When I was a child in the nineties, my bedroom faced my neighbor’s bedroom. She was a high schooler. And she left her bedroom light on all through the night. Why would she do that? I remember at the time thinking she must be scared of the dark, but high-school age seems kind of old for that. The only other explanation I can think of is that she had night blindness, but even if she did, having the overhead light on seems a bit excessive. Anyone else have any ideas?
(IIRC, when she went off to college her bedroom light was no longer on all the time, only when she was home from college.)
Are you absolutely sure that someone slept in there? Are you sure that she didn’t go to sleep after you and wake up before you?
Beyond those possibilities I’d wager that either she tended to fall asleep with the light on or simply preferred it. I know I (and lots of other people) went through a phase where I slept with the light on. Though I think most people give it up after not too long when you realize you don’t sleep well like that.
I’d go with my first thought, she either had a different sleep schedule than you or she didn’t actually sleep in that room.
To answer your first question: No. From what I can remember, I could see into the bedroom, so I know it was actually used as a bedroom, with a bed and desk in there. But I believe the blinds were closed at night, so it’s possible that she didn’t use the bed, even though it was in there. But that still doesn’t explain why she’d leave the light on in that room every night.
To answer your second question: Yes. Well, let me clarify. The question you asked was if I’m sure she didn’t go to sleep after me and wake up before me, and that’s entirely possible. But I think what you’re getting it is the question “Are you sure she didn’t just turn the light off at, say, 1 AM, and then turn it back on at 5?” And yes, I’m sure of that, because you know how it is where you’ll wake up for a few minutes in the middle of the night, not enough to actually get up and start doing stuff, but enough to notice something like whether or not a light is on. If I ever woke up for a few minutes in the middle of the night, the light was always on.
I will add that when I first complained to my parents about the light always being on, they made some sort of comment along the lines of “Just be patient, she’ll turn it off eventually” and I argued with them that no, she didn’t turn it off eventually. And I remember that after a few months, my parents had to admit that I was right, if they were ever up at any time of the night and looked over at the bedroom, the light was always on.
Every night? For the whole night? I can relate to this comment to a small extent, in that there’s times where I’ve been tired enough that I fell asleep with the light on. But (1) this is not a regular occurrence, and (2) if that DOES happen, I’ll usually wake up, oh, two hours later and turn the light off at that point. I don’t remember ever leaving it on the whole night.
My daughter’s ex-in-laws used to leave their TV on 24/7 - literally! We were invited for Christmas dinner one year, and the set was never turned off. We stopped by once to help then-SIL pick up something, no one was home, but the TV was on. According to my daughter, that’s the way they were. At least leaving a light on is quieter.
Not every night. Usually when he left the light on it was because he fell asleep playing video games or tapping away on his phone.
Also, if I noticed it, I would turn the light off for him.
It’s worth noting childhood memories are typically not that accurate. So I think the OP can be taken with a grain of salt. Not saying the OP is lying, I just have my doubts that the light was left on every night.
That was me too. I eventually got a piece of string that I tied around the switch, ran it under something heavy on the floor (like a shoe or something) and over to my bed. When I was ready to fall asleep I could pull the string and the light turned off. In college I upgraded to a switch that worked with a button on any remote control you had nearby (you’d program it to work with some otherwise unused button).
It would be odd, but I just wanted to put it out there. Who knows, maybe she slept in a different bedroom or in front of the TV in the living room or in a closet for all we know.
As for the light, some people just simply don’t turn off lights. They’re not in the room, they don’t pay the electric bill, they really don’t care. My daughter leaves lights on all over the house. When I was married, I’d come home after work to half the lights on. My mom will leave the house with THREE tvs on.
I tried to rephrase that question at the end. Is it possible that she just had a different sleep schedule than you? Even if she was in high school, maybe she slept from 3pm to 8pm and was up the rest of the night or otherwise just wasn’t sleeping when you assume she was.
See, this is why people don’t ask me simple questions. I have a habit of turning an easy question into ‘well, here’s a hypothetical list of reasons why whatever you’re asking about doesn’t make sense’.
People will routinely start off questions to me with ‘I just need a short answer, not a list of reasons, but…’
Actually, this is a distinct possibility. As Grrr! mentioned, childhood memories are not always reliable, and she may have actually been older than high school aged but young enough to still be living with her parents. In which case, she may have worked a job with odd hours. I had a roommate once who worked from home, doing tech support during the graveyard shift. Granted, this was in the nineties when working from home was less common, but maybe she had some sort of job over the phone.
Maybe she or her parents worked for the electric company and just didn’t care about the bill?
I had a friend who lived on military housing and they kept the A/C and lights on even if they weren’t home because they didn’t have to pay for the electricity. Other than bedtime (I slept in the living room one night), they had all the lights in the house on. I think that left the first floor hallway light on all night though. Odd, since all the bedrooms were upstairs.
Was the light on at dawn or dusk? How about if it was overcast? Was it on 24/7? Since you were a child, she may well have been older than you thought.
As I child, older people were either teenagers (mid-teens to their 20’s) or adults (25-30 was old!). As far as I could tell, the teacher’s aides looked like the were still in high school.
Sometimes if I want to make sure I don’t oversleep, I leave the light on.
There were times in my youth where my light would have been on like that except for a parent or brother turning it off; I fell asleep with the light on a lot in high school because I was working after school and exhausted a lot. So I understand it being on.
I don’t understand no-one else in the house turning it off.
With the disclaimer that I’m speaking from memory: I do not believe it was on 24/7. Of course, it’s possible that it was and I just didn’t notice because artificial light is harder to spot in daylight, but I believe it was not always on. Which makes me inclined to believe that perhaps she had an offset sleep schedule. I wish I could remember when she closed and opened her blinds, as that might be another indication of when she slept, but I don’t remember that. (As for the questions about dawn, dusk, and when it was overcast: I don’t know. I wouldn’t have considered it unusual to have a light on during those times, so I didn’t pay much attention then.)
Her parents left her light on when she was a baby, or after they moved house, or for whatever reason, and she just got used to it. That, and tiredness.
My older brother is in his late 70s, and still sleeps with the light on. This is strange, because when we were kids, I was the one who was afraid of the dark. Now, the darker the better.
I used to need at least a little bit of light in the room when I was a kid so I would open the bathroom door and leave the light on so that it wasn’t completely dark in my bedroom. I’d get freaked out when it was really dark. I remember waking up in the middle of the night during power outages and I’d be freaked out. I also had to go to sleep with the radio on. My radio would be on all night long.
I finally grew out of these habits when I was probably 17 or 18. By the time I was living on my own in college, I was fine.
Maybe she had an animal, baby or younger sibling that preferred the light on.
Some people sleep with a blanket or pillow over their head or a sleep mask that blocks out the light.
On the opposite end, I keep my place as pitch dark as possible for optimum movie watching and other than a few inches where the blackout curtains don’t meet the ceiling, there’s no indication whether it’s day or night. I also always have the A/C on when I’m at home, so there’s no temp difference. Oftentimes when I take a nap during the day, when I get up I forget whether it’s still daylight or the same day.
My son sleeps with the light on, all night, every night. He prefers it. It’s not worth battling with him about it. I do resist when he tried to leave the hall light on as well.