Do blockout curtains help you sleep?

Blockout curtains (also called blackout curtains) keep light out of a bedroom. Whether that helps you sleep depends on what is disturbing you. Here is what an Australian source says, and how to get a room as dark as a curtain can make it.

The Sleep Health Foundation, in its guide "Understanding and Helping Poor Sleep", lists morning light that comes too early among the disturbances to sleep. For disturbances from outside, it names ear plugs, eye covers, better curtains, heating, fans or air conditioning and night lights among the things that can help.

What do blockout curtains do?

A blockout curtain stops light passing through the fabric, either with a coating on the back of the fabric or with a separate blockout lining. Dense woven fabrics, often called triple weave or dim out, darken a room without a coating but usually let a little light through.

No curtain seals a window. Light still gets round the sides, over the top, under the bottom and through needle holes in seams. A well fitted blockout curtain or blind makes a room much darker, not pitch black.

How do you get the room as dark as possible?

These choices are made when the curtain is measured and ordered, and they are hard to add later.

• A track that runs wider than the window and, where possible, is fixed to the ceiling.
• Returns, where the track allows them, so the curtain turns back to the wall at its fixed end.
• An overlap where two curtains meet in the middle.
• A separate blockout lining, which covers the pinholes of light that stitching leaves in a coated fabric.
• On a roller blind, fitting it outside the frame with an overlap, choosing back roll so the fabric sits close to the window, or hanging a curtain in front.

Are blockout curtains better than a sleep mask?

The Sleep Health Foundation lists eye covers and better curtains side by side among the things that can help, and they do different jobs. A curtain darkens the whole room for everyone in it, by day or by night. An eye cover darkens only your own eyes, and it goes where you go.

A blockout curtain also darkens the room in the day. If you want some daylight at times, many homes hang a sheer and a blockout on a double track, so either one can be drawn on its own.

Are blockout curtains safe?

Australia has mandatory national safety standards for corded blinds and curtains. They cover cords and chains, because a loose loop can strangle a young child. A wand on a hand drawn curtain, and a motor on a curtain track or a blind, have no cord or chain loop, so ask about them if small children use the room.

If you have a question about the fabric itself, ask your retailer for its composition and care information.

Tell your curtain or blind retailer how dark you need the room and which way the window faces. They can plan the fixing, the overlaps and the layers when they measure. Speedy Blinds makes blockout curtains and roller blinds for retailers.