Making a Bandana Blindfold Is Easy To Do

Sometimes, a bandana blindfold is a quick answer to improving sleep because even a little light can be annoying and interfere with falling asleep.

Go to bed like a hostage!

Morning sun creeps around gaps in the curtains, getting you up too early. Once again, the sunbeams have started cheating you out of a few extra hours of needed sleep.

It’s not necessarily the fault of the curtains’ installer. It’s just the way the curtains are.

Your eyelids aren’t thick enough to keep you asleep.

The sunshine is too formidable for your curtains.

When it comes to sleeping, it’s an age-old problem. Sleeping with too much light bothered the men who sailed on ships, who drove cattle across the plains, and soldiers at war. It’ll bother you, too, from time to time. Sometimes waking up with the sunrise isn’t to your advantage.

Give the sun some credit and yourself a little blame. The sun plays by predictable rules. It comes up in the same direction every morning at a predictable time. You could have done a little math. You could have prepared for that inevitable blast of light at sunrise. You could have kept sleeping.

That being said, the sun can be a tough opponent. It’s good at finding its way around even if you drew the curtains. It has a way of finding its way around the slats of a Venetian blind and most types of curtains except the blackout kind.

Caution!

Before you cover your window with newspaper or foil, remember that would put your room in darkness all of the time. Sunshine is a powerful disinfectant! It helps you make Vitamin D and helps prevent depression. Darkness promotes the growth of all kinds of things you don’t necessarily want to grow, like mold.

Blackout curtains also complicate the care of houseplants in your bedroom. Plants can help the environment in your bedroom, only requiring a small amount of care while paying back big dividends. They need more sun than the typical blackout curtain will allow.

Wearing a bandana over your eyes folded like a blindfold can be a simple, cheap, and effective enough solution without all of those other drawbacks.

You might even want to call it an essential skill when it comes to reaching the status of super sleeper, someone who is capable of sleeping well enough anywhere at any time.

There are high-tech blindfolds with built-in headphones on which you can listen to sleeping sounds. Some people bore themselves to sleep. Some meditate.

When you want to block out the light while sleeping on a bus, for example, remaining somewhat alert to the noises around you, knowing how to fold a sleeping blindfold is invaluable for maximizing your rest.

A blindfold bandana’s advantages

Folding a scarf into a blindfold has some other advantages over a custom-produced solution.

Blackout curtains can be costly (though that doesn’t mean they’re not a good value). Certain ones can be somewhat difficult to install.

Commercially produced sleeping masks get stretched out and gradually become more difficult to hold onto your face.

Conversely, a bandana blindfold is easy to make, doesn’t stretch out as much, and can improve your sleep 100 percent. It’s easy to adjust to fit and can be made to be comfortable.

You’ll want to have a number of them. Bought in an economy pack, bandanas can be had for about $1.60 each. Bandanas can also be used as:

• a sweatband.
• a makeshift breathing filter in dusty environments.
• to protect the skin of your neck by filling in gaps between your hat and shirt.
• as a first-aid item like a bandage, sling, or tourniquet.

Its uses are only limited by your imagination.

There are all kinds of bandanas, too. They can be mass-produced like the kind you’d find at any mass-market retailer. They can also be works of art.

How to fold a bandana into a blindfold

 

 

 

1. Start by spreading out the bandana on a flat surface. It doesn’t need to be ironed, but it should be clean. If it’s not, the smell may bother you.

 

2. Fold it into a triangle to allow for maximum length.

3. Take the tip of the triangle and fold it so that it touches the longest folded side.

 

 

 

 

4. Fold the bandana in half again. Tie around your eyes as shown above. Make adjustments to block out light.

5. Lastly, enjoy the extra rest.

For further reading:

How to clean and store your earplugs.

 

James Cobb, RN, MSN, is an emergency department nurse and the founder of the Dream Recovery System. His goal is to provide his readers with simple, actionable ways to improve their health and maximize their quality of life. 

 

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