Ozlo Sleepbuds review: Can earbuds really improve your sleep?

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Who among us hasn’t used earbuds to help them quiet an overly active brain (or a snoring partner) when going to bed at night?

Personally, bedtime is when I’m most likely to be using earbuds in the course of my day. Prior to this review, I used my first-gen AirPods Pro for listening to podcasts and video essays as I drifted off to sleep — on my more mindful nights, I opted for Loop earplugs. While I knew sleep earbuds existed, I never got on board with the idea they’d offer anything that different from my existing system (even though my existing system often meant I could only wear one AirPod comfortably as a side sleeper and that I often woke up to that AirPod dying).

Thankfully, the universe knew I deserved better, so when the chance to test out the Ozlo Sleepbuds came up, I took it.

As someone who’s tested many (and owned a pair of) Bose headphones, my curiosity was piqued by Ozlo being founded by former Bose engineers — especially considering Bose discontinued its Sleepbuds line. After a few weeks of testing them nearly every night under my belt, I’ve ended up more of a sleep earbuds convert than I expected — let’s get into why.

The sleep earbud market

If you’ve Googled “best sleep earbuds” anytime recently, you’ll likely see a rotation of the following: sleep headbands from Amazon, the Soundcore Sleep A20 earbuds, Loop earplugs, and of course, the Ozlo Sleepbuds.

If you don’t like the idea of a headband and if you’re sticking to more recognizable brands (not Amazon keyboard smash brands), you’ll soon realize that sleep earbuds are one of the less saturated product markets out there. They also tend to be a market where if you want under-triple-digit prices, you’ll be making some sacrifices: in my research, I couldn’t find a budget pair that promised at least eight hours of battery life.

The Ozlo Sleepbuds…
Credit: Ozlo

Compared to the Bose Sleepbuds II.
Credit: Bose

That market space for sleep earbuds that could deliver a more premium experience (and battery life that actually lasts the length of a full night of sleep) is the reason the Bose Sleepbuds came up in the first place. With the Bose earbuds discontinued, the Ozlo Sleepbuds tried to take the passive noise cancellation and comfortable design that made them great and add in the ability to stream your own audio and track data around your sleep.

At the time of writing, the only other sleep earbuds that claim to perform similarly are the Soundcore A20 earbuds — interestingly, the Soundcore earbuds are also about $120 cheaper, retailing at $150. I haven’t tested them (yet), so I won’t be comparing them head to head in this review, but it’s worth knowing that while the Ozlo Sleepbuds don’t have a ton of competitors, they aren’t totally unique.

Here’s why you might want to invest in the Ozlo Sleepbuds.

Comfort: Arguably the most important factor

First and foremost, the Ozlo Sleepbuds are incredibly comfortable. Their wingtips kept the earbuds in my ears without ever making me feel sore, and they sat at just the right point in my ears so that I could sleep on both sides without issue.

Once I found the right tip and wing size out of the four sizes included in the box, I never experienced any issues with them falling out. In other words, they absolutely blew my experience with my AirPods out of the water, making a strong starting case for why someone might want to switch to sleep earbuds.

The choice of four different wingtip sizes made it easy to find the right fit.
Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable

A streaming experience catered to actually sleeping

I also appreciated that the experience of using these earbuds truly felt tailored for falling and staying asleep. Ozlo could’ve relied on the side sleeper-friendly design for doing the heavy lifting, but it went a step further with how the earbuds stream audio and sleep sounds.

With the app, you can select your preferred “Sleep Sound,” with options like Fireglow, Misty Rain, and Into the Woods that mask sounds in your environment to assist with the earbuds’ passive noise cancellation. (I was partial to the default “Crimson Cloak” sound).

In addition to these sounds, you could stream your own audio and toggle when you’d like your sleep sound to kick in. You can delay it for any time between 15 minutes to two hours (within 15-minute increments) or choose a Beta feature that switches to your sleep sound once the earbuds recognize you’ve fallen asleep. I selected the Beta option for about a week of my testing period, and only woke up to a YouTube video once. (As a side note, streaming with Bluetooth does require that you keep your phone at least within 10 feet of the smart case for it to work, but that never presented any issues for me).

Plenty of alarm sounds are available.
Credit: Screenshot: Ozlo

Users also have a decent amount of choice for sleep sounds.
Credit: Screenshot: Ozlo

The app also has a feature that stops any sound from your audio — streaming and white noise alike — at 15-minute increments all the way up to seven hours and 45 minutes.

The sleep timer in the app offers flexibility on how (and when) you want any audio to stop.
Credit: Screenshot: Ozlo

Alarm feature

Though not the most unique feature among sleep earbuds, I still have to give the alarm on the Ozlo Sleepbuds a shoutout. Working with an East Coast-based team while living on the West Coast has made me intimately familiar with the guilt of setting an alarm that my partner probably wishes was a tiny bit later. This simple feature basically solved that problem, alleviating my guilt and giving him another hour of sleep back. The snooze feature was also useful and reliable.

The Ozlo alarms function almost exactly the same as your phone’s built-in alarm.
Credit: Screenshot: Ozlo

No Bluetooth necessary

In my heart of hearts, I know I get better sleep when I don’t fall asleep to videos. That’s part of the reason I initially invested in Loop earplugs — I wanted the noise cancellation provided by an earbud without the temptation of YouTube’s autoplay feature keeping me up.

While part of the Ozlo Sleepbuds’ appeal is in their ability to stream whatever you want, I also really appreciated that the earbuds are completely functional without the app, giving them the flexibility of being more like a really fancy earplug. All you need is to connect them to the app during initial setup, but after that, the earbuds can be set to play white noise as soon as you take them out of the case. For anyone trying to sleep with their phone outside of their bedroom, this is a very useful option.

And while there were a lot of positives about the Sleepbuds, there were also a few shortcomings.

No sleep data (yet)

Currently, the Ozlo Sleepbuds offer no sleep metrics. Maybe you have a fitness tracker or Oura Ring (or even a bed) that takes care of that for you, so the lack of this feature isn’t a big deal. However, for $279, I would’ve expected some sort of sleep analysis features. After all, the much cheaper Soundcore earbuds offer them.

The Ozlo app has a “My Sleep” tab, which says an update will unlock sleep data in the future.
Credit: Screenshot: Ozlo

With that said, the app does indicate that some sort of update for sleep data is in the pipeline. I reached out to Ozlo’s team to see if they had a more specific estimate as to when and I will update this review once I hear back.

Battery life could be better

The earbuds themselves have exactly the battery life most people will need for a nightly basis. The case, on the other hand, could use an upgrade. I found that after two nights, I would need to recharge the case to juice the earbuds back up.

The workaround for this is leaving the case plugged in 24/7, but if that’s not an option, I did find it a little too easy to forget to plug the case back in after it felt like I’d charged it up recently.

Leaving the case plugged in helped me get around its shorter battery life.
Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable

Connecting the earbuds wasn’t a flawless experience

In the roughly three weeks I used these earbuds, there were only a couple of times that I had trouble connecting them, but those nights do stick out to me.

Generally, you connect the earbuds by opening up the case and waiting for the blinking lights below each earbud to appear solid, indicating that they’re ready for playback. It takes a little longer than a standard pair of earbuds, but no more than 10 seconds. Once they’re ready, you pop them in, and your app switches from the connection screen to the main page where the settings live.

Before…
Credit: Screenshot: Ozlo

…and after successfully connecting the sleepbuds to the Ozlo app.
Credit: Screenshot: Ozlo

On the two nights I had trouble connecting the earbuds, I struggled getting the solid light to appear and then getting the app to talk to the earbuds. One night, after closing and opening the case a few times, it worked, while the other night, I could not make it happen. As I was going to bed a little late and already tired, I decided to sleep earbuds-less that night.

Only once did I see these screens while trying to connect my earbuds.

Credit: Screenshot: Ozlo

Credit: Screenshot: Ozlo

To give the benefit of the doubt, that night, I also needed to update the earbuds for around 30 minutes, but I didn’t see that until right before bed, so I decided to use them as is. My theory is that ignoring the update might have interfered with the connection.

While it was annoying, there is a silver lining: the update changed it so the Sleepbuds stay in a connectable state in the case, if the case is connected to power. While I’ve only used them for a couple of nights since updating them, they do connect much faster and without issue, so Ozlo does seem to be interested in improving its existing product.

On the expensive side

At the end of the day, these are pricey sleep earbuds. Directly from Ozlo’s site, they’ll run you $279, while from Amazon, they’ll cost you $299. For comparison, the original Bose Sleepbuds and their second generation cost $250. Sure, the Ozlo buds have a couple more features, but a main critique of the Bose earbuds was that they were light on features you’d expect at $250, like audio streaming and sleep data.

While the Ozlo Sleepbuds are definitely an improvement, their lack of sleep data features does feel a bit like following a similar pattern. Ozlo also sells a travel case you can purchase separately for $30, which again, feels like something you should just get with the core product if you’re shelling out nearly twice the price of a competitor that has similar features.

All of that said, you can purchase these earbuds with an HSA or FSA, or rent a pair for $22 a month through Ozlo if you want to try them out before committing.

Are the Ozlo Sleepbuds worth it?

The Ozlo Sleepbuds were a strong introduction to the world of sleep earbuds, and I can definitely see a world where I’d take the plunge and invest in them. Their streaming capabilities actually help me fall and stay asleep, and they successfully block out everything from my heating unit to cars on the street outside. Ninety-nine percent of the time, they performed exactly as promised.

If the Soundcore A20 earbuds didn’t exist, it’d be very easy to say the Ozlo earbuds are absolutely worth it. Again, while I can’t personally speak to the A20s’ performance, it is hard to completely discount how many features these two earbuds have in common for vastly different price points, especially with the generally favorable reviews I’ve seen around the Soundcore buds’ performance.

For the time being, I’ll say that Ozlo seems like a company committed to improving its product over time and is starting from a really solid baseline. The inclusion of sleep features could do a lot for their value, and the experience they offer does feel premium. Most importantly, at the end of the day (literally), these are now what I reach for most when I’m going to sleep. If you have the $279 (or the $22 to check them out), you likely won’t be disappointed with how they perform.

However, if streaming audio or white noise isn’t as important to you, something like the Loop Quiet 2 or Dream earbuds will more than do the job. If it is, and you can’t quite swing the price, the Soundcore earbuds might be the place to look instead.