To all the nightshifters

kahoro · Nov 4, 2003

im also a night shifter, to avoid wrinkles is simpily by not sleeping on your way home , at work place we're given a cup of hot coffee every morning this makes you awake untill you reach home. try this :cool:

Trauma Columnist · Nov 4, 2003

I have wrinkles, but (darn it) they never go away!!!

mattsmom81 · Nov 4, 2003

I have some wrinkles that never go away either...darn! Mine are due to age not a mask.....LOL!

Is there any way you can darken the room enough not to wear the mask...as it sounds like the mask is causing your problem... if you are still young and naturally unwrinkled that is. :roll

bagladyrn, RN · Nov 4, 2003

Great idea - now I can blame it on the sleep mask! "No, I'm not old - these wrinkles are just from the mask!"

cannoli · Nov 4, 2003

If they stare at you just smile back. If they are bothered by the wrinkles on your face that is their problem not yours. Just learn to ignore any stares and not let it bother you.

LydiaGreen · Nov 5, 2003

Personally, I would find it impossible to sleep wearing a mask. My father worked shiftwork all of his adult life (police) and gave me some pointers.

You can buy room darkening shades that block out most sunlight... some gets in around the edges (I tape the edges down, makes it pitch black). Drop a towel or whatever at the bottom of your closed bedroom door - it isn't heavy enough to prevent someone from opening the door if they need to wake you up but will prevent that little bit of daylight from getting through the bottom.

Ear plugs would be awesome during sleep, but I would be paranoid that my kids would get hurt at school and that I wouldn't hear the phone so, I use a fan with little strips of thin plastic tied to it. This makes a constant, white-noise that isn't annoying - it blocks the outside noise (neighbour mowing lawn, etc) but won't drown out the phone.

So, what do you do about the people who phone you during the day? Telemarketers? Family members and friends who call, you answer like a half-dead zombie and they ask, "Did I wake you up?" I feel like asking, "Would I be waking you up if I called you at three a.m.? Because for people who work night shifts, noon is the same to us as three a.m. is to you?"

katie345 · Nov 5, 2003

I don't really mind, what people think about me, when I walk through town with wrinkles in my face. I just wondered, if there's a aimple recipe to avoid them. That's all.

I suppose there's no simple solution, for darkening my room, but wearing a mask. Which isn't the problem. I really sleep good and without any problems when wearing a sleep mask. Perhaps you need some kind of "training" to tell your body that the mask helps you.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Nov 9, 2003

katie345, I too have the sleepmask facial crease problem. It is always worse on the side of my face that I have closest to the pillow. Sleeping on my back helps, and since I'm alone in the bed during the day, it matters not one whit if I snore like a buzzsaw. I have noticed that since I bought a new mask, a really nice one I got at Bed, Bath and Beyond, that I don't have the same degree of Mask Face. I still have the packaging... it's an Earth Therapeutics Dream Zone sleep mask, and it's silk on the outside with 100% cotton padding about 3/8 inch thick inside. The band is 1 inch wide and distributes pressure better than the skinny ones most sleep masks have. It cost about $8 I think and I think it was worth every penny.