Hi! I'm Ethan Green from nosleeplessnights.com, and in this video I'm going
to be doing an unboxing and review of the SleepPhones by the company Acoustic
Sheep. These are headphones which work by Bluetooth so you don't need a cable in
your bed connecting to your audio device. And they have a fabric headband which
means that they're hopefully going to be comfortable to sleep on your back, your
side or your front. So without further ado, let's pop over to the table, unbox
them, and then after that I'm going to test them out for a few nights and
compare them to some other headphones that I've been testing recently. And then
I'll get back to you with a final verdict and some pros and cons. Before I
open them it's worth noting that first impressions do count, and they come in
quite an attractive box so they'd make a good gift. And here you can see
that this is a large size - I have a large head! But they do come in different sizes
which is nice because some of these headphones are one size fits all. So
let's open it up and see what we've got. okay, let's remove the plastic packaging there, I don't need that for now. Okay, so we've
we've got the instructions here. I shall have a look at those in a minute. We have a
charging cable presumably for the headphones. And it looks like we've got a
USB to, what have we got in there? Micro USB. I know I'm going to have to charge these up
as well before I continue the review, so I'll put those out of the way for now.
And here are the actual headphones. Okay, so you can see it has this headband here.
And I've actually gone for this more polyester kind of micro mesh. Micro mesh?
I'm not quite sure what you call the material, rather than the comfortable,
thick fabric which you can get as well - like the fleecy one. So I have L XL - oh, my
head just expanded to extra-large apparently. So here we have the
headphones, let's take a closer look at those. Sorry, I couldn't get the sticker off my
finger! So we have the little tag here saying Sleep Phones, which is very small,
you could remove that if you wanted to. And it's worth noting that this is quite
stretchy, which is good. So I'm looking forward to testing that on my head. And
the material is really quite lightweight it seems. It does look like it's a double
layer, but it's going to be definitely cooler than the fleece material,
which is good. So looking around it I can feel one
speaker here.It's very flat, which is going to be ideal when you're sleeping
on your side hopefully. And then we've got what looks like the control unit in
there and another speaker. So I'm just looking around it and you can see me
kind of struggling to work out what to do next as I can't actually find an
opening to get to the components. Ah, here we go, it's on the front, a little velcro pouch. Now
that looks really tiny, I'm just wondering how I'm supposed to get in and
out of there to grab whatever control unit I need. Okay here we go, so this
looks like, is that the control unit? Is that the charger? Right, okay, I think I
need to put these aside and have a look at the instructions because I'm
obviously struggling to work out what to do there. So, the user guide, wearing them,
okay that's gonna be fairly straightforward. Basic wireless headphone
usage. Power on, volume off, skip tracks, play and pause. So that must be this here -
okay, yeah okay, so now I can see what's going on. The piece that I just removed
has the center button and the up and down for volume, and also for
changing tracks - fairly standard with these headphones.
The Lavince that I looked at recently also had these, and a couple of others that I
tried. But obviously, you wouldn't take this out when you're using it in the
night, it would sit inside the headband and you would then just have to learn
whereabouts it is on your head and press the buttons. So I'll leave that there for now.
Pairing it, obviously it works with Bluetooth so I need to know that. Remove the
module from the hook and loop opening at the back of the headband. That's what
I've already done. Hold down the square button for five
seconds until you hear the tones and then connect it with your device. So I'm
going to need to charge it up before I do that anyway. So, here we go that's what I
needed - the charging instructions. By the way, I apologize if this is boring going
through the instructions. But I know, I kind of do this in part because people
sometimes write to me asking me for instructions for devices or items that
they've bought. And so I figured that it'd be a nice thing to do, would be to
go through the instructions relatively slowly so people can see what they are.
So, here we go, open the hooked loop at the back of the
headband. I've done that. Remove the Bluetooth module, I've done that. Plug in
the micro USB cable into the micro USB port. Okay that's going to be fairly
straightforward to do. And plug it into your computer or any USB wall adapter.
It doesn't come with an adapter but that's quite common these days I've found, so there you go.
The module is fully charged when the red light disappears. Recommend
charging after every use which typically takes up to three hours. So I'm guessing
I'm gonna have to charge this up and come back to test them out. Washing
instructions, so you gonna have to remove everything. Now that loop, let's just go
back to it again. It's pretty small, and I know sometimes getting components out of
these headbands is a little bit fiddly so I'm gonna play around with that and
I'll time it and I'll tell you exactly how long it takes a bit later on in the
review. Prolong the life of your headphones. And then some troubleshooting.
Okay, so let me just have another look at this before I actually do the charging. I
want to get one of these speakers out so I can look at it and show you the size.
I'm just gonna pull gently on these wires and hope that they come out in one
piece. There we go, this is the first one. Out you come, come on! Coax it out, it's
like a shy animal that doesn't want to come out. Okay there we go, so there's the
speaker. And it's really flat, and what I really like just looking at it is that
it's also padded. A couple of other headphones I've looked at recently, they
put the speaker in but then they don't have any padding, and so you can really feel
them on your ear. But this has got padding on the speaker which then goes
inside the headphones, which have more padding, so I'm hoping that this is going
to be even more comfortable than the ones that I've tried recently. So my
first impressions then are pretty good. It looks smart. It looks nice and
it's well put together. It definitely looks like it's better designed than some of
the cheaper ones that I've picked up recently online, so I'm definitely
looking forward to trying them out. So let me charge them up and then I shall
be back. And I'm going to play the sounds and play it next to my microphone so
you can have a quick listen before I go and test them in the bedroom.
Okay, it's now three hours later and I've fully charged them. I thought I'd play
you some music and a podcast through the headphones. I've actually skipped ahead a
bit because I wanted to save some time in the video. So I've inserted the module
back into the headband, which is a little bit fiddly but not too difficult. And
I've also connected via bluetooth to my phone which was very straightforward as
well. So I'm gonna bring this off-camera and hold one of the speakers close to my
microphone, which is a fairly cheap $30 lavalier microphone. And let's play a
podcast so you can have a listen. (podcast plays). Okay, there you go, and it seems like the
spoken word is really quite clear, at least at first glance. So now let me find
some music that we can listen to so you have an idea of what that's like as well (music plays).
Okay, so there you go - music and podcast. To me, that sounds really quite good. So
now I'm gonna go to the bedroom tonight, and I'm going to test them out and I'm
actually gonna wear them for a few days, a few different nights, so I can give you
a good impression of what they're like. I've now worn the SleepPhones every
night for the last five nights and so far I've been really impressed by how
comfortable they are. For me, that's the number one thing, especially as a side sleeper. I
think having that extra padding around the speaker, which is then encased in
even more fabric around the heaband, just means that they're really
comfortable. And because the speaker is so flat,
I found that I can have them underneath my ear, between my ear and the pillow, for
hours and hours and I feel absolutely fine, so that's really good news.
The second thing is that the headband itself is made from a really soft and stretchy
fabric. And it hasn't left any marks on my skin, on my forehead for example, after
sleeping with them all night and that's also really good news. Now, where the
sound quality is concerned, I have to say the maximum volume isn't exactly the
loudest I've heard from headphones by any means. But I can hear them
really clearly when I'm listening to radio or a podcast, and for soft and
quiet music like classical or ambient, it's absolutely fine. I think if you're
someone that likes to listen to really loud music when you're falling asleep, or
heavy rock for example, then you might find that you
perhaps one a little bit more oomph from your speakers. And so these headphones might
not be the ones for you. But if you just want to listen to music or radio quietly
and not disturb a partner, if you sleep with someone, then I think they're
absolutely fine. Now I'm going to compare them to some other headphones. This bit
normally takes a while, I know from previous videos, so if you're not
interested in that then perhaps skip ahead a couple of minutes till the
part where I'm on the sofa again giving my final verdict. So first of all, let's take
these off and compare them to some other fabric headphones I tested recently.
These are the Lavince headphones. I've actually seen some others that have the same
design but with a different name, so I'm not quite sure what's going on there! So
let's put these on. And for me, these, considering they're about three times
cheaper - I mean, the SleepPhones cost $99 at the time of doing this review and
these were 30 - the sound quality is actually really good on these. And they are
louder, that's for sure. But the problem is that they don't have so much padding
around the speaker, so right now I can feel the speaker underneath my ear much
more than with the SleepPhones. So I definitely recommend the SleepPhones
over these. Also, they have this strange control unit on the front which
aesthetically is kind of ugly, well, very ugly for me anyway. But it does mean
that the buttons are easier to find, and that's something I'll talk about a
little bit later with my pros and cons. But with these, the buttons are very easy
to find. The SleepPhones not so much so, you kind of have to fiddle around with
them. But for comfort, definitely the SleepPhones. Now, next up we've got the DubsLabs
BedPhones. Now these, for sleeping on your back these are absolutely
fantastic, especially if you need to listen out for young kids, for example.
They just kind of hook over your ear and they don't have any padding and no heat
buildup from a headphone, from a headband rather, and so they're great on your back.
However, the wire for me makes them not quite so practical to sleep on your side.
So I would definitely recommend the SleepPhones if you're a side sleeper.
And also if you just want the music kept a little bit closer to your ears, because
these kind of, you know, can move away a little bit in the night time. Next up
let's look at some normal headphones. First of all, my little AKGs. Now these, I
find that because they're so small they can kind of sit inside my ear and I can
sleep and lie on my side quite comfortably. However, there's definitely
something in your ear, I can still feel it. So
I think for me, I'd probably prefer the SleepPhones as a side sleeper.
However, for overall music quality, sound quality rather, these AKGs are pretty
unbeatable in comparison. Now let's have a look at some noise-cancelling
headphones. First of all, my in-ear Bose QuietComfort. Now, these are amazing for
noise canceling, and also for the sound quality - absolutely fantastic.
However, because they're so big it does mean that there's a sizable
lump in your ear when you're on your side, and even on your back as well.
And then, like the AKGs, they'll kind of fall out of position if you move around
a lot in the night. But for noise cancelling, if you need to block out
snoring or neighbors, for example, these Bose Quiet Comfort are absolutely amazing. But for
comfort, especially as a side sleeper, SleepPhones even though they're nowhere
near as expensive, for me are definitely better so again you've got to decide
what it is that you want. A final headphones are over-ear noise cancelling
headphones. Now, really you could take any over-ear headphones and I'll probably
say the exact same thing. Whether they are really cheap or really expensive, it just
doesn't matter what they are. The problem is always gonna be the same. And that is,
if you lie on your back, absolutely fine. You can lie on your back
and you can move your head a little bit. And you know, if you're going to sleep
absolutely rigid, paralyzed shall we say, then you can wear over-ear headphones
and get really good noise cancelling ones and you're going to be very happy
if you're trying to block out external noise. But if you're going to move around
at all, you're going to sleep on your side, or
you sleep on your front, it's impossible. You just can't.
You've got very, very limited movement. So for me, the sleep headphones or any other
headphones really are going to be better for sleeping. Perhaps if you just want to
listen to music for a little bit and block out some snoring or neighbors and
have some respite from that, then over-ear headphones are going to be great. But
yeah, all night long, absolutely impossible. So there you go, that's a
comparison to some other headphones. Now I think I'm going to test out the SleepPhones
for a few more nights and then I'll complete this video with some pros
and cons and overall verdict. Okay, so I've now had the SleepPhones
for a few more nights and so far I think there's a lot to like about them, and
maybe just a couple of criticisms which will affect some people more than others.
So let's go through some pros and cons and that will
hopefully help you make up your own mind. First of all, for me the most important
thing about them is that they're really comfortable if you're a side sleeper.
I've tried many different headphones to sleep on my side and so far these are
the best of all of them that I've tried. Whether that's others that are designed
for sleep specifically or normal headphones, these are the clear winners.
The second point that I like about them is that the speaker quality is good
enough to enjoy listening to music and also podcast and radio in bed. I mean, to
be honest the maximum volume isn't massively impressive. I think perhaps
because the speakers are padded. But they're clear and even when you turn the
volume right up the bass doesn't distort, which can be a problem with these kinds
of headphones I've found in the past. So for me that's a good point in their
favor. Thirdly, I like the fact that the fabric headband is comfortable. It's very
soft and stretchy. It's not micro mesh as I was guessing at earlier! But it's
actually 95% polyester, 5% spandex. It's very soft and it doesn't overheat. For me,
the final major point in their favor is that they work via Bluetooth so you don't
have a wire connecting to your audio device, which is always better. They don't take
long to charge - just two or three hours will give you enough juice to last all
night long. And if you don't listen to music all night then you can get several
night's use if you're just gonna use them to relax at the beginning of the night.
Okay, let's talk about some of the cons. For me, the number one thing to bear in
mind is the fact that they don't have any active noise cancellation. So even
though they will block out some sound if you've got a snoring partner or noisy
neighbors or traffic outside, they'll block it out just because they have
music or radio right there by your ear and they've got some padding. However,
they're not going to block out as much sound as active noise-cancelling
headphones will do, so that is worth bearing in mind. The second point that I
think is worth noting is the fact that the components - the speakers and the
Bluetooth module and controls - don't have fixed positions within the headband.
There's no pouches to keep them in place. So that means that, you know, on the good
side you can move them around to place them directly over your ears, where your ears
are in relation to the headband. But it does mean that they can move out of
place in the night time, especially if you change positions quite a lot. One
final point to bear in mind is that they do cost around $99, which for some people
isn't going to be a problem. For others, they might have higher expectations of
the maximum volume and the overall speaker quality. But I think if you're
looking specifically for headphones to sleep with, then
for that price I think it's absolutely fine. If you compare them to cheaper
sleep headphones, such as the Lavince for example, which are three times less
expensive. However, you can really tell the difference in the quality where the
stitching is concerned, and where the padding around the speaker is concerned.
So my final verdict then is that the SleepPhones are absolutely fantastic if
you're a side sleeper. They've definitely solved a problem for me. As a side
sleeper, I've never managed to find sleep headphones which I would wear all night,
but these I would do. I think for the price, as I said you need to balance your
own desire for amazing speaker quality and comfort and also usability when
you're in bed, so that's going to be a personal choice. So, thanks for watching. I
hope you enjoyed this review. If you did and you're interested in buying them, please
use the link in the description below. Please also subscribe to my YouTube
channel to keep in touch with me and see future reviews of other sleep products.