There must be a conspiracy in the electronics industry to keep making those annoying flashing LED standby lights bigger and brighter. They want to keep us from falling asleep in a peaceful and dark bedroom — just so we'll stay awake and watch more TV or do the internets or something. But not anymore!
We have a line of defense five lines of defense against too-bright standby lights keeping us from a peaceful sleep. Each of these solutions will work well on annoying lights and backlit displays from TVs, DVD players, alarm clocks, sleeping laptops, routers or anything else that keeps you up at night.
LIGHTDIMS Stickers: These dark transparent stickers are manufactured exclusively for the purpose of covering up standby lights. Their products come in "dim" or "blackout" varieties and one package includes several stickers in different shapes and sizes. They're cheap enough ($5.99 plus 99¢ shipping) to solve your problem, but there are plenty of less-costly DIY routes, too.
Lithographer's Tape: A roll of translucent red Lithographer's Tape is only around $5, and you'll probably get a lifetime of LED-dimming stickers out of it. It will, however, give each of your newly-dimmed lights a slight reddish tint.
Transparencies: You know those semi-transparent binder dividers you can buy for like a buck at the office store down the street? Well if you cut one down to the size of a too-bright display, then spritz it with a bit of water, you can effectively dim bright backlights and still read through the display.
Frosted Scotch Tape: Semi-frosted office tape will do the trick to dim standby lights, too. It might not be the most polished solution, but it will be the quickest one if you find yourself with sudden insomnia at 3 a.m. Layer it on for more effectiveness.
Sharpie Markers: Color over the glass in front of the light with a black or blue permanent marker. It will still let a bit of light through, but it will dim the eye-burning brightness by quite a lot. You can also pop open your device and color directly on the LED bulb, if you're concerned about the look of your device. (And as an extra tip, should you change your mind, Sharpie comes off easily with dry erase markers)
...or, just learn how to disable them. If you know your way around a soldering iron, you might be able to figure out how to open up your device and disable the stanby light yourself with these instructions.
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Our toothbrush chargers are in our bedroom because we don't have any outlets in our bathroom. I've found myself throwing towels on top of them in the middle of the night because of the blinking! May have to use the sharpie trick, or just charge during the day...
thenestinggame.com
These lights are SUCH a nuisance - my favorite nonsense one is on my sleep-indusing white noise sound machine.
Thank you for the post!!
When did the trend of the "off light" come into play? I've noticed it on more and more electronics over the years. What is the point of an off light? I turned the thing off for a reason!
The Nesting Game: We have the same issue as you; we haven't any outlets in the bathroom and our OralB electric toothbrushes have a tiny but insanely bright LED light that *blinks* while it's still charging, then stays on solid once it has full power. Luckly, we have a very small office off of the bedroom that I put the charger into, but even from there, the light was disturbingly bright. I kvetched about it for more than a year before it occurred to me one day that I could simply slip a toilet paper tube OVER the toothbrush handle (which is where the charging light is located) and completely obscure the light. Problem solved!
Or... turn the thing off at the socket switch! (Sorry but I just didn't notice this mentioned or even implied in the main post)
Wall-bricks with LEDs are the hot new thing too. You know, in case you couldn't be sure if it was plugged in (?). Electrical tape works quite well.
To address a very annoying Sony alarm clock (that's othewise fantastic), I took the far more intrusive path and took the thing apart. Once disassembled, I layered 4 pieces of cut-up ESD bag material, taped in place, then re-assembled - works great.
One word of caution - make sure that a) the ESD bag material isn't conductive or b) that any exposed leads are covered with tape so as to not sort anything out.
I had this problem with a car phone charger that was shockingly bright. Don't companies know it's a hazard to have lights on in your car while driving at night? I ended up just covering the LED ring with electrical tape since that's what I had in my car.
I just turn my bright blue alarm clock face-down on the nightstand. Silly, but it works.
Ergh. So irritating. Viva Sharpie! I spent the night on a friend's couch last week and it looked like an airport runway. Wireless router, modem, dvr, game system, tv, tablet dock, power strip and phone charger...an array of colors and blink patterns. A big pet peeve is the smoke detector in hotel rooms--I get that there needs to be one in every room for safety...but must it be a flaming-red-spotlight-from-hell??
My new apartment has an LED on every single lightswitch, which come on when the switch is in the off position (supposedly so you can find it in the dark. I need to find some while label stickers and cover them all up.
We have the LED lightswitches, too. And I have to say I appreciate them. It's hard to fumble around feeling for a lightswitch in the dark mornings, before the sun rises, and coming home late at night after the sun has set. We are lucky to live in a neighborhood where the only streetlights are strategically placed at stopsigns, so the only time we get ambient "night light" is when there is a full moon.
As for the annoying digital clock face -- I just face it away when I go to sleep, and face it towards me when I hit the snooze button.
i only have my alarm clock in my bedroom which give off an evil, red glow. I cut a small swatch of black cotton cloth, stitched up the sides so it looks nice, anchor it under the alarm clock and just pull it over the display when i go to sleep. it keeps the light in but lets the noise out.
Stationeryfiend: Socket switches aren't common in many parts of the world -- they're virtually unheard of in the US.
Besides, many devices with standby lights will lose some or all of their programming if you cut the power completely.
I've Sharpied a few wee LEDs. One I think of off hand is my laptop speakers.... its very distracting to me when trying to watch a movie or something. I need to do something about my router and modem- I'm thinking about mounting them on the wall with the lights facing towards the floor.
@girl jen, bet we have the same clock -- mine goes face down at night, too!
@DTREMIT "Socket switches aren't common in many parts of the world -- they're virtually unheard of in the US.
Fair enough, I didn't know that. But unplugging is still an option, and for plugs in awkward places there are easily available remote socket switches (examples available on Amazon.com - http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=socket+switch&x=0&y=0#/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=remote+socket+switch&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aremote+socket+switch).
"Besides, many devices with standby lights will lose some or all of their programming if you cut the power completely".
Some will, yes, but toothbrushes? In my house we turn off at the socket switch (sometimes with a remote) anything that has a light or a clock. Unless it actually is a light or a clock, or it will lose it's programming. We turn off 90% of our appliances with this approach, and so our house doesn't look like something out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind at night. And we save money (and the planet).
I use black electrical tape on my Vizio TV. I haven't any idea why they can't redesign it (they claim that the light helps them trouble shoot during a tech support call. I also use black electrical tape for other annoying things that give out light (surge protectors, computer speakers, etc.).
In addition, I use a red alarm clock. Red light is far less intrusive than the blue or green LED lights. Then there's the trusty sleep mask. A good mask (silk covering) is a great way to go for anyone. There are certain lights that still invade my space from the remainder of my apartment so the sleep mask is the last defense in many to keep light from robbing me of sleep. Now to figure out a way to turn off the brain (the MP3 player works to a degree except the inner chatter that does not shut down).
I like being able to see the time at night on my alarm clock (duh), but if it's made too dim it can't be read during the day :\