Why was the bedroom light always on?

[RivkahChaya]

@Sunny_Daze

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.

My son wants to leave his light on, and he’s 13. His father wants it out, because, reasons, blah, blah. Thing is, my brother slept with the ceiling light on from the time he was about 8, until he was about 15 or 16. Then he just stopped. I don’t know why. My son is so much like my brother, it’s funny-- looks like him, acts like him, sounds like him, has the same talents, and a lot of the same habits, like eating all of one thing on a plate, eating all of another, and so on. I think DS just has some weird biological proclivity to sleep with the lights on. Finally compromised with his father, and now he is allowed to sleep with a pretty bright desk lamp, but no ceiling lamp.

@Rhiannon8404

This is my guess. You never know what might have happened. Anything from accidentally being locked in a dark basement to being raped could cause someone to want light on all the time.

It doesn’t even have happened to her. If she was little, and someone told her the story of Elizabeth Smart being kidnapped by someone coming through her window at night, it could have freaked her out.

@lingyi

Sometimes when I’m really stressed, I leave the TV on with no sound and cover my eyes.

Sometimes when I’m stressed, especially when I go to bed first, or when I’m alone for the night, I want the TV on. I like the sound of voices talking-- but what I need are shows I’m familiar with. If it’s new, I start watching, get interested, and stay up watching. That’s not the idea.

I have the TV on like some people play music. I have playlists of shows I’ve seen many times, and I play them at night, or when I’m doing chores, or baking. Now, our TV, you can program to shut of after 2 hours, but that feature wasn’t common many years ago.

OP, since the blinds were down, are you sure the light wasn’t from the TV? I know you are thinking that TV isn’t that bright, but it can look pretty bright at night, especially when it’s keeping you awake, and you are hyperfocused on it.

[lingyi]

It could also be an aquarium/terrarium light which some people like to look at to relax and sleep. Once when I was really stressed, I slept at my friends house because he had an aquarium. I kept the aquarium light on and fell asleep watching the fish.

It might also have been the bathroom light. I know some people leave it on and the door open for the elders or disabled in their family. Bathrooms are where a lot of home accidents happen.

In any case, as stated above when it’s dark, any light source seems brighter. If anyone has the same issue that the OP has, outside light bothering you, try keeping a low power light on near the window. It may help diffuse the perceived intensity of the incoming light.

[lingyi]

@The_wind_of_my_soul

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.

You parents probably turned off the light if you didn’t. They paid the electricity bill after all.

[lingyi]

In my teens, I tried to switch my circadian rhythm staying up as long as I could into the early morning and sleeping until noon. I could do this because I dropped out of school a lot and just stayed at home. Part of the reason I did this was because it was cooler at night.

Just because she may have been a high schooler doesn’t mean she was going to school. For all you know she may have been home schooled or taking a correspondence course (receive and mail your work), as they called it before online classes. My brother did this in the 70’s (taking college classes) before he actually went to college.

Also, how is that you knew what her patterns were? At least at my house, since my bedroom window was directly across my neighbors bedroom, if I opened my curtains, they’d close theirs and vice-versa.