To discover a life hack that makes it more comfortable to wear a face mask and also may increase energy, then watch this video.

Because of COVID, people are having to wear face masks a lot and it's really not so fun especially if you need to wear it all day long. So Satomi had this great and very simple idea for creating a life hack that just makes it easier to wear personal protective equipment for your face. So we decided that we were going to test this life hack out and see how much it helps. We’re going to test it four different way to see how it affects your system in the following ways:

Physical
Mental
Emotional
Overall

Part 1: Does this personal protective equipment life hack seem to help your physical performance?

The run test

Here we are down at the track - it's a beautiful day and we're just getting ready to do experiment number one: how a mask affects you physically.

Paul: What do you think Satomi? Do you think you're ready for this one?

Satomi: [Laughing] I'm not sure, but I'm getting ready as much as I can. I'm gonna run three times and the first time I'm gonna run just like this without a mask. The second time I'm gonna run with a mask on. And the third time I'm gonna run with the mask on using this life hack. And each time we’re gonna use a timer and see what happens. But first I'm gonna get ready for this big run so I need to do some stretches first! Wish me luck!

Paul: [After Satomi finished stretching and she has no face mask on] Ready? Set? Go!

What was the time on this one? 7 seconds.

Yeah we'll try this again one more time with the mask on and we'll see how this works all right?

[With mask on] Ready? Set? Go!

7.45 seconds this time! So it seems like it is affecting you.

Satomi: So this time I’m using my life hack. I’m using essential oil and my favorite one is grapefruit because it lifts your mood up. When I tried this before, the mask kind of stopped bothering me. [After putting a very small amount of grapefruit essential oil on her mask] Now I can smell the essential oil right through the mask. Okay, so we'll see we'll see if this works.

Paul: Interesting. Ready?

Satomi: Yeah I'm ready.

Paul: Okay here we go. Ready? Set? Go!

This is pretty interesting - 6.93 seconds.

Satomi: Really? It's actually the best time? Oh my God that's interesting. [Laughing] So I should wear masks with essential oil all the time if I want to sprint?

No face mask	Face mask	Face mask with grapefruit essential oil
7 secs	7.45 secs	6.93 secs

Table 1: Results of the run test. Conclusion: interesting indication of possible negative effect of mask on running that may be cancelled out by our life hack.

The stretch test

Paul: Okay now we're ready to start experiment number two we're going to see how wearing a mask affects your range of motion. Okay Satomi, let's do a first stretch this time without a mask.

[After Satomi stretched to touch her toes] And now with a mask on.

[Note that we used 2 different masks of the same type - one never got essential oil and the other one did.] Okay we how did it go with the mask on?

Satomi: I can touch my toes without a mask. It was good. But not with a mask.

Now this time I’m going to do it with my life hack using grapefruit essential oil… I’ll put it right here [On the mask]. Smells good! Okay let's try.

[After Satomi stretched]

It’s easier way easier with grapefruit oil! Yeah some huge difference! I don't know if it looked different or not, but I felt the difference!

Paul: Okay, cool experiment.

Image 1: Results of the stretch test. Conclusion: interesting indication of possible negative effect of mask on range of motion may be cancelled out by our life hack.

Part 2: Does this personal protective equipment life hack seem to help your mental performance?

The math test

Paul: So here we are back in the studio and this one is going to be a challenge for Satomi.

Satomi: [Laughing] The other one was a challenge too. I'm very impressed I'm still alive from the sprinting!

Paul: [Laughing] But we're going to put you through everything today and now comes the math test! Are you ready for it?

Satomi: [Laughing] Yeah! More ready than for the sprint! I can just sit here.

Paul: [Laughing] Okay but here's the trick - this is third grade math! Are you smarter than a third grader is the question?

Satomi: [Laughing] It's been like 30 years since I did math! So right! Let's go for one minute okay?

Paul: No, that's too much time! Yeah 30 seconds that's plenty [Laughter]!

Here we go. Ready? Okay, three, two, one go!

Satomi: [Laughing after first test round finished] I didn't cheat.

Paul: [Laughing] Maybe you need a minute!

Okay, second round. Is your brain tired yet?

Satomi: My legs are!

Paul: Go!

[After the second round of the math test] Okay so we ran that experiment twice. We did it once for 30 seconds and then we did it once for a full minute for each of the three conditions. This is what we got with no mask, mask, and mask with oil (see table 2 below).

Satomi: Yeah when we did it for 30 seconds, I got 5 correct [No mask], 4 correct [Mask], and 5 correct [Mask with oil] and for one minute 13 correct [No mask], 14 correct [Mask], and 13 correct [Mask with oil] so when we add them up and combine the results, the totals came out to 18 correct on all three so it seemed to have no real effect in this test.

Satomi: Yeah, at least for me.

Test round and Amount of time	No face mask	Face mask	Face mask with grapefruit essential oil
Round 1: 30 sec	5 correct answers	4 correct answers	5 correct answers
Round 2: 60 sec	13 correct answers	14 correct answers	13 correct answers
Totals	18 correct answers	18 correct answers	18 correct answers

Table 2: Results of the math test. Conclusion: no discernible effect of either the face mask or our life hack on mental skills as measured under these conditions.

Part 3: Does this personal protective equipment life hack seem to enhance your mood?

A general assessment of effect on emotions

Paul: So next we're going to move on to the next part where we talk about how a mask affects your mood. It's something that we can't really measure objectively but we can we can certainly talk about it and evaluate it that way. So how do you find that a mask affects your mood?

Satomi: I don't really like wearing a mask so it's instant discomfort. Luckily, I work at home so I don't have to wear masks all day long. But still, as soon as I put mask on, I feel uncomfortable. And if I'm feeling uncomfortable it's easier for me to get frustrated or get irritated so it I know it does affect my mood.

Paul: Yeah, I mean sure it's definitely uncomfortable. Nobody really enjoys wearing it right because it's interfering with the way you breathe. It's hot, it irritates your skin, and for people wearing it all day long, it's really not so great. I kind of feel the same way I think what you're describing.

Satomi: Yeah.

Paul: Yeah, the very first opportunity I get I want to take it off.

Satomi: Yeah.

Paul: Yeah, so it's only natural.

Satomi: And it was interesting that it's not like I love wearing the mask when I have oil on, but I definitely feel much better wearing it.

Effect on feelings / emotions	No face mask	Face mask	Face mask with grapefruit essential oil
Feeling	Comfortable *	Uncomfortable, hot, interfering with normal function *	Comfortable *
Tendency to get frustrated / irritated	Low	High	Low
Mood	Normal	Negative effect	Surprisingly good

Table 3: Results of the general evaluation of effect on emotions. Conclusion: interesting indication of possible negative effect of face mask on feelings / emotions that may be cancelled out by our life hack.

* It’s understood that comfort isn’t strictly speaking an emotional effect but this is just where we ended up discussing it, so we included it here.

Part 4: Does this personal protective equipment life hack seem to help your overall system?

The muscle test

Paul: And now for our next experiment we're going to see how wearing a mask affects your body overall. And to do that we'll use a muscle test.

Okay so you got your muscle test statement ready, so here we go: “My body is performing at my best” [this is a muscle test - when you say a statement like this, you check the strength of your muscles. It’s essentially a lie detector test.] Pretty strong - nice and strong.

Okay let's try it with the mask on: “My body is performing at my best.” Be strong. That was a lot weaker.

[And now with mask with grapefruit oil] “My body is performing at its best.” Be strong. See the difference is when you have no mask or you have grapefruit oil, you are strong right from the beginning right from the start - totally strong. But when you have the mask on without grapefruit oil, it's going down.

Let's try another simple one. Let's just try: I'm comfortable. [Now with no mask] “I am comfortable.” Be strong. Nice and strong.

Now let's try it with the mask: “I am comfortable.” Be strong. No! [Laughter]

So now this is the mask with grapefruit oil let's try another test with the same statement “I am comfortable.” Be strong. Totally strong.

Satomi: You're not you're not pressing harder or weaker?

Paul: [Laughter] No! I'm muscle testing you i've done this before!

Satomi: [Laughter] I know.

Muscle test statement	No face mask	Face mask	Face mask with grapefruit essential oil
My body is performing at my best	Strong	Weak	Strong
I am comfortable	Strong	Weak	Strong

Table 4: Muscle test results evaluating overall effect of mask, no mask, and mask with grapefruit essential oil. Note that a strong result means that the subconscious mind agrees with the statement (in rough layman’s terms, you could say that it passed the lie detector test). A weak result means the subconscious mind disagrees with the statement (in rough layman’s terms, you could say that it failed the lie detector test). Conclusion: interesting indication of possible negative effect of mask on comfort and on the body’s overall performance capacity that may be cancelled out by our life hack.

Summing up: Does this personal protective equipment life hack seem to help?

Paul: So the result I think is pretty clear. I mean it's not like we did a large controlled scientific survey here or anything. This was just a little test on our own, just to try it out. But what we got was that it was definitely affecting your performance.

Satomi: Yeah, it was just for a short time. If I'm doing it all day.

Paul: Yeah, that's gonna add up.

Satomi: Yeah if I do the math test at the end of the day.

Paul: [Laughter] Yeah, I think that would show a difference. That’s my guess is that it would show a difference.

Satomi: [Laughter] Or maybe not.

Paul: [Laughter] You're pretty sharp... for a third grader.

Satomi: [Laughter] Yay!

Paul: But for the all the other tests there was definitely a difference.

Satomi: Yeah, it was interesting.

Paul: Yeah, very cool.

Satomi: Yeah and then for me just wearing, and not wearing, and then with oil on… it's not like I love wearing the mask when I have oil, but that definitely I feel much better wearing it. So I didn't know it's going to show in the numbers, but they kind of did.

Paul: They did, yeah.

Satomi: Yeah, great.

Paul: Very interesting. So there's our life hack. We hope you try it out.

So what's been your experience like wearing a mask and does our life hack help you out? Or maybe you have your own solution, we'd love to hear. Let us know in the comments below.

And if you want to get more life out of life then make sure you subscribe to our Sakaso Youtube channel :-)

Face Mask Life Hack: Make your Personal Protective Equipment More Comfortable During this Epidemic