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Summer is always the hardest time to get good sleep for me. Not only because temperatures make falling asleep harder, but also because outdoor activities and sunlight keep me out into the night. That means falling asleep later and waking up earlier to seize the day. My neighbors seem to be doing the same, as I can hear their celebrations during all hours I’m trying to catch a Z or two.
Also: These earbuds help me get some sleep in a noisy neighborhood
Ozlo’s second-generation sleep earbuds are designed to help with a few of those issues. While the Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 can’t guarantee I get to bed earlier, they do have features like environmental sensing and sleep tracking that make improving sleep a smidge easier.
I tested out the first Ozlo Sleepbuds a few years ago and rated them with flying colors. They were comfortable, blocked most of the noise outside my Brooklyn apartment, and got me to sleep easily. With their successor, I was eager to see how Ozlo executed a generational upgrade to warrant the price of these premium sleep earbuds.
At $279, the sleep earbuds are similar in price to other premium buds, like the Sony WF-1000XM6, the AirPods Pro 3, or the Bose QuietComfort lineup. Where those earbuds excel as workout companions or study partners with high-quality audio, the Sleepbuds offer a different value proposition.
Through soundscapes, audio integrations, and various app modes, they cancel just enough noise to get you to sleep, and once you’ve arrived at your sleepy destination, they track that sleep throughout the night. The case also tracks environmental conditions, like sound, brightness, and temperature.
I spent a few nights with the Ozlo Sleepbuds 2, and have found them to be a great — yet imperfect — sleep earbud, when accounting for the new updates.
About that sleep tracking…
One of the biggest feature upgrades was supposed to come on the original Sleepbuds. A quick read of my first Sleepbuds review proves that Ozlo had been trying to integrate sleep tracking into the first generation buds, but it never made it. Now, you can try it on the Sleepbuds 2, alongside environmental sensing through the case.
The earbuds employ sensors that detect movement, breathing, sleep, and wake times throughout the night, which then informs sleep data accessed each morning through the app. Ozlo employs accelerometer sensors, different from the heart rate sensors normally employed on sleep trackers, that track movement, respiration, and head orientation. That changes the sleep data’s accuracy, and I figured this out after tracking my sleep with both the Sleepbuds 2 and my Oura Ring 5.
Also: I wore the Oura Ring 5 for a month, and two big upgrades make it so much better than the 4
Since the Oura Ring 5 has been validated as a reliable and near-gold-standard sleep tracker, its sleep staging algorithm is one I could trust as a reference point to these earbuds’ sleep-tracking tech. The Sleepbuds 2’s sleep tracking excelled at measuring my sleep duration, timing, sleep window, and awake time. The earbuds matched my sleep window, total duration, time asleep, and awake time almost exactly or within one or two minutes of Oura’s. Where the earbuds differed significantly from the Oura Ring was in detecting sleep stages.
One night, Oura clocked an hour and 26 minutes of REM, while the Sleepbuds 2 clocked just 17 minutes. The Sleepbuds 2 also greatly underestimated and overestimated my sleep timing, compared to my Oura Ring 5. It overestimated light sleep by over two hours and underestimated deep sleep by 42 minutes.
Bottom line? You aren’t buying the Sleepbuds 2 for their sleep-tracking functionalities, unless you’re ok with receiving inaccurate data. Plus, it takes a while (around a minute) for this data to load into the app each morning. You have to keep the earbuds case open and be near it to initiate this process as well, a frustrating process for anyone on-the-go. I hope in a future update, these data upload times improve.
Where the Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 win
So what are you buying a $279 pair of sleep earbuds for, then? A few things, the first of which is the fact that I can comfortably sleep on my side with these in, thanks to their flatter design. They also stay in my ears for the entirety of the two nights I’ve worn them — I’ve woken up flabbergasted they survived a whole night with me, as I often am playing hide and seek in the sheets with other earbuds.
Other upgrades improve them as well, including a battery extension that increased longevity from 1.5 nights to around two nights, per my testing. I’ve read some reviews that say only a day or two of battery is not enough for a product like this, but I’ll remind readers that these earbuds are technically working for around eight hours each night. A pair of AirPods last eight hours on a single charge, but you don’t notice this because you wear them for an hour, then put them back in their case to recharge.
Also: I found 4 tech gadgets that actually helped me sleep better (and ditch the alarm)
I also don’t use these earbuds to listen to audiobooks or music, both of which drain the Sleepbuds 2’s battery faster. Instead, I use the noise-masking soundscapes preloaded in the app. They work well enough to get me to bed.
These earbuds aren’t the sleep tracker for you if you want to dig into accurate data. I view their sleep-tracking functions as a helpful touch that can do part of the sleep-tracking job, but won’t replace a wearable like a smartwatch or Oura Ring. And the environmental tracking features could prove helpful as I log more nights and understand the variations in temperature or brightness, but they currently feel like an unnecessary feature.
ZDNET’s buying advice
As a sleep earbud that stays in my ears all night, fits comfortably as I sleep on my side, and masks enough noise to get me to sleep, I rate the Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 highly. As a sleep earbud with sleep tracking functionalities, the Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 have room for improvement. They won’t be able to track your sleep stages, as a sleep-tracking device is meant to do, but they will give you a general idea of your sleep timing and environment.
I’d recommend the earbuds to people who use audiobooks or soundscapes to fall asleep, those with snoring partners or distracting bedroom environments, and those willing to cough up almost $300 for a more relaxing wind-down.
