Product Review: RYB HOME Sound-Proof, Blackout Curtains

Darkness is one of the most underrated aspects of a healthy sleep environment. There have been countless studies showing how important darkness is for a good night’s sleep. Even so much as using blackout stickers to cover miniscule lights coming from a TV, a noise machine, or even a carbon monoxide alarm. However small they might be, light impacts the way we sleep. My mother in law has often said that she feels like her eyelids are paper thin when trying to sleep. The smallest specks of light seem to prevent her from sleeping peacefully. While an eye mask can help solve this problem for us as adults, that wouldn’t be a safe alternative for a child, and especially not for a baby. Which is why finding a blackout solution is a top priority for our children’s rooms.

The same is true for sound, which is why it’s becoming common to sleep with some form of white noise or even earplugs. Whether you sleep with a fan, an air purifier, an actual noise machine, or something else, having purposeful sound playing in your room as you sleep will help you sleep for longer stretches. You’d be surprised at how stimulating sleeping in a quiet environment is. For just a moment, think of sleeping in a hotel room while on vacation. You have nothing to block out the noise of other guests stomping around their rooms above you…or to block out the sound of the elevator going up and down between floors…or to block out the sound of a crying baby in the room next to yours. These problems could be solved with a portable simple noise machine you brought from home! Blocking out those environmental noises will help ease you into comfortable sleep so much better than trying to sleep in silence.

In order for us (and our babies) to have a good night’s sleep, we have to set up our sleep environments accordingly.

• Noise machine or fan (because sleeping in silence is actually SO hard…am I convincing you yet????)

• Darkness

• Cool temperature (between 17-22 degrees Celsius)

• Safe Sleep Environment (This is mostly pertaining to babies and young kiddos - sleeping in a bare crib until they’re at least 1 year old, and then slowly introducing a blanket and other comfort items into the crib as they age).

Even as adults, it can be commonplace to feel ‘sensitive’ to your sleep environment. Personally, I can’t sleep in my bed if I can hear a movie playing downstairs, but somehow I can fall asleep right on the couch with a show playing in front of me. I also don’t sleep well when I see lights shining in my room - even with my eyes closed. Heck, I even need a certain pillow, I have favourite sheets, and I must have a fan blowing on my face lol!! I don’t know how I became this way, but here we are.

As you know from reading my blogs, I absolutely love to test out new sleep products to see what is out there and what to recommend to my clients who need suggestions for their child’s sleep environment. Long ago, back before I ever found out about custom blackout curtains, I used tinfoil, tape, Walmart “blackout” curtains, and velcro strips. I mean, it worked…but I don’t recommend! There are products out there to help ease the struggle of certain aspects of parenting, and I swear blackout curtains/blackout blinds is one of them.

RYB HOME sent me their soundproof/blackout curtains in the Beige colour to test out, and I found a few pros and cons that I wanted to share with you. First of all, I set these curtains up in my youngest daughter’s room. She is only 2 and she’s my only kiddo who still naps - so I wanted them in her room to really test out the quality of these blackout curtains during daytime hours - not just at nighttime.

Pros of the RYB HOME 3 Layers Soundproof/Blackout Curtains:

• Great Quality
  The quality of the curtains I have is fantastic. They are thick, the seams are great, and you can just tell that these curtains are a high quality. I am thoroughly impressed with the look of the curtains in my daughter’s room and love that they’re actually purposeful along with being aesthetically pleasing.

• Washable
  Every parent knows the importance of having quality products that are washable. Heck, I even bought a Ruggable just to have the option to wash it when something was inevitably spilled on it. I love that these blackout curtains are washable, even though they’re thick. The curtains are layered, so you can remove the outer shell cover to wash, leaving the insides in the room still. This is so much easier on your washing machine and dryer since they product is heavy.

• Fast Shipping
  Shipping to Canada was relatively quick! I received my product in about a week. With items coming out of country, you never know how fast or slow shipping is going to take. The shipping for the RYB HOME curtains was a pleasant surprise! They do also advertise free shipping on every order which is super appealing for consumers.

• Completely Light-Proof Material
  The material itself is completely light-proof. Absolutely no light leaks are coming in through the actual curtain. The curtains are also a great size for large windows - giving enough space to wrap around the sides of a windowsill, with a bit of a pile-up on the floor to prevent light leaks on the bottom and sides of the window. I did order the 52x108 size for our window (which in turn was a bit too long for the window), but I do like the pile-up of fabric on the floor to block any light from sneaking in through the bottom of the curtain.

• Insulating in the Room
  These curtains boast a few different features - room insulation being one of them. My daughter’s room has 2 outside walls and a huge window…beautiful, but we’ve noticed her room can get quite cold in the winter months even with our thermostat set to a reasonable temperature. Since having the curtains up and covering her room, I have noticed that the temperature in her room hovers about 1 degree warmer than it did before. Our house is set to 20 degrees Celsius overnight, but her room would dip down to 16 degrees with the door closed. Since using the RYB Home curtains, her nightly room temperature has been 17 degrees Celsius. Still chill, but surprisingly good for a sleep environment.

• Cost
  For parents on a budget, these may not be the curtains for you. They are pricey considering the majority of my following are here in Canada. The prices range from $159-$189 USD for the set. Buying blackout curtains is definitely cheaper than hiring a sleep consultant (wink wink), but they aren’t a magic fix for your child’s poor sleep habits. I do think the price is justifiable when comparing to other blackout solutions out there.

Cons of the RYB HOME 3 Layers Soundproof/Blackout Curtains:

• Light Leaks
  While the curtain itself is completely blacked-out with absolutely no light leaks, because of the design, there is bound to be some light leaks from the top of the curtain. I found this to be true while trying out my curtain in my daughter’s nursery, There was some slight amounts of light leaking from the top of the curtain rod. This is because the curtain uses a metal rings where the curtain rod snakes through, so there is space in between the rod and the window. It’s 2024, we don’t need light leaking from anywhere. We need blackout curtains that so closely attach to the top of the window that you cannot possibly have light leaking into the room.
  For a kiddo who is sensitive to light creeping in the room, this could be the difference between a 5am wakeup or a 7am wakeup. Light matters!
  I should say, that it is rare to have a window without some sort of blind already fixed into the windowsill. Having these curtains overtop of a natural blind on the window would make it that much more blacked-out. These curtains work best with a window that already has a blind - which is an added cost, but truthfully, most windows need both if we’re seeking a cave-like sleep environment.

• Heavy
  You know the memes out there joking about independent women putting up a curtain rod and the picture shows 10 different sets of holes in the drywall? For these curtains, it’s no joke. They are HEAVY, so you absolutely have to drill your curtain rod into the studs. They would rip out of the drywall within a minute, I’m sure of it. However, once they’re up and secure, they’re great!

Neutral Opinion of the RYB HOME 3-Layer Curtains:

• Soundproof
  The 3-layer curtain is designed to provide soundproofing qualities along with blackout qualities. My house is located on a quiet street with the occasional diesel truck warming up at 5am. However, without a noise machine running, I would not trust these curtains to block enough sound out of my baby’s room to prevent them from waking up throughout the day. Because my home isn’t in a noisy environment, I wasn’t able to adequately ‘test’ the soundproofing claims that these curtains have. There is evidence located on their website that these curtains do have actual soundproofing qualities (with how heavy they are, there is obviously something going on with the curtains haha!) I just wasn’t able to form an opinion on them.

All in all, I think the RYB HOME Blackout Curtains are a good investment and I would repurchase them for my home. The pros outweigh the cons and I think you’re getting a good ‘bang for your buck’ with these. If you’re in the market to purchase some blackout curtains for your baby’s nursery or your child’s room, here is the link for the RYB HOME website: Shop RYB. There are plenty of other blackout curtains on the market, but I do love how RYB is trying to appeal to a few different aspects of the entire sleep environment with their 1 product. With soundproofing, blackout, and temperature regulating qualities, RYB HOME is definitely upping the game.

If you have questions about the RYB HOME curtains, check out their website’s info section (linked here) or feel free to send them an email - their customer care team is very responsive and helpful!

This blog post contains links to the RYB Home website, but they are not affiliate links.