Let me be clear — I genuinely love my Ozlo Sleepbuds.
I saw these earbuds designed for sleep come up on Instagram a while back and they immediately caught my attention. I sleep with an earbud in my ear every night and listen to an audiobook to go to sleep. I'm sure some health and sleep experts will tell me that's probably not the best idea but it's what works for me.
So I reached out to the people at Ozlo and they were kind enough to send me a pair to test. After a few nights, I can easily say that the Ozlo Sleepbuds are a serious upgrade over using a normal wireless earbud.
Ozlo Sleepbuds: Flush earbuds are better
This largely comes down to the flush design of the earbud itself. If you're a side sleeper like me, wearing a normal wireless earbud to bed is a game of chance. Each night, I have to pick a side to sleep on and stick an earbud in the other ear so my pillow isn't crushing the earbud into my ear. Especially if it's an earbud with touch controls, as touching the pillow will often activate the controls.
With the Ozlo Sleepbuds though, that issue immediately disappears. The earbuds nestle perfectly flush in your ears. There are four pairs of silicone tips that come with the Sleepbuds but honestly, they worked for me right out of the charging case.
If the name Sleepbuds sounds familiar, that's because it is. The Ozlo Sleepbuds were once the Bose Sleepbuds before Bose discontinued the product and some of its team left to found Ozlo.
Thankfully, some of the chief complaints about the Bose Sleepbuds have been addressed with the Ozlo version. Right at the top of the list? You can actually listen to music with these earbuds. The Bose version was limited to white noise sleep sounds. Those are still there with the Ozlo Sleepbuds but you can also listen to music, audiobooks, podcasts and more.
So how do they work and are they worth it?
Once the Sleepbuds detect you're falling asleep, they will transition to playing sleep sounds until a timer runs out.
They work like normal Bluetooth earbuds — you can even set them up so you start with listening to an audiobook, for example, and then once the Sleepbuds detect you're falling asleep, they will transition to playing sleep sounds until a timer runs out. Or they can play whatever you choose through the entire night thanks to the 10-hour battery life.
However, there is one way that these don't work like normal Bluetooth earbuds, and it irritated me to no end. Normally, your Bluetooth earbuds have a range of connectivity from the device they're connected to. With the sleep buds, that's also the case, but you also have to be in range of the charging case. If you're just in bed, that's fine. If you have to go to the bathroom, the earbuds are going to cut out unless you bring the charging case with you.
Look, if money was no issue, I'd have no problem recommending these. They're comfortable, and if you need to listen to something to sleep, they can even be a game changer.
But $299 is a lot for even the best wireless earbuds, and these aren't those. They may be more comfortable to sleep in than my Sony WF-1000XM5 but they aren't better. They also aren't cheaper, and the Sony earbuds are about as expensive as mainstream earbuds get.
So if you can swing the luxury purchase, grab the Ozlo Sleepbuds. They're comfortable and offer some great features. That said, if you don't desperately need sleep earbuds or if you don't have $300 lying around in this economy, it's OK to take a pass here.
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