Soundcore Sleep A30 Special by Anker Sleep Earbuds ANC Passive Isolation Snore Masking Sleep Headphones Extensive Sleep Audio

Full disclosure - I have smaller ears and canals, and I am a side sleeper and I have been using these for the last 7 days. I am moving to a new town and decided to rent an apartment for a year to help me decide where to buy a house. Well, the apartment walls and floors are not well insulated. I hear footsteps, creaking floors, snoring through the wall, and sometimes can hear the tv shows they watch. Needless to say, I was having serious trouble sleeping. I could fall asleep pretty well (go to bed early), but I would be awakened at some point, or several points, in the night by all these noises, banging, walking, creaking, and snoring and was not able to get back to sleep. I needed something to help. I tried Mack's foam ear plugs. They work pretty good for noise reduction, but my ears would hurt and throb making my sleep difficult in that way. I even had the small ears size. They were comfortable to side sleep with. I bought some fake Loop alternatives as just ear plugs. They were comfortable, did not throb like the Mack's in my ears, but did not block out enough sound. When I tried a bigger ear plug piece, I found the throbbing ear syndrome again. These were comfortable to side sleep with though. I then bought a cheap knock off brand of "sleep buds". They were the most comfortable thus far. They would bluetooth to my phone so I could play either music or some white noise from my phone. They claimed to have ANC. They were helpful to block out some sound because of the ear fit, and because they could bluetooth to my phone for music or white noise. However, with the ANC on or off, I did not detect any difference in sound reduction. These were kidney bean shaped sleep buds and did not stick out much from my ear. The ear plug piece was comfortable, but the harder plastic part would start to be annoying after a few hours when on my side. They were ok. Sound quality was decent. Maybe a C+ for an overall grade for these. However, they didn't stop all the sounds and I still woke up occasionally. I hesitantly tried the A30's. This is no small investment! With the rubbery ear plug piece and ear fin, these buds were comfortable. While on my side, they have been the most comfortable thus far. I can sleep well with them in actually. I still have a little bit of pressure while on my side, but some nifty pillow management helped relieve the pressure. I am using the attachments they came with out of the box. I really like the white noise sounds. I have Still Lake as my favorite. It is a sutble sound that helps my brain drift off. With the fit of the A30 alone, I can block out most of the noise for the night with these standard size pieces without using ANC. Last night, I had both my wife snoring and banging on the ceiling above. (To be honest, my wife's snoring is not super loud but enough to wake me up). Then I realized I didn't have the ANC on. Well, i turned the ANC on and WOW what a difference. It was almost like I had over the ear headphones with ANC on. All that noise disappeared. I was very impressed, at least I recall being impressed. I was asleep!! The sound quality is perfect for night time sleeping. In reading other reviews, I agree that these are not your everyday all day ear buds, they are really designed for sleeping only. The ANC works really well and I noted quite a difference between on and off. Last night I set them to use ANC until I was alseep and then go to local mode. After 8 hours, I still had 30% of the battery left in each ear bud. So far, the battery life has been great. I have yet to spend a whole night with bluetooth and ANC on, however. I haven't needed to. I know at $200 it seems like a lot to spend for ear buds that you only use for sleep and that aren't designed for super high quality audio sounds. However, this week has been the best sleep week I've had in two months since those neighbors upstairs moved in. You do need several nights to get used to the fit and feel. Not because they are uncomfortable, but because when something new is in your ear and you aren't used to it, it can feel funny and weird which may keep you awake instead of helping you sleep. But, give it a few nights, and if you are like me, they get more comfortable the more you wear them. I can sleep on my side with these but I need a soft pillow. A really firm pillow would hurt my ears after a few hours, as it would everyone else with anything in their ear. Everyone is a different size and shape, but I have found these A30's to be comfortable, and of high quality. The app is full of options to help customize the experience, and they do what they claim they will do. After this week, my wife (who is very thrifty) is asking if she can try these out and maybe get a pair because she notices such a difference in my morning wakefulness. Hope this helps those of you out there like me needed something to help get your sleep back. I would definitely buy again and am grateful for this product. Read more

I might have finally found the holy grail for my sleeping situation. About me: I sometimes have a hard time falling asleep so I love going to sleep listening to my current audible book. Of course I don’t want it to play for too long so I usually set a 7 minute sleep timer but on the nights I have a hard time falling asleep I have to keep resetting it. Also I’m a light sleeper and my husband has started snoring so he wakes me up in the night or early morning. I usually end up waking up about an hour and a half before my alarm is set. I’ve tried so many things to keep me asleep when my husband snores. Mack’s Ultra Soft foam ear plugs - these are fairly comfortable and work great at blocking the noise, but sometimes my ears are so sore in the morning and I can’t listen to my audible to fall asleep. Loop sleep ear plugs - these are comfortable and fairly effective at blocking sounds but sometimes they fall out and of course I can’t listen to my audible. Bluetooth sleep headband - these are comfy and work OK for listening to a story as you fall asleep, but they do not help me block out the snoring at all. Sometimes in the middle of the night, I’ll try playing some kind of sleep music, but the snoring breaks through too much for me to be able to fall asleep. Hearprotek wireless sleep earbuds - I tried these for about two weeks. They worked great for falling asleep and they are relatively comfortable, but they would sometimes fall out. I found the wires connecting them to each other to be annoying. AirPod Pros w/ANC - I do not recommend this for sleeping, but I have done it. They work great for listening to a story while you fall asleep and blocking noise, but they are not comfortable at all. One nice thing that you can keep resetting the seven minute sleep timer by just clicking on the AirPod, but that’s about the only plus. Now for these sound cores. I switched to the smallest silicone tips (they also have foam ones for more sound blocking, but they say they’re less comfortable). You can also switch out the little silicone pieces that sit in the other part of your ear, but I stayed with the default ones. I listened to my Audible via Bluetooth and then let it switch to snore masking sounds when I fell asleep - with the volume at 30%. I did opt to back up my book a little bit the next time I listened. I do recall waking up twice and I could kind of hear my husband snoring, but I was able to fall right back asleep with the “whispering brook” sounds. In the morning the app suggested a different snore masking sound based on its analysis of the snores it heard in the night. It suggested the “himalayan downpour” - which I look forward to giving my husband a hard time about. I don’t think this will mask sounds as well as the foam earplugs, but they’re more comfortable and I’ll happily take that trade off to be able to listen to my story when I fall asleep. I’ll update my review if I change my mind down the road but so far so good. Read more