The window in our bedroom faces the street, and there is a streetlight right outside it. Most nights that light is nothing at all. But somewhere in the small hours it comes through the plain curtains and lands across the pillow, and my eyes come open whether I wanted them to or not. I lived with that for a long time. I looked at blackout curtains and never ordered any, because Joyce likes the window the way it is and those plain curtains are staying up.
What finally worked was smaller than a curtain rod and it was not a window project at all. It was a Manta Sleep mask. I bought it in October of last year, along with four other things I had written on a yellow legal pad at the kitchen table, and it has gone on at bedtime every night since. Before it, I had a flat foam eye mask from the drugstore that let light in around my nose and slid off in the night. The difference between those two masks is most of the argument, and it is why I think a mask beats curtains for this particular job. Here are ten reasons.
The streetlight is not going anywhere. Your side of the bed can still be dark.
Manta Sleep Original Sleep Mask. Adjustable, detachable eye cups, light on the face, washed by hand. It goes on at bedtime and comes off at the 4am trip.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →It blocks the light a curtain cannot reach
A curtain hangs flat, and light finds the edges. It comes around the top of the rod, around the sides, and through any gap. Plain curtains like ours let the streetlight in around the edges, and that lines up with the bed. The Manta Sleep mask covers the eye area itself, so there is no edge for light to sneak around. It is not that the mask is stronger than a curtain. It is that the mask is in the right place.
Your curtains can stay exactly where they are
I looked at blackout curtains and did nothing about it, because Joyce likes the window open to the morning and the plain curtains are staying put. A mask asks her to change nothing. It hangs by the bed, it goes on my face at bedtime, and the window stays as it is. That mattered more than I expected it to. Nobody in the house has to give up something so I can sleep.
It turns a shared decision into a one-person fix
The streetlight has never bothered Joyce. She sleeps through it and always has. So the light was my problem, but the curtains were a shared decision, and that is a slow way to fix anything. The mask made it mine alone. I am not going to claim a mask is worth avoiding a conversation, but a thing you can solve by yourself at ten at night gets solved. A thing that needs agreement waits.
Nothing presses on your eyelids
The cheap kind of mask sits right on your eyelids. You can feel your own pulse in it, and if you open your eyes you are staring at fabric. The detachable eye cups on the Manta Sleep mask sit around the eye instead of on it, so there is room in there. I can blink. I can open my eyes in the dark and shut them again. That sounds like nothing until you have spent a night with something pressed against your lashes, and then it is the whole reason the thing stays on.
It stays on when you roll onto your side
I sleep on my side, and side sleeping is usually where masks fail. The cup on the pillow side can press a little, and the first week I fussed with the pillow to get it right. But it has never slid off in the night. Not once in thirteen months. The strap holds where I set it. Back sleepers have an easier time of it still, and if you roll around, the mask goes where you go.
The strap adjusts instead of stretching out
The closure is hook and loop, so you set the strap where you want it and it stays there. It took me two nights to get the eye cups placed properly on my face, and about a week before I stopped noticing I had anything on. After that, putting it on became part of getting into bed, the same as turning off the lamp. That is the test for anything you wear every night. If you have to think about it, you stop.
The eye cups come off, so cleaning is quick
The eye cups detach, which means you can clean the parts that touch your face instead of wiping around them. I hand wash mine in the sink about once a month and hang it over the faucet to dry. It takes a few minutes and no tools. A window covering is a different kind of job, with a rod and a ladder involved. One of these is a chore you actually do. The other one waits until you cannot stand it.
It is light enough that you forget it is there
The whole Manta Sleep mask weighs 3.21 ounces. I did not believe that number until I had it in my hand. Weight matters more than people think. Anything heavy on your face at three in the morning gets taken off and dropped on the floor. This one never announces itself. That is about the highest compliment I can pay a sleep mask.
It packs. Curtains do not.
I have never taken mine out of the house. It lives on the nightstand and it has never been in a bag. But I know people who work nights read pages like this one, and a mask this size packs small, which is more than can be said for a set of curtains. If you are sleeping in a hotel, a bunk room, or on a break room couch, the mask is the only one of the two that comes along with you.
It is one small thing instead of a whole window project
A window project means measuring, ordering, a rod, brackets, and a decision somebody else in the house has to agree with. A mask means one small package that shows up and goes on the nightstand. I am not going to pretend it is free, but it is one purchase instead of an afternoon with a drill. If the only light problem you have is the streetlight outside one window, you probably do not need the whole project.
What I'd Skip
Start with what I would not bother with. The flat foam eye mask from the drugstore is the thing to skip, and I say that as a man who owned one. It let light in at the nose and it slid off by morning. If you are going to wear something on your face every single night, it has to fit a face, and a flat piece of foam cannot. And I will be straight with you about the Manta Sleep mask too: it does nothing for a furnace that thumps when it starts, for a sore neck, or for a bedroom that runs hot. If light is not what wakes you, skip it and spend the money on whatever is.
And if sleep trouble goes on for months, see your own doctor. I am not a doctor and I do not play one on the internet. Mine checked me during that bad year after I retired and it was worth doing, even though there was nothing that needed treatment. Thirteen months in, the mask does its one job and I keep it to that job. It goes on at bedtime, it comes off at the 4am trip to the bathroom, and it goes back on the nightstand.
Two nights to get the eye cups placed right. About a week before I stopped thinking about it. Thirteen months later it goes on at bedtime the way the lamp goes off.
One mask on the nightstand beats a window project you never get around to
Thirteen months of nightly use, a hand wash about once a month, and not one curtain moved. If the light outside your window is what opens your eyes, start here instead of at the hardware store.
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