If you have trouble sleeping or could just benefit from some soothing assistance, then the Kokoon Nightbuds might be an answer.

These are smart earbuds designed to offer a comfortable fit that you can wear as you drift off to sleep, along with the help of the relaxing sounds from the Kokoon app. 

We've seen Kokoon's Sleep Headphones before and found them to be a wonderful way to drift off to sleep after a hard day - or use them to simply to relax and unwind. But for side sleepers, they were a bit too chunky and therefore sometimes uncomfortable.

With the Nightbuds, however, those issues are no longer present. But can in-ears be as good for relaxation though? We've been snoozing with the Nightbuds to find out.

Our quick take

The Kokoon Nightbuds are a great option if you have trouble sleeping or simply want a better, deeper sleep.

There's lots on offer in the app in terms of data, too, but more importantly soundscapes and audio sessions that you can really get lost in. 

We found these in-ear headphones to be marvellously comfortable, well thought out, and capable of delivering both wonderful sleep and super relaxation sessions. 

Kokoon Nightbuds - 4.5 / 5

FORAGAINST
  • Comfortable for any sleep position
  • Excellent noise-cancellation
  • Superb fit
  • Multiple calming sound options
  • Ear tips can be frustrating
  • no automatic power-off feature

Side sleeper's joy

  • 5.4mm thickness (in-ear)
  • Four pairs of silicone sizing tips included
  • Sleep Analysis data with heart-rate sensor
  • Passive noise blocking and intelligent noise masking
  • 100mAh capacity battery, delivers 10+ hour battery life

The Kokoon Nightbuds are interesting for a number of different reasons. These in-ear headphones have a curly cable design where each side of the headphones come out of the main control box. That box has simple controls and battery power which allows for over 10 hours of playback before recharging is needed.

The cabling is obviously an important part of the design as it keeps things comfortable and ensures you don't accidentally get strangled in your sleep. That looping also helps to hook the earphones over your ears and tuck the 'buds snugly inside. 

The Nightbuds come with four pairs of silicone tips. These are designed with different sized tips and wings to ensure a nice snug fit in the ear. We found this fit worked really well, as they're not only comfortable but also fit in such a way that they don't pop out without you wanting. This fit also helps to passively block out a lot of surrounding noise. 

These in-ears fit in such a way that you can wear them comfortably while sleeping on your side, with your ear buried into a pillow. But the slim and curved body of the control box also means that you can sleep on your back without any problems too.

The Nightbuds are perfectly suitable to be worn all night long. Not just in terms of comfort but battery life too. Though one small complaint we have is that if you wake up and want to take them off for any reason, we often found the silicone tips would come off in the ear as we took the earphones out. This makes it pretty important to have a clear bedside table or chest of drawers nearby to pop them onto. 

Sleep like a baby

If you've had problems sleeping in the past or find your sleep disturbed regularly, then you might well have tried listening to music, white noise or relaxing podcasts. Nightbuds takes that idea and improves upon it greatly. 

With the accompanying app, you get access to a number of guided sleep programmes, music files, relaxing soundscapes, and more. Those sounds include things like binaural beats which offer fantastically immersive yet soothing and relaxing sounds that can help you unwind.

But our favourites might be the various meditative sessions - including "body scan", "mindful moments", "hypnosis for self-doubt", and more. These feature relaxing voices with suggestive mediation sessions, which talk you through relaxing your body and freeing up your mind from daily worries. 

These meditation sessions are supported by various relaxing background sounds too - like an ocean washing softly over the sand, gentle autumn rains, a campfire crackling, rain onto a windowpane, and more. You can mix and match these to find the sweet spot to help you drop off. 

Kokoon Nightbuds review the app photo 5
Pocket-lint

Nightbuds are not just built to sound great either. They also have passive noise-cancellation thanks to that in-ear fit, along with intelligent noise-masking which removes the sounds of snoring partners or noisy traffic outside your bedroom window.

We found this so effective that we wouldn't notice when a loved one got up in the night to go to the bathroom or a child burst into the room. Certainly a positive (well, apart from the flack we got from our partner the next morning).

Sleep data

Nightbuds sport an infrared light system that works as a sensor that can shine a light on your skin at night to track and measure your heart rate. This technology then allows for monitoring of your sleep. This tracks basic data like how quickly you get to sleep and how long you're asleep for. This system also tracks as you're drifting off to sleep and will automatically fade the music out. 

Kokoon Nightbuds review the app photo 9
Pocket-lint

Despite all this tech, we found the Nightbuds could happily be used for several nights in a row before they needed recharging. One small issue is you need to turn them off if you take them out because there's no automatic power-off functionality at the moment. We thoroughly appreciate having things like volume and power controls on the control box, though, as it means you don't need to touch your phone while you sleep. 

To recap

If you have trouble sleeping or could just benefit from some soothing assistance, then these special 'buds might be the answer.