As an older woman myself, I often have to pee in the middle of the night. I don't want to wake my husband by turning on the bathroom light, which leaks around and under the door. Honestly, I don't want to shock my own brain that much awake either, I just want to pee, wipe, flush, wash hands and go back to sleep. I can do all that in the dark. So yeah, pitch black in there.

Fortunately my husband never leaves the seat up. Our new toilets have the "quiet close" lids, so we can flick it closed, and see that the flush worked while the lid goes slowly down. Not in the dark of course but it's just pee.