Light Switch

[acccj]

The light in my closet turned on in the middle of the night. What may have caused this? The switch itself was flipped up, however, we turned it off prior to going to bed.

[ChuckFickens]

Sleep walking??

Bad memory and you didn't turn it off??

[Clanad]

Have you ever noticed that when you turn the switch toggle on or off that it kind of "snaps" into the desired position in the last few 10ths of an inch of movement? Well, this is designed into the switch. When you move the toggle it moves a spring loaded switching mechanism that snaps to the other position. The purpose of the spring load is to keep you from s l o w l y moving the switch from one position to the other which is when arcing can occur. My guess is that you probably moved the switch to the off position but not quite far enough to take it out of the spring loaded position. After a short while it simply moved itself into the on position to satisfy the spring tension you were unaware that you had engaged but not completed....

[dr b]

sure, Clanad's explanation is "rational", if you like that sort of thing, but my money is on ghosts.

[no-knowledge]

how do you know it turned on in the middle of the night?

[alavahalf]

Lock your bedroom door....look under the bed...check behind the curtains....and then sleep with your head under the blanket..!

[IggyB]

the boogey man is also scared of the dark!

[Playbill]

Following on from Clanad's explanation. I always used to turn a light switch on or off 'softly' or slowly, I now think this is why I blew several of the old style bulbs. That last fraction of movement may have gone from on/off/on or off/on/off so quickly that the bulb shorted.
Don't know if this would have same effect on new bulbs but I now 'snap' the light switch on and off.

[Merryscholar]

What were you dreaming at the time? Could it have been a bright idea?

[tamborine]

spooookey - caspar visiting? Or, your OH hiding their lover?

[spider4]

To eliminate the obvious change the switch!