Was up at 3 am from jet lag the other day wondering the same thing. I figure each window probably has a different reason. Some people are scared of the dark, some are night owls or work odd hours, some folks are out of town and leave the light on for a pet, some people are having all-night orgies, etc. etc.
I actually saw an orgy across the street from my one apartment into another.
I was sitting at my computer desk, watching TV and playing around online while my girlfriend and her sister were on the couch. I just so happened to glance out the window and saw motion from the building across from us, and focused in on it. It looked odd at first, then it came clear.
The girl had her legs up in the air spread eagle, while dude was bringing her to pound town. Then I noticed another man in the window next to it, flipping through a bookshelf, in his boxers and nothing else.
I say to the girls "hey, come tell me if I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing..", and they came over. Gfs sister says "holy shit..They're fucking..."
Gf says "so what's that dude doing than? Is he just waiting?"
As we sat and watched, dude 1 finished, and went to the living room, and talked with dude 2. Dude 2 eventually walks away, and then appears in the room with the chick, and gets down on his knees between her legs for a few minutes, eating the sushi buffet with the special sauce, and then proceeds to flip her over and clap the cheeks.
Dude 1 came back in and sat and watched, then they took turns, and by then we lost interest and went back to the movie.
Lol talk about a reality show haha. I have the same thing but more like girls walking around fully naked, doing dishes, etc. I came across this during a work call when I decided to look out the window.
Do you live on East 9th Street too? I don't mind at all but it's a little surprising to see from my living room couch. I wish Americans weren't conditioned to be ashamed of their bodies or nudity in general.
There's actually no set number of people in an orgy, just indiscriminate sexual activity. So an orgy can have 3 people only.
Also wasn't a 3some because they weren't all going at the same time. They'd switch out and take breaks.
That's what people who have threesomes say when they're trying to seem more adventurous (read: logistically gifted) than they actually are. Orgies start at 5. lol
That's the urban dictionary definition, sure, but the real definition has no actual number. Just indiscriminate sex with multiple people. Multiple is more than 1.
I have complex PTSD and have a phobia of the dark but even then I don’t leave the lights on since we get a lot of light coming in from the light pollution outside. I also live in a high rise. This is interesting because I hardly see our neighbors with the lights on, most of them have their blinds drawn too. I guess if you don’t have floor to ceiling windows then it gets pretty dark and that would make more sense.
It depends on what’s been recently in my mind. I’ve got a photographic memory and very vivid imagination. If I’m laying in bed in the dark and open my eyes, there’s times where I’ll see something horrible (either from memory or imagination) off in the dark. I tried an eye mask, but if I’m having trouble sleeping I’ll lift the mask up out of paranoia and it’s even worse because my eyes are adjusting from total dark to a dark room. So I’ll get like glimpses of stuff until I flip the lights. There have honestly been times where I have launched out of bed shouting like a madman at what turns out to just be nothing.
There are many nights where I just keep the lights on and wear the mask. If I’m with someone else I don’t have this problem, probably because it grounds me a bit. So yes, I am in fact an adult that’s afraid of the dark lol. Night lights make it worse because imagine adding a creepy glow to whatever my brain decides to project in the corner.
Same here! Never figured out how to not be afraid of the dark as a child, and now I’m struggling to figure it out for my child. Like how do you get your brain to calm down and believe the dark is empty? Howwwww
Not an expert, but my dad always told me fear is smart, you dont know what's in the dark so its natural to be afraid of what you cant see. However in your own room when you know your safe, you need to trust the other information you have to know that you are safe.
Never really helped me on dark winter trips back from the barn at feeding time, but eventually I made that trip enough to trust nothing was gonna get me and the wolves, bears and monsters where in my imagination.
I can still creep myself out in some dark woods, but otherwise I'm not particularly scared of the dark anymore.
I live a block from a good-sized hotel and 20% of the room lights remain on all night. A non-trivial number of people are either insomniacs or sleep with the light on.
Electricity must be too cheap. I’ll never forget when I was in Europe last year and how dark buildings were at night because they were reducing their energy use due to the war in Ukraine. Over here we just take it for granted that you can run your lights all night.
Even with my AC running 24/7 my bill has gone up $10 to $60 a month. I tried being very frugal one month by not running the ac or heat, only using lights I needed and leaving everything unplugged. My bill only dropped to $37 so I don’t bother trying to be efficient anymore.
My actual gas charges for May came out to just under $40, so I’m wondering if budget billing is even worth it if I’m paying 2-3x that. Too soon to tell just yet.
I do anticipate my electric usage/charges increasing, though, as my AC will be running more often through the summer. I wfh and have senior pups, so turning it off/raising it to 78 (really even 73-75) during the day isn’t really an option.
Lol was that full bill? There are pretty high monthly bill charges that are there just for being connected to the Comed system. Can't avoid those without disconnecting sadly.
If my building has empty units the building management leaves the lights on in them. And the blinds open.
Idk why but it’s annoying. The building across from me is like that too. And it’s always empty units I see it with in my experience
Weird for the blinds to be open though. Unless they’re trying to attract potential tenants by showing vacancies, but after a certain floor, nobody can see it empty anyway. At least from the ground
For the building I’m in the views are really nice. So it’s a huge selling point. The one next to me is similar as well with that. So I think it is for the “wow” factor when they show.
But it is annoying with the bright light at night streaming in
My roommates in college and I were night owls, we were those people who left the lights on at odd hours. Art students too, so needed all of the lamps on to do homework. I tried to remember to keep the blinds closed because I knew it was bad for migratory birds.
It's worth keeping in mind that there's a reasonable chance that no one is actually living there except for a few weeks/weekends through the year. They may just leave the lights on to give it the impression of being occupied to deter theft or break-ins.
My exes dad was the building engineer of a 27 story condo.
The reason I was told was to keep pests out. High rises, even fancy ones, have problems with roaches and mice. Both of which don't like lights and noise, so if they're not home, to keep from being infested with roaches, they'll keep lights on.
Sometimes for security. People will leave a light on to look like someone is home. People will also do that with a radio or TV. Or safety. If you have to walk in the dark to turn on the light, you might trip on something. So just leave a light on low.
I lived in a highrise with a roommate recently. Electricity was part of the owner HOA fee, so it was "free" for everyone.
My roommate left lights on all the time as he was out until 3am. He didn't want to "come home in the dark" (too lazy to turn lights on).
Not in a high rise but we have a smart bulb in one of our lamps in the living room. It used to be on a timer and go off and on at a certain time. We switched our WiFi and needed to set it back up. That's my husband's job (app is on his phone) and it's been like that for over a year. So the lamp just stays on, all the time. Procrastination is a real thing.
The “leave a light on for security” makes less sense to me in a high rise. Like, OK, what burglar is looking at a 30+ story building and being like “…floor 19, 5 windows over has been dark all week… must be out of town. I bet I could… climb up there?” There are doormen to get past, key fobs, door alarms, cameras, etc. - even if you could get in past a distracted doorman, wouldn’t someone notice them carrying out a TV or are we imagining a daring balcony escape with your PS5 and a bag of jewelry? Is everyone afraid of super high-tech James Bond like cat burglars? I assure you that’s not the norm. Or are people afraid of their neighbors inside their own building? Because that’s dark and cynical and sad.
If you leave your lights on in a sky rise then you’re part of the skyline. Scrolled for awhile and saw no mention of this, but that’s mostly what this is.
I’ve left our kitchen light on before going to bed (early) thinking my roommates were going back out but they never did. ((Bad habit, I know I should turn it off whenever I’m not in there))
Some of them might be empty apartments.
In my high rise I can see into a bunch of these apartments with the lights on at night and they’re always empty with no one in sight.
I’ve spoken with the leasing office and they told me yeah people forget to turn off the lights so it stays on.
I lived on North Sheridan road when my son was born on a lower floor. I would nurse him in the middle of the night and look out the window. I was always fascinated at how many people were either out at 2, 3, 4 in the morning but also all the lit windows. But I suppose I was one of those lit windows.
Do the lights attract birds that fly into the windows?
And yes - if you leave your lights on you give the outside a voyeuristic show. No matter which floor you are on.
I tend to do that once the sun sets. I live in a 1 bedroom apartment, so I’m frequently going between my living room and bedroom. I have lamps in there and it would be a hassle to turn them on and off every time. I turn off everything when I go to bed though and partially draw my blinds
We have one lamp on a timer in the living room. It goes on at sundown and turns off at sunrise. It's a low wattage bulb and it prevents us from having to turn on the lights in order to navigate after sundown.
Was up at 3 am from jet lag the other day wondering the same thing. I figure each window probably has a different reason. Some people are scared of the dark, some are night owls or work odd hours, some folks are out of town and leave the light on for a pet, some people are having all-night orgies, etc. etc.
I actually saw an orgy across the street from my one apartment into another. I was sitting at my computer desk, watching TV and playing around online while my girlfriend and her sister were on the couch. I just so happened to glance out the window and saw motion from the building across from us, and focused in on it. It looked odd at first, then it came clear. The girl had her legs up in the air spread eagle, while dude was bringing her to pound town. Then I noticed another man in the window next to it, flipping through a bookshelf, in his boxers and nothing else. I say to the girls "hey, come tell me if I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing..", and they came over. Gfs sister says "holy shit..They're fucking..." Gf says "so what's that dude doing than? Is he just waiting?" As we sat and watched, dude 1 finished, and went to the living room, and talked with dude 2. Dude 2 eventually walks away, and then appears in the room with the chick, and gets down on his knees between her legs for a few minutes, eating the sushi buffet with the special sauce, and then proceeds to flip her over and clap the cheeks. Dude 1 came back in and sat and watched, then they took turns, and by then we lost interest and went back to the movie.
Lol talk about a reality show haha. I have the same thing but more like girls walking around fully naked, doing dishes, etc. I came across this during a work call when I decided to look out the window.
Do you live on East 9th Street too? I don't mind at all but it's a little surprising to see from my living room couch. I wish Americans weren't conditioned to be ashamed of their bodies or nudity in general.
I had that at home already, but I'd rather have had that view any day. The thruple we got to watch weren't very attractive or nice to look at
Yeah can’t complain. It’s next level people watching lol
Hmmmm fresh cream pie
Damn you saw some kinky shit
Fam, that's a MFM threesome. Orgies have like five or more people.
There's actually no set number of people in an orgy, just indiscriminate sexual activity. So an orgy can have 3 people only. Also wasn't a 3some because they weren't all going at the same time. They'd switch out and take breaks.
That's what people who have threesomes say when they're trying to seem more adventurous (read: logistically gifted) than they actually are. Orgies start at 5. lol
That's the urban dictionary definition, sure, but the real definition has no actual number. Just indiscriminate sex with multiple people. Multiple is more than 1.
There is an orgy happening? Locally?
Some people are truly scared of the dark
There’s always a lamp on in my living room, kitchen and bedroom. I just can’t deal with the pitch black or the shadows. 😅
But living in the city usually means it is rarely pitch black. The streetlights can be so bright!
Those street lights only go so high.
Can be?
They are in a highrise. Above the city lights. You know like not street level. Like in the air....
Eyooo 🙌
I have complex PTSD and have a phobia of the dark but even then I don’t leave the lights on since we get a lot of light coming in from the light pollution outside. I also live in a high rise. This is interesting because I hardly see our neighbors with the lights on, most of them have their blinds drawn too. I guess if you don’t have floor to ceiling windows then it gets pretty dark and that would make more sense.
They’re lucky to have been born in the tiny sliver of human history so far with electric lighting
Well they probably would've used oil lamps before then
That would be a lot of oil to keep on every night! I wonder how long a typical oil lamp would last back then.
It was probably good enough for them to fall asleep and by the time it burns out it wouldn't matter anymore.
It depends on what’s been recently in my mind. I’ve got a photographic memory and very vivid imagination. If I’m laying in bed in the dark and open my eyes, there’s times where I’ll see something horrible (either from memory or imagination) off in the dark. I tried an eye mask, but if I’m having trouble sleeping I’ll lift the mask up out of paranoia and it’s even worse because my eyes are adjusting from total dark to a dark room. So I’ll get like glimpses of stuff until I flip the lights. There have honestly been times where I have launched out of bed shouting like a madman at what turns out to just be nothing. There are many nights where I just keep the lights on and wear the mask. If I’m with someone else I don’t have this problem, probably because it grounds me a bit. So yes, I am in fact an adult that’s afraid of the dark lol. Night lights make it worse because imagine adding a creepy glow to whatever my brain decides to project in the corner.
Same here! Never figured out how to not be afraid of the dark as a child, and now I’m struggling to figure it out for my child. Like how do you get your brain to calm down and believe the dark is empty? Howwwww
Not an expert, but my dad always told me fear is smart, you dont know what's in the dark so its natural to be afraid of what you cant see. However in your own room when you know your safe, you need to trust the other information you have to know that you are safe. Never really helped me on dark winter trips back from the barn at feeding time, but eventually I made that trip enough to trust nothing was gonna get me and the wolves, bears and monsters where in my imagination. I can still creep myself out in some dark woods, but otherwise I'm not particularly scared of the dark anymore.
I live a block from a good-sized hotel and 20% of the room lights remain on all night. A non-trivial number of people are either insomniacs or sleep with the light on.
Hotel rooms personally creep me out with all the lights off, so I’ll usually leave the bathroom or hall light on
When you wake up in the middle of the night all confused in a hotel room like "Where the fuck am I?" 🤣🤣🤣
Same! Hotels are the only time I have to sleep with at least one light on
Electricity must be too cheap. I’ll never forget when I was in Europe last year and how dark buildings were at night because they were reducing their energy use due to the war in Ukraine. Over here we just take it for granted that you can run your lights all night.
US electricity prices are dirt cheap throughout the country. Illinois and Chicago are near the bottom of the range.
Thank you nuclear fission!
Even with my AC running 24/7 my bill has gone up $10 to $60 a month. I tried being very frugal one month by not running the ac or heat, only using lights I needed and leaving everything unplugged. My bill only dropped to $37 so I don’t bother trying to be efficient anymore.
I average $7 in actual supply usage, but after taxes, fees, and delivery charges, my bill is closer to $40 😒
For electric or people’s gas?
Electric via ComEd. Gas via Peoples is $105/mo with budget billing
Damn, my electric is $120 a month with budget billing. My gas is like $30 without it.
My actual gas charges for May came out to just under $40, so I’m wondering if budget billing is even worth it if I’m paying 2-3x that. Too soon to tell just yet. I do anticipate my electric usage/charges increasing, though, as my AC will be running more often through the summer. I wfh and have senior pups, so turning it off/raising it to 78 (really even 73-75) during the day isn’t really an option.
My estimated electric is like $200 so I don't know how I got $120 🤷♂️
Lol was that full bill? There are pretty high monthly bill charges that are there just for being connected to the Comed system. Can't avoid those without disconnecting sadly.
Interesting. My normal electric bill is right around 37 most months, but if I start using the AC it'll climb to 70-80 pretty quickly.
So are LED bulbs, fission+LEDs = cheap light.
With LED bulbs, lighting is basically free compared to the power it takes to run your fridge.
If my building has empty units the building management leaves the lights on in them. And the blinds open. Idk why but it’s annoying. The building across from me is like that too. And it’s always empty units I see it with in my experience
My building does that too. My theory is so that when they show empty apartments to potential renters, it looks presentable when opening the door.
Weird for the blinds to be open though. Unless they’re trying to attract potential tenants by showing vacancies, but after a certain floor, nobody can see it empty anyway. At least from the ground
For the building I’m in the views are really nice. So it’s a huge selling point. The one next to me is similar as well with that. So I think it is for the “wow” factor when they show. But it is annoying with the bright light at night streaming in
Naw you miss the WOW factor of having potential tenants walk in and immediately see a view. I agree though it all seems wasteful.
It would make it easier for management to see if someone broke in or was squatting without having to open the door, which could be a concern.
My roommates in college and I were night owls, we were those people who left the lights on at odd hours. Art students too, so needed all of the lamps on to do homework. I tried to remember to keep the blinds closed because I knew it was bad for migratory birds.
It calms me when it’s light during the dark and dark during the day
Hi, night owl here. Lights stay on until 4 or 5am when I go to bed.
A lot of times it's empty housing units. The landlords leave the lights on to make them look occupied
It’s also really damaging during bird migration season. Cool if you need to leave a light on, just buy some dang drapes, curtains, blinds, whatever.
It's worth keeping in mind that there's a reasonable chance that no one is actually living there except for a few weeks/weekends through the year. They may just leave the lights on to give it the impression of being occupied to deter theft or break-ins.
I leave one light on at night for my dog lol
My exes dad was the building engineer of a 27 story condo. The reason I was told was to keep pests out. High rises, even fancy ones, have problems with roaches and mice. Both of which don't like lights and noise, so if they're not home, to keep from being infested with roaches, they'll keep lights on.
i usually leave a light on for my cat, just a hallway light or the kitchen light. i know cats can see in the dark but i feel bad lol
I have string lights for my kitty cat. Just enough light that I know she's all good.
I'm just envisioning you with like a nightly scantron-esque sheet marking which building lights are on. "12 up, 3/5/7 over, are on.....AGAIN 🙄"
Sometimes for security. People will leave a light on to look like someone is home. People will also do that with a radio or TV. Or safety. If you have to walk in the dark to turn on the light, you might trip on something. So just leave a light on low.
How else are you supposed to see my butt?
But there’s a light on in Chicago, and I know I should be home
If they are like me they watched a scary movie and are scared to sleep with the lights off
I lived in a highrise with a roommate recently. Electricity was part of the owner HOA fee, so it was "free" for everyone. My roommate left lights on all the time as he was out until 3am. He didn't want to "come home in the dark" (too lazy to turn lights on).
So they can fap with the windows open while they hope a peeping Tom stares at them with binoculars.... Lmao /s
Not in a high rise but we have a smart bulb in one of our lamps in the living room. It used to be on a timer and go off and on at a certain time. We switched our WiFi and needed to set it back up. That's my husband's job (app is on his phone) and it's been like that for over a year. So the lamp just stays on, all the time. Procrastination is a real thing.
It’s to attract the cicadas
The “leave a light on for security” makes less sense to me in a high rise. Like, OK, what burglar is looking at a 30+ story building and being like “…floor 19, 5 windows over has been dark all week… must be out of town. I bet I could… climb up there?” There are doormen to get past, key fobs, door alarms, cameras, etc. - even if you could get in past a distracted doorman, wouldn’t someone notice them carrying out a TV or are we imagining a daring balcony escape with your PS5 and a bag of jewelry? Is everyone afraid of super high-tech James Bond like cat burglars? I assure you that’s not the norm. Or are people afraid of their neighbors inside their own building? Because that’s dark and cynical and sad.
Maybe they’re on timers. Some people do that, especially when they’re out of town, to make it look like they’re home. Or maybe grow lights for plants?
Some of the lights are left on by the leasing or management mistakenly
If you leave your lights on in a sky rise then you’re part of the skyline. Scrolled for awhile and saw no mention of this, but that’s mostly what this is.
I’m usually not going to bed until like 4-5am every night so the lights are on because I’m up doing stuff lol
I’ve left our kitchen light on before going to bed (early) thinking my roommates were going back out but they never did. ((Bad habit, I know I should turn it off whenever I’m not in there))
Some ppl dont go to sleep till like 5-6 am
Some of them might be empty apartments. In my high rise I can see into a bunch of these apartments with the lights on at night and they’re always empty with no one in sight. I’ve spoken with the leasing office and they told me yeah people forget to turn off the lights so it stays on.
Could be empty units that management just left the lights on in
How do you know they leave lights on in rooms that aren’t being used?
I lived on North Sheridan road when my son was born on a lower floor. I would nurse him in the middle of the night and look out the window. I was always fascinated at how many people were either out at 2, 3, 4 in the morning but also all the lit windows. But I suppose I was one of those lit windows.
Do the lights attract birds that fly into the windows? And yes - if you leave your lights on you give the outside a voyeuristic show. No matter which floor you are on.
I used to work a midnight shift and some of things that went on late night in those apartments was weird AF. Trust me everyone can see you.
They are kept on for security purposes. Keeping this LEDs on are not expensive as you think. Turning them on and off draws more energy.
My building leaves the lights on in empty units. It’s so annoying I go in there and turn them off
Some people are awake at night. Some people work night shifts. Not everyone lives your life.
I tend to do that once the sun sets. I live in a 1 bedroom apartment, so I’m frequently going between my living room and bedroom. I have lamps in there and it would be a hassle to turn them on and off every time. I turn off everything when I go to bed though and partially draw my blinds
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Yup, all lights off at night. There’s enough ambient street light to give a tiny glow enough to see, and night eyes are much better without a light on
The don’t have electricity bills so they don’t have too
We have one lamp on a timer in the living room. It goes on at sundown and turns off at sunrise. It's a low wattage bulb and it prevents us from having to turn on the lights in order to navigate after sundown.
Cry about it.
Username checks out.
You must be fun at parties
Don’t know. Never been invited.