Soundcore Sleep A20 by Anker Sleep Earbuds, Passive Noise Blocking Sleep Headphones, Small Earplugs for Side Sleepers, 80H Playtime, Stream Content via Bluetooth 5.3, Sleep Monitor, Personal Alarm

I've been on a journey for the last month searching for the perfect plugs for side sleeping, and these are the ones for me. I have two dogs that lick their lips throughout the night and it was driving me crazy. It'd wake me up and keep me up multiple times.First I tried foam plugs, and while they cancelled the noise well, they were a pain to get in properly. I needed something that I could just throw in when I get sleepy and immediately fall asleep.I then tried some $20 silicon plugs. These also cancelled the noise, and we're comfortable for a week or two, but my ears started to ache in the morning.I then decided if I'm going through the trouble of finding comfortable plugs, maybe I should invest in them. Having them play audio would be nice, especially alarms, since I'm often at events where I need to wake up before others. I then tried the Soundcore A40. This was a mistake on my part, as these aren't for sleeping. Wouldn't matter if I bought them for their intended purpose, I could not get them in my ears. No matter the tip size, they just wouldn't go in, and I'm not sure how they are supposed to for anyone, as they get really thick really fast, so not much can even fit in your ear. I left a negative review being honest about how I didn't do enough research, but how the product still failed at it's intended use case. I promptly was contacted asking if I'd like a full refund without needing to go through the hassle of returning. I accepted, and kept their excellent customer support in mind.I then tried the Ozlo Sleepbuds. These things are $300 and created by ex-BOSE engineers. BOSE used to have their own sleepbuds, having two generations before being cancelled, and people go on and on about how great they were, so surely the Ozlos would be good... They weren't. They were more comfortable than the cheap plugs, but not by much, and the audio constantly cut out. This is due to them doing Bluetooth from your phone to the case, then the case to the buds using a very low bandwidth and power saving Bluetooth format. This let's them be extremely small, but multiple audio drop outs a minute is unacceptable, so I returned them.Last shot, I went back to Soundcore and got these. They're larger than the Ozlos, but better in everyway for me. They're larger, but that isn't a problem for me since they're more comfortable. Larger also allows a bigger battery. They also don't drop out the audio! For a fraction the price these things beat the Ozlos, which is crazy to me considering how bad of a product I found the A40s to be. Extremely happy with their customer support, and extremely happy with this product.

I’ve been using these for over a month, so I now feel like I can give a proper field report about them. I’m highly satisfied overall. For reference, the earbuds I used for sleeping before this were the 1MORE ComfoBuds Mini, and I was highly apprehensive about switching to dedicated sleep buds because it would mean losing active noise cancellation. However, 1MORE seems to have discontinued the ComfoBuds, and since those have pretty severe reliability issues, I decided to take a chance on these Anker buds. I have not regretted it.For starters, they’re very comfortable, and they STAY comfortable. With the ComfoBuds, they’d feel comfortable when I first put them in, but I’d be waking up a couple of hours later wanting to rip them out because of how much my ears hurt…that is, if they hadn’t already fallen out on their own by then. The Ankers feel unobtrusive all night, and I’ve worn them for 7-8 hours sleep sessions and still not woken up with ear pain. Also, they don’t fall out. Like, ever. That’s especially impressive because I move around a lot in my sleep, but never once have I woken up to find them scattered across my bed. Obviously fit is super subjective and everyone’s ears are different, but they worked well for me.Noise isolation is good. I don’t think it’s as amazing as Anker makes it sound, but I’d say that it’s about on par with how the ComfoBuds blocked noise with ANC on (which admittedly wasn’t the world’s strongest ANC). Really, the ace up Anker’s sleeve is the sleep sounds. I’ve used many headphone apps in my time, and Anker’s is by far the best. It’s well-designed and lets you mix your own sleep sounds, which I loved. There’s also sleep tracking and other features. I appreciate that you don’t actually HAVE to use their app — you can just cram the buds in your ears and listen to your usual content or sleep sounds — but I’d recommend it, just because it works really well. The in-app sleep sounds have successfully blocked out snoring, loud conversations, and vacuums when I’ve used them.Sound quality is…meh. But I mean, that’s not really what you buy these for, right? Some sacrifices have to be made for their small size. In this case, the sacrifice is that there’s basically no bass response (I listened to a thunderstorm soundscape and could barely hear the thunder). They’d be fine for podcasts or quiet music, you just wouldn’t want to use them as regular headphones when it’s not bedtime.I’ve had a few minor connectivity issues, mainly regarding one or both earbuds disconnecting when I lay on my side in a certain way. I assume that the pillow is blocking the Bluetooth signal? There’s ways to circumvent this, like putting them in a special sleep mode that doesn’t require Bluetooth, but then you’re restricted to a limited selection of sounds and you can’t use the sleep-tracking function. Usually I can just shift slightly and they’ll reconnect, so it’s annoying, but not a huge deal.TL;DR: These are comfortable, smartly-designed buds that successfully block out disruptive noises as long as you’re playing some kind of sound through them. Sound quality is acceptable, and though they have some minor connectivity issues, it’s not enough to ruin them. I would highly recommend these over using regular earbuds of any kind.

Second updated review: I was heartbroken and know realize I was not putting the earbuds into the charging case correctly. They kept losing their charge and that’s why they disconnected. Now my only issue is that I set music to play and want it to stop when it’s done. Instead the buds switch to the sound of rain within the soundcore app and that sound wakes me up. It’s not the right sound to be soothing. I just need to know now to keep them silent after my choice for sound or music is over.Updated review. I am heartbroken. They are so comfortable but they constantly disconnect for no apparent reason, so they are useless. Will sadly return them.I am so happy I got these earbuds. As a side sleeper, they are remarkably comfortable, and very effectively block sound, including masking construction noise from building projects all around my apartment building. They fit well for me without changing tips out, and they don’t randomly fall out of my ears like many earplugs can do. The quality seems good, and I hope they are durable. I had no problem with connecting them to my phone after I read the online directions.