I Had Trouble Sleeping—Until I Tried This Ridiculously Simple $7 Amazon Product

Some people don’t give a second thought to falling asleep and can sink into a REM cycle under just about any conditions. This is both fascinating and envy-inducing to me, because being a long-time light sleeper is literally exhausting. If you’re like me, you get it: I never know if the slightest floor creak or teensy stream of light will keep me from getting a good rest, so I’m on a constant hunt for things that might make my bedroom quieter, darker, comfier and cozier—anything that equate to making it better for sleep. 

That’s how I ended up with this nighttime trifecta: weighted sleep mask, the white-noise sound machine everyone raves about (so worth it!), and blackout shades from The Home Depot. For the most part, the setup worked. My bedroom was essentially a cocoon of comfort. At times, however, there would still be this one thing bothering me: the bright little lights on the TV and cable box that stay on even when the devices are shut off. They’re teensy, but they cast an unmistakable low-grade glow in the room, and on certain nights when sleep wasn’t coming easily, I could feel those lights almost penetrating my eye mask. Like I said, exhausting!

To be fair, science is on my side. Studies have shown that even the slightest blue light can mess with your circadian rhythm and block melatonin production, disrupting your sleep patterns. Which is why I felt compelled one day to Google “how to turn off the cable box display light.” All that came up was a bunch of convoluted instructions, so the obvious next step was Amazon. I thought maybe someone had invented a solution, and, of course, they had.

Please allow me to introduce you to LightDims stickers, which are black vinyl circles, squares, and rectangles that adhere to your electronics. According to the product description, they “block 100 percent of annoying LED lights” while still allowing a device (like your TV remote) to function. So simple and cheap, and unlike some other sleeping solutions I’ve encountered in my search, they’re meant to blend into the pieces you put them on, so they’re not an eyesore at all and take up virtually no extra space in the bedroom.

I was skeptical that something this basic would work, but LightDims have actually been a game-changer. They keep my bedroom darker than ever and peel off easily (instead of sticking and leaving a residue), sort of like those old-school Colorforms shapes some of us played with as kids. Best of all, they come on flat sheets and in packs of 100, so you’ll never run out—and will always have extras to toss into your suitcase when traveling is a thing again. Better yet, you’ll never have to reach for a blanket or t-shirt to throw over your cable box or computer monitor again!