couple lamps with warm 40 watt bulbs.

My husband turns all of the lights on. I hate it. Living with him, I’ve come to realize that I’m more sensitive to noise, light and smells than I thought I was. I also have bad eyesight. Given a choice I want my house to be like a mini sensory deprivation chamber.

I want to be more awake before I hit the lights but I want them on before getting dressed or anything.

I have sensitive eyes, and I can’t stand sudden light jarring me out of darkess. I’m also the first one up in our house, and I keep lights to a minimum.