These Goggles Are Like a Foot Massager for My Eyes
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Welcome to Sleep Better Week on the Strategist, where we’re helping you find everything you need to get your best rest — from testing the most comfortable mattresses to asking nosy questions about other people’s sleep routines. For more, head to ourSleep Better Week hub.
About a year ago, I had a conversation with my friend (and talented aesthetician)Elizabeth Grace Handabout her new obsession with eye health. Because she spends her time either scrolling on her phone or intently concentrating on her clients’ faces, she was experiencing intense eye pain that she was desperate to solve. I remembered our conversation when it came time to buy her a baby-shower gift, and bought her a pair of Therabody’s SmartGoggles as a gesture to encourage postnatal self-care in a non–basic-sheet-mask way. While the goggles are not necessarily meant to improve eye health, they are designed to reduce stress, ease headaches, and improve sleep quality through their various massage-adjacent features. She was, of course, thrilled with them — and has since told me they’ve changed her life — so a few months later, I got a pair myself.
The best way to think of the goggles is as a blackout eye mask with massaging, temperature-changing, and vibration capabilities. Given the tech component, they’re a lot heavier than the average sleep mask — but this actually works in their favor, instantly alleviating anxiety like a mini weighted blanket for your eyes. While some people might choose to wear the goggles for a quick hit of midday relaxation or headache relief, I find myself exclusively wearing them at bedtime as a manual solution for insomnia. A small switch on the upper corner of the mask (by your temple) allows you to easily rotate between the three modalities: SmartRelax, Focus, and Sleep. Each setting entails various levels of vibration, creating a quiet hum that I’d say is almost imperceptible to a potential bedfellow.
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There’s also a built-in biometric sensor that monitors your heart rate and adapts the vibration frequency in order to create a personalized calming experience. (You wouldn’t know this existed unless it was pointed out to you, because you can’t really compare your vibration frequency — or personal sense of “calm” — with someone else’s.) My favorite setting is the eyelid compression: a gentle yet firm massage that moves across your eyelids almost as if someone is pressing their thumbs along your brow bone, down around your eye sockets.
While it’s meant to relieve a variety of different symptoms — headaches, anxiety, facial pains — the way I use it most frequently is to help support my sleep. Specifically, the two scenarios in which the SmartGoggles shine the most are (a) winding me down when I’m still feeling wired at bedtime and (b) if I wake up in the middle of the night, usually to go to the bathroom, and find myself lying in bed, eyes wide open, panicking that I’ll never be able to fall back asleep again. In both situations, I get myself into bed, strap these babies on my face, and release all pressure to sleep, just letting myself enjoy the swirling compression on my eyelids. Without fail, before the 15 minutes are done, I’ll be fast asleep, waking hours later to the lovably clunky piece of headgear wrapped around my face.
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