Portable room-darkening strategies

Rookie Moms Whitney and Heather suggest this nap hack:

When you need your child to nap in a strange place, such as the Pack and Play in your parents' well-lit guest room, pick the darkest room available, or the one with the least windows. Then (here's the hack part), cover the windows with aluminum foil to make it even darker. Great when you're traveling. [Great minds think alike. -- Ed.]

If space is no object, the Redi-Shade is an amazing product. Between $5 and $6, it has adhesive built into a temporary shade and can be put up in a couple minutes.

[Be sure to visit Rookie Moms -- Whitney and Heather are compiling an impressive array of ideas, activities, and tips for the year-and-under set. Reading their "A Week in Berkeley" itinerary makes me miss my old hometown. -- Ed.]

Technorati Tags: Baby, Sleep

Comments

[marthachick]

What we did at my mom's house was move the "head" of the bassinet into the closet (in a guest room, where nothing was hanging overhead or stacked). We left the doors open, obviously, and the end of the bassinet was sticking out, but it gave that much more darkness and bought us another hour of sleep with a 3 month old.

[douglas]

Aluminum foil, while thought of as a recycled/recyclable product, nonetheless is one of the most energy intensive products to produce, not to mention the permanent damage done to the environment when acquiring virgin material. Its use should be very limited, and at best resused many times.
That said, I know the value of a darkened room for a slumbering infant, a light blanket and some clothes pins can be used to construct a tent/roof over the Pack and Play. Sweet dreams, little dude.

[Jenn]

We bought cheap black felt and some binderclips. We bring them when we travel and use the binderclips to attach them to the window.

[Alice H]

Is this to darken the room or to prevent psychotronic mind control?