Sleep Earphones: My Journey to the Perfect Earphones

I'm a very light sleeper, and even the wind can wake me, which has doomed our use of wind chimes in the garden for years.

I don't mind morning birdsong because I, too, am an early bird. But frisky foxes during the breeding season, chatty owls having neighborly conversations, and other nocturnal critters often wake me.

I'm a side and back sleeper, and I have been on quite a journey to find my perfect sleeping headphones. There are so many plusses and minuses to using them for sleeping! Here are my observations along the way.

Considering comfort

Many can be uncomfortable for side sleepers because they are not low profile enough. Having the weight of my head on a headphone that is not flatter can cause me problems with my ear and ear piercings.

I suggest trying some out, if you can, before making a purchase. The most comfortable and flatter ones I did find, Kokoon over-the-ear headphones, I owned for years until I broke them. Sadly, they are not currently available.

White noise or music?

Some will only play white noise. If you are a person who likes to listen to stories, music, or podcasts, these are not flexible options. A plus is that they are designed to play white noise well, and the audio quality on the ones I tried was top-notch.

Some will only play music via the phone, so they entirely lack a white noise option. All of these models of sleep headphones rely on Bluetooth for the sound source, which can drain a phone's battery faster and require the phone to be nearby.

This might be a problem for the middle of the night doom scrollers who want to avoid looking at their phone at night.

Battery life and price point

Battery life can be poor even on some of the best models - and for obvious reasons, it may not be a great idea to try to sleep with cords near the neck! A few models have short detachable cords, which may be safer.

Inexpensive headphones within headband options from major online retailers seemed to be cheaply constructed, which is why they were so inexpensive in the first place. The band's fabric was sometimes scratchy, or the sound output was tinny.

I found them very accessible financially. However, they never lasted and were never that comfortable. And, as a perimenopausal woman, I do not need anything warming up my head at night!

Landing on the perfect pair for me

I finally found my headphones, and while they aren't perfect, they are pretty good. They have a cord between each earpiece, which seemed odd at first, but I never notice it when I sleep.

It holds the battery between them, which means it lasts longer than some of the other cable-less earbuds I tried. The buds are comfortable (and you can put in different sizes, including different sizes in each ear!). It can generate white noise and connect to my phone if I would like to listen to something else.

Finding the right sleeping earphones

The journey to finding my current (and favorite) pair of sleep earphones was a long one, and a bit pricey as an experiment - but I am grateful to have finally put my wind chimes up in the garden, and get a more solid sleep at night.

Do you have a favorite pair of sleeping earphones? What makes them work for you?