Neeti is an IT employee, she works post office hours and is typically stressed about work and the house. She has developed dark circles, and her eyes are always puffy and dry. She usually returns home late at night and finds her brother, Rahul, streaming and playing games in low light conditions straining his eyes. Both the siblings complain of constant headaches and sleep deprivation. Neeti uses heavy makeup to conceal her dark circles, yet she can’t hide her dry and red-eye from her colleague, Priya.
After looking at Neeti’s condition, Priya suggests some lifestyle changes to her like sleeping on time, eating healthy, and using a cold gel eye mask for dark circles and dry, red and puffy eyes. Neeti listens to Priya’s suggestion, makes the changes, and soon starts noticing her body’s improvements. The skin around her eye has improved, her dark circles have reduced, and her overall stress has decreased due to enhanced sleep quality. Her headaches have reduced substantially. She gives a cooling eye gel mask to Rahul, and soon, he too notices similar positive health changes.
Do you have similar problems and schedules like Neeti’s? Or are you a gamer sitting and glaring at the screen all day to stream, like Rahul? Or are you an accountant writing off bills and creating invoices? Or do you stay up the whole night to work or watch Netflix? All these activities take a toll on your eye and its health.
Our most vital organ is the eyes, providing one of the most important senses, the sense of sight. Our eyes work actively throughout the day, and it is common for them to feel tired. There could be different reasons for tiredness in our eyes, from sitting for hours in the office in front of the PC or lack of sleep due to binge-watching your favourite web series, the eyes suffer a lot.
All of these unhealthy choices lead your eyes to become dry, puffy, and develop dark circles. Protecting our eyes is essential, particularly in these times of increasing screen time and stress. One can easily do that by having the proper diet, sleep, and regular use of cold eye masks.
What is a Cool Gel Eye Mask?
It is an eye mask with soothing gel sandwiched between two layers of plastic sheets moulded in the shape of a goggle. These are small plastic bags filled with either gel or gel beads that one can wrap around their eyes? with the adjustable strap.
These gel eye masks come with a cloth sleeve or a bag that makes its application hassle-free and maintains the temperature for longer as it is insulated. A cool eye gel mask is safe to use for all age groups. These masks are truly therapeutic when applied to one’s wearied eyes after a long day at work or school.
How to use an Eye Mask?
A cool gel eye mask is the perfect aid to several eye ailments, and its usage is effortless.
Insert the cooling gel eye mask in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours before use. Take the eye mask from the fridge and put it on your eye. If it is too cold to be used directly, then put it in the insulated bag that the eye mask comes with to regulate the temperature. Applying it soothes your eye, nose, and part of your cheeks and temple, depending on the size and shape of the mask.
It is strictly recommended to use the eye gel mask externally, and its internal consumption can be detrimental to health. It is suggestive that you should choose an eye mask that comes with a complementary insulated sleeve.
What are the benefits of Eye Masks?
There is nothing like relaxing your eyes after a late day at the office, with the cooling sensation around the eye, nose, and forehead. We know that the skin around the eyes, including the eyelids and under-eye region, is very fragile; hence, one should be thoughtful before using anything new. But other than cosmetic benefits, it helps reduce the symptoms of various diseases and cures various lifestyle problems.
Let’s list down a few of the many benefits of these masks have:
Alleviates Migraine
Cold therapy is said to be the best home remedy for migraine. People use wet cloth or ice packs on their heads and eyes to reduce the sensation of pain and discomfort caused by migraine. But these methods are not as effective, as they create a lot of mess and their temperature can’t be maintained for long.
A Cool eye gel mask does a better job. It calms painful sensation in the eyes, and head when moved a little upward, with the soothing temperature of the gel. When you use the sleeves the temperature is maintained for longer and you don’t have to get up to refill again. It does not create any mess or wet any surface and therefore saves you the cleaning time.
Reduces puffiness
Under-eye bags or puffiness are the bag-like structure that forms due to various causes. Eyelids and eye surface inflammation are frequent causes of puffy eyes. There are other common reasons for the same, such as weeping, sleep deprivation, or excessive eye rubbing. In this one or both the eyes may be enlarged, and the affected eye may also have redness, inflammation, itching, excessive tear production, or other forms of discharge in addition to the bags.
To cure this condition, a cool gel eye mask comes in handy, as one of the cures to the situation is cold compression and regular sleep. So there is nothing better than the cooling effect of the cold pad on your eyes. Regular use of the cooling pad, accompanied by quality sleep, can lead to reduced symptoms of puffy eyes.
Computer Vision Syndrome
Computer vision syndrome or CVS is any eye problem that occurs due to regular use of computer or prolonged screen time . It is increasingly affecting the working class of today’s population. The possible major causes for CVS could be dry eyes, itchy eyes, red eyes, blurred vision, headaches and neck aches.
To treat CVS, it is suggested to reduce the glare of the device you use. Changing the light helps. Rearrange your computer in a way that it maintains a safe distance of 20 to 26 inches so that your eyes can focus better. One of the cures could be the use of cold therapy as it helps reduce inflammation and eye irritation and also helps in relaxing the eyes.
Cures dark circles
The appearance of darker skin on the lower eyelid in a circular form is said to be dark circles. There can be numerous causes contributing to dark circles, namely, fatigue, eye irritation, dehydration, over-exposure to the sun, allergies, age, and lack of sleep. This hyperpigmentation under your eyes can lead to you getting comments about looking fatigued, making you self-conscious.
These can be lightened by following different home remedies. One can put cucumber slices or tea bags and apply essential vitamin oils (E,K) on their eyelids. The addition of cold compression in your skincare routine is strongly recommended. As a cold eye pad helps in tightening the blood vessels under the eye and therefore reducing the visibility of dark circles.
Helps in quality sleep
The significance of a good 8 hours of sleep should not be undermined. Quality sleep is the best cure for any ailment in the body. It works wonders when it comes to our body’s recovery from any disease, but lack of the same can invite a lot of discomfort and health issues.
To get good quality sleep, one should stick to their schedule and shouldn’t stay up till late. Including fruits like bananas, oranges and cherries can help improve a good sleep cycle. Blocking light can help and enhance melatonin which complements a good and undisturbed sleep. A cool gel eye pad can relax your strained eyes and block light to improve sleep quality, reducing stress and boosting the sleep cycle.
Downsides of a cool eye gel mask.
There are not a lot of demerits to using the cooling eye masks as there is no chemical injection in the eye or body while using them, but its effect can be subjective to everyone. While eye masks are a drug-free, natural approach to treating a variety of eye diseases, they can have certain risks, especially if used wrongly:
Wearing too tight
If you wear the mask too tight without adjusting its strap to your head’s size, it may lead to blurry vision upon waking up or removing the mask. But this is temporary and goes away within a few minutes of waking up.
Ice burns
You may suffer from ice burns if you are ignorant about the temperature of the eye mask. Using the cloth bag or sleeves that come with the product is recommended to avoid any damage caused to the skin due to ice burns. And if you have none, then simply put a piece of cloth to cover the cold mask.
Is a cooling eye mask good?
Cold eye masks have significant health benefits; they improve sleep quality, alleviate dry eyes, irritated eyes, dark circles, headaches, and any skin irritation on your eyelid that happened due to make-up and lack of sleep. All these lead to improved mood and mental health. Hence, this mask is safe to use, and its benefits can be maximised if used correctly.
If your day includes extended work hours in front of a computer, your sleep cycle is disturbed, or if you work with high exposure to light and heat, then the use of a cold eye mask is the best way to provide maximum relaxation to your eyes.