Bose wants to improve your sleep with noise-masking 'sleepbuds'

Bose is a large and thriving United States based audio company whose products are known for producing impactful ‘bassy’ music. Bose is also one of the most prolific producers of noise-canceling headphone technology. Now they are using an Indegogo campaign to take that noise canceling technology and implement noise-masking sleepbuds that are specially designed to help you sleep.

According to Bose, 60 percent of adults report issues with the quality of their sleep, and 25 percent of US couples sleep in different rooms from each other, with snoring being the main reason. Foam earplugs help to reduce the noise, but they still allow enough through to trigger the brain. This is where Bose’s prototype sleepbuds come into the equation.

It is important to establish that these aren’t traditional wireless earbuds; you can’t stream audio to these from your phone. To reduce the size to the point where a person can sleep on their side with these in their ears, while still including a battery that will last all night (up to two-night battery life advertised), Bose had to leave out features that would drain the battery too rapidly

The Sleepbuds pair with the Bose Sleep app, where users can set the desired soothing sound (e.g., Ocean Waves), set the volume and set a timeout on the audio. The soothing sounds are pre-loaded on the internal flash memory to reduce battery usage. The app also allows for a wake-up alarm in the morning.

The Bose Sleepbuds come with three sizes of ear tips, a charging/storage case, wall charger, and a travel pouch. All prototype units have now sold out, but it appears that the final pricing is expected at US$249 when retail units are available. The 'Back It' option is still active, but you must be aware that any money pledged via this method is only a donation with no physical product sent to you.