Sleep better with sleep headphones? I tested them.

Sleep headphones: What are they really good for?

Sleeping with headphones shouldn't sound particularly inviting for a side sleeper like me, but rather extremely uncomfortable. But since the beginning of the year, I've been having trouble sleeping. As soon as I lie down, I'm wide awake. When I finally fall asleep, I wake up several times during the night, tossing and turning. In the morning, I wake up with that unpleasant feeling that comes with getting up early and not getting enough deep sleep. So, I had to do something about my sleep rhythm.

My experience with sleep headphones

So, it didn't immediately scare me when I saw the term "sleep headphones" in an Instagram story. Sleep headphones, it said, deliver soothing sounds and frequencies directly into your ears while blocking out outside noise like neighbors or the street.

Until then, I'd occasionally listened to rain and white noise on my smartphone, but the idea of blocking out distracting sounds while listening to soothing sounds directly in my ears sounded like an acoustic shield that might help. So I did some research and settled on the Ozlo Sleep Buds because, based on their reviews, they seemed to offer particularly good noise cancellation .

Ozlo Sleepbuds sleep headphones for side sleepers

Sleep with Sleep Buds

After 20 minutes, the headphones were set up, and I browsed through the extensive sound library, which, while convincing, wasn't as surprising as the comfort. The headphones are super light and soft; they exert no pressure even when sleeping on your side, and they don't feel like a foreign object in your head—no comparison to regular headphones.

The sound is also much softer than with regular headphones, yet still sufficient to mask distracting outside noises—the headphones actually do that. The app also offers a way to adjust the volume and intensity individually if you want to still be aware of the outside world—a detail that should be especially relevant for parents with baby monitors .

For the first night, I chose Misty Rain. The sound reminded me of car rides as a child, with rain drumming steadily against the windows while I fell asleep in the back seat. The sound selection for these sleep headphones is extensive, with various rain variations and many other options. I tried them all: ocean sounds, fireplace, and brown noise.

The integrated alarm clock answers the question of how you are supposed to hear your alarm in the morning when all noises are suppressed: Here, too, there is a selection of fast to natural sounds, all of which start quietly and get progressively louder.