in leaving the hall light (a 20w low-energy bulb) on all night for safety reasons?

[WendyWeber]

DH insists on leaving the landing light (also 20w low-energy) off overnight, because it shines under the door; and in fact he turns off hall or landing light if he finds them on during the day even though:

a) this is a mid-terraced house so quite gloomy indoors
b) these bulbs use an hour's worth of electricity warming up when switched back on after having been needlessly switched off

and (the clincher)

c) he turns on - and leaves on - the bathroom lights (3x50w halogen) even when the sun is streaming in (bathroom has E & S windows and is dazzling most daytimes )

I just whinged at him for turning the hall light off on his way to bed yet again, and he bumbled and mumbled about "light pollution" - WTF???

I'm with him on a) and b) and with you on c).

AT night I like pitch black, DP likes pitch black. DC x 4 like pitch black too. I think there is some evidence that light pollution degrades the quality of your night's sleep.
YABU to your DH but very kind and considerate to the environment.

But the hall light doesn't impinge on anybody's pitch-blackness overnight - it just illuminates the odd step on the landing in case anyone needs the bathroom overnight without them having to switch on the landing light, which does impinge on bedroom pitch-blackness!

I leave the bathroom light on and the door, open slightly to illuminate the stair way. I dont like light pollution myself but that little bit of light is no problem.

Get one of these

Or these

I have this one. If I need to get up at night, I press his head and take him with me.

Just to clarify, pressing his head lights him up. I'm not weird.

rofl

[MemysonandI goes around the house switching lights off before answering Wendy's post]

How are you? nice to see you! [waving madly in the background]

I leave our landing light and our bathroom light on over night incase the kids get up. I'd rather do that than risk them falling down the stairs. Also leave the downstairs hall light on if i am not going to home til late at night cause i'm to much of a wimp to come home to a dark house.

We had a lamp on at night till Ex started staying over. He then made a big, no HUGE deal about how bad it was for your brain to sleep with a light on, totally discounting the fact that I had to get up to see to Ds every night, and it was me who fell over everything in so doing.
He flatly refused to get up to see to Ds himself, of course.
One night I got all passive aggressive and I swear it was accidental but I dropped a glass of cold water on his head in the dark.

We didn't last too long as you might have predicted.

Always leave a light on. Never used to but started when DS was born. Usually one on stairs but in this house I leave one on in walk-in wardrobe.

DH is a nightmare - turns on every light imaginable and never switches off when he leaves a room - drives me mad! When he goes out at night I leave one downstairs light on for him to come back home to. I went out last night and he went to bed leaving everything on except the Xmas tree.

I leave one on all night as I get up to DS2 several times a night. Otherwise I'd be breaking my neck in the trip across the carnage that can be his bedroom!

Interesting that lights can harm your sleep though - is that proven? If so, I might switch off the bedside lamp which I also leave on.

Now something that does have a negative effect on my sleep is the TV that DH insists is on when he goes to sleep (on a timer to switch off automatically). I hate it, but now struggle to sleep by myself without it!

I leave an upstairs light on when dh is away and I have gone to bed early so that it looks like there are people in - it just makes me feel better.

DD has always preferred to sleep with a dim light on, and I don't see what the problem is really.

We don't have any lights on at night. DS has a torch in case he needs to go to the loo. This rarely happens before 6.30am anyway. Even DD has got over her aversion to sleeping in the dark now. But I think your method of leaving the hall light on seems quite sensible.

Always leave a light on in the landing at night.

Not sure Laura - he made up a lot of things just to try and prove he was 'head of the house' and make me do what he said. It could very well be a load of codswallop

lol. dh insist on leaving the back hall lights on all night, then in the morning will moan as the bedroom lighhts are on, but when the kids get up its still dark outside and the gloom is just liufting as we leave the house. then i get back in from the school run, and he has the living room lights on but the blinds still closed

My sister does leave her toilet and hall lights on all night and when she stays with us she keeps my bathroom light on saying it's for the dc but I think it's her secret fear of the dark.
I don't get it. Unless you have really thick curtains/blinds you can see at night anyway as your eyes get used to the dark, it's never really pitch black. If you get up during the night you can find the light switch and then switch on or not?

"these bulbs use an hour's worth of electricity warming up when switched back on after having been needlessly switched off"

That's a myth. Conventional fluorescents, with a starter, use a little extra electricity to start, but only a few seconds' worth. Compact ones do the job with electronics and for all practical purposes don't use any extra.

Why not just fit a draught excluder to the door?

Um - which door?

Thanks for all these comments, btw, had missed them before! I'm glad I'm not the only fruitloop who likes to have a light on at night (and LOL at Twinkly's glass-of-water-on-head )

(Ch@ndr@, I owe you an email from ages ago, I promise to reply soon - I am fine, hope you are too? And looking forward to Christmas???)

Oi, WW, are you going to get a wee nightlight each to carry round with you? Excellent Christmas presents, actually - stocking fillers for your big kids

Then everybody can sleep in pitch black and get up safely.

And they're so cute