Newsflash: If you sleep in a room with too much artificial light (and by ‘too much,’ I mean ‘any significant’), you’re not really sleeping at all.
You might not like it, but it’s true.
One of my favorite hobbies is talking about high-quality sleep, and my friends and family are tired of it (ironic, I know). And – I’m going somewhere travel-related with this, I promise – one of the most important features of high-quality sleep is making sure your bedroom (while you’re sleeping) is dark.
And I’m not just talking about ‘oh yeah, this is sorta dark.’ I’m talking about ‘this room is so dark that if I put my hand 6 inches (15cm) in front of my face, I literally can’t see it.’
If your body senses too much light at night (light from in your room, light coming from outside of your windows, light from your phone, etc), it doesn’t release sufficient melatonin, and you don’t get high-quality sleep. And on top of that, sleeping in a non-dark room also stimulates our stress response.
In short, not-dark-enough rooms mean not-good-enough sleep. And not-good-enough sleep is terrible for your physical and mental health.
And here’s the proof:
This article, which states, “sleeping with any lights on is considered detrimental to getting a good night’s rest,” tells us sleeping in a not-dark room is connected to depression, obesity, high blood pressure (hypertension), heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.
This website states “research suggests that women who live in areas with high levels of external light at night (street lights, for example) have a higher risk of breast cancer.”
This study concluded “artificial light at night is significantly correlated for all forms of cancer as well as lung, breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers individually. Immediate measures should be taken to limit artificial light at night in the main cities around the world and also inside houses.”
This study states “epidemiological studies [suggest] a general link between artificial light exposures and the risk of obesity and diabetes.”
This medical website discusses a study concluding that “sleeping with a light on can play havoc with insulin levels and consequently impair the response to glucose.”
This Washington Post article states “[a] 2022 study involving over 550 adults 63 and older [found]] any light exposure during sleep was associated with higher prevalence of obesity, diabetes and hypertension.”
This study concluded “increasing outdoor nighttime light intensity surrounding residences was associated with shorter sleep duration in older residents in China.”
I could link you to loads more, but you’re probably bored to death by now. But, hopefully, you’re starting to understand why I love endlessly banging on about the importance of having a dark room to sleep in.
Anyway, it’s clear: too much artificial light, when you’re sleeping, is bad for your physical and mental health.
Exactly how much is too much isn’t clear. But here’s what is clear:
The darker your room, the better your health.
So when you’re sleeping, you should be trying to eradicate as much artificial light as you can. That includes light from in your room, and light from outside your room.
(Most) Hotels Are Terrible for Sleep
If you’ve followed me to this point, thank you.
I know it’s taken a while to get here…
… but I told you I would make some meaningful travel-related point eventually.
And so that brings us to the purpose of this article: Hotels. Bright bright hotels, with their pathetic flimsy drapes, and their rooms full to the brim with artificial light.
Why’s it so hard to find hotels with blackout curtains? Why do most hotels moronically insist on dressing their windows with material thinner than tissue paper, letting in all the street light from outside?
Why are these same hotel rooms full of horrible lights?
The TV has a little red light (even when the TV is switched off). The air conditioner displays its current temperature with the same urgent enthusiasm as Batman’s Bat-Signal. Artificial light blares into your room from the lights inexplicably illuminating the OUTSIDE(!!!!) of the hotel. The alarm clock glows red all night. The smoke alarm has an unrelenting blink. There’s a big bright horrible hallway light, and it’s on all night, creeping under your door and into your eyes.
All of this is pretty ironic for a place that’s ONE SOLE FUNCTION is (or should be) to offer you somewhere to sleep.
All I want from your hotel is a good place to sleep, and you can’t even give me that.
I don’t want a little chocolate on my pillow. I just want a place where I can get a good sleep.
I don’t want your Nespresso machine. I don’t want twice-daily room service. I don’t need an omelet bar with fancy mushrooms. I don’t want a robotic vacuum cleaner juddering away at my feet while I sit at my laptop. I don’t need a bluetooth speaker in the shower, or a free drink at the bar. I just want a place where I can get a good sleep.
Please please please just let me sleep.
Now, I know what you’re thinking:
“But Paul, I haven’t noticed that my sleep is bad, and I always sleep in a non-blackout room.” Well I’ve got some bad news for you kid. You haven’t noticed because you’ve never really had a good night’s sleep. In your entire life.
Sleeping in a not-dark room is bad for your body. It’s bad for your brain. It’s bad for your rest. It’s bad for your recovery. It’s bad for your metabolism.
So, yep, most hotel rooms are bad for your sleep and your health. And you’re paying for them. You’re literally paying to sleep in a place that won’t give you a good sleep.
Hotel owners everywhere, listen up: please just fix it. If your hotel (or AirBnB or guesthouse or whatever) doesn’t have a dark room to sleep in, I am gonna give you a bad review. A really bad review. We’re talking 1 star. Because if I can’t get a good sleep in your hotel, what’s the point of it?
Top Tips for Making Your Hotel Room Darker
So how to get a good night’s sleep in a hotel?
Sometimes (ie, the vast majority of the time), you’ll arrive at a hotel/guesthouse/accommodation and realize it’s not fit for purpose.
If (ie, when) that happens, here are some things you can do to make your room darker (and make your sleep better):
Some hotel owners or guesthouse managers or whatever, they might complain about you doing these things. I say, do them anyway. If they don’t want people to take these measures, they should fix their rooms.
Top Tips for Improving Your Sleep
Well, you’ve made it this far.
So… for just a little while longer… I’ll keep boring you with more information on sleep.
(yep, like I said, I’m obsessed with talking about sleep and trying to get better sleep).
Here are all the things I do myself to improve my sleep (and therefore improve my health):
Goodnight and Goodbye
Well, there you go. That’s us done here. You’ve endured enough of me whining, so now I’m gonna let you escape my horrid little sleep cage.
For more articles you’ll disagree with me on, here are 17 myths about being a digital nomad.
Thanks for reading, thanks for choosing Travelness, and make sure you come back again in the future (we normally don’t lecture you like this, I promise).
Oh, and if you own a hotel or a guesthouse, please fix the lighting situation. Bye.
