Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

What's wrong with night lights

38 replies

schmee · 21/01/2011 14:47

On another thread a couple of posters mentioned that night lights cause all sorts of problems. Didn't want to hijack so asking the question here. What problems do they cause does anyone know, and what suggestions do people have about how to get kids to sleep in the dark...

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Davsmum · 21/01/2011 14:52

I can't see a night light woud cause any problems unless they mean the child may not like it !!

Kids usually sleep well in the dark if they are used to it from birth/early on.

Tgger · 21/01/2011 21:55

Hope not! DS (4) has a night light and I haven't seen any problems yet!

aPixie · 21/01/2011 22:24

Ds1 wouldn't sleep unless it was totally pitch black until about 18 mOnths when he started having nightmares. Now he has to have a night light.

Nothing wrong with them at all IMO.

chipmonkey · 21/01/2011 22:28

Well, I'm 42 and on a recent business trip had to get up and turn on the bathroom light as I was too scared of the dark to tolerate the pitch black!

reallytired · 21/01/2011 22:48

Nightlights are great and make breastfeeding easier. My nine year old still has a night light!

Gina Ford is against them, but she has never had children.

reallytired · 21/01/2011 22:48

Nightlights are great and make breastfeeding easier. My nine year old still has a night light!

Gina Ford is against them, but she has never had children.

whomovedmychocolate · 21/01/2011 22:52

The idea is that there is some research which shows that kids who don't sleep in pitch black get fatter. I don't know whether that's based on rats in cages exposed to light or humans though.

But mine both have night lights - we live in the country - it's pitch black at night and we have frequent power cuts. Without the night lights (which charge up and then stay on for eight hours) if the kids needed to get up at 4am, they would most likely trip over something in the dark.

WikiSpeaks · 21/01/2011 22:52

My DD was a great sleeper in pitch black. As she grew up she wanted the door left open and hallway light on... So the dog would inevitably end up in her room. A night light was just the job. If she wakes up for a wee she doesn't fall over her train track and other crap toys.

And GF not liking them is enough to make me want my children to have one!

WikiSpeaks · 21/01/2011 22:53

x-posts wmmc!

whomovedmychocolate · 21/01/2011 22:54

Oh if GF doesn't like them I may have to buy more!

MirandaWest · 21/01/2011 23:00

DS is very skinny. And sleeps with the light on. I realise this is a very small sample size though

WikiSpeaks · 21/01/2011 23:04

@ skinny night lit children.

I however am a fat adult and sleep in complete darkness. It's a mystery.

SkyBluePearl · 21/01/2011 23:11

they keep mine awake. they have been handy for when my eldest wants to read in bed though.

this is the only link i can find about night lights. www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-54620476.html

fiodyl · 21/01/2011 23:13

I bought a night light for DD when she was 4 and going through a 'I'm scared, but not sure what of' phase in the night. Just knowing she could switch it on if she wanted to, seemed t do the trick- she rarely uses it now. 3 yo DS also had to have a night light(despite loving all things dark and sppoky) just because his sister had one, but also rarely uses it these days.

Kids probably do sleep better in pitch black, but if they do wake in the night, the ability to settle themself back to sleep easily with a night light, is preferable to them being terrified and screaming the house down. Also better for the parent .

p.s I would choose one that dims or switches off after a set time limit.

LindaLaHughes · 21/01/2011 23:15

There is some connection to shortsightedness, apparently. IIRC kids who have a night light are more likely to be shortsighted than those who sleep in the pitch dark. I found this information when googling my DD's posterior staphyloma eye condition.

Obviously this may not be a full and validated study I read however, if put me off getting one.

HTH

paddingtonbear1 · 21/01/2011 23:22

dd has one, and has had for ages - not noticed any problems yet. She goes through phases of being afraid of the dark.

muslimah28 · 21/01/2011 23:33

i always used to do what chipmonkey describes on all my business trips! I hate sleeping in the dark, and ds is in our room so he doesnt sleep in the sark

Kalypso · 22/01/2011 19:36

Not sure whether there is a link, but I slept with a light throughout my childhood, right up until I was a teenager. It was not even a nightlight, but a bedside lamp, so the room was quite bright. I was very afraid of the dark.

I am extremely short sighted. This was first discovered at the age of about 6 or 7. Neither of my parents are short sighted (they're long-sighted now), although my grandfather was also very short sighted. My sister did not sleep with a nightlight - or if she did, not for very long. She is also short sighted (proving the genetic link, perhaps), but she's not nearly as bad as me.

I am now a bit concerned about my 11 month old son, who has slept with a night light since birth. Those links made for worrying reading - I wonder if there has been any more research on this, as it seems the study took place well over 10 years ago.

Seona1973 · 22/01/2011 20:07

I think the link is in children under the age of 2 who slept with a nightlight. It didnt work for dd and she is actually long-sighted!!

chipmonkey · 22/01/2011 22:29

That study was later disproved.
I am an optometrist and would usually find that myopic children are more likely to be the ones who love reading and spend a higher proportion of their time reading than they do on outdoor activities.

MirandaWest · 22/01/2011 22:57

I didn't have a nightlight (love sleeping in the dark) and am very short sighted - was realised when I was about 6. DS and DD sleep with lights on and so far (at 7 and 5) their eyesight is fine.

magichen · 22/01/2011 23:27

my dd 3.5 never had a nightlight, then when she got a cold i bought one of those calpol nightlights (which are fab by the way) and now ever since she has been about 2 she wants it on every night. I dont mind though as it means she can see her way to the toilet. She isnt scared of the dark at all and has very good eyesight, neither is she fat btw!

Kalypso · 23/01/2011 07:42

Chipmonkey - that's good to hear. I read constantly as a child (our family even read at the dinner table) and I did indeed spend more time reading than on outdoor activities.

(Oh, and for what it's worth, I wasn't fat either!)

compo · 23/01/2011 07:48

My four year old dd used to have a nightlight
but she used to spend all night playing by it and never knew when it was night time or daytime
now she sleeps in the dark she knows when it's morning
she often opens her curtains. I think the streetlight gives her comfort

Tee2072 · 23/01/2011 07:50

My nearly 11 year old niece has had a night light since birth and still does.

She's a string bean and has 20/20 vision.

Next!

Also agree that if GF is against them, I am going out to buy 10 more.

Flip

1 2