Think Twice Before Buying Blackout Curtains For Your Home. Here's Why

Getting a good night's sleep isn't easy, especially when street lights, headlights, neon signs, and other sources of light are filtering through your bedroom curtains. As excessive light at night interrupts your natural sleep cycle, it also impacts your health. Many people turn to blackout curtains to solve this issue. But before you buy a pair, take note of the potential downsides, such being made with potentially hazardous materials, letting in too little light during the day, and not being able to wash your curtains as easily.

Blackout curtains are more opaque than other curtains and blinds since they're made with tightly woven, double-lined material. The best blackout curtains block out nearly all light, both natural and artificial. If you live in a heavily light-polluted area, they might be your only option for achieving true darkness at night. Although there are benefits, like keeping your home cool in the summer and warm in the winter, which reduces energy costs, they may not be the right solution for everyone.

Blackout curtains must cover the whole window without any gaps in order to be effective; otherwise, they will still let in light from outside. Yet because they're so much thicker and heavier than regular curtains, they take up more space. In smaller rooms, they can feel too bulky and overwhelming. They may make your space feel more dim during the day when they're open, which has the potential to hurt your sleep in some ways instead of improving it. If they block too much light during the day, you may not get enough natural light, which can affect your mental health and sleep quality. Many people find it harder to wake up when sleeping with blackout curtains since you can't detect the morning sun.

A primary concern with blackout curtains is that some are made with PVC, a type of plastic that has health risks with everyday exposure. These heavy curtains are also less likely to be machine washable, so you may have take them to the dry cleaner, adding more chemicals into your home. To avoid these issues, look for thickly woven curtains made with cloth instead. If the cons of blackout curtains outweigh the pros for you, a sleep mask is a great alternative.