As you may have seen in the past, I’m a fan of sleep headphones. Headphones specifically designed for wearing in bed, usually with flat speakers and soft bands. In the past I’ve always come back to SleepPhones, but the last pair I bought (the Bluetooth ones) broke quickly. So my search began again, and it’s time for another quick (soft) hardware review.
After trying a few different types, I found I liked the kind with a combo eye mask. It took a few tries to get it right, though. Some models make up for thicker speakers by thickening the padding around them, resulting in enough lift to change the angle of my neck. Hated those. Some models didn’t get either the headphones or the eye mask quite right, like old TV/VCR combos where neither component was up to par and you couldn’t swap out either.
Then I found a generic set that checked all the boxes for me. It’s sold by multiple vendors under different names, but the pair I got was from Topoint. They cost $25, so not too bad in the grand scheme of available options.
They’re thick enough to completely block light, but not enough to shift my neck position against a feather pillow. They’re tall enough to surround my nose and block off light from the bottom, and quite comfortable on the face. The speakers are thicker and harder than what you find in SleepPhones, but they’re well padded and I’ve had zero earaches since I started using them a couple weeks ago.
The control placement is decent. They’re located on your cheek when wearing them, and not super easy to use blind (i.e. wearing the sleep mask). I don’t push a lot of buttons on any sleep headphones, though, and it hasn’t bothered me.
Having tried a few bluetooth sleep headphones, one thing that I really like about these is the charging cable tucks into the side and extends for connection. On some models you actually have to disconnect and pull out the whole bluetooth module and plug it in. These are the easiest to charge I’ve tried thus far, and the battery can last for a week at a time with nightly use.
I’m currently working my way through the audio version of Artemis. It’s read by Rosario Dawson, who rocks it, and it gets a bit too exciting to fall asleep to. So I usually end up switching to something about Norse mythology or overly-detailed histories of rock and roll when I’m ready to actually turn on the sleep timer. All in all, I’ve put about 13 hours of comfortable listening on these thus far, with no complaints about sound quality.
If you’re in the market for some nighttime audio options, check them out.
BrettTerpstra.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees when linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
