Sometimes, sleep eludes me, and at those times, I reach for a pair of “sleep” earbuds. For years, the Bose Sleepbuds 2 were my go-to, and I considered them the best you could get — until Bose decided to discontinue them.
Step forward Ozlo, a company founded by those who worked on the Sleepbuds project at Bose, and the Ozlo Sleepbuds. They look and feel very familiar, promise just the right features, and share the same in-ear shape that made the Bose model so good. I’ve been finding out if they’re worthy of the Sleepbuds name or not.
Ozlo Sleepbuds: design
The Bose Sleepbuds 2 (left) and the Ozlo Sleepbuds Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
The fact that the Ozlo Sleepbuds look almost exactly like the Bose Sleepbuds 2 is no accident. Ozlo was founded by three engineers who worked on the Sleepbuds at Bose. After the product’s cancellation, the team licensed the technology and got the rights to the name. This isn’t a homage or a copy—it’s as close to a continuation of the Bose Sleepbuds as we’re ever going to get.
They’re so similar that a Bose Sleepbud fits in the Ozlo Sleepbuds case and vice versa, and when you mix and match the buds in your ears, it’s impossible to tell which is which by feeling alone. There’s perhaps a slight reduction in the depth of the earbuds’ body, but it’s very small.
Soft silicone is wrapped around the tiny body, complete with little wings that hold the earbud in your ear and a tip that has a different, more oval shape compared to ones used for the best true wireless earbuds designed for music. The box includes four sets of silicone outer shells to help you get the right fit. Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
The result is a wonderfully comfortable shape. I have been testing the Ozlo Sleepbuds for about three weeks now, and I mostly sleep on my side. The earbuds are unobtrusive and haven’t kept me from getting to sleep at all.
Due to the flush-fit design, I can lie with my head and ear against the pillow without any discomfort, and I’ve regularly slept with them for more than seven hours.
I have not noticed any sweat buildup (there’s no water resistance rating, so this is probably a good thing), they have not made my ears itchy, and they have not fallen out. They can work themselves loose just through natural movement, though.
None of this has been a surprise. The Bose Sleepbuds 2 were the most comfortable sleep earbuds I’ve used, and seeing as the Ozlo Sleepbuds are basically the same, they should be very good indeed.
Before they arrived, I’d been using the 1More Z30 Sleeping Earbuds again, which come close to matching the Ozlo Sleepbuds’ comfort levels, but I do find that they can dig into my inner ear and cause some discomfort if I’m not careful with my position.
There’s nothing like that with the Ozlo Sleepbuds. Just like the Bose Sleepbuds that came before them, these are the comfort champions of the sleep earbud world, and I’ve had many uninterrupted, peaceful nights of sleep wearing them.
Ozlo Sleepbuds: audio and sound
While the design and comfort match the Bose Sleepbuds, the features have changed. You can stream either Ozlo’s own Sleep Sounds—there’s a choice of 10 sounds, including rainfall, a fireplace, or the ocean—or directly from a source of your choice.
The available sounds are high quality and pleasant to hear, with Crimson Cloak, Stratus, and Soar all providing the type of sound-masking white noise I like. Oddly, when using these, the volume is set in the Ozlo app, not with your phone’s volume control, which does not affect the sounds.
If you want to use your music library or an app like YouTube or Spotify, everything is controlled using the app and your phone’s regular controls, including the volume. The Ozlo app provides three different Bluetooth profiles, and you can tailor their operation overnight to your preference.
One disables streaming entirely, one enables both streaming and sleep sounds, and the final option enables streaming for 10 minutes to help conserve battery. You can also tell the app to switch from streaming to a sleep sound after a set amount of time.
I’ve been playing podcasts directly from my iPhone 16 Pro Max’s music library and using Ozlo’s in-app timer to stop playing after a set amount of time. This is configurable between a few minutes to many hours. There’s plenty of volume adjustment, too, and it can be set to just above a whisper if that’s how you like it.
The earbuds get quite loud, but even at upper volumes, they don’t distort. For earbuds not designed for critical listening, they’re surprisingly controlled and balanced. The number of different settings and options makes it very clear that the Sleepbuds have been designed by a team that understands what people want when using earbuds to help promote sleep. It’s a polished and feature-rich but never irksome experience.
The Ozlo Sleepbuds versatility suits how I like to use them at night, but it’s not perfect. Connecting the earbuds to the app when you want to use them takes longer than I’d like, to the point where I will wonder if it has failed while staring at the app next to the open case, waiting for it to pair.
There is also an unusual sound that comes through the earbuds when they are not playing anything. It’s like odd, unwanted white noise, reminiscent of the hiss you’d get from a blank cassette tape—and it’s there regardless of how the Sleepbuds are set up or what has been playing. It’s not something you can hear when other sounds are playing, though, and it hasn’t woken me up, but it’s there, and you will notice it when you first put the earbuds in.
There’s no active noise cancellation, and the Sleepbuds rely on passive sound isolation to keep outside noise from interrupting your sleep.
I’ve found that the Ozlo Sleepbuds are very effective at helping me relax before going to sleep, and I have not been woken up by the sounds of my neighbors leaving for work early in the morning while wearing them.
On the subject of waking up, the app has an alarm feature, but it’s very jarring and always makes me jump when it suddenly goes off in my ear. Disappointingly, there’s no option to have it slowly bring you out of your slumber, despite wording on the website indicating otherwise.
Ozlo Sleepbuds: app and a missing feature
The Ozlo Sleepbuds app is free to download and has no subscription service attached. It’s neatly designed and clearly shows the amount of battery life remaining in the earbuds and the case, your current choice of Sleep Sound, and the settings for your alarm and timer on the main page.
Aside from it taking a while to connect, the app has been reliable and easy to use -essential for a product used just before going to sleep.
When Ozlo announced the Sleepbuds, it made a big deal about the earbud’s case providing sleep monitoring through various sensors. It also advertises this on its website. A section named My Sleep sits in the menu bar, but unfortunately, the feature is only “coming soon” and is not available at the time of writing.
Considering that I first spoke to the company about the feature in August 2023, and the product is available to buy now, this is disappointing.
I asked Ozlo for the current timeline for the My Sleep feature and was told it’s expected during the first three months of 2025. However, given it has been missing for this long, a further delay wouldn’t be a surprise.
While the Ozlo Sleepbuds work and perform their intended purpose very well, the absence of the My Sleep monitoring feature impacts the product’s value, which I’ll discuss more in a while.
Having a section dedicated to a feature that doesn’t exist in the app isn’t a good look either, and you certainly shouldn’t purchase the Sleepbuds on the promise of the My Sleep feature.
Outside of this, the Ozlo app is easy to use and isn’t a barrier between you and your sleep, despite some idiosyncrasies around the volume control that take getting used to.
Ozlo Sleepbuds: battery and charging
Anyone who used the Bose Sleepbuds 2 will likely recall the poor battery management, where the case and earbuds would suck battery power while not being used, which usually meant they were not charged when you wanted to use them.
This is not a problem that affects the Ozlo Sleepbuds at all.
On a single charge, the earbuds easily cover about seven hours of sleep with 30 minutes of streaming from the music app on my phone.
Each earbud still has around 15% remaining in the morning, so they should last for at least eight hours.
The case contains around three or four full charges before it needs to be charged up.
This is done using a USB-C port on the back of the case. Each earbud is magnetically held inside the case, which has a slide-back cover to keep them safe.
The underside of the case is covered in sticky rubber to stop it from sliding around.
