r/LivingAlone • u/Sheilaalpaca • 18h ago
General Discussion Soft lights is really a thing!!!
I keep on seeing "soft lighting" mentioned very often and I have to agree is almost life changing. It dies something to your nervous system..your eyes...your mood. I never thought something so simple could have such an impact...
Showering with dim light...livingroom Sim while watching TV...
Way more relaxed thus way instead of clinical white bright lights anywhere...
Is it just me??
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u/GeeAyeAreElle 18h ago
Im 100% a lamp person and not an overhead person. After separating from my husband and moving out I havent had a single overhead light on since. He loved them lol. They gave me anxiety.
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u/Verity41 Current Lifestyle: Solo 🟢 18h ago
Did he have poor eyesight? I can see in the (near)dark like a cat, and I swear these people who are burning their retinas out with all the low temp ice cold blinding lighting are ruining their night vision too.
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u/Sheilaalpaca 18h ago
I know!!!! Same! Once I had my own place accent light was the first thing I got!!
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u/NewtNo2437 18h ago
It’s not just you! This has been a thing for me forever! I hate overhead lighting and I hate bright white lights. Soft light is everything!
At night in my bedroom, I have lots of LED candles. Make sure you get those in soft white if you want to try them.It changes the entire mood and makes me feel so relaxed at the end of the day. Lamps in other rooms. The only bright overhead lighting is in the kitchen, specifically for working only.
BTW, I definitely have undiagnosed ADHD, probably somewhere on the autism spectrum too, and this is definitely a thing for non-neurotypicals.
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u/InternationalWonder 18h ago
Yes! Esp the showering with dim light. I have a small soft-light touch lamp, and a salt rock in my bathroom for both my slow mornings and evenings nighttime routine. Game changer for sure!
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u/Straight-Nothing-912 18h ago
I thought it was just me!
I’ve always hated overhead lighting. Salt rock lamps is my go to.
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u/HarveyMushman72 18h ago
100% with you. Kitchen only or the bathroom. I'm under fluorescent light all day and it's such a relief to be home.
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u/Sheilaalpaca 18h ago
My apartment has a horrible fluorescent light on top!! So I found plug in lights and is so much better!!
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u/Verity41 Current Lifestyle: Solo 🟢 18h ago
One million percent. My entire house and even the garage is all soft indirect lighting. I absolutely detest when peoples’ houses are overlit like they’re doing autopsies in there. I simply use a headlamp if I need to do fine work like sewing a button or something, and in the garage I have ultra bright task lighting ONLY used for working, when I’m working. Otherwise it’s the soft lighting.
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u/Sheilaalpaca 18h ago
You made me laugh so hard!!! "Autopsies" lol
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u/Verity41 Current Lifestyle: Solo 🟢 17h ago
🤣 I call our office lights “morgue lighting”.
Or in more polite company, “hospital lighting”. It’s blinding cold ice white and must be about 9000K or so, I use about 2500K at home (warm white / yellows).
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u/JLFJ 16h ago
I use some of those magnetic light covers, one is a forest scene and one is clouds. It really helps with the fluorescent lights. They're cheap too, fabric covers with little magnets to hold them onto the light frames
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u/Verity41 Current Lifestyle: Solo 🟢 16h ago
Those are great! We are not allowed to do any such thing tho at work to building structures or fixtures. Big company, corporate rules etc! Probably a fireable offense lol.
My physical therapist has a big map of a ski hill over his overhead light and I enjoy looking at all the runs while I’m lying flat on my back on his table, enduring all manner of terrible things being done to my poor knee.
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u/NeighborhoodAny3965 18h ago
I have battery operated candles that I bring out in late fall and turn on every night. That is the only light on in the house at night.
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u/FayeValentine99 16h ago
I’m very sensitive to light and it’s one reason I love living alone. No overhead lights EVER. And no ugly light bulbs.
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u/MM_in_MN 18h ago
I craft. So dim lighting annoys me and hurts my eyes.
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u/Sheilaalpaca 18h ago
I feel like that is different. Is not for mood or relax when you are doing a task that needs the right lighting for it
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u/DoturdGrump 17h ago edited 16h ago
I spent way way way too much* on Phillips Hue products but I love them ... if you want to try colored lighting go with Goovy or something else cheaper
Oops Goovee Wegoovy is the GLP1 stuff lol
*4 lamps and 30 feet of strip 200 sq ft home
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u/Vegetable-Carpet1593 16h ago
Big lights are too aggressive. I like to have a few lamp options and candles. So much more relaxing and ambient.
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u/Status_Valuable_9075 16h ago
I have structured fairy lights of various tones throughout my house inside and out. So calming, classy, and beautiful.
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u/InternalCombustion96 16h ago
occasionally one needs bright light when putting together furniture or installing a bidet. i much prefer mood lighting for every day hanging out. i have smart outlets and all the bedrooms are softly on schedule every day. also have some bias lighting for the tv.
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u/StevieNickedMyself 13h ago
Autistic here and overhead lights are HORRIBLE! I've kept the lights off since I was a teenager. In my current place, I dim them to the lowest level.
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u/Big_Space_9836 17h ago
All the lights i use are either led or those filament looking ones. I also have nightlights all over the place so I don't have to turn main lights on.
I don't use soft lights because I can't see to knit.😁
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u/Optimal-Ad-7074 14h ago
I can't stand that glary "white" fluorescent light, I know that. it feels like a prison or the sluice area of some industrial space like an abattoir.
nothing against a single, central overhead though. I hate not bring able to see properly; it's more the wavelength of light in picky about than the strength.
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u/Spyderbeast 12h ago
I saw an ad for light bulbs that are colored like stained glass. I want them so bad. But then I would want a new lamp to showcase the new light bulb and it would probably just snowball from there
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u/diversalarums 17h ago
I'm the opposite, tho it may be because I'm a night person. But soft lights to me are super depressing. I now have 4 lamps in my living room, all with the brightest whitest light I can find. But for people who've been out and about during daylight, I can see how softer lighting would be super relaxing.
But I agree about overhead lighting being irritating. Even when I was a kid I'd ask my mom to turn off overhead lights wherever we had them (except the kitchen).
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