Airlines need to remove the window shades so it's not an issue at all.

Has anyone watched the movie "Delta Force"? They were ordered to lower the window shades by the terrorists. Flights attendants who want the shades lowered = terrorists

I don't know how unusual I am, but I can't sleep with an eye mask on (on an airplane or anywhere else). I'm too aware of it being on my face and just keep focusing on that and can't get to sleep. And I generally don't like having parts of my face covered for any reason as it makes me feel sort of claustrophobic. Tried several kinds over the years, no dice. I'm probably just weird like that though - I'm certainly weird enough in other ways!

I can sleep in a dark cabin, and if I'm tired enough can sleep when it's not dark (just not the full-up brightness level). Of course, I sleep better in J than Y in any scenario. And the jet lag varies depending on length of flight, direction, whether I slept well the previous night, etc.

They could always spend money on a pair of eyeshades that suit them.

This thread, and others like it, are evidence that those who prefer not to sleep in a blacked out cabin are far being from a tiny minority.

F/A's are lazy. Booze up the passenger, make the cabin dark and they'll sleep thru the flight. On my last KL long haul flight, the F/A made me a gin & tonic with mainly gin and a shot of tonic.

While purely subjective, I notice on most of my flights, that most of the other passengers want to sleep and that most passengers in window seats lower the shades themselves (rather than being told by cabin crew) after the meal service.

This is especially true for C.

Flying millions of miles on long haul flights my experience is that the ones who want the shade open are less than 1 in 10.

It is Air Canada policy to close the shades and sometimes it's imposed quite aggressively. If that offends you I urge you to boycott Air Canada at every opportunity and encourage those who want the shades left open to do the same.

I fly Air Canada most often and would rather have the shades down instead of satisfying the desires of the tiny minority who want to gape at the window even though it disturbs the majority of passengers. "Look at the pretty clouds!"

I've started boycotting AC for a number of reasons...this one hasn't made the list yet! This topic, like abortion and tipping, will always have the crowds divided. I've got a thick enough skin that, even if the three shades by my seat are lowered while I've been to the toilet, these just get put up again if it's a day flight. I find sitting in the dark during daytime very disturbing.

I always have the shades up if sitting by the window. I choose to watch the world go by rather than, as on a lot of flights, sit in a darkened tube for hours with no idea of where I am up to the point the wheels touch the ground.
Had flights on BA arriving mid-afternoon where every blind in the cabin has remained closed even though it's been light outside for the last 6-8 hours.

I tend to doze off more with the warm sun on my face.

This.

Night flights i don't care but on day flights it is bloody annoying to have the shade open.
Even one open shade will almost lit the whole cabin.
And no i can't sleep with eye-shades, hate them.
So i'm happy that they enforce the closure of the shades.
One shellfish person should not ruin the sleep or IFE experience of the rest of the passengers.
I noticed several times that somebody opens the shade and after 5 minutes going to sleep without closing the shades.
Use the blanket if you want to watch outside.

But during the day, you could just as easily argue that it's bloody annoying to have to sit in the dark just because some selfish layabouts want to sleep during the daytime.

I'm happy they don't/can't enforce the closure of the shades.

And no, I can't look out of the window with a blanket over my head, hate that!

No doubt someone will bring out the "but it's nighttime somewhere" argument.

Which IMHO is codwallop, since most passengers on a given longhaul flight will be starting in the flights origin timezone (+/- 1 hour), and ending their journey at the flights destination timezone (+/- 1 hour), hence for the vast majority of passengers, daytime during their flight will be daytime at both origin and destination.

(There are obvious exceptions of course, but the above should cover most passengers on most flights.)

Two anecdotes here:

In EK F, I like how they have 2 layers of shades, 1 that is actually a shade, and a 2nd that is a blackout shade so you can keep natural light in your suite without pissing off the whole cabin.

2nd, I was on an AA domestic F flight a few months ago and the pax that was in one of the window seats was a deadheading captain who had fallen asleep before they asked to put the shades down since it was an early AM flight ex-DFW. So the FA went and found a long wooden stick or broom or something so she could lower the shade without waking the captain

I was yelled at on a PEK-DTW flight to shut the window about halfway through the flight. I asked why and she just gruffly said it needs to be shut. Nevermind that I was currently looking out the window, enjoying a sunrise over Alaska, which I don't get to see every day. I'm a paying customer, too, dangit.

This doesn't accord with my experience, so I did a straw poll of the 7 of us at a business lunch today - 2 didn't care and 5 liked natural light flying westbound. Certainly not scientific, but no less than the 1 in 10 claim quoted.