Doing yoga can be an excellent way to relax and feel at peace. Whether you practice yoga at home or in a studio, you can do various exercises to work different muscle groups. Also, a good set of accessories, like a mat and an eye pillow, can help you make the most of your yoga sessions.
Yoga eye pillows have a bit of weight to them, and that weight can help regulate digestion, mood, and the nervous system. The pillows can lower the heart rate, which can promote healthy, deep sleep. It can also block out visual distractions that can prevent full relaxation.
Whether you’re new to yoga or have been doing it for a while, you should consider yoga eye pillows. They offer a lot of benefits, so they’re worth testing out. Keep reading to learn more about what yoga eye pillows can do for you.
What Are Yoga Eye Pillows?
Yoga eye pillows are small, weighted pillows that you can put over your eyes. They’re a small rectangular shape, and you use one pillow to cover both of your eyes.
You can find yoga eye pillows in a variety of colors and patterns, but the fabric should be fairly soft. That way, you’ll feel comfortable when putting the pillow over your eyes.
Even if you don’t practice yoga often, you should still have a pillow on hand. That way, you can enjoy the benefits of them without necessarily doing yoga.
How Eye Pillows Work
Yoga eye pillows block out light and put a small amount of pressure on your eyes. The pillow can also stimulate your vagus nerve, which is one of the nerves connecting your lungs, heart, and digestive tract.
Stimulating the vagus nerve triggers changes throughout your body, and those changes can help you relax. The vagus nerve controls many organs from your neck to your pelvis, so it can facilitate calmness.
An eye pillow can also help you relax and fall asleep by blocking out the light. If you don’t have a completely dark room, the pillow can reduce the light you see. Then you can have an easier time falling asleep.
When to Use an Eye Pillow
You can use a yoga eye pillow throughout your day or week. Of course, it’s a great tool to wind down at the end of a yoga session. You can use the pillow during savasana to help you focus and avoid looking at things around the room.
However, you don’t have to do yoga to use a yoga eye pillow. You can also use one while you fall asleep at night. The added darkness and slight pressure can help you fall asleep more easily, so you can get more sleep.
You can use the pillow whenever you feel anxious or stressed. By laying down and placing the pillow on your eyes, you can take advantage of the vagus nerve stimulation.
Many things can stimulate the vagus nerve, such as deep breathing and meditation. Although the pillow’s eye pressure alone isn’t enough, it can still help you relax, which, in turn, can help you breathe deeply and meditate.
It can then help regulate your mood and senses so that you can feel better.
In order to get the full benefits of the eye pillow, try to focus on the individual parts of your body or meditate. Don’t just rely too much on the pillow to help you automatically relax.
Yoga Eye Pillow Benefits
If you’re considering using a yoga eye pillow, you should know how it can benefit you. Whether you want to use it at the end of a yoga session or to destress after a long day, here are a few fantastic ways you can benefit from using an eye pillow.
Regulate Digestion
The first and probably most surprising way that a yoga eye pillow can help you is by regulating your digestion. This goes back to the vagus nerve, which connects to your digestive tract. When you stimulate the vagus nerve, you can help your body digest food more easily.
It may even help with certain gastrointestinal issues, though you should talk to your doctor about your specific case. Overall though, the pressure from the pillow can help activate the vagus nerve and improve your digestion.
You may not see a massive change, and change can take multiple uses. However, a yoga eye pillow can supplement other treatments for digestive problems. It may be the tool you need to better digest the foods you love.
Lower Heart Rate
Another way a yoga eye pillow can help you is by lowering your heart rate. Again, this has to do with the vagus nerve, and a lower heart rate can help with a lot of things. If you have a naturally fast heart rate or your heart beats faster due to anxiety, you can use the pillow to lower that rate.
Your heart rate also slows down a bit when you fall asleep. That helps you conserve energy and fully relax. However, if you’re struggling to go to sleep, you may need some help lowering your heart rate.
While a yoga eye pillow isn’t a substitute for medical care, it may help. But you also have the risk of lowering your heart rate too much. If your heart rate is already lower than average, you may not want to use a yoga eye pillow.
Block Out Light
If you need help falling asleep, you should make your room as dark as possible. But roommates, clocks, and other light sources can make that difficult. You can use many tools to help block light, such as eye masks or eye pillows.
A yoga eye pillow can block out light, and the slight pressure can encourage you to close your eyes. Then you won’t have to worry so much about too much light affecting your ability to sleep.
Instead, you can enjoy the dark room and the calming effects of the eye pillow. Now, if you toss and turn, an eye pillow may not be the best option for you. But it may be the perfect solution if you don’t move and you sleep on your back.
Control Mood
Your vagus nerve also connects to your brain, and controlling that nerve can help you control your mood. If you’ve been feeling stressed or anxious, using an eye pillow may help. You might notice you feel better after putting the pillow on your eyes for a few minutes.
Like the other benefits, a yoga eye pillow isn’t a replacement for medical care. If you suffer from depression or anxiety, you should consider seeing a therapist. However, an eye pillow can be a great at-home treatment for minor mood changes.
You can use it as an excuse to lay down for a while. Take a break from work or household tasks, and enjoy some free time. You can use the pillow any time you feel like you need to boost your mood.
Regulate the Nervous System
Using a yoga eye pillow can also help you regulate your entire nervous system. As you stimulate the vagus nerve, it can transmit pleasurable signals throughout your body. You don’t have to be in a bad mood or have digestive issues to use the pillow.
Whether you use it while doing yoga or at other times, the pillow’s pressure can affect your whole body. The stimulation can make you feel good, so you may come to enjoy using the pillow even though it is weird at first.
While the pillow won’t treat or cure nervous system diseases, you should give it a try. You can use it as a supplement to surgery or traditional medications. Then you can maximize the treatment options you have.
Final Thoughts
Yoga eye pillows are small pillows that fit over your eyes, but you don’t have to use them during a yoga session. They offer plenty of benefits for your brain and body, so you should try one out. You never know how it might help you.
