Does total pitch-black darkness actually improve deep sleep or am I just overthinking this?
I recently went down a rabbit hole of blackout curtains, adhesive light-blocking strips for my electronics, and even taping over the tiny red standby light on my TV. My bedroom is now an absolute void, and honestly, it feels like I am sleeping in a sensory deprivation tank. While I do think my sleep onset has become faster, I am starting to wonder if this level of extreme optimization is just feeding my anxiety rather than actually improving my sleep architecture. My partner thinks I have completely lost it, but I feel like I am finally avoiding those weird mid-night disruptions caused by streetlights flickering through the blinds. Is there a tipping point where perfecting the environment actually starts to stress your brain out more than just dealing with a bit of ambient light? Has anyone else felt this weird transition from wanting a cozy room to wanting a bunker, or am I just becoming too obsessed with the data behind my recovery scores?
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I completely relate to the 'void' bedroom phase! I went through this exact same obsession a few years ago after reading some chronobiology papers on how even minuscule amounts of light can suppress melatonin production. Creating that sensory deprivation environment definitely helped my sleep onset latency, but I eventually had to dial it back. The mental energy I was spending obsessing over a tiny standby light was actually causing me more cortisol spikes and insomnia than the light itself ever could! It is a balancing act between optimizing your environment and avoiding orthosomnia, where the pursuit of 'perfect' sleep becomes a source of stress. Have you noticed a genuine difference in your deep sleep metrics, or has it just made your room feel a bit more like a sensory deprivation tank?