I bought Ikea Fyrtur motorized shades on my south facing windows. Individually less than $200. These can also be trimmed down (if you're brave) to fit smaller windows, and are available in a variety of sizes. Being able to connect them to home automation to manage heat in south-facing rooms is fantastic.

For folks who don't have good windows or lighting for this: I invested in a "Lighten Up" timer that slowly trickles power to a light via a dimmer setup on a schedule. It has made it IMMENSELY easier to wake up at a consistent time. And it's very gradual. Caveat: spend some time finding a good dimmer bulb! So many CFLs and LEDs do weird things on a dimmer. One of them flickered like crazy. Another strobed. If you have any old incandescents around, they work great.

Significantly more than $200, but we had motorized external screens & shutters put on the bedroom windows. I flashed Tasmota onto some cheap Sonoff modules to control the motors and integrated via MQTT into Homebridge so we can easily set schedules or ask Siri to put the shades up or down.

We're sleeping so much better with the room mostly blacked out (we also have rear neighbors with bright lights, and cats that roam the neighborhood and set off everyone's motion sensors all night).

Having an exterior covering on the southwest-facing windows has also massively reduced the need for cooling in the summer — our original reason for having the install done.

Our bedroom has ~99% light reduction with the external screens, and our toddler's room upstairs has completely opaque roller shutters and gets DARK, which has made for very easy nap times and great overnight sleep. When we ask Siri to wake the kid up, a scene is executed that rolls up the shutters, turns on the overhead light, and plays a happy song on the HomePod. Always puts him a great mood.

This was a game-changer for us as well. We are blessed with for pretty-tall windows in our bedroom and we realized that we just never opened them - too much hassle. Now they're all motorized and we can toggle them with a button-press on a remote.

I've been looking for something like this. Is it DIY or something off-the-shelf? My spouse requires absolute darkness when sleeping, but I have SAD and require the blinds to be always open in order to... not want to die.

I bought the Manta sleep mask this year instead of going the curtains motorised route. Far cheaper and it has been just as effective in getting a great night sleep. It is really well designed. Very-breathable material with soft foam near the eyes and doesn't ever feel too tight.

A little pricey for what it is, but it is really a no-brainer when you think of how crucial restful sleep is.

Blackout curtains in general make a world of difference in sleep quality, especially up north where the sun doesn't like to go down in the summer.

The same thing makes all kinds of sunrise/sunset home automations completely useless :D