Do you close your curtains at night?

41 comments

1. I to not do it, but my partner is lighht sensative while she sleeps so…. now they stay closed.

2. I don’t live near enough to anyone else that it would be a concern of mine that someone might see into my house. I have blinds instead of curtains, but they’re mostly to keep the sun out when it annoys me.

3. I leave them all open almost every night lol

4. If there are lights nearby, then yes.

   The reason they leave curtains open in media is probably for lighting/shot composition reasons.

5. Leaving the curtains open makes the shots more interesting and open. Closed curtains create dull backdrops and lighting issues. This is one of those things that is a lot more about movie and TV needs than American culture.

6. most places I have lived, no as there was no way anyone would see in anyways.

7. I prefer to. There’s a lot of light outside where I live.

8. I do. My property is flat and I don’t have much privacy from the road. I also want to prevent light pollution in the outdoors, we’ve got amazing night skies around here.

9. I do, especially if I plan to sleep in in the morning.

   We often open them once we are up. I have blinds and darkness curtains.

10. Not usually.

11. In the kids bedrooms, yes. The master gets shut only when we go to bed. They’re not public facing but my wife wants it as dark as possible for sleep.

    The other rooms we usually don’t bother

12. There’s hardly any light outside our house, but my wife insists on not only closing the curtains, but covering any other lights in the room no matter how small.

    She insists that the little light on our rotating fan is “too bright” and keeps her awake. I just roll with it.

13. I never open them

14. My cat likes to look outside

15. Yes, we do. Our house is old and is very close to the road. Anybody driving or walking by would be able to see inside very easily. So our bedroom curtains get closed, and our living room blinds get closed a little.

16. Yes, our front light is really bright and comes through the window otherwise.

17. Yes. I would wake up with the sun if I did not.

    BUT.

    Having a person go and shut their curtains adds zero to a plot, why waste the valuable time having them go and do so?

    If I had to venture to guess your local TV shows and movies don’t do this either.

18. My curtains are always closed unless I specifically want to look out of them at a given time. Open curtains dramatically increase cooling costs and let others see into your private space.

    With visual media you have to remember that they aren’t trying to reflect reality, they are trying to create a compelling story with aesthetic and cinematic visuals. Windows you can see out of look better than closed ones and let in far more light which is paramount in cinematography.

19. Yes. I don’t want to live in a fish bowl.

    What you’re seeing is just a movie thing.

20. Some yes, some no.

    I live on the fourth level of an apartment complex. It is hard to see in my apartment (but still possible). I close the blinds in the living room but leave the bedroom blinds open. Originally it was for the fresh air but I have plants in there now so I just leave the blinds open. The windows are high enough up so that I cannot be seen unless I stand next to the window.

21. The only curtains I have are in my bedroom. I never open them.

22. Yes; particularly during the summer when there’s effectively no darkness.

23. I’m quite far north so a lot of the time the sun rises well before I need/want to wake up so I close the curtains every night. I like them open to let light and air in during the day. TV/movies might have other reasons for closing them, but I’m sure many of us IRL do it so we won’t have the sun streaming on our faces at 5am.

    On the flip side, if I ever needed to wake up that early, the easiest way would be to leave my curtains open and let the sun work his magic lol.

24. I close the curtains in the bedroom before bed to keep light out. But I don’t go around closing the curtains around the whole place.

25. Yes. I don’t want my nosy ass neighbors looking in.

26. Yes. People can easily see everything inside when it is dark outside and I live in a fairly busy walkable suburban neighborhood with a decent amount of foot traffic. I often walk in the evenings and when I see people in with their curtains open just gong about their business I find it very strange. I mean good for them that they DGAF but I don’t get it. Don’t they feel like they are on display?

27. I have blinds, but yes. I don’t need some weirdos going past my house and seeing inside.

28. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t – depends on if I want the natural light waking me up. I’m only referring to bedroom curtains (is that what you’re referring to?) Otherwise we don’t close the shades unless it is really hot and sunny.

29. Blinds, but yes, at least in the bedrooms. Get closed every night and opened in the morning. Other blinds throughout the house stay in whatever state they are in.

30. I actually do not close my curtains, ever. It’s too much trouble.

31. Do people in your country’s media stop to do things like closing the curtains, run the water for a minute to let it get hot, or wait a minute while the phone rings?

32. Always. I need the room 100% dark to sleep.

33. I live in the woods and don’t have any curtains or shutters.

34. I don’t have people near my house so I don’t bother. Do you close all your curtains? Or say, just your bedroom?

35. Just in the kid’s rooms. My room has lacy basically transparent curtains, but I don’t think they have ever been closed. Nowhere else in the house has curtains.

36. My blackout curtains are permanently drawn. My room gets too hot otherwise.

37. I do, but so many people don’t.

38. Bedroom curtains, yes. Living room I do on one side because there is a super bright building on that side and I like to keep my bedroom door open. Living room windows toward the street I don’t bother with. I’m on an upper floor so it’s not like anyone can look in from the street.

39. No because if I pull the blinds down the cat will go scratch them until I open them back up. He needs to run to the window to look out whenever the urge strikes him or else I don’t get to sleep.

40. I get it. Friends makes you believe that nobody in New York City even knows what curtains are. I mean really Chandler and Monica? Close your curtains!!

41. Only if it is one of the windows I’ll be naked in front of.

    One of the lessons I learned from reading *To Kill a Mocking Bird,* is that it is easier to spy into houses when it is dark out than when it is light out.