A better night’s sleep: Phillips Sleep Headphones Review

Whether you’ve got a lot on your mind, noisy neighbours, or your significant other can snore for England, picking yourself up a pair of quality earphones might be the solution you’re looking for. Yes, there are of plenty of high-grade noise cancelling earphones out there, but a set of buds that actively work to help you sleep is a game-changing premise. Phillips have partnered with Kokoon to bring you the Phillips Sleep Headphones, the latest in an effort to grant users a deeper, and more serene night’s kip.

Running in a frequency range between 20 and 20,000 Hz, the Phillips Sleep Headphones aim to deliver an improved night sleep through active noise masking. Not to be confused with noise cancelling, noise masking actively blocks out external noise, typically using other relaxing sounds and music. The Phillips Sleep Headphones use innovative SnoreProtect™ technology in order to achieve this.

Not only do these in-ear headphones attempt to drastically improve your sleep, but they also come with dedicated sleep tracking technology too. Through high-tech sensors in the device, it can detect various elements of your nightly sleep such as your sleep stages, sleep efficiency, quality, and length. All data of which can be located in the Kokoon app.

Our resident Digital Writer Jack Barrell has been able to test the Phillips Sleep Headphones for himself, dedicating his efforts to judging whether they’re worth your money. He’s looked at whether the headphones deliver on the bold promises, and he's determined where they might fall a bit short. Here’s the What’s the Best review.

Verdict: A lot of work has been put into making the Phillips Sleep Headphones a standout piece of audio tech. That’s true for the most part, thanks to innovative noise masking technology, and a cohesive and pleasant mobile app experience. However, like with many sleep buds, the Phillips Sleep Headphones don’t make any huge strides in practicality or liveability. If you’re a fan of sleep buds already – amazing. If you’re not, there’s a good chance the Phillips Sleep Headphones won’t be able to sway you.

Getting set up

The setting up process for the Phillips Sleep Headphones was as good as any. They come in secure boxing, everything I needed was separated into individual compartments consisting of the headset, instruction manuals, charging cable and bonus accessories. These accessories I speak of are four additional pairs of ear buds, all varying in size in order to accommodate all ear shapes and sizes. I was also pleased to see a smart little case included, this I imagine would be ideal for users who spend a good chunk of time travelling.

The headphones did require charging straight off the bat, but this only took around an hour based on them not being totally out of juice to start with. Following the clear instructions provided, I recognised a pretty familiar Bluetooth paring process which involved my smartphone and the Kokoon app. I did have to start a free trial on a Kokoon subscription in order to get up and running, which I did find somewhat sly. I saw no option to proceed without the subscription. Although, once set up I was able to cancel the free trial and still use the headphones, just at the cost of having less content to choose from.

Saying this, the Kokoon subscription does only cost £35 a year. So, if you’re getting the prolonged use out of these sleep headphones, it’s not such a bad deal.

The good news

Kicking things off on a positive note, the sleep tracking tech in the Phillips Sleep Headphones is second to none. Courtesy of cutting-edge sensors found in the backpiece of the headphones, they measure head movement as well as changes in the amount of reflected infra-red light from the base of your ear.

This is where the Kokoon app shines brightest too, it’s here that I was able to view my sleep data from the night before. Much like smart watches and fitness tracker apps that track your sleep, the Kokoon app displays your overall sleep in the style of a graph. This graph details each stage of sleep, including light, deep, REM, and time spent awake.

Speaking of other sleep tracking devices, I did wear a Fitbit Charge 6 whilst testing the Phillips Sleep Headphones in attempt to get a better outline of accuracy by pairing the two findings. To my surprise, I found a general likeliness in the resulting sleep data. There were some minor discrepancies as can be expected, but for two devices that track your sleep through different metrics, I was impressed by the Phillips Sleep Headphones.

When I touched on the setting up process, I mentioned that Phillips provided four alternative earbud moulds to go with the headphones. I thought this was great to see. Unfortunately, not all headphones and earbuds are made for all ears. If I ever came across some poor fitting buds, I’d either have to just put with it, or completing rule them out. Phillips have negated this common issue by providing these additional fitting options.

The bad news

Before anything else, I have to talk about the practicality and the design of these things. The Phillips Sleep Headphones are not going to be for everyone. Yes, they’re light and have clearly been designed to sit on the head in a streamlined fashion, but I just found them so awkward to wear. Not only do you have to get used to the backplate on the back of your head, but you have to take great care to not yank the two wires that go around your head. In my personal experience too, I couldn’t sleep on my side without compromising how the earbuds sat in my ear.

Despite the Phillips Sleep Headphones being fundamentally designed to aid your sleep, I found I had to adjust my circumstances and alter my habits in order to get even a glimpse of the intended experience. This isn’t to say that other users might not find the design to be faultless, I just didn’t bond with it as well as I’d have liked, and I’m sure I won’t be the only one.

What's just okay?

So, when going to sleep with these headphones there’s the option to play one of the provided tracks or sound files. Alternatively, you can play your own music through a separate app like Spotify or Apple Music. As far as earbuds go, I didn’t find the audio quality to be anything to write home about. While I can accept that they're far better with the in-app audio files, I can imagine most users (like myself) might already have specific music in mind to help them better get off to sleep.

I found myself on the fence regarding the battery life of the Phillips Sleep Headphones. Phillips states that you get 10 hours of music playtime. I can’t really argue whether this makes good or bad battery life, because it’s going to come down to your usage and how long you’re listening to music for until you sleep. To their credit, the sleep headphones will stop playing music once the sensors detect that you’ve fallen asleep. However, everyone takes varying amounts of time to fall asleep. If you struggle more than others, you’ll feel as if you've drawn the short straw and charging the Phillips Sleep Headphones much more frequently.

Who is it for?

I can’t see the Phillips Sleep Headphones being an ideal entry level piece of sleep tech for just anyone. These headphones will be best suited to those who have experience with sleep headphones, they know how they work, and they know how best to use them.

Ultimately, a pair of sleep headphones should be for anyone who wants help with their sleep. While this may well be the case with the Phillips Sleep Headphones, it can’t be ignored that how well you get on with them is going to be an entirely personal experience that can go one way or another. Factors like sleep position, routine, and other habits will undoubtedly impact this.

Would we recommend it?

Put it like this, we wouldn’t not recommend it. The Phillips Sleep Headphones will be an absolute hit for some, but for others it could end up falling completely flat. We’d by no means recommend it to sleep tracking and sleep bud beginners, but if it’s far from your first rodeo, you may well see the good.

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Who tested it?

The Phillips Sleep Headphones were tested by Jack Barrell, our resident Digital Writer and Tech Reviewer. He’s no stranger to trying out new smart tech, speakers, and a host of other gadgets whenever he has the opportunity.

How was it tested?

It’ll be no surprise to anyone that in order to test the Phillips Sleep Headphones, I used them nightly, as I slept. I simultaneously tested the headphones and the Kokoon mobile app over the course of a week. I quickly learned that you can’t truly get the most out of the product without utilising both.

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Jack Barrell is a Tech and Fitness Writer and Reviewer for What’s the Best. He is invested in the entertainment space and also keeps well in the loop with the latest sports and exercise trends too. On his off days, Jack can usually be found either in the gym – or watching his favourite Star Wars for the thousandth time.

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