Why I wear a sleep mask at night

On the benefits of wearing a sleep mask in bed

Jan. 24, 2020 - Willem L. Middelkoop

Over the past few weeks I have been experimenting with wearing a sleep mask in bed, blocking all light. Our bodies produce the sleep hormone, melatonin, in darkness. Living in an environment awash in artificial light, is therefore exactly the sort of thing that disrupts one's circadian rhythm. Can a simple mask help?

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Pavlovian response: my body knows it's time to sleep when I put my mask on - zzzzz

Average heart rate variability (HRV) during the same night shows a steady increase (and recovery)

Wearing a sleep mask, you can see the mask takes the shape of my head

The soft foam conforms to your face for maximum comfort and darkness

Heart rate graph shows a near flat line, very close to my minimum rate (collected with Biostrap)

Maybe it's the font, maybe it's her haircut, but somehow I get a 80s vibe from the Mindfold's packaging :-)

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Data Experiment Lifestyle Heart Review Sensors

Articles (148)

2024-03-24 Half Marathon
2024-03-05 No, I Won't Build That!
2024-02-16 Vision Pro
2024-01-16 Health and fitness data
2023-12-15 Backup Rotation Scheme
2023-11-10 Apple Watch as Phone
2023-11-01 And... there is light!
2023-10-14 Giving AI Training
2023-10-13 Hello, stranger
2023-08-23 The Same, Differently
2023-05-31 Impact of training
2023-05-08 Tablet as Tool
2023-05-03 Using AI to generate code
2023-05-01 Working Offline First
2023-04-20 Tips for Long-Distance Cycling
2023-04-05 Cutting Cloud Costs
2023-02-08 Back to the University
2022-12-22 Rolex DateJust 36
2022-11-01 Moving to the countryside
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2022-09-15 The Ultimate Freedom Bike
2022-09-11 Computer says no
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2022-04-18 Snake '97 High Scores
2022-01-14 Wearing WHOOP 4.0
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