Whether you work the third shift, sleep next to a snoring partner, or routinely wake up to the sounds of heavy construction machinery in the morning, if you’re part of the bad sleep club, you know the agony of prolonged sleep deprivation. Fortunately, sleep headphones are a great tool that we unwilling insomniacs can use to finally catch that elusive REM sleep.
However, sleeping headphones are not ordinary headphones; they require some special features. A secure fit is important so you don’t have to search through the covers for a stray earbud. They need good noise isolation and, ideally, active noise cancellation, which can be a huge help with sleep. And above all, they need to be comfortable because no one wants to suffer from ear pain in the middle of the night.
We’ve seen a few earbuds worth using to get a few hours of sleep come and go, and the Philips Kokoon Sleep are a pair that look promising as comfortable and secure long-term wear.
Philips Cocoon Sleep Headphones
With up to 10 hours of battery life and an ultra-slim design, Philips Kokoon Sleep headphones are perfect for all-night use without worrying about ear pain or running out of battery. Using special sensors on each earbud, these headphones sense when you’re sleeping and automatically lower the volume to white, brown or pink noise.
- very comfortable
- No loose earbuds to lose at night.
- The audio automatically fades into white noise.
- beloved
- The audio library in the app is limited.
- Bluetooth connection is unreliable
- No wireless charging
Price, availability and specifications
The Philips Kokoon Sleep headphones retail for $250. However, you can buy them on Amazon, where they cost $230, or on Kokoon, where they’re currently on sale for $180. The Philips store in the US has a product listing page for the headphones, but oddly enough, you can’t buy them there.
What are the good features of Philips sleep headphones?
Unique design that stays put
The physical design of the Kokoon earphones is unique. They have decent build quality and comfort, and from a purely tactile standpoint, these earphones are well-designed. The semi-coiled wire allows the earphones to stretch to fit you uniquely without any strain or excess looseness. Four different sizes of tips ensure that most users will find a comfortable fit. When I first saw the rather large centerpiece of the earphones, I was immediately concerned that I would just be thinking about the heavy weight on the back of my neck. But it turns out that I barely felt it even when I fell asleep.
So if you do end up getting a pair of these, take heart in knowing that they are very comfortable earbuds. During testing, I didn’t wake up with ear or head pain, and the earbuds stayed in my ears, but you do need to make sure you find the right size ear tip.
The sleep tracking sensors on these headphones are located inside the earbuds. They continuously track your sleep data, which is displayed through the Kokoon app. I like that the Kokoon app provides a long-term, month-over-month look at data like how many times you wake up during the night, your total sleep time, and how many times you reach your target sleep time.
The brand doesn’t offer much information about how the headphones measure and differentiate sleep data, other than to claim that their sensors are “known to monitor sleep more accurately than other well-known brands.” It’s not known who the users are, and information about how consumer-grade ear monitors compare to those used in smartwatches or rings is limited.
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I love the sounds built into the app, which range from meditations to soothing instrumentals to therapeutic chants. It’s also great that the headphones will turn the sound down to white noise when they detect sleep; however, many of the sounds built into the app are no longer than 10 minutes, so if you’re not lucky enough to fall asleep within five minutes, this feature may not be of much value to you.
The passive noise cancellation offered by the Philips Kokoon headphones with their tight ear seal is commendable. Even without an audio output, these headphones provide a solid shield against some environmental noise. They don’t block out as much noise as I would expect for their price, but they’re good. Kokoon says they use noise-cancelling technology rather than active noise cancellation, which is said to be more effective at canceling out noise while you sleep.
What’s bad about Philips sleep headphones?
There are a lot of problems to solve.
It hurts to be honest about not loving a product you really wanted to love, but when it comes to a $200+ purchase, honesty is more than just a good practice—it’s a necessity. The app needs work; it’s too hard to navigate. Plus, it’s annoying when the audio fades into white (or pink or brown) noise. Arguably the most unique feature of these headphones is the paid subscription feature. The home page feels incomplete; it’s mostly empty, with a dedicated button to connect the Kokoon app to your audio source, perhaps like Apple Music or Spotify, but that option never worked for me.
Even without this Spotify integration, you should theoretically be able to use any audio source with the Philips Kokoon’s Bluetooth connection. However, whether due to hardware glitches or connectivity issues, Bluetooth only works three-quarters of the time. The device disappears from my phone connections, and I need to pair it again.
After a few days of use, the performance issues with the headphones got worse. Even when I was able to maintain a Bluetooth connection, the headphones didn’t make any sound at least half the time. The battery level display in the app wasn’t always accurate. Twice, Kokoon reported that my headphones had between 30 and 40% battery, but when I tried to turn them on, the battery was completely dead.
The microphone feels like an unnecessary thought on these earbuds, and its quality isn’t great. First, there are very few calls I want to make and take in the middle of a nap. The volume controls are located on the control pad at the back of your neck, which is far from comfortable. Worst of all, the case doesn’t charge wirelessly, so you’ll have to put these earbuds on the charger after each use throughout the night.
As a final, distant point, the Philips Kokoon Sleep are a very niche design for everyday earbuds. While comfortable, they do look funny, and the sound quality isn’t strong enough for casual music listening. Instead of all the extra fuss (and money) for something designed specifically for sleeping, you might be better off opting for something in a similar price range, like the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II. They’re comfortable, easily pocketable, have a practical application, and fit comfortably while you sleep.
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Should you buy it?
It’s hard to recommend these earbuds for $250. At this price, I’d like to see wireless charging, a more advanced app, and seamless integration with other audio apps. Still, they’re exceptionally comfortable—a big recommendation for side sleepers who frequently experience ear pain after wearing AirPods all night. They stay in your ear, and the noise isolation is remarkable.
If comfort is your priority, and you’re willing to risk the same connectivity issues I did, the Philips Kokoon Sleep headphones might be for you. The Kokoon has the right design formula, but it needs a little more tweaking to offer us, the restless sleepers, a product that promises comfort, value, and protection from annoying noise.
Philips Cocoon Sleep Headphones
With up to 10 hours of battery life and an ultra-slim design, Philips Kokoon Sleep headphones can be used all night long without worrying about ear pain or running out of battery. Using special sensors on each earbud, these headphones sense when you’re sleeping and automatically lower the volume to white, brown or pink noise.
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