Eye masks and earplugs - a MUST for hospital stays and useful for daytime napping

Sleep masks are one of the best all natural ways to get full, deep sleep. Oh how I loved my trusty eye mask! I bought a Daydream eye mask during my treatment and was over the moon with it. It blocks out all of the light and is super comfy with foamy bits around the nose. The straps are also adjustable which is really useful as I found that the elastic stretched on other masks and then slipped around. Having had 5 operations with numerous nights in hospital, I can assure you that they are a must. Sometimes you are so exhausted that you need to nap during the day which is difficult with the bright hospital lights flickering, and lights are flicked on and off all night as nurses check the obs of various patients, including your own, throughout the night. They are also really useful for daytime napping at home. During treatment fatigue can be really debilitating and quality of sleep is important. Eye masks can aid a proper and deep sleep during daylight hours.

On that note, earplugs are also a must as far as I am concerned for hospital stays. Again, they are useful during the day or night when you want to catch 40 winks as hospitals can be very noisy places...and sometimes with rather unpleasant noises!

I have found some lovely, pretty cotton simple eye masks that I'm going to include as part of my smaller care hampers - and have also been in touch with Daydream to stock a few of their eye masks as they are, in my opinion, the bees knees of the eye mask world and are pretty enough to be given as a get well gift - but also hugely practical. They also come with a cool pad that can be inserted which is great for headaches and hot flushes which can both be a big problem during treatment.