I Slept Through the Night in Susan Orlean’s Favorite Earbuds
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Ozlo is one of the most well-known makers of earbuds specifically designed for wearing to sleep, and this week, the company launched the newest version of its flagship product: TheOzlo Sleepbuds 2. I first tried the Ozlo Sleepbuds while writing our guide to thebest earplugs for sleep, and we’ve also heard rave reviews from celebrities likeSusan OrleanandLena Dunham. So I got my hands on a pair of the Sleepbuds 2 and tested them for a couple of weeks at home and while traveling to see how they compare to the originals.
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Ozlo Sleepbuds 2
Upgrades include physical controls and better battery life
The Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 have quite a few new features, including sleep tracking, phone-free controls, and multiple audio settings for different types of listening or sleep environments. You still have to use the app for many settings, but now you also have the option to pause and play with a physical button in the case (the original Sleepbuds were only controlled by the app), so you don’t have to look at your phone if you wake up in the middle of the night. Deputy editor Simone Kitchens, who was a frequent user of the original Ozlo Sleepbuds and also tried the new version, told me this is one of the biggest upgrades for her. There are also multiple modes optimized for listening to narrated audio, using on an airplane, or sleeping regularly. Improvements on existing features from the original Sleepbuds include a longer battery life (Ozlo says the Sleepbuds 2 last for 14 hours) and better sound quality.
They’re extremely comfortable, even for side sleepers
I often listen to podcasts or audiobooks with my AirPods when I’m taking a nap, and at night, I play audio right from my phone to help me fall asleep. So I tested the Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 as a replacement for my AirPods and for playing audio from my phone speakers. Off the bat, the Sleepbuds 2 were much more comfortable than my AirPods. They are smaller and don’t protrude from my ear as much; they also have soft silicone wing tips that reduce pressure on the ear. Ozlo includes multiple wing-tip sizes so you can get the best fit.
I’ve found them extremely comfortable to sleep in — even when lying on my side. I tested these while sleeping on a variety of different pillows (due to traveling and testing pillows for another Strategist project), so I know they feel just as unobtrusive in my ear when sleeping on a plush down pillow as a firmer memory-foam one. The original Sleepbuds put some slight, unpleasant pressure on my ears, but I didn’t have that problem this time. I contacted Ozlo to ask if anything changed, since the new and old versions look identical to me; according to the brand, the new ear tips are designed to offer a more secure, comfortable fit, particularly for side sleepers.
I also appreciated that the Sleepbuds 2 stayed in my ears all night. On occasions I have slept with my AirPods in, they have fallen out and gotten lost in my bed.
A nifty Sensing setting will pause your podcast when you fall asleep
The Ozlo app has a library of more than 30 sleep sounds, like rainfall or a crackling campfire. You can also listen to whatever audio you want from streaming sources like Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube, just as you would with any other headphones. Streaming external audio content was my main interest, but I also liked having the option to listen to Ozlo’s sleep sounds. The Sleepbuds come with ten sounds pre-downloaded onto the earbuds themselves, which allows you to listen “locally” without a Bluetooth connection or if your phone dies. But you can easily download other sounds from the library onto your Sleepbuds.
In the app, you can choose among five different sleep modes: Simple, Auto, Sensing, Time Delay, and Manual. This is meant to allow you to use both the sleep sounds and external audio content in your preferred manner. I ended up primarily using the Sensing setting, which let me play podcasts from Spotify but would pause that audio and start playing my designated sleep sound when the earbuds detected that I fell asleep. Most mornings, when I woke up and looked at my phone, the podcast episode I had fallen asleep to was paused midway through.
The in-ear alarms are pretty effective
I had never used this feature when I tested the original, so I decided to try it with the Sleepbuds 2 while visiting my parents. As with the sleep sounds, a variety of alarm sounds are available and you can download a few to the Sleepbuds themselves so the alarm can play without a Bluetooth connection. I was nervous the alarm would be too loud or jarring, but I was able to set the volume at a reasonable level that did, in fact, wake me up without putting me into panic mode. I would absolutely use this feature on trips where I’msharing a roomor on days I’m planning to get up much earlier than my husband.
The audio quality is decent, and you can customize it to a certain extent
Improved audio quality is another one of the selling points of the Sleepbuds 2, and while I am no audiophile, they sound noticeably clearer than the original version. I would still rank my AirPods Pro higher for sound quality, but for something primarily used for sleep, the sound on the Sleepbuds 2 doesn’t overly bother me. However, I did need to set the volume higher when playing music and podcasts from Spotify than I normally would with my AirPods.
In the app, you can toggle between four audio modes: Balanced, Spoken Word, Airplane, and Focus. Each mode slightly alters the playback for streamed audio to optimize the Sleepbuds 2 for use in different situations. I mostly used the Balanced mode, which is “for nightly listening.” I also tried the Spoken Word mode, which is “for podcasts and audiobooks.” I did notice the audio sounded slightly different — perhaps a little clearer — but not enough so that I developed a strong opinion about which mode to use. The Airplane mode made the audio sound louder, which makes sense for a noisy environment. I couldn’t exactly discern what made the Focus mode distinct.
There are a few annoying quirks, and not all the settings — including sleep tracking — work quite as expected
The Sleepbuds 2 had a reasonably good battery life — when using them every night, I needed to recharge the case every two to three days. However, the Sleepbuds case definitely requires more frequent charging than my AirPods case. And frustratingly, you also cannot use the earbuds if the case is dead, even if the Sleepbuds themselves are charged. The charger for the case has a USB-C connector on both ends, while the original Sleepbuds had a USB-C for the charger and a regular USB-A for the power source. I don’t have a USB-C charging block and Ozlo doesn’t include one, so I had to charge my Sleepbuds from my computer.
Also worth noting is that when no audio was playing, I consistently heard a quiet beeping noise. Because I set a timer in the app to cut off all audio after two hours, I occasionally woke up in the middle of the night and heard the faint beeping in my ear.
Other drawbacks of the Sleepbuds 2 are that I had trouble getting a couple of the settings to work as expected — or it wasn’t entirely clear what they were supposed to do. For example, in some modes, switching between my sleep sound and streaming audio was often clunky or confusing. And while the phone-free control is handy, it’s not seamless — you can pause streaming content with the physical button, but if you press it again to play, it will play your sleep sound instead of the streaming content you were listening to.
The sleep-tracking features are also imperfect. Essentially, both the Sleepbuds and the case include sensors, and the case also has a microphone. According to Ozlo, the case monitors light, temperature, and noise levels in your space to provide insights on how your environment affects your sleep. (You can turn these features off if you don’t want to use them.)
The first major pain point I experienced was I had to sync my earbuds with the app in the morning to see my tracking data. Every other sleep-tracking product I’ve tried in the past automatically synced the data, so this felt like an unusual extra step.
Additionally, my sleep data just seemed off. I didn’t always sleep well while testing the Sleepbuds 2, especially due to travel. But some of the reports I got in the app said I slept just one hour and six minutes one night and 13 hours and six minutes another night, which wasn’t correct. There are a ton of graphs and stats you can explore in each report, but I didn’t really trust the information, considering the Sleepbuds didn’t seem to accurately capture how long I slept.
The Sleepbuds 2 are great overall but still expensive for what you get
As a comfortable earbud to sleep in, the Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 are really wonderful. They don’t hurt my ears, don’t fall out, and include plenty of features that allow me to play audio the way that I want to. In most situations, I was able to use the Sleepbuds easily and without much trouble.
But since I usually listen to music and podcasts through my AirPods, I’m accustomed to a nearly seamless experience that the Sleepbuds 2 just don’t provide. There are many functions you have to use the app for, and the Sleepbuds generally have to be connected to the app — which usually requires opening the case with the Sleepbuds in it and waiting a few seconds for them to connect before you can do anything. And, as I laid out above, some features didn’t work the way I expected or wanted them to. Considering the Sleepbuds 2 cost nearly $300 and are pretty much designed only for use while sleeping, it is irritating that there are still so many quirks — especially since there are other products, like theSoundcore A30 earbuds, that offer a pretty similar experience at a much lower price (the Soundcore A30s cost about $200 at full price).
Still, I think the Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 are a solid option for people specifically seeking a sleep earbud — they are definitely more comfortable to sleep in all night long than AirPods or other conventional earbuds. I’ll likely continue to use mine when traveling, even if I stick to playing podcasts from my phone speaker most nights.
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Ozlo Sleepbuds 2
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