Nobody likes tossing and turning at night. Whether you’re stressed about a looming deadline, dreading the following day, or are driving yourself mad by incessantly looking at the clock, there are a number of triggers and stressors that can keep you from getting restful sleep at night. When it comes to trying to block out external stimuli and relieving symptoms of stress and anxiety, a weighted eye mask can be just the solution you need. 

What’s the Point of a Weighted Eye Mask?

Eye masks in general can be a point of contention amongst those who take their sleep seriously because they seem to be either loved or hated. Regardless of where you find yourself on the spectrum, weighted eye masks are markedly different from their typical eye mask contemporaries. 

For starters, a weighted eye mask utilizes deep touch pressure. Deep touch pressure helps relieve symptoms of stress and anxiety by applying gentle pressure that mimics the sensation of a hug or being held. This pressure calms the body and allows it to relax making it a perfect addition to your bedtime routine. Even if you’re staunchly anti-eye mask, the Nodpod weighted eye mask functions differently than the traditional eye mask.

The Nodpod does not utilize velcro or elastic straps that have often been cited as uncomfortable and not conducive to sleep. In fact, Nodpod does not utilize straps at all! While it can be fastened around the head by feeding one end through the slit on the other side, Nodpod’s strap-free design is meant to increase comfort and decrease cumbersome and unnecessary attachments. 

Why Weight?

Weighted products in general can reduce cortisol levels and calm the central nervous symptoms to act as a tool to reduce feelings of stress and anxiety. If you find yourself in a position where you are struggling to fall asleep at night because of these feelings, then implementing weighted products could be useful to curb these unpleasant emotions and sensations by replacing them with more positive ones. Whether there is a concrete source of your anxiety or it’s a more generalized feeling of unease, it can make falling asleep much more difficult either way. Falling asleep with a weighted sleep mask can directly affect both your stress levels and your sleep quality and works to address multiple causes of strain at once. 

How Much Weight is Too Much?

When considering weighted products in general, many find that they’re comfortable with blankets that are about 10% of their own body weight. While there is some wiggle room in terms of how much weight you can use such as a little over or a little under the 10% threshold depending on your preference and your overall body composition. For best practices, it is wise to not exceed 12% of overall body weight for use of weighted products with children. For adults, however, products up to 20 pounds can be used safely and comfortably. 

When considering using weighted products on the eyes, however, much less guesswork is involved. Thankfully for the rest of us Nodpod’s founder, Melissa Bamberg, took the time to experiment with different weights of the Nodpod weighted eye mask in order to determine the most comfortable and effective weight for sleeping and calming overactive minds. After much trial and error, the optimum weight was deduced to be 9oz, which all Nodpods are produced at. 

Key Takeaways 

Deciding on whether to try using a weighted eye mask may seem like an unusual decision as eye masks, until this point, have largely been thin and hardly noticeable when worn. Nodpod has turned this premise on its head, however, and introduced an eye mask that’s meant to be noticed for all the right reasons. The gentle pressure from the 9oz mask is enough to stimulate the sensation of Deep Touch Pressure and relieve symptoms of stress and anxiety, yet it still doesn’t feel suffocating due to its weight. While many are staunchly against the idea of wearing sleep masks, the ingenious nature of the weighted mask has been able to sway many and convert them into regular users of weighted sleep masks. If you find yourself constantly struggling to sleep thanks to the nonstop drone of your subconscious and the seemingly endless list of worries and obligations you face, perhaps a weighted eye mask is your perfect next step to chilling more, stressing less, and sleeping better.