by SelectBlinds
We’re about to time travel forward! Well, sort of. Just an hour ahead. In MOST of the country.
Daylight saving time (not “savings time”) 2021, begins at 2 a.m. (your local time) on Sunday morning, March 14, 2021. This is the annual time change when we “spring forward” an hour and you “lose” an hour of sleep. Be sure to retire an hour earlier on Saturday the 13th, unless you want to be dragging all the next day!
Speaking of losing sleep, this same Sunday also kicks off one of our favorite weeks of the year here at Select Blinds: National Sleep Awareness Week, “a weeklong celebration of sleep health,” March 14 through March 20th. You might also find it interesting to know that World Sleep Day (Regular Sleep, Healthy Future) is commemorated on Friday, March 19th this year.
Getting a good night’s sleep consistently is considered healthy (there’s even a term for it: sleep hygiene), and is a key component of a solid self-care regimen.
Self-Care Ideas: Good Sleep for Good Self-Care
The National Sleep Foundation (NSF), the organization that brought us Sleep Awareness Week to coincide with daylight saving time, recommends somewhere between seven and nine hours of nightly sleep for most adults.
According to the NSF, as many as 40 million Americans have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or with waking up earlier than they would like. Common distractions from adequate sleep include disruptive noises and natural light coming in through the windows, especially early the morning.
How are you sleeping these days? Getting a good night’s sleep (maintaining solid sleep hygiene) contributes to boosting your brain’s activity, increasing your energy level throughout the day, bolstering your immune system, improving your overall mood, and increasing your productivity.
Tips for getting a good, solid, healthy night’s sleep include:
- Setting a consistent sleep schedule.
- Minimizing technology in the bedroom.
- Starting a regular relaxation routine before bedtime.
- Maintaining a comfortable bedroom temperature.
- Minimizing caffeine and alcohol throughout the day.
- Sleeping on a comfortable mattress, supportive pillow, and breathable sheets.
- Minimizing exposure to natural ambient sunlight while you sleep.
Seems like a lot to cover, but Select Blinds has plenty of solutions to help you out with minimizing your exposure to incoming light.
Do Blackout Shades Work?
Let’s talk blackout shades vs. room-darkening shades. Room-darkening shades reduce up to 95-99 percent of incoming light that enters a room through the window(s). Then there are blackout styles that can eliminate glare up to 100 percent. They may not necessarily make a space completely pitch black, but these shades can come pretty close to darkening your room any time of the day.
A good blackout shade can help ease your transition from night to daytime (or vice versa), thus helping improve your overall sleep quality. Blackout shades are also energy-efficient to help you cut the cost of energy spending in your home.
What Are the Best Blackout Shades?
Customers love our products! Read up on our customer reviews. Speaking of improved sleep hygiene, consider the fact that from a 2020 review of the “best blackout shades,” The New York Times review considers Classic Cordless Blackout Shades its favorite out of its top three picks.
The review panel “unanimously agreed that the Select Blinds Classic Cordless [Blackout Shades are] the [ones] they’d most like in their homes,” citing the quality polyester custom shades’ look and feel as being “noticeably better in quality than other shades [they] considered.” In addition to top-notch look and feel, the NYT review also cited the shades’ wide color and customizable size selection, and the longest warranty of any other shades they reviewed.
- Maybe you’re interested in a recommendation that offers additional insulation and durability, you might consider getting the Select Blackout Cellulars.
- If you’re looking for a shade that combines traditional and blackout shade functionality, consider the Top down, Bottom up style Modern Light Filtering / Blackout TriShades.
- For our most complete blackout effect, try our Designer Sleep Shades, which features unique side tracks. They are very effective at blocking out 99 percent of incoming light.
- If you need any more help in choosing a room darkening or blackout shade, check out our Select Blinds guides for properly equipping bedroom and nursery windows.
For more on getting good blackout shades to get better sleep, see NASCAR driver David Ragan discussing success and how to win that advantage over your day with a good night’s sleep. He does it with effective Select Blinds blackout shades for his RV:
Don’t forget to celebrate Sleep Awareness Week with us this year by getting into the habit of getting regular, great Zzzzz’s.
Nighty night.
#BlindsWeLove #CelebrateSleep #SleepAwarenessWeek #CelebrateYourSleepHealth
