BLACKOUT BLINDS - how to achieve total darkness??

[oysterpots]

DS has an Ikea blackout blind that fits inside the window frame, but this basically means light comes in around all four sides of the window.

I'm guessing the only way to achieve a total blackout is to cover in front of the window frame (rather than the indented bit), so use the walls to make an overlap of a couple of inches - perhaps with blackout fabric and velcro, maybe?

Does this make any sense?

DS was up at 5.20am on Tuesday and I'm sure his waking gets earlier each day because of the sun rising earlier.

Anyone got any tips for me?
Ta

Ooh, that link didn't work pacific.

After a 5.15am waking yesterday morning (DH's birthday so I had to put on a brave face and go it alone) I tackled the black out situation.

As a previous poster said, I cut the blackout lining so that there was about 15-20cm overlap on each side, and used sticky velcro (the kind we use to hang exhibition panels at work) to fasten it all the way round.

Could be a coincidence, but DS slept until 7.30am this morning. RESULT!!!!!!

Couldn't be happier, just hoping it truly is as a direct result of the darkness.

No, not ideal to have a child that only sleeps in total darkness but according to this documentary daylight hits receptors at the back of our retinas which triggers our brains to stop producing the sleep hormone, so really it's a biological thing rather than habit.

If you're cheap thrifty like me, you buy black sugar paper and blu-tack it to the window

Hi, just came back to this thread.
I'll try and just cut and past the link:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/701273-Black-out-blinds-fitted-like-Velux-blinds-but-for-normal

There were some people on it who obviously knew what they were talking about having worked with blinds.

HTH

I just tried; link seems to work .

My children spent all winter waking up in total darkness (often before five). They had a brief phase of waking after six and are now back at five thirty. I am a black out blind sceptic (although I obviously have them, with no chinks). For the past week we have left a light on all night in their bedroom and they have slept through it. How do you lot get your children to sleep so late?

We're going to get some of this:

blackout film

Easiest way I found, was to go to a curtain shop, buy roughly the dimensions you need, get some sticky velcro strips (they may need super-gluing in place) and then cut it to size - that way it's dead easy to put up and take down, fits your window perfectly, and costs a sum total of about £3.

Sorry, buy the dimensions you need of blackout material that they use to line curtains.

Have you tried the Wake to Sleep technique ThingOne?

That blackout film looks good, MrsHD. Could you report back when you've given it a test run?

Naetha - I've done the velcro/blackout material trick and it seemed to work for the first night (monday morning 7.30am! Result) but since then (yesterday and today) it's been about 6.20. I think I can cope with 6am onwards, it's just 5-something that's still middle-of-the-night to me

PS Thanks Pacific, very helpful!

hi
just doing some investigating myself about balckout blinds and came across another mumsnet discussion, found magic blackout paper-sticks to the windows with no tape-have just ordered some!!! will let you know if its any good.

Last week I bought some of the velcro stick to the window frame blackout blinds (from Easyblind) and now have total darkness in the dcs' room (tis also used with a roller blackout blind and blackout lined curtains).

The first couple of nights the dcs slept until 7am , but have since reverted to their default setting of waking at 5.30am.

okay, I ordered the magic paper/plastic yesterday morning and it arrived this morning. I have now applied it to both my kids windows and it they are now in total darkness. I do feel as though my house is part of London during the Blitz, but blackout has been fully achieved-highly recommend to you

What's it called, Lizandlee? I tried the baa baa ones but am not v impressed, they let light in round the sides, even when doubled up with roller blind...

I would use a blackout blind and curtains to cover the gaps on the sides. You can get blackout roller blinds and blackout roman blinds very cheaply from www.orderblinds.co.uk

We have a blackout roller blind from a local blind company which fits inside the window and an ikea roller blind which is on the outside of the window - this works great! We had this set up before ds as we like lie ins (or used to!!).

We have also used the gro anywhere blind when away from home and this is very god too. You can also buy blackout fabric from your local market - we got some for 2 pound sqaure metre.

We use foil stuck to the glass. Complete blackout. Looks a bit odd from the outside though !

well we tried www.customblackoutblinds.co.uk they were great! totally black the room, look great and no way as expensive as curtains blinds only took me 5 mins to put up!

Our combo of venetian blinds and slightly too long blackout curtains works well..... now I just need to figure out how to put an end to the incessant birdsong at 5am!!

blackout blind - completely taped down onto the window with masking tape, and then blackout curtains ontop!

We use cardboard from Ikea boxes, etc, cut to shape and stuck to the windows with gaffer tape which itself is opaque. Careful cutting gets almost total darkness - there's a streetlight outside the DTs bedroom and the sun shines right in during sunset so we need it.

7am is still a lie-in in our house and the girls are 4.5 now...

I wouldn't worry too much about it becoming a habit - I used to do the velcro black-out trick with ds1 when he was a baby and would wake the second a ray of sunlight entered his room. He's now 12 and frequently forgets to close his blind and will happily sleep in till mid-morning with the sun blazing in

I'm with DaisySteiner it's a losing battle to try and black out completely. When you go away or on holiday it becomes a problem again. Best to get used to it otherwise even as an adult there will always be problems. I have put on the light to pretend it's dark outside which kind of helps - sometimes!

Erm, sorry fraiserno but my point was not that it's a losing battle and can create bad habits, rather the reverse. We diligently kept out sunlight when the dcs were babies/toddlers but found as they got older and their sleep patterns became better established that sunlight was less of a problem. Sorry if I didn't explain that properly.

A company called Sharpe Creations sell nearly blackout blinds in some nice patterns. They worked well for me.