How does it work? Lavender Eye Pillow

Eye pillow … I never thought I need one until I’ve tried it. Filled with fragrant lavender flowers and flaxseed, eye pillows help to relax, aid better sleep, relieve muscle tension and even reduce headache. But how do they work? Turns out, there is the real science behind this seemingly simple wellness accessory. 

Stress and Facial Muscle Tension Relief

Let us look at its shape first. Did you know that the human face has 43 muscles? Facial muscle tension may lead to headache and overall discomfort (not to mention wrinkles from repeated muscle contraction i.e. crow’s feet, forehead or between the eyebrows wrinkles). Facial massage is proven to relieve muscle tension, tone the muscles (think natural lifting!) and reduces stress. But not everyone knows how to or has time to perform facial massage at home, especially after a long stressful day. And this is where eye pillow comes in handy.  

Deerieo eye pillow is ergonomically shaped to align with your natural face contours to provide gentle pressure in all the tension points around the eyes, nose and forehead. Well balanced weight of the pillow simulates massage around the crucial parts of the face without you having to make any additional effort. You may simply lay down and relax. 

Fighting the Blue Light

Speaking of the eyes, we spend more time in front of the screens than ever before, often late into the night and up until we go to sleep. Such a significant blue light exposure blocks a hormone called melatonin that makes you sleepy. As a result, we struggle with getting a good nights sleep, when our body should regenerate itself yet it can’t due to the lack of melatonin.

Eye pillows not only prevent the light from getting into the retina (light-sensitive part of the eye), but the darkness stimulates melatonin (sleep hormone) production by the pineal gland. Plus spending 10-15 laying in the dark without any distraction helps to switch off from the daily hassle. This is why eye pillow is an excellent natural sleep aid (please note it won’t cure sleep disorders such as insomnia, but it will certainly help).

Hot & Cold Compress

The additional benefit of the eye pillow is that it can work as both hot and cold compress. Cooled in the freezer and placed on the forehead it will help alleviate headache, or gently warmed on the radiator it will help relieve the eye tension after a day of computer work.

Lavender in Aromatherapy

And now my favourite part - fragrant lavender flowers that fill the eye pillow together with the flaxseed. I am yet to meet a person who doesn’t love a warm, incredibly soothing and soul-comforting scent of natural lavender. And again, there is a science to it. Aromatherapy as a healing technique is known since ancient times and has evolved throughout centuries into a specialised field of holistic medicine. Egyptians used fragrant herbs and incense for ritual and medicinal purposes already in 3500 BC, and French surgeon Jean Valnet used essential oils to help heal soldiers' wounds in World War II.

How does it work? Volatile compounds of the plants that carry their scent interact with smell receptors in the nose. This sends messages through the nervous system to the brain, activating the areas responsible for our emotions and production of feel-good hormones like serotonin and lowering stress hormones like cortisol. This helps to reduce stress, improve sleep and tune the nervous system that in turn improve the body’s healing abilities.

Lavender has been reviewed in several clinical studies. Compared to placebo, lavender demonstrated superior performance in treating anxiety-related disorders, improve quality of sleep and even alleviate pain. You may read a full study here (opens a new window).

Eye pillow filled with dried lavender flowers has a lovely warm and natural scent that offers therapeutical benefits, especially efficient when placed on the eyes and nose. Over time when the scent fades, you may gently warm it up to revive its fragrance or put 2-3 drops of therapeutic grade lavender essential oil for a stronger effect.

At Deerieo we fill our eye pillows with ecologically harvested English and French lavender to ensure they are good both for you and for the environment.

We hope you enjoyed this short insight into the science behind the eye pillows. Have you tried Deerieo Lavender & Flaxseed eye pillow? Did you enjoy it? Let us know in the comments below!