Here’s a sleep hack you can try if you want to wake up mentally better prepared for the day: wear an eye mask.
Blocking out ambient light during snooze can improve wakefulness and memory the next day, according to a study involving 122 participants in two experiments.
The study authors, from institutions in the UK, Italy and the US, say this is further evidence of the link between light and sleep — and that controlling the former can help manage the latter.
“Ambient light can affect sleep structure and timing,” write the researchers in their published work.
“We looked at how wearing an eye mask to block light during night sleep affects memory and alertness, changes that could benefit everyday tasks like studying or driving.”
In the first experiment, 89 adults aged 18 to 35 were asked to sleep wearing an eye mask for a week before abstaining or wearing an eye mask with holes (to account for any effects of discomfort from wearing a mask) . the week after.
Laboratory tests conducted on the last two days of each week showed that participants performed better on a word pair association task that measures the ability to recall events and experiences after covering their eyes during sleep. They also performed better on a test that measures reaction times.
For the second experiment, 33 adult volunteers aged 18 to 35 were fitted with eye masks, devices to measure light intensity upon waking and a wearable headband to measure brain activity during sleep.
To acclimate to the conditions, participants slept one night with an intact eye mask and the second night with an eye mask with holes with holes. Two nights of sleep followed under the same conditions, only this time with additional testing.
Again, a word pair association task, wearing an eye mask helps to learn new information and form fresh memories. In addition, the data provided by the headband suggests that there is a link between wearing a mask and slower sleep time. known to be important when it comes to memory boost.
“The benefit to memory was predicted by the time spent in deep sleep while wearing the mask,” write Researchers.
“This suggests that wearing an eye mask while sleeping is an effective, economical, and noninvasive behavior that could benefit cognitive function and result in measurable impacts on daily life.”
Based on questionnaires completed by the volunteers in both experiments, wearing the eye mask did not affect sleep timing or sleep duration, so these factors are unlikely to have affected the test results.
Study after study has shown how important sleep is to our overall well-being and health. It can help keep us fitit affects emotional processing in the brainand it even has an impact about our socialization patterns.
This study shows that an eye mask may well improve the benefits of sleep. With so many of our daily tasks requiring alertness and heightened memory, it may well be worth considering trying it out in your own nightly routine.
“In the current climate of life-hacking, sleep monitoring, and cognitive enhancers, our findings suggest that the eye mask is a simple, economical, and non-invasive way to get more out of a night’s sleep.” write Researchers.
The research was published in Sleep.
