Why Mark Zhang traded the office for total blackout

Thirty small prototypes stood between Mark Zhang and a mask that stayed dark. That number tells you most of what Manta Sleep still is, a company built by a light sleeper who kept adjusting the fit until morning felt kinder.

Two million light sleepers now trust a mask that began in a small bedroom habit. Mark Zhang started wearing a sleep mask when he was fifteen, long before he had words for why light kept him awake.

He worked first as an accountant and later with e commerce businesses. He lived the long hours he now calls unwise. The death of a close friend from cancer in his twenties made him step back and ask what a good day actually required. His answer was rest.

What Manta Sleep is now reflects that answer. The brand is based in Jackson, Wyoming, with a small distributed team, and it makes only sleep masks, in many forms. Classic and PRO for blackout, SOUND with thin Bluetooth speakers, COOL and STEAM for temperature, WEIGHTED for gentle pressure, SILK for softness. What others miss is how narrow that focus has stayed. Zhang did not build a sleep platform. He built a better cover for the eyes, then kept refining it.

You have worn a mask since you were fifteen, and you say generic masks were uncomfortable, leaked light or fell apart after three months. What did those early nights teach you about what a mask had to do.

I have been a light sleeper for as long as I could remember, and I started using a sleep mask when I was fifteen years old. I knew the problem in my body before I knew how to describe it. Even a small amount of light would leave me tired the next day, and most masks made it worse in a different way. They pressed on my eyes, they slipped, they let light in at the nose.

My work with Manta Sleep began because I was desperate to find a fix for my own sleep problems. I had been using a mask for so long, I knew intuitively what to change, what to improve on, and what I wanted. It had to block light fully. It had to leave the eyes alone. It had to feel soft enough that you forget it is there. That sounds simple until you try to wear it on your side at two in the morning.

You left accounting and e commerce after a friend died of cancer in your twenties, and your about page says you lived the grind and decided to push back. How did that loss change the way you worked.

That loss made everything quiet for a while. When someone close to you dies young, the usual goals look thin. I had been working long hours and telling myself it meant something. Working long hours and hustling is absolutely idiotic because nobody can make great decisions working twelve hours a day. At that point, you are just a walking zombie working on low value tasks and pretending like you are actually doing something important.

The founders of Manta Sleep spent years in that corporate world. We decided to push back by making the best sleep products in the world. Great sleep is the non negotiable foundation of a great life. That is not a slogan to me. It is how I want to live now. Fewer late nights for work that could wait. More care for the hours before bed.

The brief records about thirty iterations and a shelf of rival masks you bought to test. What were you looking for in those comparisons, and what counted as good enough.

We bought every mask we could find and wore them. We set three goals at the start. One hundred percent blackout. Luxurious material. Fits all types of faces. If a mask failed one, it failed.

It took about thirty iterations to perfect the first mask. Each version taught us something small. A strap that gripped without pulling hair. A cup shape that sealed at the nose without pressing the lids. A fabric that breathed so heat did not build up. It was based on thoughtful, science backed design, and after years of fine tuning plus a very successful Kickstarter campaign, Manta was born. Good enough meant I could sleep on my side, turn my head on the pillow, and still see nothing.

Your story is often told as a solo story, yet you mention a business partner who is an industrial designer. Why has only your name stayed public, and how did that partnership shape the product.

I am the CEO and co founder of Manta Sleep, and my business partner is an industrial designer. That mix mattered from day one. I brought the light sleeper view and the e commerce background. He brought form, materials and patience with prototypes.

Our about page says the founders of Manta Sleep without naming us both, and over time only my name stayed in press. That was never a plan to hide anyone. I do the talking. He does a great deal of the drawing and testing. A modular mask with separate cups and straps came from that way of working, parts that can be adjusted, washed and replaced rather than throwing the whole thing away.

You expected to raise about two hundred thousand dollars and raised more than seven hundred thousand across Kickstarter and Indiegogo, after spending about fifty thousand on ads. What did that early response confirm for you.

It confirmed that light sleepers were waiting. We went in hoping for two hundred thousand. We closed with more than seven hundred thousand across Kickstarter and Indiegogo combined. We spent about fifty thousand on Facebook ads because paid traffic is critical for crowdfunding. It is much more reliable and consistent compared to something like PR.

Coverage called it the worlds first modular eye mask in April 2017. That phrase helped, but the messages helped more. Shift workers, new parents, travelers, roommates with different schedules. People wrote to say a pinprick of light can disrupt REM and deep sleep, leading to post sleep tiredness, and they felt it. Just a pinprick of light can disrupt REM and deep sleep. When you hear that hundreds of times, you stop doubting the niche.

Just a pinprick of light can disrupt REM and deep sleep.

Mark Zhang

You say you are proudly pro nap and anti hustle culture, and that naps beat coffee because our bodies are wired to nap. How does a nap fit into a real workday for you.

We believe that napping at work should be celebrated, not condemned. Naps beat coffee because our bodies are wired to nap. Coffee borrows energy from later. A short nap repays a little of what the night missed.

For me it is simple. A dark room, or a mask if the room is bright. Twenty minutes, not two hours. Phone face down. No tracker score to chase. If I wake groggy, the nap was too long. If I wake a little clearer, it worked. We make masks for workday nappers as much as night sleepers because city noise and light pollution do not pause at noon. A mask will not fix a short night, but it may help some people rest briefly without needing another cup.

The SOUND mask carries thin Bluetooth speakers and a twenty four hour battery claim at full volume, with wash access through a magnetic opening. Why add sound to a mask, and how do you use it yourself.

Light was only half my problem. Sound was the other half. Earbuds hurt when I rolled over. A speaker on the nightstand bothered anyone else in the room. So we built ultra thin Bluetooth speakers into the strap, with C shaped eye cups and perforated knit that breathes.

I stream low rain or white noise from my phone, iOS or Android, and adjust the speakers with the pull tabs while wearing it. No hard buds in the ear. Battery is listed at twenty four hours at full volume, and most people listen much lower, so it lasts across several nights. Before washing, you take the electronics out through the magnetic opening. I use it on planes and in bright hotels. It is the only mask designed, constructed and optimized for deepest possible sleep in any environment that I can wear on my side.

PRO is called your most advanced mask, with angled gel strap, Tactel interior and full machine washability. SOUND is about quiet listening. How should someone choose between them for the hour before bed.

Choose by what wakes you. If light and pressure wake you, and you sleep on your side, PRO is our answer. True one hundred percent blackout with zero eye pressure. The strap sits angled above the ears with an anti slip gel line so it stays put. The interior uses Tactel, which we describe as two times as soft and three times as durable. It is seventy three centimeters, one size adjustable, and fully machine washable cold in a bag, air dried flat. That routine matters. A clean mask gets worn.

If sound wakes you, or silence feels too loud, SOUND may help more. Same C shape for side comfort, Modal interior, perforated materials for airflow. Stream what calms you, then lights out. Both carry a sixty day money back guarantee, so you can try one at home across real nights, not one perfect night.

Your site now says over two million light sleepers trust Manta, up from about three hundred thousand in 2021, with TikTok and the UK driving international growth. What has scale changed, and what have you kept small on purpose.

Scale changed where we ship and how people find us. Moving from Amazon experience and crowdfunding to Shopify is when things really began to take off. Later our international push on TikTok added about twenty five percent in revenue, with the UK as our best market. We grew to an eight figure business, from about eight hundred thousand a month in mid 2021. The team grew from eighteen people then toward about twenty eight more recently. Different dates, different counts.

What we kept small is the product question. We focus beyond specs on create the best sleep experience, not only best mask. That means extensions with a clear use, SILK in mulberry silk, WEIGHTED for gentle pressure, AROMA with lavender, COOL for warm eyes, STEAM for gentle warmth in three to five minutes. SOUND was named one of TIMEs Best Inventions of 2025, and PRO is described as proven to boost deep sleep in athletes. Press followed, Travel and Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, The Guardian. I read that as trust, not hype.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with us is the modesty of the object. A mask does not track, glow or score. It covers the eyes and stays soft while you turn. Zhang returns to that image again and again, the side sleeper at night, the traveler at noon, the shift worker at dawn.

Manta Sleep set out to empower light sleepers to sleep better so they can live their best lives. Said plainly, that means fewer mornings shaped by hallway light and more by choice. The brand chose blackout, fit and small comforts, and kept choosing them.

Product spotlight

Manta SOUND Sleep Mask, 159 dollars, Classic, one size. A blackout mask with ultra thin Bluetooth speakers for music or white noise. Use it when sound breaks your night more than light does. Pair the phone, set volume low, slide speakers into place, wear over eyes with strap above ears.

Manta PRO Sleep Mask, 85 dollars, Classic, one size adjustable with 73 cm strap. A blackout mask with C shaped cups and angled gel strap for side sleep comfort and no pressure on lids. Use it nightly for light control. Machine wash cold in a bag and air dry flat to keep the seal soft.