I always figured that I could stand a blackout well enough if I wasn't alone in it. I mean, the great 1965 blackout was rather a lark.* Someone else to lend body heat in winter and moral support in summer, and my equilibrium would be just fine-- I thought. But the staff who came in looking as frazzled as I has a husband and daughter and dog and still couldn't get back to sleep for worrying, after hearing everything turn off at 4 in the morning.
*But I see it lasted a mere 12 hours if that, not the 24 of '09 or the 41 of 2003.