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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that if you want a light on overnight, it should be blacked out from outside?

160 replies

Gibble1 · 31/05/2015 05:01

My neighbours over the back have a really thin white blind and leave their bathroom light on all the time. It's like a thousand suns shining through our bloody rear windows. We have reasonably thick curtains but they don't block out the light.
I had to go round there before and get them to turn off their effing security lights and noticed the bathroom lights a couple of days later when I wasn't on a night shift. They were new to the house so I thought it was just an acclimatisation thing and didn't want to keep going round there complaining but the light is doing my effing head in now. I no longer work nights so it's all the bloody time and I just want to be able to sleep. It would also be nice to do some star gazing but DS's telescope got put in the loft as there is no effing point even trying to look at the sky.
Gah! Why can't people just turn off their bastard lights or put up black out blinds at every window so no lights can be seen from outside?
I'm sorry for the moan but I'm frickin knackered.

OP posts:
wreckingball · 31/05/2015 08:21

code, the whole of Europe is terrible for LP, I think Holland and Belgium look the worst on maps I've seen, those maps are incredible, parts of Africa and other countries are in darkness while great swathes of the world are lit up like you say, as Christmas trees.
Australia is lit up all around the coast but inland is black.
Gotta go, off to London for the day! :D

LavenderRain · 31/05/2015 08:21

Is it a lighthouse?! Hmm

carabos · 31/05/2015 08:27

I'm always surprised when I get up to pee in the night just how many houses have lights on upstairs and downstairs all night. Some of our neighbours seem to go to bed with all the lights in the house on and some of them are very bright indeed.

Street lights are also very bright and I find them disturbing despite heavy curtains. Sadly LP is just a fact of urban living.

FayKorgasm · 31/05/2015 08:32

Is anyone dying to see this light?
Behind my old house was a warehouse that had a nightshift and a huge security light. A pair of lined curtains did the trick to block it out.

VikingVolva · 31/05/2015 08:38

Don't GU10 bulbs get rather hot?

Even several in a small, white room would not cause the nuisance OP is describing. But an excessive number, and heat source, would make lovely plant growing conditions.

Unusual to be so careless that a light would be noticed.

So they might be very grateful for a tip off.

BigRedBall · 31/05/2015 08:40

This reminds me of that oh so famous security light thread...
There is no way a bathroom light can be so bright it shines into your bedroom. How close are your homes? Confused. We have a doctors surgery adjacent to our house and sometimes they forget to turn off their security lights around the back. There's 3 of them. Now that's annoying. A normal bathroom light can be easily blocked with lined curtains and blinds.

Pooka · 31/05/2015 08:42

www.27bslash6.com/halogen.html

This is funny.

You could mention it to them? But I don't think they're under any obligation to turn the light off, although it would be neighbourly to do so if you say how irritating it is.

Pooka · 31/05/2015 08:44

Though on reflection he's a twat with the comment about Down's syndrome.

peggyundercrackers · 31/05/2015 08:45

Yabu - if you don't want to see light then buy black out curtains or blinds. Your neighbours can do what they want with their lights in their house.

YsabellStoHelit · 31/05/2015 08:48

So you complained until they felt intimidated enough to turn off security lights then when they turned on a bathroom light instead you want to go round all guns blazing? [Hmm]

If you are really bothered by light get blackout blinds. Most people in urban areas have street lights etc outside windows.

The comment about the "natural daylight to wake up to" is just precious tbh. If you want to wake up to daylight you have to learn to sleep through other lights. Its a side effect of living in an urban area. If you dont like it go live in a field.

So glad you aren't my neighbour tbh.

m0therofdragons · 31/05/2015 08:56

Wear an eye mask?
Yabu. You can put black out blinds up. It's not like they're blasting music out through the night.

TyrannosaurusBex · 31/05/2015 09:26

I leave the bathroom light on for my DCs, must admit I hadn't thought of the neighbours. I will sort out a blackout blind this week Blush

echt · 31/05/2015 09:30

ANBU, OP.

Laughing at all the posters who think it's your problem. I have auto lights to fuck off the possums. Actually they would shine into my neighbours' bedrooms. I haven't inspected them for blackout, but can see they would be an annoyance.

So I switch them off.

So you complained until they felt intimidated enough to turn off security lights then when they turned on a bathroom light instead you want to go round all guns blazing? [Hmm]

Where do get that from, Ysabell ? What actual bit of the OP's posts suggests this you?

TheReluctantCountess · 31/05/2015 09:33

I can't understand how it is that bright that it disturbs you.

IvyWall · 31/05/2015 09:48

I don't understand how you used to work the night shift and presumably sleep during the day without a blackout blind

ladymariner · 31/05/2015 09:51

If you are that bothered, put up blackout blinds yourself.

AllPizzasGreatAndSmall · 31/05/2015 09:51

Do you have very small gardens? When our curtains/blinds are closed I would have no idea if the people behind us have lights on so imagine your houses must be quite close together.

Original poster
Gibble1 · 31/05/2015 10:17

Just to update; We live in a quiet street. There are street lights up here but they are orangy and not so bright.
Yes, I did go round and ask them to do something about the security light. It was a polite conversation where I explained that the light was as bright as a thousand suns and had been going on and off all night long. It was pointing directly at our upstairs bedroom windows as it was so high. They angled it downwards and it was still bloody awful but I didn't want to go round at Christmas time and start threatening getting the council involved. Anyway, they starting having more and more issues with it and then would turn it off regularly. Now it hasn't been on for ages.

There are laws about light pollution and in the guidelines it states that councils who get involved should not just automatically tell the people affected to buy blackout blinds, rather they should work with the pollutants to minimise their light.

I'll bet that they are not in their house with their doors open, they have sheets of wood blocking the light from them sleeping. If they didn't have doors, but had a sheet hanging over the bathroom door way, they probably would turn off the lights.

Their house is probably 100 feet from ours. The problem is because they face directly into ours.

I will go round again and pop a note through their door just mentioning it. If they don't do anything about it, I think I'll talk to the council. I can't bear it any longer :(

OP posts:
Original poster
Gibble1 · 31/05/2015 10:19

Ivy, natural light is totally different to sleep in. It's softened by our curtains. This light is really horribly bright. It's very harsh.

OP posts:
EastMidsMummy · 31/05/2015 10:27

The way you handled the security light seems reasonable - it was very bright and angled towards your property and you had a sensible conversation about it. Problem solved.

The way you plan to tackle the bathroom light seems unreasonable. It's an internal light lighting up a room in their house and you want to slip a passive-aggressive note through their door. Your concerns here are unreasonable. You should put up your own blinds or shutters.

icelollycraving · 31/05/2015 10:28

The whole situation sounds bizarre.
I leave a light on for Ds. If a neighbour had asked me to turn off outside lights,then complained about an indoor light, I would let them contact the council frankly.
If you are that sensitive to lighting but enjoy the gradual wakening to the sun,then that is up to you to control as you see fit. (It sounded a bit wanky although I get the idea)
Yabu.

Littlecaf · 31/05/2015 10:31

Our elderly NDN keeps her very bright bathroom light on the whole night and it shines through to our landing and lights up all the bedrooms. I'd never been bothered by it until our DS was born and at 14 weeks we're trying the whole dark night/light day sleep routine. The blackout blinds went up fairly quickly! I'd ask her to turn it off or put up blinds but she's a tad moody so just got on with it ourselves. I feel your pain OP!

DownWithThisTypeOfThing · 31/05/2015 10:38

YABU.

I thought you were BU anyway but this I will go round again and pop a note through their door just mentioning it. confirms it.

Good luck with the council - you must be fortunate to live in an area with a council resourced enough to bother with a neighbour's internal light 100 feet away from your house.

passmethewineplease · 31/05/2015 10:39

I think you're being rather dramatic, instead of going to the council couldn't you just invest in some blackout blinds? I'll be honest and say I think you're exaggerating just how bright this light is tbh...

I'd rather buy a set of blackout blinds than go to the council personally! You've already complained once, you sound like one of those neighbours...

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 31/05/2015 10:45

Isn't waking up to the sun something you can only do at certain times of year anyway, unless you get up and 4am now and 8.30 in midwinter?