Blackouts Story

It started at 5am.

I'd wake up, eyes open, brain already running. The room was too bright, the world was too loud, and I'd lie there for two hours arguing with my own head before my alarm went off. Three, four, five days a week. I was tired of being tired.

I tried everything first. Blackout curtains, weighted blankets, melatonin, the Calm app, magnesium, banning screens after 9pm — the whole wellness shopping list. Some of it helped a bit. None of it fixed the mornings.

So I tried sleep masks. The obvious fix, right? Not quite.

The cheap ones had flat fabric that smudged my eyelashes and slipped off within an hour. The expensive ones had headstraps that flattened my hair and dug into my scalp. Memory foam got hot. Silk masks didn't block anything. Every single one pressed directly on my eyes, which I didn't even realise was a problem until I found one that didn't.

None of them were built for people who actually needed them. They were built for people who looked nice in sleep mask adverts.

So I built the one I wanted to own.

It took a year of sampling masks, wearing them myself, and rejecting them for a dozen small reasons. The fabric had to feel like nothing on your face. The ear loops had to slip on in two seconds without touching your hair. The darkness had to be total. One side had to stay cool for the nights my brain ran hot. The other side had to feel soft and warm for the nights it didn't.

When I got it right, I wore it every night for a month before I'd consider selling it to anyone else. My mornings changed. I stopped arguing with my head at 5am. I started waking up when my alarm went off instead of two hours before it.

That's the whole product.

Not a sleep technology. Not a wellness ecosystem. Not a bedtime ritual or a brand hero's journey. Just a better sleep mask, built by someone who actually needed one to work.

If you're reading this at 4:47am because your brain won't let you go back to sleep — I built this for you. Welcome to Blackouts.

~ Alex