I struggle with sleep. Among my most frustrating sleep-related problems is my inability to fall asleep once I start anticipating having to wake up. Once my alarm is set, I start thinking of the reducing amount of time I have to sleep. I find myself counting down the time to the point that it makes me anxious. I’ll start worrying about how tired I’ll be if I don’t fall asleep and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s so frustrating and I haven’t found a solid solution for it yet. Apparently I’m not alone. I’ve seen some posts refer to it as “alarm anxiety”. That said, aside from the usual sleep hygiene tips like hiding the alarm clock, breathing exercises, and meditation, there seems to be no magic solution – and that grinds my gears.
How the Problem Manifested Itself This Time
Just today I faced a particularly frustrating case of this. This week I had a string of family events for three days in a row. I haven’t been feeling so hot lately and really wanted to sleep last night to feel healthy for today’s event. I arranged for myself to be able to get 7h of sleep. It took me about an hour to fall asleep. Next thing I knew, my partner’s alarm clock was waking me up. Unfortunately, they took a while to silence it and by the time they did, I was fully awake. They had set their alarm for almost 2h earlier than I had set mine for.
Frustrated, I lied there trying to sleep in vain only for my alarm to sound 2h later while I was still lying there awake. During those 2h I tried breathing exercises, listening to a relaxing podcast, different positions, but nothing helped me get back to sleep. I couldn’t stop the nagging thought I was about to lose 2h sleep and it seemed to feel totally outside my control which frustrated me. Now, I’m writing out of frustration because I feel too tired to go about the rest of my day’s plans and I can’t shake the feeling that I lost a full day of my weekend.
It Happens Often Enough in Multiple Contexts
I get this in other contexts as well. On the weekends, for example, I tend to take advantage of being able to sleep in. By the time Monday rears its head, I find myself struggling to fall asleep just because I know I’ll be needing to wake up to be ready for work by a fixed time again. It’s a frustrating way to kick off the week.
Another example is when I take an overnight flight. I think it’s the combination of feeling pressure to sleep so I don’t get sick/exhausted, knowing there’s a limited amount of time, and just being physically uncomfortable that makes it nearly impossible for me to sleep on a plane.
Anyone Figure this Out?
I’m really frustrated today because of this. I had to fight the urge to make my partner feel guilty for having woken me up early. Surely nothing good can come from that. There’s a part of me that seems to want to play victim and seek their pity for some reason. In reality, I should really just want the much needed shut-eye.
I know that if I need to sleep before an event or something, there are tricks I could take to ensure a decent night’s sleep. For example, I can pop a sleeping pill, take a warm bath, meditate and stretch beforehand, and more. The problem is, something it feels too late to employ these strategies, e.g. when I woke up today within a 2h window of when I’d have to wake up, I could have meditated and stretched during that time, but it’s also hard to know whether I could have fallen asleep without doing such things which would have maximized my slumber time. There’s no guarantee these strategies would work either and they could just eat up precious sleep time. If anyone has recommendations to solve this problem, I’m all ears!
A recurring question during this pandemic has been: should the average person should be wearing a mask. The answer was that it isn’t so important and that we should focus on social distancing and washing our hands. The withering supply of masks needs to be reserved for medical personnel. Now, months in, we’re being told, with hesitation, “you know what, let’s wear masks”. Some cities have even gone so far as to make wearing a face covering mandatory. Others give mixed messages. We’re told they’re strongly recommended when a distance of 2 meters cannot be maintained. We’re warned that the research is inconclusive and that it might even make things worse if not used correctly. It has also repeated that they are not to protect us, but can protect others.
Instructions abound to help us make our own, but that’s not for everyone, and the efficacy of cloth-based masks isn’t guaranteed. Consequently, many of us are going to shop online for our masks.
What to buy?
So, fine, let’s buy a mask. Only… surgical masks and N95s are sold out and we’re being told to leave them for medical professionals even if we do find them. Okay – well, I could make one, but like a lot of people, I’m not interested in sewing and frankly if I’m going to bother with a mask I’d like to get the best option I can. So, off to Wirecutter I go to get purchase advice, but their picks are out-of-stock. They do suggest that cloth masks may be better than nothing and can be made even more effective by including a filter. I tried consulting Quebec’s Wirecutter equivalent, Protegez-Vous, but found no guidance there.
We are encouraged, however, to support local businesses to help strengthen our nation’s self-sufficiency in the production of protective equipment. Here are some local options for Canadians, excluding overly expensive, back-ordered, or tacky options:
Peace Collective is a Toronto-based company selling locally-manufactured masks and disposable filters that also donates masks to Canadian medical staff. The masks have a nice minimal design, have a nose-wire for shaping the mask (I think these also have the added benefit of preventing eyeglasses from fogging up). Masks are sold in sets. The one I liked had a minimum of two in a pack, which makes sense since you can rotate them between washes. Combining this with a pack of 50 filters would set me back $68.25 including taxes and shipping. Not terrible. Their site mentions that orders will take 7-14 days to ship though. That’s a little off-putting given that some of us are anticipating having to return to our offices soon
Vancouver-based Search and Rescue Denim looked promising as it also has a charitable angle and their masks are nice and simple. Having to choose a size seems to be a bit of a challenge though, since this is obviously something we cannot try before we buy. I chose large to move forward. Once taxes and shipping are applied it would come to $42.15 for a single mask. At that price, I think I’d rather go for Peace Collective‘s option and get a 2-pack with 7 weeks-worth of filters for just $26 more. However, if you do choose this option, you can use coupon code SRSave10 to get 10% off
Ontario-based Oliberte usually handcrafts their goods locally, but I suspect the masks they sell are an exception (it’s unclear). However, they do offer three kinds of masks:
Mask Canada offers some nice-looking masks. I liked the checkered pattern. I think it makes sense to buy a minimum of two so they can be rotated. Two masks with filter pockets including shipping would come to a very reasonable $34.49. My only hesitation here is that I’d like to order filters at the same time. They also suggested washing them in cold water and air-drying which is contrary to the advice of washing and drying them at the hottest possible temperatures. I really love the checkered pattern though and would highly recommend they sell filters like Peace Collective as well (though I have heard people promoting the idea of using paper towel or coffee filters as a free disposable filter alternative)
Waterloo-based startup O2 Canada is easily the one that best captured my attention. In fact, their Curve 1.2 product (featured image at the top) was the inspiration of my post and I actually already ordered one for an immunocompromised relative last weekend because it ticks nearly all the boxes. Given that we are short on PPEs in the country and these are potentially more effective than N95s, I don’t understand why this isn’t talked more about. Sure, they are expensive, but the filters are reusable and they are actually available for purchase, unlike N95s. An order of one mask with 30 filters came to $212 after shipping and taxes
👑[UPDATE] Just a few hours after making this post, news came out about a reusable respirator produced by ACAMP, a non-profit nanotechnology research facility in Alberta. They partnered with the University of Alberta to design the mask as well as the inner protective cloth. They claim that their mask, dubbed the A95, provides as much filtering power as the N95s used in health care setting. What’s more? They also claim to have enough raw material in Alberta to produce them, so I don’t feel guilty buying one as I would an N95. The mask is made of two main components, an outer polyurethane-based mask that makes an effective seal with your face, available in multiple colors, and on the inside a protective cloth that goes inside the shell of the mask. They are sold together on their website. The protective cloth, which lasts 1 month, can be washed in soapy water and then air-dried once per week. Each day, you can sanitize it by baking it in an oven/toaster oven at 70 degrees Celsius for half an hour. The masks are being tested by the Alberta government and Edmonton Health Services. This is more vetted of any product than the other picks seem to be getting. Here is a graph of their test results compared to the renowned N95s: This seems like a winning solution in my eyes. The claim is that unlike homemade masks, they masks are designed to protect both you and others. The mask can be had for just $39.94 CAD included shipping and taxes. Not bad for a month. Step aside O2 Canada Curve 1.2, a seemingly comparable solution just came out for a fraction of the cost.
Two things I’m not yet clear on is:
How to clean the outer shell of the mask?
Are they going to sell just the cloths to replace after a month, or will we need to buy them with the outer shells each time?
Will it cause my glasses to fog up? That’s a pain point I’ve experienced with other masks
I don’t own a toaster oven and my conventional oven’s lowest setting is 170 degrees Celsius. That is ~77 degrees Fahrenheit, i.e. 7 degrees Fahrenheit above the recommended temperature. Is that too hot?
A man wears ACAMP’s a95 mask (one of 6 available colors)
This mask clearly isn’t a fashion statement like some of the cloth-based masks on the market today, but at least you won’t look like you got drunk and your roommates stuck a jock strap over your breathing holes. I won’t be replacing the featured image as this really seems to be a product designed and marketed by scientists, so their marketing material is nowhere near as nice as others. I actually ended up ordering 2 of these today. I’ll share how long it takes to receive it. The main appeal to me is that it’s being reviewed by scientists, is affordable, reusable, and supposedly effective in protecting both the wearer as well as others. Take my money. Good job Alberta.
It’s medical-grade silicone provides a better face seal than other masks
You can sanitize it in boiling water
The filters are capable of filtering ultra-fine particulate matter down to 0.1μm. This is the most important feature for me since the virus responsible for COVID-19 is approximately 0.125μm. This leads me to think that this mask may actually be the best protective mask against COVID-19 (but alas, I’m no doctor)
It’s been lab tested by the University of Waterloo
The cons:
They are expensive. I bought the white mask with 6 boxes of 5 filters and it came to $212 after shipping and taxes
Filters are disposable and should be used only once if used to protect against a virus. Sold in boxes of 5, you’d need to buy 6 boxes like I did to get a full month of coverage. Having to pay shipping each time when reordering makes for a costly recurring expense
It looks like a jock strap. No, really. They market it pretty well and the beautiful models make it look okay, but it almost looks as though CCM had pivoted to manufacturing these in a pinch. It was actually designed for the Chinese market
It can take about a month to receive the order due to the volume of orders they’ve been getting
While a Canadian startup, I doubt they are locally manufactured since they would have mentioned it on their site
[UPDATE 2020-04-26] The relevance of this pick is already called into question now that you can get 2 ACAMP A95s and still come out ahead price-wise. I’ll leave it here for anyone that might find the A95’s HEPA vacuum filter look to be a deal-breaker.
While not a locally-sourced option, I thought it might be worth noting that while doing this research I did discover a supplier with an available stock of KN95 masks: DHGate. The products come from China, but at a glance the quality seems comparable to that of an N95 and you can get 10 masks for $62.85 with free shipping within 3-9 business days. That seems pretty solid.
Conclusion
[UPDATE 2020-04-26] I did indeed find something better and settled for 2 ACAMP A95s just hours after making this post. It set me back just $64.88 for 1 month of protection for myself and my partner. If I had to recommend one option to my fellow Canucks at this point, this would be it. Note that the only available option right now is for adults.
Times are challenging enough for most people trying to adjust their lives to make it unscathed through this global pandemic. Now that face coverings are being recommended, people are now further burdened with the decision of what mask to make with what materials, how to wash and dry it, and where to buy it if they aren’t comfortable making one themselves. At the end of the day, we’re all human, so what the average healthy adult should do ought to be more streamlined rather than leaving people to sift through countless options, many of which have little research done to back them anyway.
Personally, I already purchased O2 Canada’s Curve 1.2 for a more at-risk member of my family. I’d love to get one for myself, but it’s a little pricey, especially when we still don’t know how long we’ll be dealing with this. I’d happily provide a review in exchange for the product – hint hint O2! 😉 I’ve been using bandannas and neck warmers so far, but I don’t have much faith in them and I’m looking to get something designed for the purpose with an appropriate filter, so I may go for the Peace Collective option unless I find something better in the coming days.
Disclaimer
I’m not qualified to actually say whether a mask really ought to be worn by the average person, nor can I really judge the efficacy of any of these options. I’m just looking at these as an average consumer and chose to share my thoughts on my findings to save other’s the time to do the same.
