Kokoon's ultra-slim NightBuds sleep-audio earbuds hit the US$380,000 mark on Kickstarter

Kokoon is a company that claims to have been making sleep-promoting headphones for the last 7 years. Its latest products, however, are wireless earbuds directed at the same use-case. The NightBuds fall into the emerging category of smart audio wearables that can be worn through the night so as to help improve the user's sleep.

These NightBuds have a depth of 5.4mm, compared to the 9.1mm of the ZenBuds and the 12.7mm of the Bose Sleepbuds II; furthermore, Kokoon asserts they are about 391% slimmer than the average earbud. Then again, they are not truly wireless, being connected by a kind of skull-conforming band that is worn around the back of the head and secured there with its coil-like connectors.

This head-band contains the NightBuds' battery and USB type C charging port (which may explain why the actual buds are so thin). Their sleep-related functions are described as deployed through AI technology informed by Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) techniques.

They include distraction techniques, in which a user's chosen podcast or other audio stream is played until they fall asleep; and masking, by which rhythmic music or other track types are played in order to block or tune out noise. The earbuds can also detect when this has helped the user get to sleep through optical blood-flow sensing and accelerometers.

The Kokoon NightBuds are now available starting from £115 (~US$149) at present on Kickstarter. They have proven popular on this platform, attracting about $390,000 in backing so far.