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 an excellent 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 companion. However 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 just a few years after the battery wears out?
Piercing pillows, because the title suggests, promise ache reduction for anybody with a freshly pierced ear. They characteristic cutouts that droop the ear whereas sleeping, to keep away from placing stress on the delicate tissue. I’m right here to inform you that in addition they work nice with bulbous AirPods, Galaxy Buds, Pixel Buds, and every other fashionable earbuds you may 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 just a few causes, primarily as a result of it has two ear cutouts for added flexibility.
I sleep in two facet positions. One I prefer to name the authoritarian cuddle, the place my backside arm is absolutely prolonged beneath one facet of the pillow whereas my high 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 straightforward to find when tossing and turning at night time.
The reminiscence foam used within the Ear Pillow additionally fits my desire for a comparatively thick, agency pillow — although I do want it was as agency because the $59.99 Ikea Club Spor 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 could be eliminated and washed as required.
The Ear Pillow is 26 inches (66cm) lengthy and 15 inches (38cm) large, which makes it barely narrower than a US Customary pillow. Meaning a Customary pillowcase will sag a bit, which is nice as a result of the additional material could be stuffed into the earholes. I exploit mine with a pillowcase that matches my bedding as a result of I’ve been informed 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 12 months. After a bumpy begin, a flurry of firmware updates corrected many of the early points. However there’s no quantity of software program that may overcome the inherent limits of units that require drivers and batteries which can be a lot smaller than conventional earbuds. Having spent per week with the Blissbury pillow, I now really feel foolish for spending 4x the quantity on earbuds which can be inferior to the AirPods Professional I already owned.
The makers of shopper electronics would love for us to imagine that solely they’ll easy out the friction of recent life. However generally, all you really want is an oddly formed piece of froth.
All pictures by Thomas Ricker / The Verge
