Best Blackout Curtains of 2024
We tested 18 curtains from nine popular brands and discovered that many of them didn't deliver blackout conditions
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We all know that darkening a bedroom can help us sleep better. It’s instinctive. But how dark is dark enough? The answer, it turns out, is very dark. Phyllis Zee, a professor of neurology and sleep medicine and director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, says even “dim to moderate levels of light can negatively affect your health and sleep quality.”
This means that simply switching off the lights and pulling down the shoddy shades that came with your apartment could be one reason you’re not the bright-eyed morning person you dream of being.
Best Blackout Curtains
How CR Tested Blackout Curtains
Our market analyst Cesar Carroll zeroed in on the top-selling brands on Amazon and brands available at popular home-goods retailers. We settled on nine: Amazon Basics, BGment, Gracie Oaks Olivia Signature, Ikea, Lemomo, Mainstays (Walmart), Nicetown (since rebranded as TheHues), Pottery Barn, and Threshold (Target).
In our labs, Bernie Deitrick, the lead tester on this project, evaluated the lightest and darkest colors from each brand. This entailed holding each curtain right against a bright (5,000 lumens) flashlight, then noting how much of that beam escaped through the material and hit a white wall. “The best curtains completely block the light, leaving you in a dark room,” he says. For most brands, the darker curtains blocked more light than the lighter ones.
Photo: Consumer Reports Photo: Consumer Reports
Deitrick also tested each curtain’s thermal insulation capabilities. He did this by placing each curtain over the top of a warm, temperature-controlled metal box placed in a cool room. The less heat he needed to add to keep the box at a constant temperature, the better the insulation and the higher the score; the more heat he needed to add, the lower the insulation score.
Each brand’s Overall Score was weighted heavily toward the light-blocking performance of both its light- and dark-colored curtains. To a lesser extent, the score also takes into account the curtain’s insulating capacities.
The result? Only two brands effectively blocked light across their color offerings. And the worst curtains let through a surprising amount of light, so much so that you might be better off with regular curtains (shown below).
“I was totally surprised that curtains that claim to be room-darkening would let in so much light,” Deitrick says.
What Is a Blackout Curtain, Exactly?
Some of the blackout curtains we tested consist of multiple layers, including a white inner layer made of woven polyester. The woven (as opposed to knitted) nature of the polyester makes for a dense, stable fabric, minimizing the holes for light to pass through while still providing some drape. The white color plays a role, too, reflecting any light shining into the window back out.
But for some single-layer curtains that lack backing, a darker color works better.
So why did some curtains we tested outperform others, despite having seemingly similar materials and construction? “So many factors,” says Xiaomeng Fang, an assistant professor at the Wilson College of Textiles at North Carolina State University. Those include the yarn used and the pattern of the weave.
It’s difficult to tell if a blackout curtain will be effective just by looking at it in a store or online. If you’re not buying one of the curtains CR tested and you’re shopping in person, bring a flashlight to do your own test. Also, purchase your curtains from a retailer that has a generous return policy.
Who Needs Blackout Curtains?
If light streams through your window as you’re trying to sleep—because, say, you have street lights or traffic nearby or you’re a shift worker—then blackout curtains may be worth considering. Our 2022 survey found that 88 percent of people who bought blackout shades or curtains in the previous year found them somewhat or very effective in helping them improve their sleep. That made the category the third most effective purchase for sleep, placing it just behind prescription medications and air conditioners or fans.
“Light plays a huge role in the timing of sleep,” says Chris Winter, MD, a neurologist and sleep doctor based in Charlottesville, Va., and host of the podcast Sleep Unplugged With Dr. Chris Winter. When the sun goes down, levels of the hormone melatonin increase, and we feel sleepy. Artificial light interferes with that natural process, suggesting to the brain that perhaps it’s not quite bedtime yet. This makes it more difficult to fall asleep.
If you have insomnia, light can be a distraction—whether you become fixated on the streetlight glow through your regular curtains or any clutter in your bedroom that the light makes all too obvious as you’re trying to sleep. “When you make it dark enough so that there’s nothing visually going on, it’s actually very difficult to stay awake,” Winter says.
Darkness can also reduce sleep fragmentation by making arousal in the middle of the night less disruptive. “If you wake up in the darkness, you may not realize you’ve woken up because nothing captures your interest and you’re able to fall quickly back asleep,” says Winter, who is also the author of “The Sleep Solution and the Rested Child.”
What’s more, a recent study suggests that even moderate amounts of light can affect your health. When healthy young adults were asked to sleep in a room with 100 lux of light (similar to what’s in a dim hotel hallway), they experienced elevated heart rate and blood pressure through the night compared with sleeping in a darker room.
Scientists are now wondering whether this elevation over time could explain a link between sleeping with the TV or light on with conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. “Even though you’re sleeping, your brain is saying, ‘Something is going on here,’ and that brings the heart rate up. It’s not a relaxing situation,” says Phyllis Zee, MD, PhD, at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and co-author of the study.
That said, it doesn’t have to be pitch black for you to improve your sleep. If you’re going to invest in a blackout curtain, you want it as dark as possible—meaning, when you turn out the light, you can’t count your fingers. “But it’s a gradient; some light blockage is better than none,” Winter says.
In fact, if you have trouble waking up in the morning, a curtain that isn’t perfectly opaque may even be better for you. By allowing a small glow of natural light through come daytime, it can help signal your brain that it’s time to get out of bed, Zee says, while still giving your brain and body the time and space it needs to rest.
Learn how to lower your energy costs with window coverings.
How to Get the Most Benefit From Blackout Curtains
The key is to make sure they cover your window entirely. “It’s pivotal to ensure that both the rod or rail and the curtains themselves extend well beyond the window’s edges,” says Hanyu Yang, spokesperson for the product development and design team for home textiles at Ikea of Sweden. So measure accordingly before you shop. If you plan to hem your curtains, keep in mind that there may be some shrinkage after washing, so make sure you take that difference into account or hem them only after the first wash.
Blackout curtains block light from the outside, so you’ll sleep better only if you also get rid of any light from within your room. Cover all indicator lights from, say, your cable box, with electric tape. Use an under-door draft stopper to block light streaming from your living room or hallway if family members are staying up watching TV. And if you use a night-light, place it near the floor, away from your vantage point—or even better, find one that works with a motion sensor.
Finally, it almost goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: For a sleep product to have any chance of working, you have to take care of the basics first, many of which are free, such as keeping a consistent sleep schedule, getting sunlight outside in the morning, and avoiding screen time right before bed.
