How a Sleep Mask Might Just Change My Life

Last week, there were two days during which I got the only Good nights of sleep I’ve gotten since buying my smartwatch a few months ago. This tracks with how I’ve felt upon waking. I was actually able to rest and recover from a stressful weekend. What changed? I bought myself a sleep mask on Prime Day.

Because my bizarre circadian rhythms force me to be awake until 3 am or later every night, so I don’t wake up until the afternoon, at least some light comes through our curtains in the morning, even though we never get direct sunlight. I didn’t realize just how much this was affecting my sleep quality.

I bought the sleep mask partly to help me on migraine days and partly to see how it might affect my sleep.

Dang. I’ve had the most restful sleep ever! Pre-mask, my stress levels during sleep were still quite high, even if I did breathing exercises that reduced my stress levels right before going to bed. (With my watch, stress levels are measured by heart rate variability. I have several forms of autonomic neuropathy that mean my body is “stressed” most of the time.)

This graph is such a HUGE change from the graphs I shared 10 days earlier, when there were tall orange stress lines throughout my sleep. Now it shows mostly blue restful measurements while sleeping! (Still not under 15 like it “should” be, but a major improvement.)