Best Sleep Masks

Instead of the elastic strap of a normal sleep mask, Nodpod uses the weight of microbeads, draping four jersey-and-fleece pods across your eyes, temples and forehead. That deep-touch pressure calms the nervous system the way a weighted blanket does, and 83% of clinical testers fell asleep faster. For sleepers who find regular masks too constricting, it's the best blackout-plus-anxiety solution in the field. Restless tossers and air travelers are poorly served by the strap-free design.

Slip helped invent the silk pillowcase category, and the Pure Silk Sleep Mask works in the same idiom. At 22 momme it is the heaviest silk here, with pure silk filler and an internal liner giving the mask real structure instead of the floppy satin feel of cheaper options. It is gentle on skin and lashes and won the 2018 Selfridges Beauty Award. The front is flat, though, so it leaks light at the nose bridge for anyone who needs true blackout.

There's a reason the Alaska Bear is the default budget silk sleep mask on Amazon: real 19-momme mulberry silk on both faces, a shaped foam insert that lifts the fabric off your eyes, and a buckle at the back of the head where it can't dig into your temples. CNN Underscored and Chromakode's exhaustive side-sleeper guide both name it a favorite, and it manages most of what the $72 Slip mask does at one-fifth the price. The trade is mild: light leakage at the nose bridge, and a strap that eventually relaxes.

Tempur-Pedic adapted the TEMPUR memory foam from its mattresses into a thick, cupped sleep mask, and the result seals at the nose bridge about as well as anything in the category for $29. The foam stays cool to the touch, and the cupped design keeps your eyelashes off the interior. Bulk and cleaning are the trade-offs: the foam can't get wet, so the inner mask gets spot-cleaned and only the cover is washable. Back sleepers and travelers who want a structured, cool-to-touch alternative to silk should buy it.