Use blinds or blackout curtains to keep out light. Switch off or cover anything that emits light, such as an alarm clock.

It was a late summer evening and they were sitting in the living room, the curtains open, lights off. They often sat this way at dusk.

The women - or rather girls, for they were mostly young - wore drawn cotton bonnets with great flapping curtains to keep off the sun, and gloves to prevent their hands being wounded by the stubble.