How many of us can truly say that we get a good night’s sleep? Of course, worry and anxiety can impact the quality of our sleep, interrupted sleep patterns once formed can be very difficult to break out of.
Each night if we are able to stay asleep out brains move through different sleep cycles on average every 90 to 120 minutes. To wake up feeling refreshed and ready for the day we generally need to have spent between 7 – 9 hours asleep. Sure, it varies between individuals but however long you get, if you wake up feeling ready for the day, you’re probably getting enough sleep.
It’s so important that we have good quality sleep to maintain our healthy body and mind. Look how terrible we all feel when jetlag sets in or when a new baby keeps the household awake night after night. We all know how frayed and fractious the nerves of everyone become. And for some it can impact so many areas of health, safety and mental wellness.
Put simply there are 2 main types of sleep, REM sleep (rapid eye movement) and NREM sleep (non-rapid eye movement). Have you ever woken up from a vivid dream, frozen unable to move? It’s likely you were woken by your dream whilst in REM sleep. Some scientists believe we can’t move we are kind of ‘paralysed’ during REM sleep as a means of protection from acting out our dreams. On the flip side when we cycle into NREM sleep we enter very deep sleep, slow wave sleep, it’s the kind of ‘dead to the world’ sleep where you hear pretty much nothing and it’s hard to be woken up.
Sleep can be affected by many factors. Are you a shift worker? Do you have block out curtains? Is there a lot of ambient noise outside your bedroom? You get the picture! These are external factors that most of us can do something about.
We developed the NOLAVA EYE MASK to provide support for anyone who may be struggling to fall asleep and stay asleep. We call our mask set ‘The Gift of Sleep’. It’s pure mulberry silk, inside and out. The headband is fully customizable (one size really does fit all), and just to make it that extra bit special we’ve included a heat sensitive gel insert (slips into a pocket inside the mask) and a set of ear plugs. We hope you like it and that it helps support you on your journey to a good night’s sleep.