Breaking & Entering – with Light

Are you trespassing on your neighbors every night?

I love my neighbors, mostly, except when they stand in their yard and go about watering their plants but send half of the water over the fence and on to my hamburger.

Just to be clear, that never happens. Because I have?good?neighbors. And usually eat veggie burgers, but that is not relevant to the post….?

At night, however, my neighbors seem to forget about the fence and show little hesitation in showering my yard, my house, and even the inside of my house with half of the light they use to see. And to be fair, my twinkle lights twinkle right across the property line into their living room window. Good neighbors, indeed.

I love my neighbors…mostly. None of them, thankfully, think it is acceptable behavior to walk through my yard after sunset, crack open my bedroom window, and hang their leg inside my window. Hey, that wouldn’t be too bad, right? Just a leg??

And I do not creep over to their homes at night, crack open their windows, and stick a leg or arm into their home. That would be trespassing on private property, and I could get arrested (or worse).?

But we seem to show no hesitation to let our light creep over to our neighbors’ homes and sneak into every window of the house. Every single night.

I love my neighbors, but I hate their porch lights. The most popular style out there seems to be appropriate for the 1700’s, a clear glass box with candle-style sticks and bulbs inside. Good thing the glass is clear, because I’m sure our light bulbs would not be bright enough to push through a frosted shade (sarcasm, in case you did not notice). Candles might have needed every ounce of help they could get, but electric light is not nearly so wimpy.

Why is this a problem? Because “sleeping with even a little bit of light could harm heart health.” Light trespassing into our homes at night keeps our bodies from the deep sleep needed to reset our circadian rhythms, regulate our blood sugar, and recharge for the next day. We could study the science all day, but the results are straightforward: light at night is bad.

Fortunately, the solution is not that difficult: stop shining light across your property line. This is called light trespassing and is even illegal in some jurisdictions. There are a lot of other reasons light trespass is bad. Just one example: you are literally paying for every single photon you sling at your neighbors. You are spending money (and wasting electricity) just so you can harm your neighbors’ health and wellbeing.?

State Farm would not approve of your neighborliness.?

Try searching for Dark Sky-friendly light fixtures or “full cutoff” fixtures that point all the light down and carefully conceal the bulb behind shields and shades. Guess what? You will end up putting more light on your porch, patio, deck, and yard as a bonus.?

Sure, you can use a security light to make yourself feel safer, but studies show this is not necessarily as beneficial as we hoped. So skip the glare-bomb security lights and use barn-style lights. Instead of blinding your guests, you will illuminate the house so neighbors can see the criminal trying to pry open your window. Win-win.

Want to really love your neighbors? The best light at night- when no one is in your yard or on the front porch- is no light. Turn it off. Your neighbors (and your wallet) will thank you.

Visit?DarkSky.org?for more information.