Overlook costly sleepbuds. Purchase this pillow as an alternative

Tech corporations like to promote us costly devices to resolve all of life’s little issues. Sleepbuds offered by the likes of Anker and Ozlo are a superb instance. These miniature marvels of engineering sit flush within the ear, and permit side-sleepers to fall asleep listening to podcasts, audiobooks, music, or white noise with out annoying their associate. But why pay over $200 for a second pair of extremely specialised buds when you’ll be able to spend a fraction of that for a product that by no means wants charging, by no means loses its Bluetooth connection, and received’t want changing in a number of years after the battery wears out?

Piercing pillows, because the identify suggests, promise ache aid for anybody with a freshly pierced ear. They characteristic cutouts that droop the ear whereas sleeping, to keep away from placing strain on the delicate tissue. I’m right here to let you know that additionally they work nice with bulbous AirPods, Galaxy Buds, Pixel Buds, and another trendy earbuds you would possibly already personal.

There are dozens of piercing pillows to select from in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and firmness. I purchased the $55 Ear Pillow from Blissbury for a number of causes, primarily as a result of it has two ear cutouts for added flexibility.

I sleep in two facet positions. One I wish to name the authoritarian cuddle, the place my backside arm is totally prolonged below one facet of the pillow whereas my prime arm strangles the opposite facet. The second is simply an unsprung fetal place. Blissbury’s piercing pillow accommodates each positions properly.

I additionally like that the cutouts fall just under the centerline permitting the holes to align naturally with my ears when the pillow is nestled up in opposition to my shoulder. That makes the earholes comparatively simple to find when tossing and turning at night time.

The reminiscence foam used within the Ear Pillow additionally fits my choice for a comparatively thick, agency pillow — although I do want it was as agency because the $59.99 Ikea Klubbsporre pillow it replaces. The Blissbury’s thickness is adjustable between 4 and 5 inches utilizing a detachable insert. The outer cowl of the Ear Pillow will be eliminated and washed as required.

The Ear Pillow is 26 inches (66cm) lengthy and 15 inches (38cm) extensive, which makes it barely narrower than a US Standard pillow. That means a Standard pillowcase will sag a bit, which is nice as a result of the additional material will be stuffed into the earholes. I exploit mine with a pillowcase that matches my bedding as a result of I’ve been advised that’s what full-grown adults do. Blissbury ships the pillow with foam fillers for the holes in case the Ear Pillow ever will get demoted to a visitor pillow.

I’ve been a devoted person of Anker’s A30 sleepbuds for nearly a yr. After a bumpy begin, a flurry of firmware updates corrected a lot of the early points. But there’s no quantity of software program that may overcome the inherent limits of gadgets that require drivers and batteries which can be a lot smaller than conventional earbuds. Having spent every week with the Blissbury pillow, I now really feel foolish for spending 4x the quantity on earbuds which can be inferior to the AirPods Pro I already owned.

The makers of client electronics would love for us to imagine that solely they’ll clean out the friction of recent life. But typically, all you really want is an oddly formed piece of froth.

All pictures by Thomas Ricker / The Verge