The last handful of weeks I’ve been testing a pair of sleep headphones. I have a long history of being a light sleeper, often using white noise to eliminate disruptive noises while I’m sleeping. When the other person in the room needs to be able to hear a toddler, however, it’s impossible to keep white noise to a level that’s capable of blocking out external noise without also blocking out the telltale sounds of a toddler stirring.
The solution to this has always been headphones, but most headphones were uncomfortable enough that I would take them out in my sleep. Two companies, however, agreed to send us their products that work to solve this problem for people.
AcousticSheep makes the hybrid SleepPhones/RunPhones product, a comfortable Bluetooth headphone that fits into either a fleece headband for sleeping or an athletic headband for running. The other brand, Cozyphones, offers a similar product to the SleepPhones but with a standard headphone cable. There are some other differences, which will be discussed later in the review, but both products work as advertised to provide a more comfortable headphone for sleeping.
Rather than going item-by-item for the features and comparison for the devices, I can pretty much sum up my experiences in a blanket statement. Both products work very well, but it’s obvious in more than just the difference between Bluetooth and cable which is the more expensive product. The SleepPhones are slightly more comfortable, slightly better sounding, and feature a headphone that feels slightly less conspicuous on your ear while sleeping.
The other side to that is the cost. The AcousticSheep Effortless headphones, featuring Bluetooth connectivity and inductive charging, run for $129.95 on their website. Even the corded version of the SleepPhones, the Classic, run for $39.95, almost twice to cost of the CozyPhones. The CozyPhones retail for $22.97 on Amazon right now with a base cost of $29.99.
Despite my preference for the SleepPhones, I have to consider my personal choices had I not been provided review units. Given a not-inexhaustible supply of money and my impression of how these functioned, I probably would have been content with either the CozyPhones or the SleepPhones Classic. I like the Bluetooth, and the inductive charging is neat, but I would never have been able to justify $100 for sleep headphones.
For this review, I also had my girlfriend test out both headphones. Her notes differ from mine in places, so I wanted to include them for a rounder picture. She found the SleepPhones comfortable for colder nights but, because the thick fleece that I found comfortable, she found herself overheating. The RunPhones headband, on the other hand, was slightly too snug for her to sleep with. The CozyPhones, which she used more often, impressed her because of a cable that doesn’t tangle and is placed so that it doesn’t interrupt sleep. Our consensus was that we would both prefer Bluetooth to wired, but are conscious of the cost.
Our final verdict is that, while both headphones are good at what they’re designed for, neither one was our perfect solution. There are aspects of both that shine and aspects we wished were a little different. Ultimately, if money isn’t an issue, the SleepPhones Effortless is a good choice, available at SleepPhones.com for $129.95. If you, like us, aren’t made of money, one of the cheaper corded alternatives might appeal to you. The SleepPhones Classic is available for $39.95 and the CozyPhones are available on Amazon for $22.97.
Notes: These headphones were provided for review purposes. Stock images were used due to author’s inability to take convincing sleep-like pictures.
