Do you ever wish you could put a massage gun directly on your eyeballs after a particularly long and stressful day? Or better yet, pop both eyes right out and give the socket a good rub before replacing them? Unfortunately, neither of those things are medically advisable. Instead, I’ve been getting some relief thanks to eye massagers.
For about a month, I’ve been using Gravity’s Eye Massager whenever I’m dealing with a headache, sore eyes from a day of writing, or just need to relax a bit before I go to bed. I tried Therabody’s Smart Goggles (9/10, WIRED Recommends) last year. Despite my initial doubts that such a gadget could work, they quickly became my favorite product of the year—I didn’t know I was missing such a key piece of my comfort puzzle. Gravity’s version is half the price. There are some differences, but it holds its own against the massage heavyweight. While all our eyes are probably tired, the company notes that anyone with major eye diseases like glaucoma, cataracts, or retinal detachment should not use this.
Easy on the Eyes
Photograph: Gravity
Gravity’s Eye Massager uses air pressure to gently squeeze and contract against your temples and around your eyes. Air pressure is different than the rolling nodes you might be used to in some massagers, which tend to really dig in and can even hurt during or after the massage is over. Inside this device, airbags inflate and deflate, allowing it to cup to your face, squeezing with just the right intensity before deflating and starting over. Therabody’s version doesn’t grip quite as much. Now that I’ve tried Gravity’s, Therabody feels like it’s lacking.
There are five modes. Multi-Function employs all three features: heat, vibration, and pressure. Relax mode ditches vibrations, Rest is just pressure, and Revive uses pressure and vibration. The last mode, Heat, is a welcome addition, even if most of the time I opted for adding in other functions too. I used to buy disposable, self-heating eye masks for when one of my ocular migraines started. They helped a little, but this massager gets much warmer (107 degrees Fahrenheit) and feels significantly better. Even without the massage function on, the goggles pressing against your face is much more relaxing than an insubstantial, gauzy mask. Therabody’s version doesn’t have a heat-only mode, as the pressure massage is a constant.
Photograph: Gravity
