National Bed Month Sleep Tight
Why Eye Masks Can Help You Sleep Better
In celebration of one of our very favourite months, National Bed Month, we’re looking at why accessories such as the Holistic Silk Lavender Eye Mask and Lavender Eye Pillow can help you snooze better.
Do you spend long nights in bed tossing and turning, peering at the alarm clock through scrunched eyes, frantically calculating the dwindling hours until you have to get up?
In these dark and quiet hours it can feel like you’re the only person counting sheep, as the rest of the world quietly drifts and snores and yet you’re far from alone.
A recent survey of 4,100 UK adults, reports that 46% of women have trouble sleeping, along with 36% of men.
If you’ve slept badly then you’ll know how terrible it can make you feel the next day. Think reaching for coffee cups the size of your head just to get by, a dreaded twitching eye, over emotional crying when the lunchtime panini that you had your heart set on has run out.
What Good Sleep Looks Like And Why It's Important
Most adults need around 8 hours of sleep a night, although this varies. The actress Penelope Cruz is said to sleep an average 14 hours a night, while Margaret Thatcher claimed to need just four.
We’re busy creatures, with our bodies and minds whirring all day long. A deep and restorative sleep prepares the brain for all the new information that we’ll have to learn and remember next day, plus the heart and blood vessels are healed at the same time.
If that isn’t enough to have you switching off Netflix, blowing out the candles and padding to bed at 10pm, then what about the news that a solid eight hours will help you to keep off the excess pounds too?
Improving Your Sleep – The Science Bit
We all recognise waking up during the day when the sun is out and sleeping when it’s dark outside. This exposure to light is linked to the melatonin levels inside our bodies and the body’s natural body clock.
When the sun goes down melatonin is released into the blood, usually at around 9pm, when you might start accidently reading the same page in a book a couple of times, falling asleep in front of a film or the thought of a nice comfy bed becomes more inviting.
These melatonin levels stay elevated for about 12 hours, before the sun reappears and you wake up. They fall back to low daytime levels by the time you’re sitting at your desk and begin to feel more perky and awake.
Why Eye Masks Can Help You Sleep Better
Since darkness and the production of melatonin is the key to feeling lovely and sleepy you should embrace as much darkness as possible around bedtime.
Resisting the urge to look at blue light, the type of light that comes from your phone, will help you wind down properly, so try and make your bedroom screen free.
When you’re ready to get your beauty sleep, slipping on a Silk Eye Mask or Lavender Eye Pillow will block all incoming light from your eyes, keep your melatonin levels up and take you on a dreamy trip to Slumbertown.
These are also useful if you work shifts and need to sleep during the day or are travelling and trying to avoid jetlag.
The Holistic Silk Eye Mask comes in a variety of beautiful styles and colours, including a lavender scented option, which smells divine and increases sleepy feelings even further.
You can also sleep better by creating the perfect night time ritual, read more about that here.
Sleep tight xxx
