Night lights: how little light is enough?

A night light is not there to light a room but to show the way. Here is how dim it should be, which colour works best and where to put it.

You get up in the middle of the night for a glass of water or to check on a child, switch on the main light, and for a moment you are dazzled. Getting back to sleep becomes harder. Night lights exist for exactly this situation, but choosing one means accepting a paradox: here, less light is better than more.

What a night light is for

A night light is not for reading or doing tasks. It has three jobs:

• letting you see obstacles such as a furniture corner, a step or a toy;
• helping someone who wakes up get their bearings;
• helping a nervous child feel safe at bedtime.

Very little light is needed for this. An eye that has adapted to darkness is extremely sensitive: after a few minutes in the dark, a person can find their way comfortably with just a few lux on the floor. For comparison, evening light in an ordinary living room is typically in the hundreds of lux.

Why dim is better

Bright light causes two problems. First, it breaks the eye's dark adaptation, so when the light goes off the room seems darker than before. Second, light reaching the eyes at night can affect the body's daily rhythm; research shows the effect grows with intensity and with a bluish tint. So a night light should show the way without "waking you up".

Colour: warm, amber, even reddish

The best choice for a night light is a very warm colour:

• amber or very warm white is soft on the eyes and disturbs the sleep environment least;
• reddish light is considered the least disruptive to dark-adapted vision, though colours become hard to tell apart;
• cool white and blue light may look nice as décor but are the least suitable choice for a night light.

If you use coloured LED bulbs as night lights, pick yellow, orange or red rather than blue or violet.

Where to put it

Placement matters even more than output:

• Low down. A light slightly above the floor, in a wall socket or under the bed, lights the path without shining in anyone's eyes.
• Out of the line of sight. A light source visible from the pillow is annoying even when dim.
• Along the route. One or two points along the way from bedroom to bathroom are more useful than one bright lamp.
• At stairs and thresholds. Places where the floor level changes deserve light first.

You do not need a dedicated gadget. A very dim, warm bulb in a bedside lamp, a sensor-activated LED strip under the bed or a hallway wall light turned down to its lowest dimmer setting all do the same job. The basic rule stays the same: light should come from low down, stay out of the eyes and be just enough to show the way.

Switches with a faint illuminated indicator also help: you do not have to grope along the wall in the dark, and the main light is easy to find when you need it.

Special cases

Children's rooms. For small children, place the night light where it cannot be seen from the bed and choose a model with adjustable brightness. As the child grows, the light can be dimmed further or switched off.

Older people. With age the eye needs more light and adapts to darkness more slowly. To lower the risk of falls at night, the path from bed to bathroom should be lit a little more strongly, but still from low down.

Motion-sensor lights. They switch on only when there is movement and turn off after a while. They suit hallways and the route to the bathroom because they do not glow all night and do not disturb the sleeper. Make sure the sensor is placed so it will not react to movement in bed.

A note on safety

Plug-in night lights stay live all night, so choose products from a reliable manufacturer and do not use one with a cracked or overheating casing. Do not place a night light where curtains, bedding or toys can cover it. Where small children can reach, check that plug-in devices sit firmly in the socket.

If you are looking for a bulb for a bedside lamp or a small wall light, the Zəfər İşığı catalogue includes compact E14 bulbs and coloured LED bulbs. You can ask Zaferoğlu Elektrik about a suitable option through the enquiry form.