Earphones intended to facilitate falling asleep form a niche market, explored for the first time by Bose with its Sleepbuds. These devices are similar to classic true wireless, but are not intended for the same use. Their role is to diffuse relaxing sounds by masking outside noise (without active noise reduction, however), in order to fall asleep more easily.
After a first generation which experienced technical problems related to the battery, Bose tried the experiment again with a second version. The manufacturer, however, discontinued this product earlier this year, as the Sleepbuds saw mixed success. “Despite the passion they generate, they have not reached the level of adoption that we hoped”explains Joanne Berthiaume, spokesperson for Bose, to The Verge.
So we didn’t think we’d hear about Sleepbuds again anytime soon. And yet, here they are making an unexpected reappearance. Thus, the startup Ozlo Sleep, founded by three former Bose employees, announces its own Sleepbuds, after having bought certain rights to technologies from their original manufacturer.
Visually almost identical to the Bose Sleepbuds, those of Ozlo finally allow you to broadcast your own audio content. Previously, you had to settle for a library of relaxing sounds chosen by Bose. It will now be possible to listen to other soundtracks from a Bluetooth source (white noise, sound of rain, ASMR…), as you would with any other headphones, or to read books audio or to listen to music, although this is not their primary function.
Last year, Anker also took an interest in this market by launching the Soundcore Sleep A10. These headphones for sleep also allow you to listen to soundtracks from external sources.
Sleep tracking features
Finally, Ozlo wants to go further by offering sleep tracking functions. The housing of its Sleepbuds includes sensors that analyze light, sound and temperature, in order to study the environment surrounding the user, and the headphones detect when the latter falls asleep. The data is processed locally and does not go to the manufacturer’s servers, according to Ozlo, but it is also possible to connect the Sleepbuds to its Apple Health or Google Health Connect application. Otherwise, the Ozlo app offers a summary of the past night, detailing the different stages of sleep.
The Ozlo Sleepbuds will launch at $299, but are still in the crowdfunded project stage. The manufacturer has launched a Kickstarter, which allows pre-ordering the product for only $214 in the United States and Canada, a discount of 28%.