"It has come to my attention that the cool kids are showering with the lights off. According to a report from PopSugar, TikTok's wellness influencers are now swearing by "dark showers" - some call them "sensory showers" - in which they turn off all the lights, spark a candle and either play music, listen to nature sounds or just straight vibe."
"I'm not entirely sure when I started showering in the dark - 2022, maybe? It started from necessity. In my apartment, the bathroom bulb throws the sort of fluorescent light you'd find at a hospital or gas station. At any rate, a hot, dark, silent shower is now an indelible part of my wind-down routine. It ostensibly ends my day. Once it's over, I don't look at my phone again. I climb into bed, read until my eyes get droopy and go to sleep."
Turning off lights during showers, often with a candle and calming sounds, functions as a simple sensory wind-down ritual. The practice can replace harsh bathroom lighting and buffer evening stimulation, helping people disconnect from phones and move directly toward sleep. Cortisol naturally peaks in the morning and decreases by bedtime, but many adults struggle to shed stress hormones at night. Overlapping regulation of sleep and stress means evening arousal impairs sleep latency and cycles. Manageable strategies include diet changes, earlier caffeine cutoff, stopping screen work earlier, avoiding late intense exercise, and adopting low-effort rituals like dark showers.
Read at InsideHook
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