Recommendations for headphones to sleep in

Hardware
1

At the moment I have Day Airpods Pro 2 and Night Airpods (2nd Gen).

I bought the 2nd Gen Airpods three and a half years ago when my previous Airpods broke, then about 3 months later I got the chance to buy some Airpods Pro for £90 and instantly loved them. When they broke about a year ago I bought the 2nd Gen Pros.

Since having the Airpod Pros (both sets) the original Airpods have been relegated to Nightime Airpods to watch Apple TV and also to listen to podcasts.

I have Tinnitus in both ears, one worse than the other, so as I fall to sleep or if I wake in the night and can’t fall asleep I put something on and wear my airpods so it doesn’t disturb my wife. They stay in my ears perfectly and also semi block some noise.

Unfortunately those three and a half year old Airpods are now not holding any significant charge and need replacing, but I don’t like the shape of the newest standard Airpods and I think it’s overkill to spend £129 for nighttime only airpods. The Airpods Pro 2 are not comfortable in bed.

So I’m looking for any recommendations people have for wireless airbuds or similar that I can wear in bed, that are comfortable when my head is on the pillow, ear down on the pillow.

2

A couple of options I have personally tried. Note that these are not what you might traditionally call “headphones”.

  1. SleepPhones. I no longer use this because I wanted more. Also, it did tend to get a bit hot in summer.
  2. MantaSleep Mask. I am currently using this every night, home or away.

The links are to my personal reviews on a friend’s podcast site.

3 Likes
3

I sleep in a pair of Beats Flex wireless earbuds. I don’t have any trouble sleeping on my side when they’re in my ears, but of course your mileage may vary. They’re about the same size from tip to back as my AirPods Pro.

I like that they have a cord that goes around my neck so that if one of them falls out it doesn’t get lost. The sound quality is just OK, but they’re relatively inexpensive and sound quality hardly matters when I’m drifting off to sleep.

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4

I’ve been using these (see link from Amazon) for a while, in only my left ear. Battery life good between 9 p.m. and about 7 or 8 a.m.

I’ve got a collection of promised-long-life earbuds, none of which made their claims. I abandoned a wired mono ear-bud for due to wire tangling and wire wore out too fast.

https://www.amazon.com/Headphones-Bluetooth-Earphones-Cancelling-Waterproof-Black/dp/B083M7B6CJ/ref=sr_1_4

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5

Similar way, I had to finally replace my 1st-gen (!) “night-only” AirPods about a half year ago. With Amazon prime days coming to the rescue, I bought Soundcore Sleep A20 and gosh they are comfy!
Pros:

  • they are SO light and soft. I mean, completely soft (even the external part covered with a thin layer of some squishy silicone) and super-flat (keep forgetting I got them in my ears, even sleeping on side)
  • perfect bluetooth connectivity (or maybe this is a standard for all new earbuds on the market?) – AirPods-like experience

Con:

  • there is no transparency mode (obviously), so they can give an ear-clog feeling if fit too tight; took me a week to select the most comfortable set of attachments.

Overall, very happy with these soundcores so far. Hope they will last as long as my AirPods 1 :crossed_fingers:t2:

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6

I might keep an eye on these, but at the price listed they’re pretty much the same price as standard Airpods.

Soundcore (Anker) do have sales though from time to time.

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7

Another vote for the Soundcore Sleep A20. I purchased several other (cheaper) options, but they all were uncomfortable and/or sounded so horrible after I was used to the clarity of the AirPods. They’re expensive but worth it. I tried to go cheap, but then I remembered we spend about 1/3 of our lives sleeping, so I now consider it a good investment.