Every Rule 'Love Is Blind' Contestants Have to Follow While Filming the TV Show

The biggest rule of the show is that the cast members can't see who they're dating. How does this work? The creators designed pods that separate the men and women by glowing walls.

Since, you know, the men and women aren't in the same room together, they can't touch the person they're dating. No hand-holding. No kissing. No hugging. You get the picture.

Couples enter the pods and spill their hearts out to one another. After—and only after—they're engaged are the couples allowed to meet face-to-face for the first time.

The experiment is broken down into three different sections, starting with the dating period, which lasts 10 days. After getting engaged, couples go to paradise for a week to build their ~physical~ connection. For the last few weeks, they live together in the real world while planning their weddings.

Creator Chris Coelen (who's also the mastermind behind Married at First Sight) said it was scary as a producer, because no one's required to get engaged or married. "[On] a show like we do Married at First Sight, you sign up and you know, you're getting married to a stranger. Here, nobody had to do anything. It was if you find someone, if you choose. Which is so scary. They don't have to go through with the wedding ceremony," he told Variety.

It starts with speed dating. Cast members spend eight to 10 minutes with each person of the opposite sex, Coelen told E! News: "In the beginning, just from a practical standpoint, we have to give them certain time limits, just so we can [get] them through and they have a chance to talk to everyone...where they just got to know each other."

Since singles aren't allowed to see each other before getting engaged, the male and female cast members live in separate areas and have a different team of producers too.

"Life at the facility felt like a sorority," season 1 cast member Lauren Speed told OprahDaily.com. "You'd think that people would be catty because some people would like the same guy. But we actually formed a sisterhood, no lie." Season 1 cast member Kenny Barnes told Refinery29 that the guys did plank competitions, cooked together, went for runs, and more.

Not only did the men and women bring notebooks into the pods with them to keep all of the people they were dating straight, but season 1 cast member Jessica Batten told Refinery29 that she wrote outside of the pods too: "I did a lot of journaling. I wanted to remember things, because every day is like a month in there and so much can change."

"We slept in trailers and they were correctional facility beds. The design was to just strip us down from our comfort level," Kenny told Refinery29. Oh, and they only bank about four hours of sleep a night.

Some men and women visit each other multiple times a day, because "the more they got in there, the more they have these conversations! Deep conversations that they never had with family members or friends or people they've dated," Coelen told Variety.

Coelen told Variety that the longest pod session on season 1 was around four to five hours—and that was only cut short by a pesky bathroom break. "They were there pretty much 24-7. It's funny because we would encourage them to take [breaks], 'You gotta eat! You gotta get some sleep!' But they didn't want to, they wanted to stay in those pods," he said.

All of the cast members' devices are confiscated while they're dating in the pods, so they can focus all of their attention on their dates—and can't communicate with people outside of the experiment.

More than just phones are confiscated. There's no internet connection at all! Meaning no computers, no TV, nada.

"We tried to allow them to do anything they could do on a date, without seeing or touching one another or staring at screens," Coelen told Bustle. "So if they wanted to read, we'd certainly allow it, if we could find the book for them." Interesting!

Falling in love is a vulnerable experience, especially on TV, so cast members help each other process their emotions. "Some took longer than others, but every man there went through this 'vulnerability express'—this transformation. You had to go through it. There was such a big support when you saw someone fighting the experience. We were like, 'Listen man, what's up. Let's talk about this,'" season 1 cast member Mark Cuevas told OprahDaily.com.

No distractions leads to better dates! "We didn’t want any sound to bleed through any other pods," Coelen told Variety. "We basically had a small speaker in the front wall and you would hear the other person who was in the other pod. There [are] no producers in there, there's nobody else. It's just you and the other person. That's it."

As hosts, Nick and Vanessa spend countless hours discussing each cast member's relationship with one another. But as hard as it may be, they aren't allowed to give advice that would sway the cast based on their knowledge of the other singles.

The whole purpose of the show is for the singles to form strong emotional bonds, so the producers are there to help cast members plan special aspects of each date without impacting the outcome. "We wanted them to make the decisions and them to control their destiny," Coelen told OprahDaily.com.

The cast has to figure out what they want to talk about on their own. "They were never interrupted in terms of like a producer saying, 'Hey, talk about this, talk about that,' they just did what they wanted to do," Coelen told Variety.