Room Darkening Window Film for Homes

[J Huntley Palmer]

I wanted to get some room darkening film for my bedroom window since the sun here comes up at 4am and wakes me up. I went to Lowes and found many different types. There are ones that that are a silver/platinum that will add privacy and also ones that are bronze that will keep the summer sun/heat out and the winter heat in and so forth.. but none that combine the features.

I would like something that will cut down on the 4am sun to keep me sleeping and also have the benefits for heat retention(winter)/and control(summer). I tried window shades but the sunlight comes right through the sides.

I would also like a quality product that is durable, easy to put on/take off and reuse when needed again.

Anything that auto-darkens when there is excessive light and then lightens when there is less light like many sun glasses that people wear?

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[Travis Jordan]

If you want to keep the room really dark you'll need opaque blackout blinds.

If appearance isn't an issue and you just want to make the room dark all the time, line the inside of the windows with aluminum foil.

[Shopdog]

I worked 3rd shift some time ago and my solution was to get room darkening blinds. I'd like to know who determined that they darkened the room? Yeah, it was not as bright but dark it was not! Then I found black blinds,they were almost perfect, then I was able to find heavy weight black curtains. This was perfect no light at all. I got a good "days" sleep thereafter.

Searcher

[chris]

There are studies that show people who "work 3rf shift" have a higher rate of some kinds of cancers than people who sleep at night, I believe because the body needs darkness to produce melatonin. Or something. So your black-out curtains sound perfect.

[Grumman-581]

Back in the late 1970s, I was a 3rd shift computer operator... I wanted to darken my room, so I tried various techniques... I tried putting styrofoam insulation sheets up in the windows, cut to the exact size of the window opening... Turns out that they still transmit quite a bit of light in bright sunlight... Putting a couple of coats of latex black paint on them with a roller eventually got them to the point where they were bearable... If I needed to do it these days, I would take two sheets of the styrofoam insulation, sandwich an aluminum foil layer between them and then paint them white on the outside so that would look somewhat like curtains... Maybe cut them a bit larger than the window opening and put a wooden frame around them so that it would look like window trim and hang them over the window opening... That way, the mini blinds would still be visible from the outside and what might be visible between the blinds would be white like the curtains... Hell, if you want to get fancy about it, have large photo mounted on the cover so that it looks like you're looking out at a particular scene... One window could have a mountain landscape and the other one, a beach view... Probably beats the 'ell out of the view of your neighbor's yard anyway...

[Mark Lloyd]

I don't work at night, but I do like it very dark, something difficult with all the lights outside. I just got a couple of thick towels for each window. They need to be a dark color.