Do Blackout Curtains Help With Sleep?
Do you feel like there is too much light in your bedroom at night or in the morning? Too much light in your bedroom could be severely interfering with your sleep. Here’s how blackout curtains can help.
Why does light affect your sleep?
Light is one of the key signals for your circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm is essentially your master ‘body clock’ that takes its cues from your general sleeping patterns, light exposure and temperature. This body clock starts facilitating the release of the sleep hormone melatonin about 2 hours before ‘bedtime’.
So, reducing your exposure to light at night time may help signal to your body that it’s time for bed and help you achieve a deeper sleep. This means you should be avoiding exposure to sunlight, reducing your screen time, and dimming the lights or lamps in your bedroom. Unless you live deeply rural, you will also need to find ways to reduce light from cars, streetlights and other homes entering your bedroom. That’s where blackout curtains come in.
What are blackout curtains?
Blackout curtain or lining fabric is made from dense, tightly woven materials that do not allow light through. Because the material is dense, blackout fabrics also have great insulation and noise-cancelling properties.
How blackout curtains help you get a better night’s sleep
When installed correctly, blackout curtains (or blackout curtain lining) almost completely stop external light entering your bedroom, and so contribute to an environment that allows a deeper sleep. They need to full cover the window frame for the blackout effect to work properly, so light doesn’t come through the sides. Blackout fabrics will also help reduce your energy bill and make it easier for you to control the temperature in your bedroom – another crucial factor for your circadian rhythm.
Blackout curtains will drastically improve sleep for night shift workers
If your job or lifestyle mean you need to get your rest during daylight hours, blackout curtains are a fantastic way to reduce light exposure and ‘trick’ your circadian rhythm into producing melatonin.
If you would like to add a blackout lining to your current curtains or book your curtains or blinds in for a maintenance clean, contact the team at Curtain Clean on 0800 579 0501.
Poll: Do you think NZ should ban social media for youth?
The Australian Prime Minister has expressed plans to ban social media use for children.
This would make it illegal for under 16-year-olds to have accounts on platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X.
Social media platforms would be tasked with ensuring children have no access (under-age children and their parents wouldn’t be penalised for breaching the age limit)
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Do you think NZ should follow suit? Vote in our poll and share your thoughts below.
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85.2% Yes
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13.5% No
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1.2% Other - I'll share below
What's your favourite recipe for courgettes?
Kia ora neighbours. If you've got a family recipe for courgettes, we'd love to see it and maybe publish it in our magazine. Send your recipe to mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, and if we use it in the mag, you will receive a free copy of our January 2025 issue.
Newlands Resilience Group
Dear All,
Community Survey 2024
Introduction
Community resilience is having the resources, social capital, communication, and competence so the community can thrive. Disaster resilience is being ready, able to respond to, and able to recover from a disaster. A community is more likely to be disaster-resilient if it is community-resilient. A community can be resilient if a holistic and sustainable approach is taken to the well-being of its people. This survey will help inform community conversations to generate ideas to improve community resilience and wellbeing. The survey includes some basic disaster readiness questions. For more information, please visit the Newlands website newlandsnz.weebly.com...
How, When and Who
This survey can be completed online either in private or in a group and for example at home, a community gathering or a neighbor’s house etc. The survey is anonymous, and confidential and does not record any personal data of the respondents. The Aotearoa Community Resilience Network charitable trust is the caretaker of the survey data. No other public or private organization or persons have ownership or access rights to the data.
Next steps
The data will be added to the responses from previous surveys here and the results will be shared with the community. This includes a series of community conversations from February to April 2025 to discuss the findings and agree on the steps to enhance Newland’s resilience and well-being. Please tick the last box in the survey, and include your email, if you are interested in knowing more about what we are trying to do.
Please click the below link and like us. We are trying to assist people from all walks of life in Paparangi, Bellevue, Woodridge and Newlands. Your response is vital for our project. We greatly appreciate your help.
Here is the link. You can copy and paste the link in your browser to like this.
www.facebook.com...
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