Considering that we spend up to a third of our lives in bed, it’s shocking how little we care about using that time effectively. The Philips Sleep Headphones with Kokoon promise to help you fall asleep with ease; and help you stay asleep until morning. They’re the world’s slimmest in-ear buds, designed to be worn all night and deliver soothing relaxation exercise as you doze off, then playing ambient white noise to help you stay there. And they even have sensors to track your sleep, adjust the audio, and report back in the morning.
While you’ll need a few nights for your ears to accommodate and the app experience wasn’t as smooth as I’d hoped, they mostly deliver on that promise—but at quite a premium price point.
Philips Sleep Headphones With Kokoon
The Philips Sleep Headphones with Kokoon are the tiniest earbuds in the world, designed to be worn all night without discomfort. The app offers guided meditation for better sleep practrices, and fades into colored noise automatically when it detects you’ve fallen asleep. An integrated sensor in one of the earbuds records your sleep data for later analysis—though the app comes with aa yearly subscription, which may put some people off.
My Sleep Experience: Why You Can Trust Me
To offer a little context: as a child, I kept a meticulous dream diary in pursuit of an elusive lucid dream (if only I had these lucid dreaming apps). That led me to study the broader science of sleep cycles, so I’ve always been a sucker for anygadget that induces dreams, tracks sleep, and lets me make better use of that third of my life.
Nowadays, I rely on my Apple Watch to track my sleep patterns. I usually have some form of brown noise on all night—either from other fancy sleep gadgets like thebrain-programming Sleephubor a dehumidifier (a necessity with the combination of a house built in 1850 and wet Cornish air). My sleep is usually interrupted by an old dog and a puppy, so anything that helps me fall asleep faster and stay there is much appreciated. But to be clear, I’ve never had specific issues with sleeping, nor do I live in a noisy area.
Design and Specifications: These Are Teeny Tiny
The Philips Sleep Headphones with Kokoon are probably the strangest-looking pair of earbuds you’ve ever seen. Designed for travel use as well as at home, they come packaged inside a secure case to protect the wiggly wires.
The box includes four additional pairs of tips to get the perfect fit; you’ll want to experiment with each to find the best for you, so allow a week or so to get used to sleeping with these in your ear. Numbered 1-5 with the first already fitted, each is slightly larger than the last, offering more or less noise isolation.
The earbuds are wired to a central control hub and battery housing. This is a rounded, flat control box with three buttons for power and volume (with the volume buttons doubling as a way to change the current track). On the bottom edge is the USB-C port for charging; each charge should last around ten hours—which isn’t enough for more than a single night’s sleep, so you’ll essentially need to charge daily.
On either side of this is a curly set of wires connecting the minuscule earbuds to the hub. This ensures they sit in your ears without too much or too little tension, and with the flexibility for you to move around at night without pulling them out.
I’ll mention audio quality, but only briefly, because they’re not IEMs, and you’re not buying these because you demand top-quality audio. You’re buying them because they can fit in your ears while you sleep without noticing them—and for that, they’re fine. They’re not what I’d expect if I were to pay this much just for a pair of earbuds. They lack bass but are otherwise clear and free of distortion. Listening to ASMR-style tracks is a treat (if that’s the sort of thing that helps you sleep); voices sound brilliant in general. But don’t expect your favorite party playlist to sound its best, and there are no fancy Hi-Res Bluetooth codecs supported for audiophiles.
Wearing the Philips Sleep Headphones: Comfort May Vary
For those with long hair, you’re supposed to place the box underneath, but I found it made little difference either way. I tend to swap positions throughout the night, on both my side and back, and when sleeping on my back, I couldn’t feel either the box or the earbuds at all; it was actually a bit odd having sound played so intimately into my ears without the physical sensation of something in or on them. I use a solid pillow, though it has an indentation in the center, which I found reduced any pressure I would otherwise have felt on my ears. The Philips Sleep Headphones shouldn’t be noticeable if you have a softer pillow.
Fitting the earbuds inside your ear can take a bit of practice, as there’s a definite knack to it. The wire should hook over the top of your ear and lead in from the front side, with the small silicon spike on the earbud facing the back. I found a little twist helped to secure the earbud.
While I couldn’t feel them for most of the night, I usually woke up with a little pain once I removed them, regardless of which tips I used.
The Kokoon App: Subscription Required
My first night with the Philips Headphones was a mixed experience plagued by a buggy app. I keep getting an “update required” message when opening the app; no update was available in the store. I also had a curious “insufficient memory” error at some point, which said I should free up some space. I had 250GB free! Then, the audio cut off abruptly at about 12:30am, despite being set to fade into noise—this was probably related to the earlier errors; perhaps it couldn’t download the audio files. On the plus side, I managed to keep them in all night, despite being a mostly side sleeper, which is the most common complaint.
About two days later, a new update was available which fixed these issues. But had I been a regular consumer, I would have returned them immediately, and I’d suggest Philips take a little more care pushing out broken or mistimed updates.
My next session, the audio features worked correctly, but it appeared to have failed to record the session data. There’s not much in the way of app feedback when it comes to syncing data, other than a small icon in the top right which is easily missed. I must have just turned them off too soon though, as the next time I turned them on and explored some more settings, the data appeared.
The app contains two screens of audio choices. The first screen is soothing noise and soundscapes that loop continuously when played (labeled “Kokoon”). The second is the full audio library, which contains relaxing music, sleep coaching, and various guided meditations—anywhere from 1 to 120 minutes long. You can combine the background noise soundscapes plus anything you choose from the audio library—or, you combine it with your own sound played from other apps.
On top of that, you have the optional Audio Fade Out. When the sensor in your ear detects you’re falling asleep, Kokoon can automatically fade out both your soundscape and audio (even if it’s being played from a different app), and will optionally start a selection of white, brown, or pink noise to mask external stimuli. It’s a smart system, for sure. I assume it worked because I don’t remember the audio stopping.
Over the next week, I listened to the sultry tones of “Steve”, with my choice of autumn rain or log cabin fire background. Steve explained the concept of Kokoon and various relaxation techniques that can help you to fall asleep. He has a delightfully relaxing voice, and the techniques work. I like Steve.
Another tab in the app presents your sleep data, broken down by session and overall trends. Session data is limited compared to Apple Health, with only basics such as overall sleep duration, number of awakenings, and a timeline of light, REM, and deep sleep. But the trends screens can reveal fascinating insights, like what days take you the longest to fall asleep—though it doesn’t make any of the data actionable. It does seem to correlate with what my Apple Watch recorded, but I don’t have medical-grade equipment to confirm either. I’ll also note that the Kokoon app doesn’t register as a data source for Apple Health, so your sleep data isn’t exported.
But this brings us to a sore point: accessing these audio programs and session analysis features requires an annual subscription of around $44 (£35). Simply using them as earbuds does not, of course; it’s a Bluetooth device that you may play audio to. However, using the Kokoon app requires you to log in and have an active subscription. Upon first creating your account, you’ll get a 3-month free trial. But realistically, you shouldn’t buy these if you won’t use the additional features in the app.
Should You Buy The Philips Sleep Headphones With Kokoon?
I must admit, I never fully got used to sleeping with these earbuds, but your mileage will vary. I found the size five tips were the worst, mostly due to the unequal air pressure and the tremendous audio isolation that meant I could hear everything that happened in my nose and mouth in excruciating detail (push your fingers in your ears, then swallow; now imagine that all night), but they offered the best sound isolation. Your mileage may vary, and I can certainly see a use for these if the alternative is worse. In a noisy environment, these would do a great job of drowning it out, which my wife was none too pleased about because I could no longer hear the dog whining when he wanted to go out at 3 a.m. The smaller tips offer less isolation, so I settled on size 2 as a good balance.
Whether you want them for sleeping at home while neighbors that party all night, or dozing off on a plane ride featuring uncontrollable screaming little miracles, the Philips Sleep Headphones could be of immense benefit to you. While they are on the pricey side (and need a yearly subscription to make the most of them), you may’t put a price on a good night’s sleep.
With a sleek travel case, all-night battery, and a selection of guided meditations, soundscapes, and more to help you doze off, you can have an insta-nap anywhere. But for general daytime use, a good pair ofnoise-canceling cansmight be better. Or if you like the sound of the Kokoon apps features, but not the earbuds, you’ll be pleased to knowKokoon also do some headphones.
There’s no doubt that white or brown noise will help you sleep, so if you just want a sleep aid and don’t need to block out other external stimuli, you might find a simplewhite noise appand pair of basic desktop speakers to be a better investment. On the premium end, I still prefer theSleephubto reprogram my brain at night while producing some deep brown noise.
