Lighting guide
Where to put night lights in a hallway or on stairs
A night light in the wrong place is either useless or blinding. Get the height, the angle and the spacing right and you'll never reach for a switch at 3am again.
1. Mount low — around knee height
Eye-level lighting is what wakes you up. Mounted low, the light lands where you actually need it: the floor, the door frame, the edge of the next step. It reads as a soft pool rather than a lamp switching on.
2. Aim at the floor, not down the corridor
Angling the light down the hallway puts it straight into your eyes and leaves the floor in shadow. Point it at the walking surface instead — the reflected light is enough to see the whole space, and a warm 2700–3000K tone won't reset your body clock the way cool white does.
3. Put one at each end of a staircase
Falls happen at the top and the bottom, where you misjudge the last step. One light at each end covers the whole flight, and each one triggers before you're on the stairs rather than halfway down.
4. Space hallway lights about 4 metres apart
Motion sensors typically reach around 4 metres. Spacing lights at roughly that interval means the next one wakes as the last one is still on, so the lit path travels with you instead of leaving gaps.
5. Keep sensors away from false triggers
Radiators, a busy doorway, a cat flap or a curtain in a draught will all set a sensor off. Point it away from those and the battery lasts weeks rather than days. In cupboards and wardrobes, mount it above the shelf line so opening the door is what wakes it.
The light this guide is written for
Glow Path mounts magnetically, so you can try a placement and move it five minutes later without a single hole in the wall. It detects motion up to 4 metres, glows warm, and turns itself off after about 15 seconds.
See Glow Path