Best travel accessory: I’ll never fly again without my favorite earbuds

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In the past six months, I’ve flown to Argentina for a wedding, Miami for another wedding, South Carolina for the holidays, and Costa Rica for a friend’s birthday. And for the whole trip, the first thing I packed was my Soundcore Sleep A20 earbuds.

These have easily become my No. 1 travel necessity.

Why do you sleep with earbuds?

Most people probably bring their AirPods or good noise-cancelling headphones when they fly – and so do I. So, why choose to bring such a niche audio product with limited pocket space?

Soundcore’s Sleep A20s are ours favorite budget sleeping earbuds. They have a 14-hour battery life, so they last all night – or on a long flight – and the Soundcore app comes loaded with sounds and white noise options. What attracts me the most is how comfortable they are.

My AirPods 4 are great for walking, taking calls, and listening to music for short periods of time. But the ear fatigue I feel is real. I’m not going to lie and say that the Sleep A20s don’t feel like they’re there, but they do put a lot of pressure on my ear, and I can wear them comfortably for long periods of time. They’re also better at passive noise cancellation than my AirPods, which have a stronger signal.

Also, I enjoy having an app dedicated to my sleep sounds, so Spotify Folded it doesn’t change in my top song “The Brown Sound of Deep Sleep.”

I slept on a long flight

My overnight flight from New York to Buenos Aires was about ten hours, and I slept eight or nine hours on it. I burst out loud Bob’s Burgers movie I nodded, then put on the eye mask and took it out.

My ultimate travel companion.
Credit: Miller Kern / Mashable

The great thing about the Soundcore sleep buds is that they work just like regular Bluetooth earbuds. So I was able to connect them to my iPad to play movie audio, then switch to sleep sounds when my eyes got strained.

I have a few personal sounds downloaded from the Soundcore app, so I let the sounds of a crackling fire, rain on a tent, and cicadas lull me to sleep. When the buds realize I’m really asleep, they switch to white noise.

It was the same story on the flight home. It was another night flight, and I lined up an episode of Bob’s Burgers until I was ready to go out. I woke up maybe an hour and a half into the flight (just in time for the delicious Greek yogurt breakfast), and my partner said he kept waking up the entire flight. I felt really relaxed.

A lifesaver for noisy Airbnbs

The Airbnb I stayed at in Miami was across the street from a nightclub. The music there played until dawn and he almost couldn’t sleep. Luckily, I had my sleeping pills.

I put those bad boys in, chose my sleep sound made up of meditation music, dryer, and rain, and fell into a deep sleep. The next morning, my partner, again said that he had a bad night’s sleep and kept being woken up by the music of the club. I slept all night, no problem.

The Soundcore app has preloaded sounds.
Credit: Screenshot: Soundcore

Or you can make your own with up to three white noises at a time.
Credit: Screenshot: Soundcore

If you have a snorer in the house, sleep earbuds can be the difference between a frustrating, sleepless night and a night of white noise bliss. I visited my mom for Christmas, and she and her partner are both snoring like you wouldn’t believe it. I could hear them from the guest house, so I went into the Sleep A20s and blocked them until morning.

A permanent fixture in my travel bag

I’ve brought the Soundcore Sleep A20s on every trip I’ve taken since I bought them, and I plan to take them on all my future trips. They’re small enough that I don’t feel like they’re taking up space in the precious bag you’re carrying. Because they work like old Bluetooth earbuds, I can also use them as a replacement for AirPods – they’re more comfortable, too.

If I’m ever on a noisy flight or stuck sharing space with a snorer, I know the Sleep A20s will come to my rescue.

This model of Soundcore sleep earbuds doesn’t have noise cancellation, but that doesn’t bother me. It’s enough of a noise mask for me to sleep comfortably. However, if you prefer noise-canceling sleep earbuds, my colleague, Bethany Allard, likes Soundcore Sleep A30 Specials.