Do you prefer dark night?

[fan-of-fans]

I was awake at 2AM this morning and looked out the window which made me think of this thread.

Do you prefer it to me dark out at night or have lighting? I prefer dark, can see the stars better and I think it's better for the ecology. Supposedly all the lights is why lightning bugs are so rare to see anymore here.

From my backyard, can see orange light in the sky from all the lights downtown. Looking in the front yard, the sky should be dark is there aren't any big cities close that way. I could see some stars when I looked out, and even some flashes of lightning far in the distance.

My neighbor across the street has an LED light on a pole that is very bright and sort of lights up my front yard. It casts a dull glow in my bedroom. Before they had a sodium light, that turned my room orange, even though that light is a good 200 feet away.

Neighbors to the left don't turn their outside lights on unless they are going out, but they leave the ones in their garage on until late and they shine in my side bedroom window, so my room is never as dark as I'd like.

The neighbors on the right don't turn their outside lights on either unless they are home. The last owner had the power company put up two sodium bucket lights several years ago, one in the front and one toward the house. Far too much light, IMO and they shined in on the side of the house too bright. Plus they used to leave the flood lights on the house on all the time. They finally stopped paying for the sodium lights so they haven't been on in a number of years. The new owners had a new home built and the POCO took down the one closest to the house when they were running the new wiring underground to the house. The other light is still there but not in use. The house just sold, wonder if the new owners will have it turned on again? If so it will probably get replaced with an LED.

We don't usually use our outdoor lights unless we're outside after dark or coming home late. We do have a number of solar lights which light up the yard a little without being bothersome. They don't stay on all night as the batteries run out around 1 AM or so, especially if it's cloudy during the day.

 

[vacerator]

Depends

on weather it is balmy, saultry, or dry, or cold.
The night can be nice, with moonlight, or stars, or lights, or not. It can arouse animal magnetism. Swimming, etc. The sounds as well, crickets, etc. Use your imagination for those.
Or it can be uncomfortable, with bugs, (not lightning bugs) muggy, or cold.
Some sleep better with a light on. A soft white light is said to increase melatonin for better rest.

 

[appnut]

The light on my patio and front porch are on a photo light sensor.  There's a motion-sense floodlight over my garage door.  Street lights on my street are pretty far apart and causes very dark spots on the street.  I could care less about whether people prefer it light or dark.  My goal is security.  And I live in a respectable neighborhood.  The only time the patio light is turned out is when my partner is here and we want to sit out in the dark and hold hands.  Neighbors on the side where my bedroom is have a bright light/flood light shining on their side back yard.  It's fine with me, otherwise it's pitch black and no doubt it's for both of our security.  I have extremely dark drapes in my bedroom so it stays quite dark.  I have a small lamp on a sofa table in my den that's on a timer and it's on all night.  Before I had this light on all night, my doorbell would ring in the middle of the night and scare the hell out of me.  Rarely happens now.  Neighbors behind me mostly have their patio light on at night. 

 

[launderess]

Depends

If driving, then no; vastly prefer some sort of light both for safety and to lessen the often hypnotic effects that come from motoring in pitch or near darkness. Avoid using Garden State Parkway and some other roads here locally for this reason. Ditto for driving at night elsewhere in the USA (in particular the south) where for some reason the concept of lighting roadways seems alien.

Otherwise rather do like "pitch black" nights. Far better for sleeping and one doesn't need to use a sleep mask.

NYC has been on a tear installing those very bright LED street lights; and there have been no end of complaints.

The things are *VERY* bright, and light streets up as if it were daylight. Worse all that bright light comes streaming into windows and pierces all but the heaviest drapes.

 

[man114]

I prefer it dark all the time

Or at the very least overcast, my eyes are super sensitive to bright light. I live in a rural area, my house is heavily shaded and pretty dark inside, I have some cosmetic patio lighting but it’s otherwise pretty dark out here, my one neighbor works until about 1AM and after that it’s just a few speckles of patio lighting, no street lights except one pretty dim one a couple of hundred feet up the road at a turnoff. I prefer to drive at night other than the threat of deer.

 

[arbilab]

Dark is nostalgic for me.  Growing up, climbed to the roof and watched meteors.  In the metro now, one could go on the roof at night and read the newspaper. 

 

What the bright lights do is slam your retinas shut.  All lowlight detail is lost.  Painful in a way.  And all but saturated in light, we still have crime.  The lighting salesmen tell us we'd have more crime if not for the damn lights.  Well they would say that, wouldn't they?  Nothing sells like fear.

 

Makes me a retro-nowphile.  I want things the way they were.  Original Life Saver flavors; Pontiacs; stuff like that.  Dark at night.  I also want a solid gold toilet.  And a pony.  But it's just not in the cards now is it?

 

[joeekaitis]

Dark is why we're going to Arizona next month

 

 Arizona Sky Village, a colony of homes built by astronomy buffs seeking dark skies away from the light pollution of civilization.

 

Perseids meteor shower, here we come.

 

[wayupnorth]

I am in pitch black once the sun sets here and no neighbors outside lights bother me. Once I jump in bed, turn the light out it is instant dreamland. And I hate driving after dark now as these jerks have to have tons of bright lights to blind you that they think is cool.[this post was last edited: 7/14/2018-21:20]

 

[tomturbomatic]

It is the iris of the eye that opens and closes to adjust the size of the pupil to regulate the amount of light admitted to the eye. Retinas can be burned by doing things like looking directly into the sun without eye protection during an eclipse when ambient light would have the iris dilated to admit more light. Recall the photo of 45 during the last eclipse of the sun, not his brain.

 

[ea56]

I like for the bedroom to be as dark as possible at night, but we do have a Moonbeam Alarm clock, fortunately this doesn't bother me. But the sun coming thru the window in the morning wakes me instantly. I try to keep the window blinds closed tightly. Whenever I see a movie where they are sleeping with no covering on the windows, I think how can they possibly sleep this way? I used to wear a sleep mask, but no more, just ear plugs, although I’m practically deaf in my left ear now,(I wear a hearing aid in that ear) so the noise is only half the problem it used to be, LOL.

I have always loved to drive at night, especially in the rain. Being in a closed car in the dark with rain pelting around me seems to be like the most safe and secure place on earth, go figure. And my favorite place to drive at night is on a two lane, country road, or the coast highway. I miss the dimmer switch being on the left hand side of the floor board too. And thankfully, even in my 60’s my night vision hasn’t diminished.

Eddie

 

[mattl]

It depends...  Outside I like dark depending if I'm sitting out, or lights if I'm driving. Our neighborhood has no street lights but every house has a lamp post, and 98% of folks keep them lit.  I have 4 around the yard, I enjoy the pools of light and the shadows the trees create, especially in winter with drifts of snow.

 

Inside I find it impossible to sleep in total darkness - impossible.  I use a sleep timer on my tv, and I have a  low output LED bulb in the corner of the room that is on.  In total darkness, it deems like my retinas fire or something but I get annoying visuals or colors and such firing off, sort of like a visual tinnitus.

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

I don't like sunlight in the morning, so I have black-out shades. Keeps the bedroom quite dark. However, there are many other lights on all night in the bedroom, digital clocks, modem lights, WiFi router lights, power strip lights, illuminated wall switch, illuminated bedside lamp switches, you get the idea. I guess I prefer some light here and there at home. IF I lived in a rural area, I would definitely have, soft landscaping illumination.

 

LED street lamps in NYC, were indeed too bright, however most have been replaced with dimmer LED's. The real culprit with the new LED's lamps are their intense blue light of 5000 kelvin in color temperature, it causes a myriad of problems, particularly for those trying to sleep. There are calls for the street lamps to be replaced with more color balanced LED's.

 

Back in February, Gov. Cuomo announced that every street light in New York state will be converted the LED's. Let hope they learned their lesson from NYC.

 

[tolivac]

I have to sleep during the day so my blackout shades come in handy here.Glad I bought them when I did from Pennys.I HATE venetian style blinds-prefer roll shades.so much better for blackouts-and they insulate better for heat or cold.Sadly pennys no longer has roll shades.Would like them and other stores to make them return.
At work we have LED lot lights-streetlights.These have the warm Metal Halide like color instead of the 6K sickly blue.The original lights here were mercury.I have some of the old fixtures in my light collection.The mercury lights didn't have the band of blue the blue LEDs make so the mercury lights were not as annoying.Also the LED lights need the diffuser lenses on them like the Mercury and HPS lights use.This would cut back on the glare.Most LED streetlights are GLAREBOMBS if you are close or under them.The HID lights didn't have those problems-and the HID lights can be focused better than LED.HPS and Ceramic Metal Halide give better lumen per watt than preset LED.Feel the switch to LED should be not so fast until the lumens per watt is improved and LED lights can get some ANSI standards and be more repairable tjhan present models.At least HID lights were under ANSI standars and were easily repaired-like replacing bulbs and ballasts or ballast parts such as ignitors,core and coil,and capacitors.
I would likje it dark but criminals do their thing in darkness the lighting helps keep them visible to law enforcement and others.Oh yes mercury lights are still liked by architects for lamdscape and building lighting. The ban on mercury lighting should be reversed-after all mercury HID lighting is more efficient ,reliable and than what is originally thought.Some mercury lamps have run for over 10 years with no degration-take that,LED!!We don't know how long LED and their drivers will last.At the new WalMart near me the GE "Evolve" lights are changing from blue-white to GREEN-White!The phospors in the LED elements are aging.This is only after just a few years!Ceramic metal halide doesn't have this problem.Those would be ideal for parking lot lighting.Best color so the lot is attractive to customers and the color of cars is not distoerted so they can find their car easily at night.HPS and LED can distort car colors.

 

[askolover]

I've been on night shift for 25 years so my sleep room is so dark I can't tell if it's daylight or night outside. But lately I've been so exhausted when I go to bed in the mornings I've been falling asleep with my headboard light on and will sleep all day. I couldn't do that before. I don't mind darkness outside to an extent, but ever since our home invasion I have installed more security lighting closer to the house so it is more lit up.

 

[circlew]

If I'm ready to sleep, I like it very dark. If I'm outside, I like it to be well lit so I won't trip over something, and can see if animals or other persons are approaching.

It was very interesting after Hurricane Ike in 2009, when the power was off to about 90% of the Cincinnati area. It was very dark, and the stars seemed so much brighter than usual.

 

[mattl]

Funny, since I was a kid my room's windows have faced east and south.  Direct sun shining on me has no effect, I sleep soundly.  I guess it's what you are used to.