Nuzzle-proof sleeping mask. Difficulty level: tiny head.

September 20, 2015 9:22 AM

I'm pretty light sensitive, so I often sleep with an eye mask if I want to be able to sleep in at all. Unfortunately, I also tend to burrow into my pillow or worm along the bed in my sleep, and my eye mask inevitably falls off in the night, removing the entire purpose of wearing one. Does an eye mask exist that will stick to my eyes even if I roll around in my sleep?

Currently I'm using this, and it's totally fine as long as I don't move anywhere in my sleep. Which is to say, almost never.

Also, I have an unusually small head, so I'd prefer some level of adjustability in how tightly I can pull straps.

posted by sciatrix to Health & Fitness (13 answers total)

Hi I too hate the accursed rays of the daystar and here are the various things that have worked (ish) for me:

- wearing a balaclava hat to sleep (cold weather only, otherwise head sweats like whoa) that can roll down over your eyes

- wearing a hooded sweatshirt to bed and pulling the hood strings until the only thing poking out of the hood is my nose (also cold weather only, you will die in the summer, YES, DIE)

- wearing a second sleep mask around my neck so i can just pull it up if the first one falls off in the night

- those spa gel ones stick to your face pretty well BUT your body heat can warm them up to uncomfortable levels of face-smushed gel pack hell, also not really excellent at blocking direct sunlight but will diffuse fairly well. i do this currently with frozen ones because of migraines but it depends on how well you cope with ice strapped to your face. for me it is bliss.

- have one made/line an existing one in a sticky/tacky fabric that isn't satin or silk or whatever they're always made of that's so damn slippy

- wrapping a dark colored lightweight blanket or scarf around my entire head

- sleeping with a thin/flat/beat up down pillow over the top half of my face

eventually I just gave up and taped trash bags to my window but you could be a Real Adult and get blackout curtains/shades, in the long run it is less fuss.
posted by poffin boffin at 9:47 AM on September 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

I have these and they never come off and I move around plenty. The strap is very adjustable. I've been using them for over 10 years now and have replaced them once, due to the padding that creates the eye areas (so you can open your eyes inside) getting less paddy over the years. I have three, just in case anything ever happens and I can't find it or whatever.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:47 AM on September 20, 2015

Would tying a bandana around your head work?
posted by bile and syntax at 10:49 AM on September 20, 2015

I am a very active sleeper, and the only thing that works for me is folding a bandana or scarf into a narrow-ish strip and tying it tightly around my head.
posted by thegreatfleecircus at 10:53 AM on September 20, 2015

I sleep with a pillow both under and over my head. I tend to toss and turn a decent amount but after doing this for a few days, I got used to it and it stays on all night now. One of those really limp foldable pillows works best -- the firm ones don't really mold themselves around your face at all.
posted by jabes at 11:17 AM on September 20, 2015

Get a needle and thread and take in the straps a bit. I also have a tiny head and I almost always have to take in the straps on those. Just pinch together and stitch through the elastic near the edge of the mask.
posted by Crystalinne at 11:43 AM on September 20, 2015

Hmm. I have several of these sleep masks, and they have never moved around on my head. The inside is plain cotton, not satin or anything slippery, and there's a pretty significant pillowy part for under the eyes -- to reduce pressure on the eyes -- which seems to keep it from sliding around. The strap is adjustable, since it velcros together. However, if your head is truly tiny, you may find that you want to extend the velcro portion of the strap or some such...
posted by wyzewoman at 12:04 PM on September 20, 2015

Tempur-Pedic makes a memory foam sleep mask that molds to your face, but it's tented over the eyes, so it doesn't press into them. It works well for me. It's expensive but might be worth trying.
posted by brianogilvie at 5:06 PM on September 20, 2015

Blackout blinds are amazing
posted by exois at 5:48 PM on September 20, 2015

I just got a Muji sleep mask and it fits much better on my tiny head than the American ones.
posted by matildaben at 6:08 PM on September 20, 2015

You won't be able to buy this and may have to make it, but at a craft fair I came across a vendor (sadly, not online) who essentially had stretchy triangles one could wear over their mouth as a dust mask at Burning Man. (Basically, looks like a bandanna would minus the ties in the back, it just stretched over your face in a circle.) I got a black one and hoo boy, did that stay on my face, and went down far enough to block the light in my eyes.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:42 PM on September 20, 2015

Best answer: I used to have a sleep mask with two straps instead of one, and they criss-crossed at the back of my head. They were both adjustable. That thing never came off. It was lost in a move and I still miss it. I found this, which has two straps but they don't cross, so I don't know how well that'll work.
posted by SeedStitch at 6:29 AM on September 21, 2015

Response by poster: I bought the one SeedStitch linked, and it worked great for a night or two! Then I awoke with it in my hand instead of on my face.... and my spouse informed me that I had apparently nonchalantly ripped it off my face and cuddled it to my belly in the middle of the night. I have no memory of this but, uh, I have been known to walk/talk/sit up in my sleep, so it seems like a plausible explanation.

So apparently what I need is a sleeping-hands-proof sleeping mask, not a nuzzleproof one. Sigh.
posted by sciatrix at 9:30 PM on September 27, 2015 [1 favorite]