Best sleep headphones and earbuds that will help you drift off
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We’ve been testing the Soundcore sleep A20 since they launched, and now we can’t sleep without them. They’re lightweight and thin enough to comfortably wear all night long, with a soft and ergonomic design that slips so snugly into the ear that you can happily sleep on your side without any trouble (and without them falling out at 2am).
They’re physically too compact to contain the kind of active noise-cancelling tech you find in the AirPods Pro. Instead the sealed eartips effectively block out external sounds, while the earbuds themselves play soothing tracks to mask any other noise that might otherwise disturb you. You get a full library of nature sounds to choose from in the app - forests, babbling brooks and the like - as well as tried-and-true classics like white and pink noise.
The A20s even let you personalise your own white noise, dialling in different frequencies to cover up the exact tone and timbre of your partner’s snoring. Podcast fans can stream their favourite true crime stories from their phone, you can play music and YouTube too, and the app will switch to white noise or turn off completely once you’ve fallen asleep.
The app experience could be slicker, audio quality can’t compare to proper, full-size earbuds, and we didn’t find the sleep tracking feature as useful as ones you’ll find on the best smartwatches, but the core features are solid. The sleep A20s offer a pressure-free fit, all-night comfort and battery life, a library of snooze-inducing sounds and white noise, a slick little charging case and the versatility to stream podcasts.
