I tested sleep earbuds made by ex-Bose engineers, and they're more useful than expected

ZDNET's key takeaways

The Ozlo Sleepbuds, founded by three Bose engineers, just launched, and they are the most useful sleep earbuds I've tested so far. The sound is perfect for masking environmental annoyances that keep you awake, and the fit is comfortable and secure. The sleep tracking feature hasn't hit the earbuds yet, and setup took a few tries and several glitches, but once these work in your ears, they get you to bed instantly.

I take my sleep as seriously as some athletes take their workout or diet routine. And while I can control everything from the steps I take ahead of bedtime, the pajamas I wear, or the sleep mask I put over my eyes to drown out light, there is one unwieldy factor that keeps me awake: the sounds outside my Brooklyn apartment. 

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My bedroom overlooks a busy street that never ceases to make noise well into the night and early morning. As I write this, engines from trucks and motorcycles rev, and a firetruck's siren blares in the background. I've woken up from police sirens, honking cars, noisy pedestrians, and my neighbors who loudly celebrate their holidays with songs and festivities into the wee hours of the night. 

During this time last year, the loud voices singing songs until 1 a.m. kept me awake and made it difficult to get to bed. But this year, I took the noisy opportunity to test out the Ozlo Sleepbuds, and, boy, am I glad I did. 

The Ozlo Sleep earbuds are some of the most comfortable and effective sleep earbuds I've ever tested, and I can't recommend them enough to anybody who needs to quiet down their bedtime environment to catch a few more Z's, that is, if they're willing to pay the $300 price tag. Keep reading to learn why. 

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If you've heard anything about Ozlo, it's probably because you were interested in the discontinued Bose Sleepbuds that the audio brand cut the cord on in 2020 after the buds "didn't reach the level of adoption" Bose hoped they would, despite their avid following, Bose spokesperson Joanne Berthiaume told The Verge. The Ozlo Sleepbuds are the Sleepbuds reincarnate, taking some of Bose's proprietary tech, like the StayHear Plus tips, and implementing them into a product of their own.  

The earbuds come in a hefty but sleek case, and you can customize your ear tip and ear wing size to suit your desired fit. Set up was where I confronted the most issues, and the connection fell through twice before I could link up with the app. Once I was connected, the app's introductory pages glitched and I found myself closing out the app to relaunch it several times. When my settings in the app were confirmed and the connection was established, I had no trouble using these buds. 

Thankfully, you don't need the app to get white noise out of the earbuds from the jump, and the first night I tested them I used them easily without the app. But if you want customization, the Ozlo app provides ten different sleep sounds (or masking sounds) you can sort through. There's an earbud alarm you can use (though I have bad luck with these in-ear alarms, given how I wake up with my earbuds strewn across my bed), a sleep timer that shuts the buds down after a customizable amount of time to save battery, and an Auto-Play Sleep Sound feature that detects once you've fallen asleep and switches from the podcast or music you're playing to the masking sound you've selected. 

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The Ozlo Sleepbuds hit the market with two key features that are unfortunately missing. Eventually, Ozlo will roll out an over-the-air update to customers with sleep-tracking and environment-sensing capabilities. I will test these features out once they are available and update my review with my thoughts, although it is disappointing that these key selling points aren't available at launch. 

These buds are made to last in your ears through a night's sleep. A pair of earbuds rarely last the night in my ears, given how regularly I move around in my sleep. When I wear sleep earbuds, it's to help me fall asleep amid a noisy backdrop of sound outside my window. Once I'm asleep, I can stay asleep and am not woken up by much. I only need them to stay in and fit well at the beginning of the night; I don't need them in for the entire night -- though I don't mind when they are. 

The ear wings on the Sleepbuds stabilize the fit for a long time, and when I wake up, normally, one earbud is still in my ear (there was one night over the past week of testing where both stayed in the entire night). The battery life lasts about two and a half years before its due for a recharge. 

Every night I wore these buds, I'd sleep like a baby and fall asleep within minutes. I found myself first gravitating towards them on nights when my neighbors celebrated on the street outside my apartment. However, I eventually put them in my ears even when outside disturbances were negligible. They're simply that comfortable and effective. They also succeed at masking noise around me and isolating me from the pesky engines and sirens outside. 

One area that I couldn't test was whether they mask snoring. From my experience using them alone in my bedroom to dim outside sounds, I'd say they do a good job of removing ambient distractions, but I can't confirm how effective they'd be at minimizing snores right next to you. 

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If you don't shuffle in bed throughout the night, these will stick in your ears -- and they're quite comfortable for side sleepers. No pressure built up over time, and, in the mornings, I didn't feel any soreness or sensitivity. 

One of my favorite aspects of these buds is the sleep sounds paired with the Sleepbuds' audio strength, which is somehow loud enough to completely mask external sounds outside my bedroom window while also being quiet and neutral enough to send me to sleep. That's a difficult feat and one that I had trouble finding while testing competing sleep earbuds.

ZDNET's buying advice

So, who are these for? People who prioritize comfort in a sleep earbud, first and foremost, and are willing to pay $300 for it. These earbuds dissolved in my ears during sleep, and, as I shuffled from one side to the other, I found myself absolutely unirritated with these buds in my ears. The Ozlo Sleepbuds masked noises properly and efficiently, dulling down the outside hubbub on one of the busiest weeks of the year in my neighborhood. 

So, yes, they work as a noise masker (they technically aren't noise canceling). Setup and connection can be a bit dodgy, but I'm keeping in mind that this is a brand-new product launch that inevitably comes with bugs. The product itself is great once it's connected. I look forward to sleeping with these earbuds the next time my neighborhood is up all night singing and partying.