Tired eyes? Help is at hand. And on your face.

With so many of us now staring at a screen of one size or another pretty much all day - starting with the 9-5 work laptop before moving to a personal smartphone and tablet until bedtime - our eyes are doing a lot of heavy lifting. The eye has six muscles and all this screentime is giving them a real workout. Not to mention the wide-ranging environmental conditions in which our eyes have to exist, as well as a lack of sleep and other physical or medical ailments. No wonder they can feel fatigued.

Looking into the solutions to help with tired eyes, we discovered a rich niche market exists to help with the problem. This Renpho model - Eye Massager With Heat and Bluetooth Music (to give its full title) - is in fact just one of half a dozen or so variations on the theme from the California/Shenzen-based health and wellness company, but in essence they all perform the same core function: to relax your eyes.

This particular model Eye Massager is designed to relieve the feeling of puffy, dry and/or tired eyes, by way of four different therapy methods: compression, vibration, heat compression and music. By relieving irritation, soreness and weariness in the eyes, the makers claim that other health benefits may also follow - improved blood flow, fewer headaches and migraines, better quality of sleep, for example.

The unit has five different massage modes: compression with heat and music, 15 minutes; compression with heat, vibration and music, 15 minutes; compression and music, 15 minutes; heat only, and vibration only. Cycling through the modes is controlled easily enough by the buttons at the side of the device. It should be noted that the compression temple massage is not silent - some might even describe it as noisy - as the machine performs its therapeutic vibrations and so forth. Be mindful of this.

The unit's materials were chosen to be safe, non-toxic, skin-friendly, hygienic and stain resistant, with the PU leather covering tested and verified as harmless to the human body. Renpho seems to have done due diligence to produce a face-worn device that should not exacerbate any skin conditions.

Rechargeable via USB (cable supplied), the Eye Massager also has an adjustable headband (accommodating enough for even the largest of melons), is lightweight and also folds 180° for easy storage in a bedside table or office bag.

Operation is straightforward: turn it on; choose preferred massage mode; chillax. A recorded voice message informs you when it's the end of a session, so there's no danger of you falling asleep and having the heating pads continue to warm your face indefinitely. The device will automagically cease its operations.

A combination of long or short presses allows you to control the music playing via the built-in speakers; the volume of same (you can't turn it off completely, only reduce it to zero); the Bluetooth connection and other functionality. Regarding the music that accompanies the massage, this can either be one of the built-in soothing ambient beds or you can just as easily connect to your smartphone and enjoy some relaxing Metallica.

Does it work? Did a feeling of calm wash over us as we lay down, our eyes massaged and vibrated? To be fair, yes it did. Maybe it was partly the lying down and shutting off from the world - just wearing the headset is effectively an isolation tank for your face - but the mellow sounds and pleasing massage vibrations certainly helped. 

There's no pressure on the eyeballs themselves - which would be bad - but more of a gentle vibration over the lids and around the eyes. Add in the warming sensation from the heatpads and the temple massage and all in all it's a very nice, relaxing experience. As some users have noted online, it's rather like having had a good night's sleep in just 15 minutes.

There's no remote control, which some will feel is a blessing (one less device to lose!), while others might have wanted to lie there fiddling with the volume and so forth. It strikes us that the fewer options there are, the fewer unrelaxing things you have occupying your mind. 

In these litigious times, and given that this product initially launched in the US, Renpho is also notably proactive about warning off anyone who might have specific eye-related medical conditions. The effects of the Eye Massager are definitely at the gentle end of the massage spectrum, but if you do have any existing GP-certified eye conditions you would be well advised to do your research before considering any purchase. If you're more of the impulsive type, make sure you keep the receipt.

That said, the Eye Massager is effectively a deceptively simple device, despite all its techno smarts. If your eyes are feeling tired and your mind is weary, strap this bad boy onto your face and gift yourself 15 minutes or so away from the worries of the world. There are no guarantees (apart from the two-year product guarantee), but if you give in to the experience, in our experience, you will almost certainly feel at the very least a little better for it afterwards.

Renpho Eye Massager With Heat and Music

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