15. When your blackout…simply isn’t!

You’ve paid for black-out curtains or additional layers at your windows to assure your guests get the perfect nights sleep.  Sometimes despite best intentions blackout rooms create problems rather than solving them.  Light from under the corridor door and every standby light in the room may become a beacon.  Hard-wired hair dryers, televisions, videos and fire alarm systems usually have coloured LED standby lamps which seem pretty inconsequential when you’re purchasing. 

Light is amplified by contrast so even the smallest light will make itself known in a fully blackened space.  In some layouts this could be an advantage by serving as a soft nightlight.  Make sure any standby lights are either not in direct sight of the bed and are red rather than green which will minimize the effect.

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