Bedroom Lighting: What You See From the Bed
A bedroom is lit differently from every other room for one simple reason: it is the only one where you spend time lying down, looking up. Bedroom lighting that goes wrong shows up instantly as a bare bulb in your line of sight. Favor closed shades, opal glass, and fabric or frosted diffusers.
The real question is reading in bed. Two sconces flanking the bed, mounted 22 to 28 inches above the mattress, light the page without waking the person beside you and leave the nightstand clear. Failing that, a bedside lamp whose shade bottom sits at eye level when you are sitting up does the same job.
Bring the color temperature down: 2700K, or even 2200K on late-evening sources, helps you wind down far more than a neutral white does. Look at our wall sconces and our table lamps.
