I often try to not make huge claims about any specific thing when it comes to health.
There are enough out there in the world of social media.
People claiming that their specific diet is best; their training regime is best; anything that they do health-related is best and more.
My primary goal on a daily basis is to engage in a wide variety of health practices that bring me into a balanced state of health.
A whole-food, high-protein plant-based diet.
A training regime that sees me lift 3-4 times a week and do cardio 1-2 times a week.
Regular walks to lower that stress.
Quality sleep hygeine.
But – if you held a gun to my head and demanded that I let you know of one tool that I believed in so much to improve health and wellbeing...I probably know what I'd say.
I'm telling you – when I made a switch to consistently using one of these every day, a key pillar of my health improved dramatically.
This is even taking into account the HUGE strides I made with various areas of my health when I shifted to a plant-based diet in 2017.
So if this tool maybe even betters that, then I think we could be on to something here.
What am I talking about? The humble sleep mask.
But why a sleep mask?
The idea to lean into when we sleep is to create as much darkness as is physically possible.
Yes, our eyelids can do a lot of the heavy lifting, but a mask dials it up even more and blocks out even more ambient light.
Think about this too: when you've had a really restful night of sleep you feel sharp, alert and on top of things the next day.
So it is no surprise perhaps that we have evidence that use of a sleep mask can actually improve alertness and episodic learning - that being the process of storing information in our memory and using that to improve behaviour.
That is amazing to me.
I definitely notice the difference in my quality of sleep and my sharpness the next day when I don't have a sleep mask (on certain occasions when I forget it while travelling for example).
Put simply: it's a foundational tool that I'll always have in my sleep stack.
And the best thing about them is that for the value you get – generally speaking they're pretty cost-effective.
You can explore Amazon which has tons of different ones, many of which I have tried and have had good success with.
However there is one that I have stumbled across and is the best of the bunch – and I'll let you in on it.
(Full disclosure - I don't have any affiliation with this company whatsoever, but have fallen in love with their product, won't live without it, and want you to know about it as well).
This piece of kit is probably the best of all the sleep masks that I've used.
It is complete blackout - which is what we want in reducing ambient light – and will have you feeling rested beyond belief.
It will set you back £39 ($52) which – for how effective and durable it is – is pretty cost-effective if you ask me.
However if that is beyond your price range though, I do also own this one which I use for travel which is a mere £9 ($12), and also helps improve my sleep when on the road.
If you're a sleep mask user already, then you have the right idea.
With sleep being such a foundational pillar of health (and one that I've focused on with a lot of intent for the last 4-5 years), knowing that there are really cost-effective ways of improving it is really great to know.
Now go ahead and improve your sleep!
Stay healthy,
Jeff
PS: If you got value from this email, I have a very small favour to ask: if you felt it gave you a lot of value, I ask that you send it to two of your friends who you think might benefit from it. Catch you soon!