Soundcore Sleep A30 by Anker Sleep Earbuds, Smart Active Noise Cancelling Sleep Headphones, Adaptive Snore-Masking System, Ultra-Comfort for Side Sleepers, 45H PlaytimeClimatePartner certified

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.

I think it's important to start by highlighting the intended use of this product: to have earbuds which can be worn while sleeping and which help facilitate sleep. I noticed several reviews complaining that the ANC is weaker than other products, and while I agree that it does not have the strongest ANC by itself, the ANC paired with the white noise options provided in the app provide EXCELLENT sound cancellation in my experience. Even at a low volume, I noticed significantly less noise than when using silicon earbuds rated for 30db dampening. I have no clue how to guess what the joint ANC + white noise dampening equivalent would be, but I'd say it was near twice as strong as the 30db dampening I'm used to from traditional ear plugs. Being able to customize the relative volumes and combine white noise options in the app (which can then be downloaded to the earbud for local use to extend battery life) was something I found incredibly helpful as well.I am pretty sensitive to different sensations and am a light sleeper, but I found these very comfortable to sleep in. Battery life is on the lower end with ANC active, but I don't know of any earbuds that can have ANC active for much longer so I wouldn't say that is any fault of this product, and ANC can be turned off to extend battery life if so desired. I find the sound quality for music and general listening to be quite good, but I am far from an audiophile so I wouldn't put too much trust in my evaluation of relative sound quality.The long and the short of it is: These are comfortable earbuds which, when used as intended (ANC + Sound profiles), do an excellent job of reducing noise with a focus on sleep functions. If you want a primary set of earbuds that you can sometimes sleep in, I think this product would work, but at the price point there are probably different options that fit a listening profile that only occasionally has sleep use. For me, I wanted earbuds specifically for sleep use that can be used elsewhere if I want, and they fulfill that function extremely well so far.

I really wanted to like these and tried every bud and wing combo, but the plastic of the buds themselves is just to hard and uncomfortable, even with the low profile. I couldn't keep them in for more than an hour or so.I found the noise cancelling sub par too. Low tones, like audio from a TV in the next room, still bled through.Small thing, but every sleep sounds app that allows you to build your own white noise lets you to control the volume of each sound, but not this app. So more subtle background sounds like birds or crickets are just as loud as rain or waves. It's more distracting than soothing.That said, they are really sleek and small with good battery life. I bet they're great for back or tummy sleepers. The "AI Brainwaive" sounds, while wildly gimmicky, were pretty soothing. The app works well and the buds were easy to set up and use.Positives aside, certainly not worth the price. Almost the same price as my bose quiet comfort buds which have incredible sound, 3 ANC settings, responsive touch controls, and are overall more comfortable.Needless to say, returned these. Maybe someday they can swap out the plastic for something softer, but feels like false advertising to say these are comfortable for side sleepers.