Lights on or off? | ADHD Information

I like a low light on at night, but not in my room. Hall light, bathroom DOWN the hall, SOMEthing. Mostly because the kids get scared if the can't see the room at night. Too much stuff, and light chases shadows.
Funny thing about the 'glowing attacking moons". The missus has a visual impairment, and SHE complains that the light from the alarm clock is too bright, but I can hardly see it. Must be the blur diffusing and making the light appear bigger.
Wierd.

Almost all of the fixtures in my house are on dimmers....I can not stand bright light....I love to dim down the lights if they have to be on....My husband too comes home and turns on the lights where my daughter and I are watching tv...and she and I scream...stop it turn the lights off!

Another thing he does with the lights and I hate it..because it is too bright. When it is time to go to bed he will turn on the lights full forse...were talking about 6 hallogen recesed cans...full extension on the dimmer...say around 11pm...this sucks....I tell him why do you turn the daylight on when it is time to go to bed, you will mess up your system and not be able to sleep because you body will think it is daytime.....by the way we have rope lighting in our bedroom around a coffered ceiling and these lights are on dimmers so he could turn this on which is more appropiate to allow preparation for sleep.

My daughter and I both have ADD and we both can not stand light...for whatever reason...we are not light sensitive except when normal like leaving the dark house to adjust to a bright sunny day we would use glasses.

Oh yeah I agree with a post I too don't like sleeping in total darkness..(as long as my husband is home I can do it) but when he is gone...my mind will not shut down and any little noise sets my mind in to a creative hay day...so a simple very soft night light helps me...or set the tv to go off in 15 min so I am asleep after the darkness appears....

anyway long story short...two adders (daughter and I) hate excess light

I drives my wife crazy. When she come home from work I am sitting in the dark or near dark watching TV or doing something else that requires very little light. I am not sensitive to light, I just prefer my illumination to be on the darker side.

My wife says it depresses her and just makes her want to go to sleep. I have told her repeatedly that all she needs to do is to turn on lights when she comes home or into a room where I am. But she still complains about my preference to darker vs. lighter.

After my wife left for work I turned off all the lights. It made me wonder how the rest of us feel about this quirk. Do ADHD/ADD people prefer darker vs. lighter given the choice?

I sleep with a tealight, candlelight, don't know what it is actually, but it's electric and has one bulb. I have this thing now about being in total darkness at night. It is just enough light to slightly illuminate my bedroom. Oh, and I have a scarf over it too.

But in the daytime I like the curtains and the blinds closed. I have no idea why. Really bright sunlight, although I hear is very good for us, bothers me to the point of aggravation. It doesn't look like a morgue in my house, but it's close.

Peace~

I even shower in the dark. When my step daughter found out she asked me how I could do that? When I told her that blind people do it every day of their lives she shut her mouth!

I just make sure my soap/shampoo wash cloth stay in the same place all the time and it's no problem!
I like light. I need to have lights on when I am home in the evening, or even if it is getting kind of dusky out. Nothing bothers me more than curtains closed on a sunny day. For me, the brighter the better.

Of course, that all changes when I have a migraine (I get one about every 4-6 months).

I wonder sometimes if I have mild Seasonal Affective Disorder along with everything else. Darkness during the day depresses me. And getting up early in the winter is soooo much harder because it is still pitch black.

However, I can see pretty well in the dark. If I get up and go into the kitchen to get a drink, I won't bother turning on the light.
csr19us...I can just visualize your cat "stalking" you....low and slow, pounce!

I like it dark, very dark when sleeping. For people who are near-sighted and wear glasses will probably know what I'm about to describe. If there is a light, like on the VCR, microwave, a candle, even the little "privacy" hole in the door that you look thu, these little tiny pinpoint lights, are HUGH in the dark...when I don't have my glasses on. And at bedtime can really bother me (when I lived in a studio apt...no separate bedroom.)

I like keeping my home fairly dim at night, but I think that comes from my mother following us around turning off lights when I was a kid. You didn't want to leave a light on in a room after leaving it in our home! A great way to get yelled at.
Holmes304...yeah, definitely a low utility bill thing!

I like only one little light on when on PC, but that's normal for getting rid of reflection, right?

But I like it bright during the day....inside! I'm also am very sensitive to the sun light.

I know AD(H)Ders are sensitive to sound, but it seems we're mixed with the light thing. [QUOTE=GypsyWomyn] For people who are near-sighted and wear glasses will probably know what I'm about to describe. If there is a light, like on the VCR, microwave, a candle, even the little "privacy" hole in the door that you look thu, these little tiny pinpoint lights, are HUGH in the dark...when I don't have my glasses on. [/QUOTE]

Yup - I hear that. I can always see the light on the answering machine - it's like this huge, moon-sized red blur. When I put my glasses on, it practically disappears. My boyfriend always laughs at me and says "you're supposed to be BLIND and you can see that teeny tiny little light?"

In reference to the other post about sensitivity to sounds and light when you are sleeping - I am the total opposite. I slept through a fire alarm in my university dorm once. And that thing was far from quiet.

I've read that ADD children, especially, are nearly impossible to wake in the middle of the night. This can carry over into a lot of adults. It may be related to why so many of us have such a hard time getting up in the morning. I've also read that chronic bed-wetting in children is often related to AD/HD, because the child has a very hard time being woken up by that signal to go pee. Ahem... I was a bed-wetter until I was 11 or 12 years old.

I also need light. At home I turn on every light in the house and open all the curtains. Dim lighting really bothers me, however I have to wear sunglasses when I'm outside, as much as I love sunlight it bothers my eyes. My husband likes the curtains closed and lights off, no matter what time of day it is. Don't know if this has much to do with anything, really. I am exactly the opposite of ZORG's initial post: I think dark rooms are depressing, and my girlfriend loves them. I'm always telling her how it's like living in a cave - and very depressing.

But, when I sleep, it has to more than pitch-black... the slightest amount of light will wake me up (ADD sensitivity I think). The same goes for noises - the slightest noise wakes me up too. I've even had to put aluminum foil over my bedroom window to keep it dark. In fact, my waterbed heater has been known to wake me up from time to time! (it has a faint little light that comes on when it turns on)

I'm with bcgirl on the night-vision though... I think I see better than our cats! I was going to the kitchen one night for a midnight drink of water, and I remember watching the cat walk right at me. She actually looked like she was being slow and walking around by feel. Lo and behold, I actually watched her run into my ankle... it was the funniest thing.

So, maybe ADD-cause sensitivity in our senses (can't shut down the part of the brain that regulates input from senses - you all know that, don't you?) makes us either like dark (bright light is overwhelming), or like light.... or maybe it's just simply personal preference. Who knows?i like it dark. i like to save money on the utility bills.LOL! I used to imagine things in the dark too. I had to sleep with a night light until I was ridiculously too old - like 14 or something. And no bloody way could I sleep with my closet door open, or my curtains open...

Way too many possibilities.....

I was (and still am) an avid fan of ghost stories. My imagination really used to run away with me at night. I read one story called "Footsteps" that creeped me out so bad, I would cower under the covers whenever I heard the slightest sound out in the hall.

but for some reason light made it all go away.

[QUOTE=bcgirl1978] And no bloody way could I sleep with my closet door open, or my curtains open... Way too many possibilities.....

I was (and still am) an avid fan of ghost stories. My imagination really used to run away with me at night. I read one story called "Footsteps" that creeped me out so bad, I would cower under the covers whenever I heard
the slightest sound out in the hall. but for some reason light made it all go away.

[/QUOTE]

I never had the problem with closet monsters....in fact I'd sometimes wake up in the morning, and I was IN my big walk-in closet! Hey, maybe I AM a closet monster!

Although, I would at times see somebody sitting in my rocking chair in the dark (just my clothes I lazily tossed there?) That scared me! Probably why I ended up sleeping in the closet.

I believe we who like scary movies or ghost stories and have scary dreams or scare ourselves probably keep watching them for the stimulation. Sure works, doesn't it? [QUOTE=GypsyWomyn] I would at times see somebody sitting in my rocking chair in the dark [/QUOTE]

Hey, how about that toy

clown

they used in the first poltergist movie!

Oh, sure, I get it.

Thanks bcgirl! Yeah, I would put tape over those lights, too.

I've worn glass since 6th grade, but good news! As you get older, your nearsighteness improves! Mine very much so. However, your farsightedness gets worse.

I'm in trifocals now, and love 'em. Don't have to take off my glasses in order to see things on the store shelves.

bcgirl, you and I are so alike! You're my sister! I wish!

I also wet my bed late in years...in fact, and don't tell any one, I still occasionally. I tried that stuff for "gotta go, gotta, gotta go go go", but I was already taking too many meds.

"I can always see the light on the answering machine - it's like this huge, moon-sized red blur. When I put my glasses on, it practically disappears."

You explain it so much clear and shorter than I did! Thanks.

Hey, doesn't [Quote> work in middle of a post:?[/Quote> I'm not typing > but that's what it comes out as??? Worked for italics and color.

Help me, Sis.

GypsyWomyn38420.549375

I like the dark, and the bright sun. I like it bright when I am awake and dark when I sleep.... just a note.... I have removed or taped all those damn Red, Blue and Green attacking moons from all my stuff... they anoy me... also because i suffer from near-sightedness... allot..

[QUOTE=Taag Man]

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[color=blue]Huh? TaagMan, I'm sorry, but could you explain the Red, Blue and Green attacking moons? May have gone right over my head.

Thanks. I think he meant our big fuzzy lights - the ones on the VCR and such?

I've needed glasses since I was 8 years old. I think the worse your vision, the worse those spots get. Makes sense. My contact lens prescription in -6.75.

Average nearsightedness is like -1 or something.
bcgirl197838420.5607175926

You are completely correct bcgirl1978... I am also badly nearsighted... -6.0, and those damn LED's get REALLY big and offensive in the dark, when I need to sleep... (without glasses).

I had my glasses when i was 6, by the way :) I were so happy to get them :)

Taag Man38420.5638425926

Hello people's!!

Darkness is one of those MAJOR issues that I have always had to deal with with my ADD...

I NEED light! I have always had an aversion for darkness, every since I was very little, and before I can remember. What happens in darkness (and in silence, which is why I need music/TV on to get anything done) is my mind uses the "free time" it has, I guess, to come up with the most awful things....When I try to go to sleep in the dark, I just sit there and think up EVERYTHING to worry about.

When I was very young growing up, and I would watch the news, and then try to go to bed later in the complete darkness, I would start thinking up everthing that I saw in the news. My dad said that I would wake them up because I was scared I was going to get polio once, once I was scared I was going to get cancer, and another time I was scared that I was going to have a heart attack, or the ebola virus, all from what I saw on TV. I used to think extraterrestrials were hiding in my closet after watching E. T. I also used to think demons were after me....All of these fears occured when I was trying to go to sleep in the darkness and my mind just wondered and conjured up all of these things until i scared myself....and I had absolutely no control over the things going on in my mind (I guess you guys know what is like to not be able to control your mind!!), so I could not help it....

The light gave my mind something to look at when I would wake up and open my eyes briefly and would squash any chances of my mind MAKING up something to be there once I opened them...

This was one of my major problems growing up...it did not have to be, if my parents would have just let me sleep with the lights on. But they (or, my MOTHER) were the kind of people where we had to do things the way "NORMAL" peolpe do, and NORMAL people slept with the lights off. so "I had to learn how to go to sleep with the lights off..", But I never "learned" so I still to this very day either need the light on or the TV on to go to sleep...

Today, if I try to go to sleep in the total darkness, instead of what I watch on the news, I will starting thinking about what I watched on, say "Forensic Files" or "Trace Evidence" and start thinking that I hear some burglar, or serial murderer trying to break in the house. I would wake my husband up....(who would have happened to be snoring very loudly) and I'm like, "Did you hear that?????" And he gets all upset cause I woke him up...So he has learned to go to sleep with the TV on, cause he knows I will get scared and start bothering him while he is sleeping if he doesn't have on the TV.....

It's kinda weird and embarrassing, but HEY, THAT'S ME!!

[QUOTE=bcgirl1978] I think he meant our big fuzzy lights - the ones on the VCR and such?

I've needed glasses since I was 8 years old. I think the worse your vision, the worse those spots get. Makes sense. My contact lens prescription in -6.75. Average nearsightedness is like -1 or something.
[/QUOTE]

My contacts are at -8.00...........I'M BLIND..so I know about those big fuzzy lights....unfortunately, my brain gets so outta control, that they don't help me when i'm trying to get get to sleep...

sonya_h38420.5708680556