Eye masks are also a valuable travel hack. Hotels tend to have LED light coming from different places - smoke alarms, clocks, key card slots etc - and it's always a gamble how much sunlight gets through the windows. It's much easier to put on an eye mask than worry about how to black out the room.
Similar story with any form of transport, where the various light sources are largely outside your control.
The newer "3D" eye masks provide full blackout and stays on without much trouble. Well worth keeping in a travel kit alongside earplugs.
But wearing an eye mask is nigh impossible for restless sleepers; it slips off constantly. My best solution after trying many masks is an old t-shirt draped across my eyes, which inevitably slips off but at least doesn't drag elastic bands over my face.
Anyone know of research showing the effectiveness of varying levels of darkness in a room, from complete blackout to fairly dim?
My personal hack is using a Buff [1] instead of an eye mask. It’s a soft fabric tube designed for wearing as a kind of face mask for outdoors activities.
They’re really soft and comfortable as an eye mask and don’t get too hot or slip off. There’s no elastic stream involved and it’s really slimline so you barely feel it. Also they’re cheap!
I use a dark coloured one and fold it over 2 or 3 times to make it darker. Couldn’t sleep without it, nor could a few people who I’ve introduced to it!
[1] buff.com
Living in Iceland, where in the summer time we get midnight sun effectively for a few weeks, I've slept with darkening blinds and an eye mask for some years now.
I've gotten so habituated to it that I almost can't fall alseep without one.
Been using eye masks for almost a decade now. Current fav is the Manta Sleep with the big cups but always looking for something better. Any recommendations?
I wonder how much of the effect is: you can't stay up with your phone with an eye mask on
A bit underwhelmed by their plot:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36521010/#&gid=article-figur...
(1) the truncated axes hide what a small effect size it seems to be and (2) even though they state the p-value is significant, eyeballing it there seems to be a really wide variance that is almost overlpaping b/w the two situations.
It seems to me like a marginally significant result with a very small effect size.
If it's just the amount of light as per abstract,I assume darkened room would be equivalent I.e. There's no magic additional benefit of mask itself (pressure / touch / etc)?
This is of course an entirely useless study, because participants know when they are wearing a mask.
Logic dictates that very likely wearing the mask has no effect at all, and it is in fact other factors influencing quality of sleep. It would make sense to look into those, and it is very surprising it was not already done from the beginning.
E.g. Obviously a participant can not use their mobile phone or other screen devices if they are wearing a mask, and the mere fact they are wearing the mask may force them to do the one thing they can do: sleep.
In other words, it could simply be that the mask itself incapacitated and prevented other activities from being carried out by the participant. Equal or better results can be achieved if participants are told to concentrate on sleeping. Heck, you might even pay them just to sleep so they do not stress about the fact they have to waste time sleeping – this alone should yield some interesting results.
My advice: forget the silly mask.
Hmm. I used an ostrich pillow to take lots of naps during college. It must be partly responsible for my good grades!
The subject did sleep at their homes, which means the noise level was not controlled, and it seams not even measured (no noise word in the article). The effect may be real, but I would like to see it corroborated in a more controlled environment.
I’ve been sleeping with a beanie over my eyes for years. It’s fucking glorious
Couldn't they just not tell the percipient what they were testing. Then you wouldn't know that someone else had a mask or didn't. That would remove the placebo effect.
I wonder if a mask makes it slightly less convenient to check one's phone, thus gives better sleep for that reason alone.
I remember a 'body-hack' fad around inducing lucid dreaming via sleep masks. IIRC, it used EMG sensors to detect eye muscle movement and then it would flash an LED mounted inside the mask in an attempt to slightly wake you up during REM. Can anyone speak to the method's efficacy?
While the study may be bunk, anecdotally, finding a sleeping mask that worked for me (stayed on, wasn’t uncomfortable, kept all light out) has been a game changer in sleep quality. Better sleep has always brought more benefits to my day, so I am a believer in the mask.
I can't even fall asleep while feeling the thing on my face :-(
Get better drapes that black out and instead
Personally, it hurt my eye the next day.
In mice!
I guess compared to blackout curtains/blocking leds/draft stopper/synced partner when you wake up you could have natural sunlight in the room. ( "Participants were asked to sleep with open shutters/curtains for the entire duration of the study.")
But they didn't test for that here.
The studies conclusion seems to be blackout curtains either cost $$$ or take a bit of effort to install, mask is cheap/easier.
Sleep is good, people sleep better when as much light is blocked as possible. It's a conclusion that is known.
I’ve been wearing an eye mask during sleep for the past year and I’m afraid I’ve become slightly addicted to it. Sleeping without it is terrible. I think this is one of those things that when you make the switch, it’s difficult to ever go back.
You are a rigorous researcher.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the problem with this study is it is not blind.
Clearly the sleeper knows if they are wearing an eye mask with holes that let in light, or if they are wearing a complete eye mask.
I work in the neurotech/sleeptech space, and it should be possible to do this study in a double blind method.
In a sleep lab, with EEG, monitor the users sleep state. When they are in any non-wake state ambient light could be brought into the room. In one instance, no light is applied, in another light is applied. Don't use the usual camera's that are used in a sleep lab. In such a method the trial is double blind, but also much more expensive than the method used.