This Under-$30 Amazon Purchase Drastically Improved My Summer Sleep

I live in Los Angeles, where, among other extremes, there is some of the worst light pollution in the country. In other words, even when it’s nighttime, it’s not really all that dark. Various streetlights and lights from nearby homes and businesses artificially light up the sky and the environment, producing a darkness that’s better described as a blue haze. Add my neighbor’s outside porch light to that, which turns on automatically upon sunset and works tirelessly until daybreak so that my bedroom is awash with light, all night long. Unsurprisingly, my sleep suffered: I’d struggle to fall asleep and stay that way, waking up multiple times at night to the fluorescent halo outside my window.

For months, I refused to do anything about this, simply trying to shut my eyes tighter and will my body and any ocular superpowers to block out the light for me. I did own semi-sheer curtains, but they proved no match for L.A.’s raging against the dying of the light.

I was finally confronted with my hardheaded folly during a recent out-of-town trip, when I stayed the night in a room with actual, blissful blackout curtains. The proof was in the pudding: I woke up in that curtain-blackened room realizing I had slept better — deeper, for longer and without bouts of waking up — than I had in a long, long time.

It was time to bite the bullet and invest in some blackout curtains. Yet as I’ve written about previously, I hate spending money and knew I didn’t want to have to burn a hole in my wallet to fix this problem.

Luckily, I had an inkling of where to turn. As a shopping writer, I’d previously come across Nicetown’s blackout curtains because of their stellar reputation among Amazon reviewers. Nicetown’s drapes were known for their impressive results coupled with refreshing affordability (described by one reviewer as an “epic price”).

They’ve since made such a difference in my quality of sleep — and as a result in my overall life — that the fact that I waited so long to purchase them is laughable to me. I actually sleep. I actually am rested. I look back on my pre-blackout curtain life with the grizzled sense of a priceless lesson learned. There is no going back, and thankfully so. They also simply look good: They hang nicely, look well-made and seem much more expensive than they were.

What I didn’t expect, and which has been a welcome additional result, is the insulation that these curtains have provided against uncomfortable weather. By blocking out light in the daytime, they also shelter my space from heat; it feels great to close them on particularly sweltering days and know they’re helping make my space cooler.

Reviewers agree. “These block out the sunlight and keep the room almost 15 [degrees] cooler without the AC even running,” wrote a reviewer named Tim. According to another reviewer named JT, “These really help keep my utility bills down and keep the heat out.”

I’m also confident that these curtains will help keep out the chill once temperatures drop. I admittedly wish I’d had a pair of these when I lived in truly cold areas; I could’ve really made use of these then, too.

The brand has a number of styles to choose from, all of which come in dozens of colors and even more size options; I chose this closed top pocket style for their neat look, and with hopes that they’d keep even more light out.

While I’m obsessed with my Nicetown curtains, we’ve also rounded up a few more Internet-beloved blackout drape options. See what else folks are loving, below.

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