6 of Spades - Sleep Mask
What is it?
A sleep mask is an easy, inexpensive way to prevent room light from disrupting your sleep.
You can also modify your bedroom environment by investing in blackout curtains and removing any small sources of light from your bedroom (e.g., digital clocks, and night lights).
We can use the acronym ADAP (As Dark As Possible) to find those sources of light that we can do without.
How and why to do it?
Sleep is essential for alertness and for priming the human brain to process fresh information. Unfortunately, sleep can be easily disrupted by external stimuli such as light or sounds (Greco et al., 2023). Wearing an eye mask at bedtime helps to block out ambient light and will help you get better quality sleep. Many studies have investigated sleep mask effectiveness in helping to improve sleep quality and these studies have indicated encouraging results (Atherton 2024).
What’s the science behind it?
A study undertaken in 2022 by Mason et al. tested the hypothesis that direct exposure to light during nighttime sleep adversely affects morning-after glucose homeostasis (body regulation) and whether this outcome occurs by means of poor sleep quality, melatonin suppression, or sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activation during sleep. The results demonstrated a single night of exposure to room light during sleep can impair glucose homeostasis, possibly via increased SNS activation. The results draw attention to avoiding exposure to light at night during sleep as it may be beneficial for cardiometabolic health.
In 2023 Greco et al., in a different study, explored wearing an eye mask as a potential mental booster which protects overnight sleep by blocking ambient light. The authors found wearing a mask did increase alertness and aided the encoding of new information into memory the next day. Moreover, the benefit to memory was predicted by time spent in slow brain wave sleep while wearing the mask. The results suggest wearing an eye mask during sleep is an effective, economical, and non-invasive behaviour that could benefit cognitive function and lead to measurable impacts on everyday life such as studying or driving.
Small changes CAN make a big difference – that’s what the 1% club is all about.
Do you want to know more?
Excellent Tips for finding a comfortable sleep mask:
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/best-sleep-products/best-sleep-masks
References
Atherton, A. (2024, January 25). New sleep mask benefit unlocked: Improved brain function. Sleep Foundation. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/sleep-masks-improve-brain-function
Greco, V., Bergamo, D., Cuoccio, P., Konkoly, K. R., Muñoz Lombardo, K., and Lewis, P. A. (2023). Wearing an eye mask during overnight sleep improves episodic learning and alertness. Sleep, 46(3), zsac305.
Mason, I. C., Grimaldi, D., Reid, K. J., Warlick, C. D., Malkani, R. G., Abbott, S. M., and Zee, P. C. (2022). Light exposure during sleep impairs cardiometabolic function. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(12), e2113290119.
Foley, L. (2024, February 16). Best sleep masks for blocking out light and staying asleep. Sleep Foundation. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/best-sleep-products/best-sleep-masks
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