Hands-on: Sleep Plugs

A lot of people want to buy “sleep plugs” — by which I mean earbuds that are comfortable when you lie on your side. Most people using them want to fall asleep to something: maybe a symphony, maybe rock, maybe Guo Degang, maybe a ghost story. In any case, it’s definitely not going to be ASMR.

Of course, the two big requirements for sleep plugs are probably just these:

• The sound quality has to be passable, no noise
• Comfortable to wear — no matter how you lie on your side, it shouldn’t feel bad

So recently a batch of “sleep plugs” showed up on Taobao, pretty cheap, with a full set of connectors — they support the usual 3.5 as well as Type-C. Really thoughtful. So, being the bored idiot I am, I bought a pair to check them out.

First off, I honestly can’t tell what factory made these, but they’re definitely distinctive. The whole housing is rubber except for a tiny metal bit inside, and the earbuds themselves are small — once you put them in your ear canal you barely feel them. On the comfort front, this is really OK. It’s my first time experiencing “all-rubber” earbuds, and maybe that’s the main reason this thing can actually call itself a “sleep plug.” But only if you insert them correctly — there’s no replaceable eartip design, so you have to get the fit exactly right or the sound leaks. Took me a few tries to find the trick, so there’s a bit of a learning curve.

Sound quality is actually okay — at least it’s not that dead, muffled sound. Fine for listening to voice content, fine for simple music. Within acceptable range, I’d say it passes.

Overall, these so-called “sleep plugs” do a decent job at their actual function. The seller was sneaky enough to throw in some sleep-aid stuff — an eye mask, earplugs, that kind of thing — and at this price with free shipping, it’s a pretty good deal.

But now I need to complain about the biggest problem with these sleep plugs:

There’s no L/R marking on these things!

I searched the entire earbud and couldn’t find one… Maybe I’m just dumb, but every time I have to guess which is left and which is right, then swap them when I realize I got it wrong. Or maybe sleep plugs don’t care about left/right channels — after all, you’re just digging around in your ear, left first then right?

I really hope they add L/R markings to this product in the future. Then it’d be perfect.