I could not sleep, and I could not figure out what was wrong. I would be able to get to sleep every night, but every morning I would awaken around two or 3 a.m. I tried everything. I tried putting in earplugs before I went to sleep, I tried exercising before bed, I tried exercising in the morning, and I tried cutting out late night snacks ? you name it. But nothing would work. Finally, I realized the problem ? there was too much light coming in from passing cars. I needed some black out drapes.
It was really simple as that. Once I got the black out curtains installed, my sleep was much better. I have never liked the black out drape look. I have always found black out drapes to be oversized, clumsy, and inelegant. Nonetheless, they were better than nothing. It was a relief to finally be sleeping again, and I was happy to make the small sacrifice of having drapes that I did not like.
Soon, however, I got sick of the look of the black out curtains. They were just too ugly, and they did not let any natural light in it all. I could not have that nice luminous effect where the curtains are closed, but a little bit of mid afternoon light comes into the room. I knew that the blackout drapes were practically saving my life, but I needed to find a compromise.
I tried a variety of different solutions. The best was when I put normal drapes over the black out drapes. I thought this was the ideal compromise ? I could either have all of the light blacked out, or only just a small amount. However, the look from inside was clumsy at best. There was just too much drapery before the window, and it looked like a halfhearted job. Finally, I realize what I could do.
Instead of having a layer of black out drapes and then a layer of normal curtains above them, I used several layers of normal window drapes. Unlike the black out drapes, they were not made of excessively heavy fabric which contrasted and clashed with any other drapery that we would put up. Instead, all of the drapes had a light, delicate look. When used together, however, they worked as efficient black out drapes. Although they did not block all of the light, they certainly blocked enough to keep me asleep. I was quite happy with my solution.
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