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Gear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

Sleep eye mask

A cloth mask that blocks light at the eyes when a room cannot be made dark.

Cloth mask, padded or contoured, worn over the eyes in bed. It matters because light reaching closed eyelids still reaches the brain, which is enough to shift how deeply someone sleeps. People reach for one where blackout blinds are not an option, such as hotels and flights.

Who backs it

Sorted by strength of stance

  • Rich RollDoes it

    Ultra-endurance athlete · The Rich Roll Podcast

    An eye mask is part of the same sleep setup as the tent and the blanket. He names the Mindfold as the one he likes.

    Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #561 transcript
  • Matthew WalkerRecommends

    Sleep scientist · author of Why We Sleep

    Light gets through closed eyelids and takes deep sleep with it, he told Tim Ferriss, citing work by Phyllis Zee at Northwestern. Eye masks are on his short list of fixes for that, next to blackout curtains.

    Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #650 transcript
  • Stacy SimsRecommends

    Exercise physiologist · Women Are Not Small Men

    Her year-round sleep hygiene list is about the room rather than a pill. Block the light out with blackout curtains or a sleep mask, keep noise down with earplugs or white noise, eat nothing in the last two hours, and wind down with dim lights and no screens.

    Source: Dr Stacy Sims: Why Women Struggle with Sleep

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Gear entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.