Soft Buds for sleeping

I LOVE my Wyze Buds and I’m still absolutely astounded at the battery life, HOWEVER I would love to sleep in them, but they’re made of super uncomfortable plastic and I’m a side-sleeper.

I keep wondering why someone doesn’t make a true-wireless earbud out of squishy silicone for us side-sleepers! The Wyze guys could fill a desperately underserved consumer base.

Make your 'Buds out of silicone (and maybe add a wireless charging case) and you’d have me for life.

Yep. Voted.

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What a good idea. I use ancient wired apple earphones and just change the ear that’s plugged when I turnover. I have a pair of Wyze earbuds in drawer for spouse foe Christmas stocking stuffer.

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No more wires. I’m so tired of getting tangled in wires when I’m trying to sleep. And pillow speakers don’t do anything to block or drown out the snorting wildebeest asleep next to me.

Silicone ‘buds would effectively block incoming sounds like snoring or traffic, allow me to zone out on the sleep program I listen to at night, but the soft, squishy edges wouldn’t be painful in my ears.

I know! I’m actually kind of surprised nobody has come out with them yet. You can get silicone ear PLUGS, silicone wireless charging pads, you can even get silicone squishy tips for existing earbuds, but nobody has thought to encase the earbud itself.

The closest thing I’ve been able to find are MaxRock sleeping earbuds, but they have a wired version that keeps you literally tethered to your device, and a Bluetooth version that has a wire between the ear pieces that will hang you in your sleep.

So I assume you’ve been through all the other alternatives? Some sound promising.

Those are some options. I think the hope is to get some of those designed-for-sleep features at very Wyze prices. Some of those on the market allow music only from their own library. I like music for deep sleep station on Amazon Music. Sometimes I listen to shows like Still Game or Detectorists. I don’t know anyone who’ve tried the headband version but I’m curious about them. Regardless, for this highly specialized product, maybe Wyze designers could poll potential users for most sought after features.

I have the Acoustic Sheep headband type headphones, I got some to try for a review. I hated them. The speakers are flat discs that sit in a pocket in the fabric headband and they do not stay put, so if you turn over, the disc speakers move away from your ears, plus if you do manage to get them to stay where they’re supposed to, they really hurt because they’re flat hard plastic and there is zero noise blockage from any ambient sounds in the room or outside.

I didn’t get the Bluetooth version, so again, there was a cord that kept pulling my phone off the nightstand if I turned over in my sleep.

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The Kokoon NightBuds look interesting but also are connected by a band. Also way too many overengineered features if all you want is to fall asleep to a podcast.

I just got a pair of those from Kickstarter. The jury is still out - they are Bluetooth, and so far the battery life on the Kokoon NightBuds rivals that of the Wyze Buds. I had them on for about 7 hours constant with the sleep sounds (RainRain app) and when I got up they still had 47% battery power left.

With that being said, they are kind of odd. There’s a learning curve as to how to wear them, the Bluetooth and inner workings are in a little padded compartment that sits in the back of your head, and it’s not uncomfortable, it’s just a little weird to get used to.

The wires that attach the earbuds to the compartment are squiggly and stretchy, but they’re not in the way at all because they kind of mold around your head. All of the control buttons are on the top of the compartment, so there’s no tapping, but you have to reach around and find the right button to adjust the volume or start & stop your sounds.

The earbuds themselves are not terribly comfortable, at least not for me. Again, they’re made of hard plastic, and although they give you several size options for little silicone sleeves that fit over the buds, I have yet to find the size that doesn’t make my ears hurt like the dickens when I wake up in the morning. Too small, they fall out. I’m working with the S-M size right now, and they’re not sealing on my ear right so the snorting wildebeest sounds are getting in and waking me up.

My BIGGEST complaint with them is a lack of volume. I have my phone cranked up to 100% and it still is faint and hard to hear. I’ve tried audiobooks and Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and every single thing is at a really faint volume.

Their app is also superfluous and doesn’t really give you decent sleep quality insights, but there have been several updates based on feedback, so I’m sure that’s still in development as they learn more about what kind of app integration people want.

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Obviously this is the biggest engineering problem you face. Perhaps there are more effective means to attack it. Not naming names but it rhymes with desperate headrooms.

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Actually, that’s NOT the worst problem I have.

My biggest problem is extreme tinnitus in my left ear. It’s a hissing, screeching sound that I have 24/7 and the only way I can offset or drown it out enough to get to sleep is to have some kind of opposing sounds like rain or binaural tones in my earbuds so my brain forgets to pay attention to the cacophony screaming in my head.

We also live in a large city with many helicopters and traffic noises into the wee small hours. My husband could sleep through a Who concert (and actually has) but I am more sensitive to noise when I sleep.

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The other major problem is comfort. I’d be using them more more than just sleeping.

I am a closed-caption transcriptionist, so I spend my days listening to recorded things and transcribing them for TV shows and films (far more accurately than the algorithms they have on YouTube, because I take the time to look up spellings of names and places and use punctuation). A regular feature-length film takes about 12 hours to transcribe after including things like “music playing” and “gunshot sounds”.

That is a LONG time to have something stuck in your ear. The idea of a squishy, silicone earbud is very attractive to me for almost every aspect of my working and sleeping life.

Totally understand the ask, and support. I have a number of threads out there just talking about different tips with the Wyze buds.

Your needs seem very great with your profession and personal needs. I imagine you geta lot of ear fatigue wearing devices for so long.

Have you thought about custom molded earpieces?

A friend of mine was an avid motorcyclist and would go on extremely long touring rides and had a custom molded set of tips and swore by them.

Something like this

https://www.averysound.com/ there are others this is just the first one I ran across.

Looks like there are some DIY kits out there too.

Those look fantastic, but I think you might be overestimating the earning potential of a closed-caption transcriptionist. $163 for a pair, yikes. That’s more than my actual earbuds.

And unfortunately, because they slide onto existing earbud units, we’re still dealing with the hard plastic shell of the earbuds themselves, which will still be digging into the cartilage of my outer ear the moment my head hits the pillow.

I was just thinking outside of the box with the idea that a full-silicone shell around the mechanical bits of a small pair of earbuds would be a catch-all for my particular needs. Also, I know a whole lot of people who sleep with earbuds in to mask outside noise or mask inside noise or calm their brains so they can sleep, and many of those people have also complained about ear pain and discomfort.

What really prompted this train of thought was a trip to an AT&T store with a friend because she needed a new phone, and while she was talking to the sales guy I saw THESE ( link below -Samsung Galaxy Live Buds). They’re sexy little bean-shaped earbuds that nestle into the contours of your ear. And as I was examining them, I thought that if they can make hard plastic into these cool, curvy shapes, why not make them out of squishy, gooshy silicone so they would mold to any shape of ear and be super comfy for long-term wear or sleeping?

LINK: Galaxy Live EarbudsBUDS

Ahhh, I’ve got you… it wasn’t just the tips. Sorry.

Stellar thought, I think the mechanical bits might be more prone to damage in a squishy shell, may also affect sound quality? But technology of “things” is forever changing.

As for the price of those

Salty for sure, but if able to be maintained for a long time, worth the investment? I thought I saw a DIY ones for 27 dollars? But still off from your initial design thoughts, which would be super cool.

The thing is, if you take apart an earbud - any earbud - the actual working parts are VERY small. They have to be small enough to be encased in something that fits in your ear. I took apart an old set of earbuds and was amazed at how much superfluous plastic casing there was and how tiny the actual earbud components were.

So even if they made the innards encased in a little pea of hard plastic for protecting the mechanics, they still could keep that small enough to cover the whole outside in gushy silicone. They could even make the silicone part a “sleeve” of sorts so it could be cleaned.

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Well you’re “not wrong”. It could be done for sure.

I happened to be looking at earbuds today (not for sleeping) and found this article on small ones. Have you checked the Focuspower or Nenrent? Not soft at all, but fairly small like an older generation hearing aid.

I’d really prefer something even smaller for walking around and am surprised there’s not more available. I’m pretty happy with my tiny Pop Designs but they don’t seem to make them anymore. :frowning: