diff --git a/.vscode/settings.json b/.vscode/settings.json
index 615ca5b24472..4926554ffe4b 100644
--- a/.vscode/settings.json
+++ b/.vscode/settings.json
@@ -42,5 +42,5 @@
   "[typescript]": {
     "editor.defaultFormatter": "biomejs.biome"
   },
-  "cSpell.words": ["arrayify"]
+  "cSpell.words": ["arrayify", "OTEL"]
 }
diff --git a/packages/node/src/preload.ts b/packages/node/src/preload.ts
index 0d62b28d9c91..0e4af146197f 100644
--- a/packages/node/src/preload.ts
+++ b/packages/node/src/preload.ts
@@ -1,13 +1,14 @@
 import { preloadOpenTelemetry } from './sdk/initOtel';
+import { envToBool } from './utils/envToBool';
 
-const debug = !!process.env.SENTRY_DEBUG;
+const debug = envToBool(process.env.SENTRY_DEBUG);
 const integrationsStr = process.env.SENTRY_PRELOAD_INTEGRATIONS;
 
 const integrations = integrationsStr ? integrationsStr.split(',').map(integration => integration.trim()) : undefined;
 
 /**
- * The @sentry/node/preload export can be used with the node --import and --require args to preload the OTEL instrumentation,
- * without initializing the Sentry SDK.
+ * The @sentry/node/preload export can be used with the node --import and --require args to preload the OTEL
+ * instrumentation, without initializing the Sentry SDK.
  *
  * This is useful if you cannot initialize the SDK immediately, but still want to preload the instrumentation,
  * e.g. if you have to load the DSN from somewhere else.
diff --git a/packages/node/src/sdk/index.ts b/packages/node/src/sdk/index.ts
index 1a20458802a0..7276e809875a 100644
--- a/packages/node/src/sdk/index.ts
+++ b/packages/node/src/sdk/index.ts
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ import { getAutoPerformanceIntegrations } from '../integrations/tracing';
 import { makeNodeTransport } from '../transports';
 import type { NodeClientOptions, NodeOptions } from '../types';
 import { isCjs } from '../utils/commonjs';
+import { envToBool } from '../utils/envToBool';
 import { defaultStackParser, getSentryRelease } from './api';
 import { NodeClient } from './client';
 import { initOpenTelemetry, maybeInitializeEsmLoader } from './initOtel';
@@ -221,6 +222,15 @@ function getClientOptions(
         ? true
         : options.autoSessionTracking;
 
+  if (options.spotlight == null) {
+    const spotlightEnv = envToBool(process.env.SENTRY_SPOTLIGHT, { strict: true });
+    if (spotlightEnv == null) {
+      options.spotlight = process.env.SENTRY_SPOTLIGHT;
+    } else {
+      options.spotlight = spotlightEnv;
+    }
+  }
+
   const tracesSampleRate = getTracesSampleRate(options.tracesSampleRate);
 
   const baseOptions = dropUndefinedKeys({
@@ -292,8 +302,7 @@ function getTracesSampleRate(tracesSampleRate: NodeOptions['tracesSampleRate']):
  * for more details.
  */
 function updateScopeFromEnvVariables(): void {
-  const sentryUseEnvironment = (process.env.SENTRY_USE_ENVIRONMENT || '').toLowerCase();
-  if (!['false', 'n', 'no', 'off', '0'].includes(sentryUseEnvironment)) {
+  if (envToBool(process.env.SENTRY_USE_ENVIRONMENT) !== false) {
     const sentryTraceEnv = process.env.SENTRY_TRACE;
     const baggageEnv = process.env.SENTRY_BAGGAGE;
     const propagationContext = propagationContextFromHeaders(sentryTraceEnv, baggageEnv);
diff --git a/packages/node/src/utils/envToBool.ts b/packages/node/src/utils/envToBool.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..4f7fd2201ce8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/node/src/utils/envToBool.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+export const FALSY_ENV_VALUES = new Set(['false', 'f', 'n', 'no', 'off', '0']);
+export const TRUTHY_ENV_VALUES = new Set(['true', 't', 'y', 'yes', 'on', '1']);
+
+export type StrictBoolCast = {
+  strict: true;
+};
+
+export type LooseBoolCast = {
+  strict?: false;
+};
+
+export type BoolCastOptions = StrictBoolCast | LooseBoolCast;
+
+export function envToBool(value: unknown, options?: LooseBoolCast): boolean;
+export function envToBool(value: unknown, options: StrictBoolCast): boolean | null;
+export function envToBool(value: unknown, options?: BoolCastOptions): boolean | null;
+/**
+ * A helper function which casts an ENV variable value to `true` or `false` using the constants defined above.
+ * In strict mode, it may return `null` if the value doesn't match any of the predefined values.
+ *
+ * @param value The value of the env variable
+ * @param options -- Only has `strict` key for now, which requires a strict match for `true` in TRUTHY_ENV_VALUES
+ * @returns true/false if the lowercase value matches the predefined values above. If not, null in strict mode,
+ *          and Boolean(value) in loose mode.
+ */
+export function envToBool(value: unknown, options?: BoolCastOptions): boolean | null {
+  const normalized = String(value).toLowerCase();
+
+  if (FALSY_ENV_VALUES.has(normalized)) {
+    return false;
+  }
+
+  if (TRUTHY_ENV_VALUES.has(normalized)) {
+    return true;
+  }
+
+  return options && options.strict ? null : Boolean(value);
+}
diff --git a/packages/node/test/utils/envToBool.test.ts b/packages/node/test/utils/envToBool.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..cd06ef132267
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/node/test/utils/envToBool.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+import { envToBool } from '../../src/utils/envToBool';
+
+describe('envToBool', () => {
+  it.each([
+    ['', true, null],
+    ['', false, false],
+    ['t', true, true],
+    ['T', true, true],
+    ['t', false, true],
+    ['T', false, true],
+    ['y', true, true],
+    ['Y', true, true],
+    ['y', false, true],
+    ['Y', false, true],
+    ['1', true, true],
+    ['1', false, true],
+    ['true', true, true],
+    ['true', false, true],
+    ['tRuE', true, true],
+    ['tRuE', false, true],
+    ['Yes', true, true],
+    ['Yes', false, true],
+    ['yes', true, true],
+    ['yes', false, true],
+    ['yEs', true, true],
+    ['yEs', false, true],
+    ['On', true, true],
+    ['On', false, true],
+    ['on', true, true],
+    ['on', false, true],
+    ['oN', true, true],
+    ['oN', false, true],
+    ['f', true, false],
+    ['f', false, false],
+    ['n', true, false],
+    ['N', true, false],
+    ['n', false, false],
+    ['N', false, false],
+    ['0', true, false],
+    ['0', false, false],
+    ['false', true, false],
+    ['false', false, false],
+    ['false', true, false],
+    ['false', false, false],
+    ['FaLsE', true, false],
+    ['FaLsE', false, false],
+    ['No', true, false],
+    ['No', false, false],
+    ['no', true, false],
+    ['no', false, false],
+    ['nO', true, false],
+    ['nO', false, false],
+    ['Off', true, false],
+    ['Off', false, false],
+    ['off', true, false],
+    ['off', false, false],
+    ['oFf', true, false],
+    ['oFf', false, false],
+    ['xxx', true, null],
+    ['xxx', false, true],
+    [undefined, false, false],
+    [undefined, true, null],
+  ])('%s becomes (strict: %s): %s', (value, strict, expected) => {
+    expect(envToBool(value, { strict })).toBe(expected);
+  });
+});