Of all the use cases I expected when testing NextSense Smartbuds, blocking out the loud nocturnal calls of penguins wasn’t one of them—but I’m happy to confirm they’re excellent at it. Other noises they blocked out on my trip to Australia: three screaming babies creating a surround sound on my flight, doors slamming in the hotel hallway, and my husband’s early morning alarms. If you’ve ever worn cheap foam earplugs and still woken up ten times a night, you need to know about sleep earbuds—and the NextSense Smartbuds are among the best I’ve tested.
What Are NextSense Smartbuds?
NextSense Smartbuds are earbuds specifically designed for sleep. Unlike regular earbuds, they have a flat profile that stays comfortable no matter which position you sleep in. They play soundscapes (or your own audio) to mask disruptive noise, and use clinical-grade EEG sensors to monitor and improve your sleep quality in real time.
What’s in the Box
When your NextSense order arrives, inside the box you’ll find the earbuds, a compact charging case that fits in the palm of your hand (perfect for travel), and three sizes of ear tips and wings to mix and match for a custom fit.
Before your first night of sleep, you’ll need to download the free NextSense app, which will walk you through setting up the Smartbuds and finding the perfect fit for the ear tips and wings.
Sound Options
NextSense Smartbuds come preloaded with soundscapes engineered specifically for sleep and noise blocking, organized into categories: weather and water, forest and fields, noises of all colors (including white, pink, brown, and blue), homes and hums, binaural beats, and ambient compositions designed to calm the mind and ease you into restorative sleep. Every sound has an optional enhanced sound masking mode that can drown out snoring and other disruptive noise. On my trip, I went with ocean waves to pretend I was sleeping at the beach, even when I was upright in economy.
The Smartbuds do an impressive job blocking noise—there were nights my husband complained about loud hotel sounds that I slept right through. They won’t block everything, though, which is actually a good thing: I could still hear a fire alarm going off early one morning.
Quieter sounds like a phone alarm may get masked by the soundscapes, so it’s worth setting your wake-up alarm through the app instead. The alarm will play directly through the buds, which is helpful if you want to get up without disturbing your partner.
The NextSense App and Sleep Tracking
The NextSense app is where the Smartbuds really stand out from other sleep earbuds I’ve tested. The buds use EEG (electroencephalography), the same technology used in sleep labs and clinical research, to directly sense the electrical patterns of your brain. Six clinical-grade EEG sensors monitor brain activity in real time, giving you a far more accurate picture of your sleep than a wrist-based tracker can.
Each morning, the app shows you nightly graphs of how many times you fell asleep, how many times you woke up, your overall sleep efficiency score, sleep duration, and slow waves per hour. When the Smartbuds detect certain shifts in brain activity, adaptive sounds play automatically to nudge you back into an ideal sleep state.
Key app settings include: starting the soundscape immediately when you begin a session, pausing audio once you’re asleep, and a deep sleep boost mode that detects when you’re in deep sleep and adjusts the soundscape to enhance its effects. I found that pausing the audio once I fell asleep actually woke me up due to the transition to silence, so I recommend toggling off that setting if you have the same issue.
Battery Life
The Smartbuds’ battery life lasted between 8 and 9 hours each night for me. Just make sure to charge them each morning and put them in when you’re actually ready to sleep so you’re not burning through the battery before you drift off.
Comfort for Side Sleepers
I’m a side sleeper, and once I found the right combination of tips and wings, the NextSense Smartbuds were comfortable to wear all night. The flat profile and cushioned tips definitely help.
Fit Kit Subscription
NextSense offers a Fit Kit subscription for $14.99/month that delivers fresh ear tips and wings to your door monthly, making it easy to keep your Smartbuds clean and hygienic.
Price
NextSense Smartbuds are currently on sale for $249 (originally $399) on NextSense’s website.
Final Verdict
Overall, the NextSense Smartbuds helped me sleep better, especially while traveling. Even on a long-haul flight where it took me forever to fall asleep, the ocean sounds kept me from spiraling into that anxious spiral of stressing over not sleeping. I did eventually get there, and I think the soundscapes helped.
The Smartbuds are very comfortable to wear, whether you’re awake or asleep, and they do an excellent job at blocking noise. The sleep tracking gives you helpful data, and according to the app, both my sleep duration and quality have improved, which makes it worth the price tag.
Other Sleepbuds I’ve Tested
Sleep earbuds are always in my suitcase! Read my review of the Ozlo Sleepbuds and the Soundcore Sleep A20.
