Hello darkness, my old friend.
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Sleep helps us learn, focus, and recover. Light is nature’s alarm clock. And a good one at that! Even a tiny bit can keep us from catching our Z’s. Would sleeping in total darkness improve our quality of sleep–and more?
Viviana Greco and a team of researchers at Cardiff University investigated.
Over ninety volunteers wore light-blocking eye masks to bed for one week. On days six and seven, they performed word-pair learning and reaction speed tests. The same participants wore non-light-blocking eye masks the following week and repeated testing.
Results? Wearing light-blocking eye masks allowed volunteers to score one point higher on the learning test! Their reaction speeds were also about 6 milliseconds faster!
This lifestyle habit could be a simple and effective way to boost mental performance.
And that’s a BRIGHT idea! What? Can’t take the unbearable LIGHTNESS of my being?
Reference
Greco, V., Bergamo, D., Cuoccio, P., Konkoly, K. R., Muñoz Lombardo, K., & Lewis, P. A. (2023). Wearing an eye mask during overnight sleep improves episodic learning and alertness. Sleep, 46(3), zsac305. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsac305