It never fails. You’ve been awakened in the middle of the night by that nagging bladder. Despite your desperate attempts to ignore it, or to put it off for just a little longer while you enjoy the warmth of the blankets, it will not be quelled. Or perhaps it’s a scorched thirst that has turned your throat into a desert so arid that you can’t even swallow. You try to go back to sleep, but it’s not going to happen. You can’t ignore Mother Nature; no matter how hard you try. So you crawl out of bed, and stumble toward the kitchen, or the bathroom, trying not to open your eyes for fear that you’ll wake yourself up. Then suddenly you hit the side of the bed, or a table in the hall, or you slam into the bathroom door because it’s closed and you didn’t know.

Now you’re awake.

So you take care of nature’s call, and you crawl back into bed, only to realize that you’re going to be awake for a long time to come. This is your body’s revenge for the pain inflicted upon it just moments ago. With any luck, you may fall asleep just in time to wake up to the alarm.

Now obviously you won’t be awake enough to go around hitting buttons to turn on lights. The ideal solution would be to press one button, and have enough light to see your way around without walking up. Better yet, what if you didn’t have to push a button at all?

In this How2, we’re going to look at ways to keep you out of harm’s way, without waking you up in the middle of the night. For this How2 you will need a HawkEye motion sensor and ActiveHome software and ActiveHome Lamp Modules.

So let’s start by determining where the hazardous places are on your trek through the house. For example, it could be the corner of the bed. Perhaps it’s a table in the hallway between the bedroom and the kitchen. It could even be a corner between rooms. Well whatever it is, you need to identify that particular obstacle.

Once the obstacle has been identified, then look at a way to place a motion sensor. (Now remember, the motion sensors have a range of about forty feet, depending on how you set it.)

Before you place the motion sensors though, set the motion sensor for "dark." This means that the motion sensor will only work when it is dark. That means that it will only go on after the lights in the house go off.

To set up your motion sensor, remove the battery cover in the back.

Remove the battery.

Press the Unit/Off button once. (A red light will flash.)

Then press and hold the House/On button. (A green light will turn on.)

Three seconds later a red light will blink. If it blinks once, then immediately press the House/On button twice.

After three seconds the motion sensor will report to you what mode it is in. If the red light blinks once, then it is set to detect motion at all times. If the red light blinks twice, then the motion sensor is set to detect motion only when it’s dark.

Now the motion sensor is ready to install. So let’s say that one particular obstacle is the end table in the hall. Place a HawkEye motion sensor under the table. That will focus the direction down, but it will still notice your motion from a short distance away. This will allow you to get closer to it before it activates the macro.

For the next step, you want to make sure that your lamp is plugged into an ActiveHome lamp module.

Now go into ActiveHome.

At the menu on the top, click on "Macro."

Then click on "New Standard Macro."

Name your macro "Middle of the Night."

Grab the icon labeled "Table Lamp" and drag it into your macro.

Set the brightness at 10%. (If you feel you need it lighter, then set it at whatever percentage you need.)

The grab the icon labeled "Table Lamp" and drag it again into your macro.

Immediately a "Delay Time" box will appear. Set the delay at whatever you feel comfortable with, anywhere from one minute to five minutes. If you set it for five minutes, this will give you enough time to get to the kitchen and back again.

Once you’ve selected the time, close this box.

Set the lamp at 0%.

Go back to the standard ActiveHome interface.

There you will see the macro you just created.

Close ActiveHome.

It will ask you if you want to save your changes. Be sure and tell it "yes."

Now as you’re walking down the hallway, as you approach the end table, the lamp will come up, alerting you that you’re in the vicinity of something that is about to wake you up rather abruptly if you’re not careful.

For the corner of the bed, set the HawkEye motion sensor on the corner of the bed facing away from the head of the bed. That way it will only notice you, as you get closer to it. Make sure your bedroom lamp is plugged into an ActiveHome Module.

Another problem is that bathroom door. What if it’s closed, and you walk right into it? Well the easiest solution here is to place a motion sensor on the outside of the door. That way if the door is closed, you will trigger it to turn on the light, letting you know that you might want to open the door before you proceed.

The motion sensors will only work when it’s dark in the house, so if the lights are already on, well, then it’s not really going to be a problem anyway. And once you have passed the motion sensor, it will turn itself off in only a few minutes. This will work even in the morning, if it’s still dark in the house after waking. After all, most of us are rather groggy when we wake up in the morning, and this will save you some scrapes here if you wait just a bit.

The only thing we can say about the toilet seat though, is be sure and always check to see whether it’s up or down as you need it. That’s going to be up to you.

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