This thing was designed to facilitate open-eyed darkness meditation. Only later was it marketed as a sleep mask. It is excellent for its intended purpose: inducing partial sensory deprivation. I believe visionary painter Alex Grey once endorsed this item for enhancing one's visual imagination. For sleeping, some find it comfortable, and some do not. Of course you must sleep on your back, or partially on your side, for the design to fit comfortably.
Its unique feature is simply that it allows you to keep your eyes open while seeing no light. This may seem like a trivial difference, but neurologically and psychologically, there's a big difference in the shadows and shapes you'll perceive when your eyes are open versus when they are closed. With your eyes open, your visual system seeks out concrete shapes in the noise and shadows that make up the blackness. With your eyes closed, you tend to ignore the eyelid movies.
I assumed that for $15, plus shipping, that this would be a very nice mask. It turned out to be extremely uncomfortable though. The mask itself is black pastic (which is fine), but it has foam around the outside that is cut for a person with a very small head it never felt quite right since the foam would be really close to my eyes. In order to keep it tight enough to keep it on correctly it would crush my nose so that I couldnt breathe. The strap is made out of velcro, which always rubbed/scratched my ears. I havent been able to fall asleep with this mask on.
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I am about to purchase my 3rd mask in 8 years. They have evolved over time and the one now is better than the original one I had now the plastic is less brittle than the old ones.
I am surprised that the other reviewers say that it is not designed to fit their faces, as I know several people who use them and we all have different shaped faces and we all love them.
Especially good for those early summer mornings, or if you want to take a good afternoon nap, or if you are trying to sleep on a plane.
I particularly like the way the foam is cut out for the eyes, so you can open your eyes without them being squashed like other masks do.
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I bought this mask because sunlight streaming across my eyelids tells my brain it is time to GET UP!! In summer that can be 5:30 or 6:00 on a Saturday morning. Something clearly had to be done about thatand I thought this mask might be the answer.
The way that this mask fits on my face results in a light leak around my nose. When I tighten the band that goes around my head the light leak disappears but the mask smashes my nose a bit and compresses my nostrilsmaking it hard to breathe. It is too much to ask that a mask like this fit every faceand it clearly wasn't designed for mine.
I have come to the conclusion that room darkening window shades will work for me better than this mask. It also is a bit awkward when you attempt to sleep on your side with the mask on.
It's a good thing the ear plugs are a free gift because they proved ineffective and useless.
Maybe there might be a way to design this mask with no light leaksand also in a way that did not press against your nose, effectively half closing your nostrils?
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My goal for a sleep mask is to assist in catching 1-2 more hours of good sleep in the summer months when early morning light starts streaming in about 5 AM through a window in my bedroom that is nearly impossible to adequately drape without undo financial expense. Otherwise I am a relatively easy sleeper. I don't expect to wear the mask through the whole night -just slip it on if I am sleeping lightly or not at all in those final hours. I am most interested if work-related issues cut my available sleep options down to only 4-5 hours and these are further hampered by summer light. Thus my experience may be different than those who routinely need a full 8-hour mask.
I think that one of the most difficult issues in sleep masks is that having differently shaped faces is going to influence whether we are personlaly satisfied or disappointed -particularly if the expectation is a total blackout of external light. Its hard to get something to fit well enough without being uncomfortable and intruding on sleep while still providing extreme "black out". Also, the longer we are exposed to low light, the more sensitive we will beocme to just a few stray photons.
That said. This mask is decent for comfort as long as I am not in a side-lying position or resting against an airline window. If I am, then the edge of the foam rubs my eyelids, and I apparently leave them incompletely closed -so I wake up with my eyes mildly irritated and dry. That's okay on an rare basis, but would not work nightly. The Mindfold still leaks a small amount of light even when I am seated or lying on my back "looking straight ahead" regardless how the strap is positioned in back, and regardless how loose or tight I make it. The leak is primarily around my nose and the lower outer portion of both visual fields.
If I am sleeping and thus expect to have my eyes closed the leak is small enough that even in bright light it does not matter very greatly to me. If used for meditation with my eyes open then I do find this a bit distracting. I learned that the Mindfold seemed to perform better when light sources in the room were in front of me rather than on the side or behind me. Thus one can make some adaptations to make it work more successful. For persons who wear a mask for other purposes, such as simulated experiences of visual impairment, for holotropic breathwork sessions, or a migraine phase with photosensitivity in which complete blackout might not be unnecessary, I think this model could work very nicely.
What I liked best about the Mindfold was the space they intentionally provided so that I can comfortably have my eyes open if desired. The retainer strap and general fit against my skin was also relatively comfortable under typical indoor climate conditions. The price was moderate. If 1/2 star rankings were permitted I would rank as 3 and 1/2. I didn't rate it as a fourstar product because there was another mask with greater comfort during sleep Revolutionary, Patented SLEEP MASTER Sleep Mask and another one with better light blocking Tempur-Pedic Sleep Mask for my particular facial anatomy. However, the latter 2 items also cost substantially more, at least at the time of my purchase.
Unfortunately, none of the masks I tried were completely satisfying for comfort and blackout, despite being on the higher end of the price range for this type of product. I suspect it is inevitable that no single mask will optimally fit both men and women across all levels of fitness and facial contours. Making more customer-specific masks may be possible, but these could then be harder to sell by mail when understandably there is a no-return-if-used policy due to hygeine policies.
Overall, this case is a great product for the iPhone, combined with the grid from Duracell. My only improvement would be to give the case a port to sync the phone and/or charge it when you are away from the grid. Currently, you have to pull the dock connector of the case out of the dock to charge or sync your phone with a computer.
