I’m a pretty light sleeper - the slightest sound in the middle of night will wake me up, and often it will take quite a bit of time to get back to sleep. When my former neighbour proudly announced he rented his house to a musician, I knew I had to do something to protect my peace. Bose Sleepbuds became a lifesaver. They didn’t just block out the midnight bass from next door, but they provided some other sounds to drown out the distractions.
Ever since, they’ve been part of my nightly routine, and I went through four or five sets of Bose Sleepbuds over an equal amount of years. I kept using them because they helped me sleep when they were actually working. That was the issue: they didn’t last much beyond a year of use. Either the battery failed, or something else stopped working rendering them useless. My most memorable failure was a high pitched noise in my ear from one of them while sleeping, which, needless to say woke me up.
Eventually the Bose product was discontinued, and Ozlo took the concept forward with a few former Bose-employees who believed in the idea. I did too, and was hopeful that somebody would finally solve the quality issue, and introduce other improvements.
Why I Gave Ozlo a Try
Before ordering, I asked Ozlo if they were actually better. Here’s part of the promising response I received:
After going through 4 or 5 sets of Bose Sleepbuds, I’d be feeling the same way. It’s frustrating when something that’s supposed to help you sleep ends up being unreliable. That’s actually why Ozlo exists. A lot of us on the team were longtime Bose Sleepbuds users too, and we knew the concept was amazing—it just needed to be built to last. So we took everything we loved, fixed the pain points, and really focused on long-term reliability. (…) I know the price (especially in CAD) is no small thing, and it’s fair to want peace of mind that these will go the distance. That’s exactly what we’ve built them for—and I’ll be here if anything ever comes up.
They also told me that they had focused on improvements like a redesigned charging case, more durable internal components and long-term reliability. Still, the basic concept remains almost identical to Bose: Sleepbuds are tiny earbuds that are comfortable enough to sleep in, while masking the noises that keep you awake.
The biggest new feature was Bluetooth streaming. Sleepbuds were originally only able to play sleep sounds stored on the buds themselves, but now I could play anything I wanted that may help me sleep.1 When I fall asleep, the buds can automatically switch back to a sleep sound.
Peace of Mind when Travelling
Being able to withdraw into my “sleep bubble” by simply putting in two tiny earbuds has greatly improved my ability to get a good night’s rest. I don’t need to be worried what may be going on with my neighbours band practice, or the sometimes noisy streets of Vancouver.
The biggest difference for me has been sleeping better while travelling. When in a new hotel, I’d usually sleep very poor due to the new sounds in the hotel or surrounding area. Fun during the day when you’re experiencing travel, but not so much at night for a light sleeper who needs his rest.
Ultimately I didn’t care about the ability to stream audio or what the new case design looked like: I simply liked using this product as it greatly improved my quality of life. I put my Sleepbuds in, started the sound I wanted and went to sleep. The less I have to think or worry about bedtime, the better.
Are Ozlo Sleepbuds Actually Better Than Bose?
After almost a year, I think Ozlo has built the better product. Bluetooth streaming makes them more flexible than Bose Sleepbuds ever were. The software continues to evolve, with new features like Sleep Tracking.2 The overall experience, when everything works, is excellent. I used mine every night for almost eleven months and would have happily continued doing so without giving any of this much thought.
That’s the good news. There’s bad news too: after 11 months, they started failing. My left earbud started experiencing intermittent connection issues, until it eventually failed.3 No amount of troubleshooting or factory resets seemed to be able to bring it back to life. The lifespan turned out almost identical to Bose, with the timing particularly unfortunate because I was about to leave on an extended motorcycle trip, which meant plenty of unfamiliar hotel rooms along the way. The promises of “built to last” and “long-term reliability” unfortunately didn’t hold up.
As I explained recently in my customer service post, I understand products fail. What matters is what happens next. Unfortunately Ozlo didn’t score any points there either. The warranty process was long and unnecessarily cumbersome.4 After several days of troubleshooting, Ozlo eventually agreed to replace my defective pair under warranty. Their process required me to send the old ones back first, so for the first time in years I suddenly found myself going to bed without Bose or Ozlo.5 It turned out to be an interesting experiment - more on that below.
My Final Verdict - And Backup Plan
I still wanted the warranty replacement and will use them once they arrive. This is probably the best testimonial about still believing in the product to some degree. At the same time, I’ll also be worried about how long these will last, and not willing to spend another $399 on a product that has yet to prove its reliability.
The thing is, if sleep matters enough that you’re considering spending $399 on something like this, I’d also think about your backup before you need one. Mine turned out to be much cheaper and much simpler than expected. I'll share my backup plan, and some additional details about the Ozlo warranty experience, below.
