The 3 best sleep earbuds to pick up during Black Friday (and one to skip)

Getting proper sleep can help improve almost every aspect of your health, but according to the CDC, more than one-third of adults in the United States don’t get enough sleep.

If noisy environments keep you up at night, you’ve probably considered foam earplugs, but these are no longer the only options available, with reusable earplugs and sleep earbuds offering more convenient alternatives.

I spent many nights sleeping over the course of a few months trying out earplugs and earbuds ranging from $50 to $349 to find the best ones available on the market — and to see if getting earbuds just for sleeping is really worth it.

With Black Friday fast approaching, now is an especially good time to pick up sleep earbuds. As the early stages of sales begin, we’ve already seen the Soundcore A30 earbuds, our upgrade choice, drop by $200. Our former upgrade pick, the Ozlo Sleepbuds, are also $50 off at $299.

As a note, we generally don’t recommend the OzLo Sleepbuds anymore because their price point isn’t on par with the features offered by their competitors. At their full price point, I’d say skip them. However, if you’re particularly impressed by their design (and don’t mind the lack of ANC), then buying them for $299 instead of their usual $349 is the most we’d recommend paying for these earbuds to get the value.

best earbuds for sleeping

Below, I’ve picked out the three best sleep earbuds on the market. Between the best overall, upgrade, and earplug selections, there is a wide range of price points, but like any product, the most expensive of the group is not necessarily the best overall. With that in mind, I highlighted where each earbud excelled, whether it’s comfort, noise cancellation, or ease of use, to help you choose the best sleep earbuds.

Updated: August 18, 2025, 9:45 am EDT As of April 2024, the price of Ozlo Sleepbuds increased from $299 to $349 on Ozlo’s website and Amazon in the United States due to tariffs. Although we initially lowered our recommendation just to keep them on sale since we tested the Soundcore Sleep A30s, which offer the same feature set at a much lower price, we no longer recommend the Ozello Sleepbuds as one of our top picks for sleep earbuds.

How are sleep earbuds different from normal earbuds?

First, a confession: I used to wear AirPods to sleep almost every night. More precisely, I wore an AirPod so I could actually sleep on my side.

After testing earbuds designed for sleeping, I can tell you that everyday earbuds don’t match the sleep earbud experience. For starters, standard earbuds aren’t designed for wearing while lying on your side, so they often stick to your ears and put hard plastic in contact with your ear. Not to mention, earbuds typically drain six to seven hours of battery life per charge, so if you’re getting at least eight hours of sleep, you risk interrupting it with the sound of your earbuds going off.

Sleep earbuds, like the Soundcore A20 pictured in the middle, have a much slimmer profile than traditional earbuds.
Credit: Bethany Allard/Mashable

Sleep earbuds, on the other hand, can offer white noise options, better battery life, and significantly more comfort (which actually allows you to wear more than one earbud at a time). The pairs I tested came without a microphone and with touch controls that worked but were less sensitive than traditional earbuds, so you can lie on your side without activating them. When I initially tested the options for this guide, there wasn’t really any active noise canceling option, but that’s changed thanks to the Soundcore Sleep A30 earbuds. Still, you’ll be surprised to see how well the passive noise cancellation, a good fit, and white noise work.

Is it safe to sleep wearing earbuds every night?

First and foremost, it’s important to consider that sleep earbuds aren’t the only way to deal with nighttime noises that may be keeping you awake.

To discuss any risks associated with wearing earbuds all night, I consulted with Dr. Ashley Kita, an otolaryngologist and assistant professor in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at UCLA. Although he didn’t warn against using earbuds, he did suggest that if your partner’s snoring is bothering you, you start looking for solutions there.

“If you’re doing all you can to avoid a partner who is snoring, sometimes gently encouraging the person to examine why they’re snoring is an important consideration,” Kita said. “Because we’ve found that obstructive sleep apnea is really underdiagnosed, and for some people, snoring is the only sign of it.”

If, however, what keeps you awake isn’t under your control, you’ll want to be aware of three main aspects of using earbuds all night: proper hygiene, safe noise levels, and comfort to your ears.

proper hygiene

When I started testing these earbuds, I realized that I could now wear the earbuds for longer than a day without any interruptions, even as someone who tests headphones for a living. When I asked Dr. Kita how wear time might increase one’s risk of infection, he compared the wear time of hearing aids:

“Many people wear hearing aids for longer periods of time during the day than when they sleep at night,” he said. And yet, people who wear hearing aids do not often get ear infections, although long-term wear may increase their risk.

Due to long-term wear, Kita said the main concern was wax accumulation as the natural path for wax out of the ear canal would be blocked. However, he said this isn’t necessarily a cause for concern, as wax can typically drain out of the ear canal at other points during the day when you’re not wearing earbuds (or blocking your ear canal in some other way).

As far as the risk of any increased infection is concerned, Kita shared that it can increase when excess amounts of wax accumulate which can trap bacteria. He suggested cleaning the buds with isopropyl alcohol and a cotton pad after each use, if possible. (One of the brands we tested, Ozlo, recommends weekly cleaning.) With everyone He That said, one’s risk of infection really depends on individual sensitivity – some people are more prone to ear infections than others. If you fall into that category, it’s a good practice to be more proactive about cleaning your earbuds.

noise level

Noise-induced hearing loss is the second most common type of hearing loss (after age-related hearing loss), so it’s important to know what level of noise you’re exposed to. Kita directed me to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) charts showing how long people can be safely exposed to certain decibel levels.

In its FAQ, Ozlo cites OSHA recommendations as well as recommendations from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which max out at 90 decibels and 85 decibels for eight hours, respectively. We contacted a representative from Soundcore to see if its earbuds have specific upper decibel limits, and will update this guide when we hear back. However, in general, Kita said that the less noise the better, recommending that you always try to use as minimal sound as possible.

Kita said, “While I don’t necessarily like the idea of ​​additional noise when you’re not even conscious of appreciating it, if it’s the thing that keeps you asleep or keeps you from falling asleep, then it falls into this category of risk and benefit.” “Just make sure it’s quiet enough, so it’s really not much different than using a white noise machine on your nightstand.”

Rest

The comfortable fit of earbuds is not only important for your sleep, but also for your ear health.

“Everyone’s ear canal is a different shape,” Kita said. “And so something that might be really comfortable to your ears can actually cause pain in my ears.”

In other words, getting ear pain from earbuds every night can really take a toll on your ear health. If one of the recommendations below doesn’t really fit right, even with adjustments to the ear tip size, don’t be afraid to return them.

Other sleep earbuds we tested

At the end of the initial testing period, one product that didn’t make the cut was the 1More Sleeping Earbuds Z30, which, at $89.99, were the least expensive earbuds I tested. While significantly cheaper than the earbuds that made the cut, their battery life, app features, and fit don’t quite match the other options on my list. However, if you’re looking for very low-profile earbuds (and don’t mind hearing them die down in the early hours of the morning), these aren’t a bad option for under $100.

Keeping our value criteria in mind, I ultimately decided to choose the Ozlo Sleepbuds as our best upgrade pick. After their price jumped from $299 to $349 — far more than our current pick (and the most premium standard ANC earbuds, for that matter) — I determined that their features didn’t justify their price tag. The addition of sleep tracking (which is in the works) or ANC would make these earbuds more competitive. On that note, the newly-released Soundcore Sleep A30 take their place as the only sleep earbuds with ANC on the market at the time of writing.