Airline "Shades Down" Policies

I recently returned from a visit to northern Italy. I flew Air France from the US west coast, to Paris (CDG), then into Venice (a very short flight).

Eastbound, my flight left San Francisco in the late afternoon, so, obviously, we flew in the dark for several hours. However, I was surprised that window-seat passengers didn't raise their shades until a couple of hours after Mother Nature's sunrise, which was about 1 1/2 hours before landing.

Westbound, it drove me crazy. The Paris-San Francisco leg left at 10 AM, Paris time. Of course it was daylight, all the way. Shortly after a (very nice) lunch, they instructed that all of the window shades be lowered ... then, they lowered the cabin lights. It was night at about 1 PM. They kept it dark for more than 6 hours, and only raised the shades when we were someplace over southern Idaho!!

I could appreciate lowering shades/lights, in the days when one film was being shown for an entire cabin. However, the current screens are just individual TVs. Who has to close the curtains/blinds to watch a TV??

I asked a couple of flight attendants about it. They assured me that it the reason for the policy is that people want to sleep. I believe it's a matter of them WANTING people to sleep, to give them a bit of a break. I can understand that. But, the airlines that insist on this policy need to provide an area, somewhere, for those who hate being "shut in," when our body clocks are set to afternoon hours, and who would like to see Mother Nature's earth from above.

Has anyone had a better experience on another airline?