May is Better Sleep Month, and if your eight hours leave you still feeling like you need eight more, Atlanta-based entrepreneurs Lori Oliver and Jill MacRae want to help you rethink how you rest.
The former Spanx executives are the co-founders of The Inactive Company, a sleep wellness brand behind a new recovery tool: The Inactivator, dubbed the first “performance sleep mask.”
“We really wanted a solution that worked,” Oliver said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Something easy, affordable and that was backed by science.”
Credit: Justin Chan
Credit: Justin Chan
And that’s where their sleep mask comes in. Designed with athletes, busy parents and just about everyone in mind, this sleek, science-backed mask helps your body enter and maintain deep, restorative sleep.
“Sleep is the only human performance factor you can’t hack,” Oliver says. “You can’t bake it, you can’t cheat it and you can’t take a supplement for it.”
Why this isn’t just another sleep mask
After years in product development, Oliver and MacRae say they’ve combined tech innovation with proven sleep science to create a mask that does more than block light.
The Inactivator features built-in cooling material, 100% blackout design to keep light out and breathable fabrics for optimal comfort without any hardware. They say the science supports their approach.
A study from Northwestern Medicine found that even moderate light exposure during sleep can raise heart rate and insulin resistance the following day.
Total darkness, on the other hand, allows your body to naturally produce melatonin — a hormone essential for deep, restorative sleep. A 2021 study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that complete darkness significantly improves both sleep quality and continuity.
“It’s really for anybody. Whether they’re athletes or executives, or moms, or people who travel,” MacRae says. She adds that men, in particular, may benefit more than they realize because of irregular sleep patterns, wake times and increased sleep apnea. According to the National Institutes of Health, obstructive sleep apnea is more common in men, stating “differences in obesity, upper airway anatomy, breathing control, hormones and aging are all thought to play a role.”
Set your circadian rhythm
Good sleep starts long before your head hits the pillow. The duo share the importance of understanding your circadian rhythm — and sticking to it.
“What I’ve been doing, especially in the past year, is starting in the morning and focusing on getting morning sunlight,” Oliver says. “Even if it’s a cloudy day, you’ll still get the important sunlight coming into your eyes, which begins to set your circadian rhythm right at the beginning of the day and sets you up for success for a good night’s sleep that night.”
MacRae adds that your body temperature plays a key role in this cycle.
“As your circadian rhythm starts to come to a close through the night, your body temperature starts to rise and that’s really what wakes you up,” she told the AJC. “So, if you can stay cooler a little bit longer, which our temperature regulating material can help with, you actually can sleep a little bit longer.”
As for using a sleep mask? “It’s just something everybody should have in their repertoire to use,” Oliver says. “You’ll find that maybe your body will train itself to say the association between the sleep mask and time to go to sleep.”
Whether you’re a mom running on fumes, a college student pulling all-nighters or just someone tired of being tired, these Atlanta entrepreneurs have a suggestion: You don’t need more hours. You need better ones.
You can shop The Inactivator ($55) online at inactiveco.com, or luxe travelers can find it at Equinox Hotels. The co-founders are also working on a sleepwear line to support your sleep environment from head to toe.
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