let the sunshine in

Our house came complete with window treatments in each room, thanks to the previous homeowners. I happen to like the off-white Roman shades; they are simple and clean and work with my style.

The one exception is in my bedroom. In that room the young couple from whom we bought the house hung the same Roman shades but in maroon rather than off-white. I have a love/hate relationship with those maroon shades. I loathe the color, but I appreciate how dark they keep my bedroom. They block the sun almost completely, making sleeping in, one of my favorite things to do, oh so easy.

Too easy, perhaps. I am not a morning person and will routinely hit the snooze button 2-3 times before dragging my sleepy self out of bed. At 8:30am. Not necessarily an outrageous time to wake up, but it’s so dark in my room that I could probably sleep straight through til noon and not realize I missed half of the day.

As you know, I’m in the process of redecorating my bedroom, and I’m seriously considering replacing my light-blocking shades with sheer curtains thanks to this bit of wisdom from the September 2010 issue of Whole Living:

Let the natural light be your morning alarm clock. Trade the blackout shades in the bedroom for more translucent ones; it’s a gentler wake-up call. “When your alarm goes off, your first feeling is resistance, which creates stress,” Miller says. “The rest of the world awakes with the sun–why don’t we?”

Are you addicted to the snooze button like I am or are you a morning person? What gets you out of bed?

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