Could an eye mask make a difference to sleep and recovery?
And.. the results of our November Challenge revealed!
Our brains are far better at detecting light than we give them credit for — even through closed eyelids.
Recent evidence suggests that there can be an impact not only from glaring overhead lights or late-night phone scrolling, but the faint glow of a streetlamp, or early morning dawn creeping through the curtains.
This is why something deceptively simple, like an eye mask, could make a meaningful difference.
In November, we tested the SOMO Sleep Fitness mask which is designed to not only block out light, but is designed to deliver acupressure to improve relaxation. If you’d like to try one, use the code GROWATLANTIC for a 15% discount.
But did it actually work for us?
Light at night, the brain and sleep quality
Light is the strongest regulator of our circadian rhythm — the internal 24-hour clock that governs sleep, alertness, hormone release, mood, and metabolism.
Specialised light-sensitive cells in the retina send signals directly to the brain’s master clock (the suprachiasmatic nucleus). When light is detected at night, particularly blue-enriched light, it suppresses melatonin — the hormone that helps us fall asleep and stay asleep.
Even exposure to low levels of light during sleep can have measurable effects:
- Increased nighttime awakenings
- Reduced slow wave sleep
- Earlier waking in the morning, with shorter overall sleep time
- Suppressed melatonin (Gooley et al 2011)
Light intensity is measured in lux. A typical office environment may be lit to 300-500 lux. A study in healthy young adult found that sleeping in a moderately light environment (100 lux) increased nighttime heart rate, decreased heart rate variability, and increased next-morning insulin resistance when compared to sleep in a dimly lit environment of <3 lux (Mason et al 2022).
Exposure to light at night has been linked to higher rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes and – most recently – mental health disorders (Deprato et al 2025).
An eye mask creates darkness regardless of your environment — whether you live in a city, work shifts, travel frequently, or share a bedroom with different sleep habits. It’s a portable blackout blind for your brain.
Eye masks aren’t just helpful in theory — they’ve been tested in real-world settings.
Trials in hospital settings have found that wearing an eye mask reduces sleep fragmentation and improves perceived sleep depth, even in noisy, brightly lit environments for those who are critically ill (Shih et al 2022).
In short: darkness matters, and eye masks help deliver it consistently. On our Atlantic row, when we’ll be trying to catch up on sleep at all hours of day and night (depending on our shifts) I think that an eye mask is a MUST have.
Could pressure on the forehead deepen relaxation?
Acupressure is an intervention rooted in traditional Chinese medicine which uses fingers, knuckles, or blunt instruments to apply pressure at specific points on the body for therapeutic purposes (Lin, et al. 2021).
In Chinese medicine, the Yin Tang acupressure point, between the eyebrows, is associated with calming the mind and relieving anxiety. From a Western scientific perspective, stimulation of this area appears to influence the parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) nervous system in ways that promote relaxation.
Several studies have examined acupressure and sleep. A systematic review of acupressure interventions (Waits et al. 2018) concluded that acupressure shows promise for improving sleep quality, particularly in people with insomnia.
While I couldn’t find any research specifically looking at an acupressure sleep mask, the rationale for the SOMO Sleep Fitness mask is clear; gentle, sustained pressure at Yin Tang may help dial down that hyperarousal, making it easier to drift into sleep and return to sleep after night-time awakenings.
Did it work for us?
We evaluate our monthly challenges on 4 dimensions, and this is how I scored the SOMO Sleep Fitness eye mask:
EVIDENCE ★★★☆☆
The mask lost points because there was no specific research on an acupressure eye mask, but the case for all eye masks which block out light is compelling!
PRACTICALITY ★★★★★
For me, this is the ultimate quick win.. It’s light, comfortable, and you can easily take it anywhere – including across the Atlantic.
GROW FACTOR ★★★☆☆
Did it have a measurable impact on our data? Well, this is a tricky one, because I was using an eye mask before I started this month’s challenge. I did start tracking with SOMO, and Whoop told me I had +1% with an eye mask.. Every little helps!
FEEL GOOD ★★★★☆
I take this eye mask with me everywhere. It stays on my head better than my old silk one, but still sometimes falls off. I’m in two minds as to whether the acupressure part works for me.. But it certainly doesn’t do me any harm.. and this one is definitely coming across the Atlantic with me!
Overall? 15/20 A very strong score..
If you would like to try it, please visit SOMO Sleep Fitness and use the code GROWATLANTIC at checkout.
Sophie Bostock
Dr. Sophie Bostock is a leading sleep scientist, TEDx speaker, and TV expert with a PhD in health psychology. She has represented Great Britain in coastal rowing, canoed 2,000 km from Canada to Alaska, and rowed around Great Britain for the British Heart Foundation. Her pioneering work explores the link between sleep, stress, and peak performance — making her a unique force in the world of endurance sport.
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