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Posted: 05/19/2025

UBlockout vs blackout curtains

Why settle for room darkening when you can eliminate all light?

 

“It’s 100% or nothing.”

“There's such a radical, dramatic difference between a 99% partial and a 100% total,” a NASA scientist recently told NPR.

He was referring to solar eclipses. 

But he could have been comparing UBlockout to literally every other so-called “blackout” solution available. 

Because even the best blackout curtains and shades leak light from the sides, bottom and top.

Until now.

UBlockout’s blackout solution was designed with the belief that even 99.9% room darkening isn’t enough.

And after 7 years of research and development, three patents and a brand-new sleep innovation award, the company achieved its goal: true, 100% blackout of the entire window. 

This blackout effect transforms even the brightest summer day into pitch-black night.

Like a total eclipse. 

When the best blackout curtain isn’t a curtain

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Because UBlockout’s Ultimate Blackout Shade is in a category of its own, comparing it to typical blackout shades or curtains is like comparing a rocket ship to an airplane to a lazily orbiting space station.

UBlockout doesn’t just craft custom shades: it solves problems. 

  • every last trace of light leak from your entire window
  • a functional and aesthetic solution
  • an easy DiY installation anybody could undertake

In a direct comparison, UBlockout wins over blackout curtains in all categories from noise management to temperature control. 

But more critically, it actually does what all blackout curtains claim but fail to accomplish.

When blackout means 100%—and when it doesn’t 

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When you purchase blackout curtains or blackout blinds, you deserve to expect 100% blackout.

Yet, until now, the market could only offer partial solutions and half-promises.

Until now, no other blackout solution actually eliminated all light from your window.

The problem with blackout curtains

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Have you ever slept at a nice hotel, had a late night and drifted off to Dreamland with every intention to luxuriously sleep in?

But then, you open your eyes—feeling more alert by the second—only to realize it’s 8 minutes later than your normal wakeup time of 6AM?

This doesn’t happen because your body is “used to a wakeup time.”

It’s because the light edging out the bottom and sides of the blackout curtains send wake-up signals to your brain.

When blackout shades are shady

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Savvy marketers in the food industry once slipped through regulatory loopholes to name products derivatives of ‘organic’ (whether or not that was true).

Similarly, the sleep industry has been thrown around the term “100% blackout” for ages. 

Yet nobody really questioned why “100% blackout” didn’t actually mean 100% blackout. Because without turning windows into walls, it didn’t seem possible.

So, misuse of the term became a generally-accepted falsehood.

This “reality” was so pervasive that even the “best blackout shades” cited by the New York Times failed to seal out light from the sides.

Guide to bedroom blackout (choosing the right solution) 

Choosing the best solution for you hinges on asking yourself 1 key question:

“Why do I want blackout curtains?”

  • is it because you like how curtains look?
  • do you simply want a darker room?
  • you don’t actually need pitch-blackout?

Or, are you—or your baby, toddler, teen or shift-worker spouse—desperate for better sleep? 

If better sleep is what you need, it’s critical to understand why it matters that blackout curtains and typical blackout shades fall short.

Why does light-leak even matter?

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Did you know that your brain can register even dim light even through your closed eyelids

So when you’re at that hotel and morning light seeps through the bottom of the curtains, your “master clock” (the suprachiasmatic nucleus or SCN deep in your brain’s hypothalamus) registers it as a wake-up signal.

This triggers the release of cortisol and suddenly—whether you’d like to be or not—you’re alert.

This is why even the best blackout curtains fall short if better sleep is your goal.

How does UBlockout actually work?

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  • UBlockout’s patented design leverages a channel system and light-seal fabric to eliminate 100% of light from the entire window
  • That same system contributes to sound reduction
  • The strength and durability of the shade itself—crafted from polyester with PMMA coating—acts more like a wall than a window for unparalleled temperature control

Customize to your needs and taste

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Every UBlockout shade is created on demand to ensure a 100% light seal of your window’s unique dimensions. Because of this, UBlockout allows you to customize other features at no additional investment

  • select colour of both frame and shade
  • choose between an inside or outside mount
  • close your shade from the top or bottom

Upgrade to fit your lifestyle

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Consumers who love building smart-home sleep systems can easily upgrade UBlockout to align with this lifestyle during checkout. 

  • make it motorized for a slight upcharge to control it with a remote
  • add a SmartHub to link to your devices and automate schedules

Compare to see that there’s no comparison

You may feel too old to thumbtack cardboard around subpar curtains. Or you’re dead-tired of that restless 2:37AM squirm.

Perhaps you’re just beginning to connect the dots between artificial light pollution and sleep hygiene.

Either way, one thing is true:

You deserve a blackout solution that actually helps you sleep better.

UBlockout vs blackout curtains vs other shades

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Shop now

Join 10,000+ well-rested humans

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The #1 reason people choose UBlockout is for pitch-black night on demand. However, that’s not the only reason people opt for the Ultimate Blackout Shade:

Because blackout curtains save you money, not sleep

While it’s true that blackout curtains are a more modest investment, you can’t compare a rocketship to a cessna

Quite literally, you get what you pay for. 

Curtains darken your room. UBlockout’s Ultimate Blackout Shade gives you pitch-black night on demand. 

Because UBlockout won a big US award for sleep innovation 

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Why, might you ask, in a world full of sleep gadgets and sleep aids, sleep tech and million-dollar sleep advice, did a blackout shade win the National Sleep Foundation’s 2024 SleepTech® Award?

Well, they understand that light is the #1 external factor impacting sleep.

UBlockout solves the problem of light in your sleep space, which is why it beat out all the gadgets, aids and tech in a $585B sleep industry.

Because Amazon blackout curtains don’t change lives

From the pilot who finally feels rested enough for safe flying, to the mom whose baby finally napseverybody who takes a leap with UBlockout is forever thankful they did.

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Why invest in better sleep?

Choosing UBlockout’s Ultimate Blackout Shade isn’t actually about curtains or shades.

It’s about investing in something better. 

 

Better sleep, of course.

 

But that very quickly becomes:

  • better relationships
  • better emotional control
  • better living

 

What is better living worth to you? 

Shop now

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