“You may take a nap later.” The notification seemed a little ominous, given that it was from an app that was intended to help me relax.
I occasionally have trouble sleeping. Call it stress, call it hormones, call it the impact of having two small children who have discovered the life-changing art of bickering – the end result is that at 3am I’m usually found wide awake and staring at the ceiling.
So the idea of an “immersive rest companion” that would help me relax and rest better is more than a little appealing.
The Aura Sleep Mask is designed to help you relax, by blocking out the world and its distractions, and playing soothing sounds or sending you on a guided meditation using the accompanying Aura Dreamscape app. And there is something for everyone, regardless of your personal preferences (more on that later).
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You can also set your sleep schedule, something that I had failed to do and got the rather ominous warning that I might take a nap later.
The mask itself looks like a cross between a virtual-reality headset and a soft sleep mask that you might wear on a long-haul flight. It is well padded but lightweight, so it is comfortable to wear for hours at a time. The 3D “hug cushion” gives you a better fit around the eyes without loading on the pressure. On the inside, there is a light bar that helps wake you in a more pleasant manner than the blaring alarm on your smartphone, and it can be adjusted with soft Velcro straps to get a good fit.
There are small speakers built in, too, so you can listen to your chosen meditations without the need for earbuds or headphones.
The Aura mask blacks out every chink of light without feeling like it is squeezing too tightly on your head
With the app, you can choose between meditation tracks for stress relief and building up your self-esteem, soundscapes of crickets or relaxing waterfalls, and even ASMR, if that is what you are into.
If I’m honest, I was sceptical. I am not usually a meditation person. There is something about telling me to relax that instantly has the opposite effect. Instead of deep breathing, I’m wondering if I’ve left the hair straighteners plugged in or flicking through a mental list of things I have been putting off for weeks. While a calm soothing voice is urging me to breathe in and out, listening to the sound of my own breath, I’m usually listening for the sound of children who approach after dark with all the stealth of a ninja.
But the lack of light has a soothing effect. The Aura mask blacks out every chink of light without feeling like it is squeezing too tightly on your head. There is ample cushioning too, so it is comfortable enough as you fall asleep.
Even this sceptic found it useful to run a few soundscapes to help me wind down before bed.
It wasn’t all a success, however. There wasn’t a single morning that I woke up with the mask still on my face; at times it had worked loose and was somewhere on the other side of the bed, and others I woke up wearing it like a necklace. Too much pressure on it will cause the strap to open, so there are no concerns about safety. But it means I’ve yet to experience the gentle wake-up promised by the light bar.
And can we talk about AMSR? Some of the supposedly soothing sounds on the app are subjective to say the least. Under the ASMR tab, for example, you’ll find a mixture of music with binaural beats, mic scratching and tapping, and inexplicably, a track that is supposed to mimic the sound of searching for bugs in hair, which doesn’t’t so much relax me as make me instantly start scratching and wondering where I’ve left the Nitty Gritty comb. If you have school-age children, you know that using the words “bugs” and “hair” will send you into a spiral of panic.
Good
The mask is comfortable and works well even for blocking out unwanted light. Add in the optional essential oils pack and you get the feeling of being in a fancy retreat – until you lift the mask, at least.
The mask also works as a simple Bluetooth audio device, so you can use it with your chosen playlist from Spotify or Apple Music, or go for another meditation app such as Calm.
Bad
If you sleep on your front, this mask won’t be comfortable; this is for side and back sleepers only.
I don’t recall a single morning where the light bar woke me up effectively, mainly because the mask was wrapped around my neck or discarded on the pillow.
The speakers are not very powerful, which is no bad thing, but they are still audible to whoever is close by. That means whoever shares your bedroom is likely to discover your predilection for bug searching ASMR.
Although the Aura app is free to use, you can’t add to the content library yourself, so embrace the Indonesian beach tracks and binaural AMSR.
Everything else
The hug cushions are held in place on the mask with magnets, and are machine washable and replaceable. However, getting the mask and the accessories requires some creative thinking, as the website doesn’t officially ship to Ireland yet.
You can build your own custom meditation and relaxation playlists in the app, including alarms for the morning, from the content library on the app. If you want to go from breath work to bugs, you can.
Verdict
A decent sleep mask and some ear buds would probably get the same effect, but the Aura Sleep mask is easy to use if you want a high-tech but no-fuss sleep aid.