I Tried Smart Goggles That Massage Your Eyes & Relieve Headaches

As someone who stares at a computer for eight-plus hours a day — and then promptly stares at a small phone screen for almost eight more — I’m well aware that I have eye strain and the associated headaches that come with it, and I know that I probably deserve it, too.

If you’re like me and find yourself massaging your temples at work, rubbing your eyeballs at the end of a long day, or lying around with a headache at night, you might want to pick up a pair of Therabody SmartGoggles and let them do the work for you. This piece of tech helps your eyes relax, and offers massage therapy to reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep, and soothe those pesky headaches.

To test these out properly, I’ve been popping them on after long days at my desk, and I’ve also been wearing them for a few minutes before bed. The Goggles feel like a regular sleep mask with some extra, high-tech features — and I’ve been so into it.

Here’s my honest review of the SmartGoggles from Therabody.

Fast Facts

• Price: $199.00
• Best for: Soothing stress, headaches, eye strain
• My rating: 4/5
• What we like: Easy to use, relaxing, improves eye fatigue
• What we don't like: Not budget-friendly, bulky size, the vibration mechanism is a bit loud

What Are SmartGoggles?

These SmartGoggles are from the makers of the famed Theragun muscle massagers. They use science-backed heat therapy, massage therapy, and vibration therapy to help you chill, relieve eye strain and headaches, and more.

They work by warming up, vibrating, and wiggling around in a way that massages your temples to release muscle tension. The goggles also work in tandem with an app that plays tunes to help you regain focus at work, de-stress after a long day, or fall asleep faster, depending on what you listen to. All you have to do is slip on the mask, pop in your headphones, choose a track, and chill.

The SmartGoggles have Bluetooth connectivity and a built-in sensor that tracks your biometrics, like your heart rate, as you relax. Here’s how it works: As the sensor, located by your cheek, detects your body’s response, it will vibrate more or less depending on your needs. The idea is for your heart rate to sync with the rhythm and pulses of the goggles so you feel calmer all over.

According to a six-week trial of the goggles conducted by SleepScore Labs for Therabody, 82% of people who tried a pair of SmartGoggles before bed felt less stressed, and 78% had less anxiety. These findings were reflected in my personal experience, too.

One of the best benefits, though, is how the mask is said to help with eye strain. If you pop it on after work — or even mid-day when you’re tired of staring at a screen — the warmth of the mask combined with the massage can truly do wonders when it comes to relieving tired eyes.

How To Use The Goggles

To treat your facial muscles to a spa-like moment, all you have to do is scroll the Therabody app and choose from three different treatments, all of which have their own soundtracks and mood music selections. There’s SmartRelax, Focus, and Sleep.

The goggles also have various settings so you can play around with the heat level, turn off the heat, or up the vibration factor to customize your relaxation sesh. From there, the goggles will wiggle away while you listen to rain, binaural beats, or a guided meditation.

When your time is up — most sessions last from five to 20 minutes — you can take the goggles off and easily fold them to fit inside their accompanying case. The kit comes with a USB charging cable, too. Once you juice them up, they should last for 120 minutes so you can bring the goggles with you to work, while you travel, etc.

My Experience

I always worry when a beautifully packaged piece of technology comes my way, as I immediately assume it’ll be impossible to set up, but the SmartGoggles were a breeze. Mine arrived fully charged so all I had to do was download the app, create an account, and connect the mask to my phone.

From there, I scrolled the Home tab to see all the various soundtracks. Since I was testing them mostly for eye strain relief, I went straight to the Relaxation & Stress Relief track list and tapped a 7-minute tune called “Post-Work Ease.”

Since many of the SmartGoggle soundtracks feature binaural frequencies, it’s a good idea to wear headphones in order to get the full effect — you know, so it feels like the pulses and beats are fully surrounding you. “Post-Work Ease” was an electronic, ambient track and felt very meditative.

While the binaural beats lulled my brain into a deep, relaxed state, the goggles were busy massaging away on my upper face.

The rolling action of the mask reminded me of the massage chairs you might find in a nail salon. Some internal mechanisms made the mask undulate and gyrate around my eyes, while the rest of the mask pulsed and vibrated — and it really did seem to melt away my post-work eyeball tension.

Halfway through the session, I cranked up the heat setting to add a little more warmth, which made the experience even more luxe. After only seven minutes, I noticed my eyes were less achy and blurry. (I’m sure closing them and basking in the darkness for a bit had something to do with it, too.)

Next up, I donned the goggles before bed to have another moment of meditation at the end of a long day. As a notorious insomniac, I love any gadget or gizmo that’ll help me catch some Zzzs, and these were a welcome addition to my collection.

I scrolled up to the “For Restful Sleep” tracklist and clicked a 10-minute song called “Ambient Slumber.” This one played guitar instrumentals as well as binaural frequencies designed to help reset my sleep cycle.

All the while, the sides of the mask gently squeezed my temples — this time in a slower, more melodic rhythm compared to the post-work track. The pressure was similar to what it feels like to rub my own temples, but instead of putting in the effort, I let the mask do the work.

Once I took the mask off I noticed that my mind wasn’t as busy and that my face was tension-free. I then drifted off to sleep like someone who had just been on vacation.

The Takeaway

If you deal with eye strain, headaches, a stressful job — or if you want to treat yourself to a massage before bed — then I’d say these goggles are a good buy. While they’re not exactly budget-friendly, they have a lot going for them tech-wise thanks to the heat therapy and the nifty inner parts that rub your eyes in all the right places.

The app also covers a lot of bases. You can listen to tunes designed to help you snag a quick nap; soundscapes like rain and rolling waves; background noises, like white, green, pink, and brown noise; chill tunes when you need a moment to decompress like my post-work reset; snoozy sleep tracks; soothing beats and background noise for travel; frequencies that boost your focus and productivity mid-day; and even guided meditations, if that’s more your jam.

As far as design, I appreciate that the mask cups over your eyeballs so the pressure doesn’t go directly into the sensitive parts of your eyes. I’m also so impressed by how the massage syncs with the various soundtracks, so you can get the exact relief you need.

While the mask is bulky and slightly heavy, and the squeezing massage mechanism is a little loud, it seems like that’s par for the course for massagers. They’ve still been such a treat to pop on after work and before bed to have a mini spa moment at home.