A Little Light Therapy

Did you know that sleeping in a dark room has a ton of health benefits?  It promotes melatonin production, it is good for your natural circadian rhythm and it can help reduce your risk of cancers like breast and colon. 

I decided to do an evaluation of how much light was in my bedroom in the night.  I am surprised at how much unnecessary light is in my room.  Even though my shades are closed there is still quite a bit that gets through.  I am not sure how to help with this because we have bay windows so curtains are tricky.  Any ideas there?  I also noticed that quite a bit of light is emitted from the baby monitor.  I have a black cloth I am going to throw over it to help.  There was also some light coming from the dvd player even though it is off.  So I am going to make sure the armoire doors that the TV is in are closed.  My electric toothbrush is also very bright when it is charging so I will just have to charge it in the morning and unplug it at night.  My charging cell phone has a battery light appear when the phone is fully charged so I will put that under a cloth as well.  I will also be turning off the night lights in the kid's rooms before I go to sleep so they can benifit also.

Have you assessed the amount of light in your room?  What are some problem areas and how do you solve them?