Unlock More Energy Tomorrow: A Scientifically-Backed Sleep Trick to Keep You Alert

A group of scientists have discovered a simple way to sleep that helps us feel more alert the next morning.

Scientists have said that wearing an eye mask during sleep will increase the sleeper’s alertness the next day.

According to the team that tested this theory, simply blocking out light, whether it’s from streetlights, electronics, or sunlight, will help keep you from feeling lethargic and tired.

Viviana Greco, author of the study, called the trick “an effective and inexpensive solution.”

To test whether wearing an eye mask makes a difference, experts from Cardiff University conducted two series of experiments involving 124 volunteers aged 18 to 35.

In the first experiment, 89 participants were asked to wear eye masks while sleeping every night for a week, then they slept without them for a second week.

Volunteers were asked to sleep at home and stick to their regular sleep times so as not to change the basis of the study.

The trials were conducted over the summer because Jericho and her team “suspected that an eye mask would be most helpful in the early morning.”

On the morning of days 6 and 7, participants were asked to take three different tests to measure their brain power.

The results showed that participants did better on cognitive exercises (such as the word association task) and their reaction times were slightly better by about 10 milliseconds during the week they wore eye masks.

However, the masks had no real effect on the third motor skills test, which consisted of tapping the computer keyboard as fast as possible.

In the second experiment, 35 participants wore a device that tracked their sleep. They were asked to place a photometer on their pillows so that Jericho and her team could record the light intensity as the participants woke up.

Participants spent two nights wearing eye masks and then two more nights wearing masks cut to not block light.

According to the findings, published in the journal Sleep, sleep diaries did not show any difference in hours of sleep or quality of self-report between those who wore a mask or not.

“Our results show improvement in reaction time and improved memory,” Greco told PsyPost. “Our results make a big difference in many everyday tasks, such as driving a car, or in any other educational or cultural context that requires learning.”

The team hypothesized that masks help sleepers spend more time in the deepest stage of sleep, also called non-REM sleep, which is thought to be important for processing new information and consolidating memory.

Research shows that this stage of sleep, which accounts for one-fifth of sleep time, re-establishes connections between brain cells that can be overwhelming when awake. Experts believe that this process helps facilitate learning.

Source: Daily Mail