A sleep aid that quietens the noise of my ADHD brain? When Soundcore told me about their new Sleep A30 Smart ANC Earbuds, packed full of features to help me sleep, I was desperate to try them.
Because of my ADHD, I quite often find myself unable to switch off and go to sleep at night. Instead, I will dopamine-farm my way through social media, play mobile games, or research wood carving techniques for hours on end until I physically can’t keep my eyes open any longer. Then, when I shut those eyes, my brain will remind me of 38 different jobs I need to do, and sing 3 different songs from The Lion King at the same time.
These earbuds change all that. The soundscapes are complex enough that instead of thinking about lots of different things, my brain just unpicks the sounds I can hear. Instead of staring at blue light til the wee hours of the morning, I am now lying in a meditative state until I drift off peacefully.
What do they do?
These earbuds can play audio two ways – Bluetooth from your device, or via audio stored locally on them. Bluetooth obviously will drain the battery more, but you can set them to switch when they detect you are asleep. They will switch either to local mode to keep sound going through the night, or switch the audio off entirely.
Then in the morning, you can set an alarm through the headphones themselves, so you don’t have to worry about missing your alarm. There are a range of inbuilt sounds for the alarm, so you aren’t blasted with your phone’s standard harsh tones, and can wake up in a much smoother, more natural way.
Once you set up an account, you can even track your sleep and look at detailed sleep reports to help you keep an eye on your best sleeping habits. My favourite feature, however, is still to come…
AI Brainwave Audio
The AI Brainwave feature of the Sleep A30 earbuds and the Soundcore app is a bit of a game changer for me. This feature uses your brainwaves to tailor a relaxing sound scape for whatever you are doing. There are soundscapes specifically for focus and productivity boosting, which is especially useful for me, as trying to keep me on track with a task is something my wife and my boss both struggle with.
When you are in a calm, meditative state (i.e. sleepy) then this feature keeps the soundscape calm and light, and when there is more brain activity going on, it comes along with you, with more sounds and density. And that’s not distracting, which is quite key, but rather it comes on your journey with you.
You can even add or remove elements and instruments to your soundscape to tailor it to what you want – from a singing bowl, to bubbles, rain sounds, and some instruments I have never heard of in my life (but seem quite relaxing). You can tune the sound to your preference too – density (how much sound there is in the soundscape), space (the ambient space and reverb created), and brightness (essentially EQ). Finally, there’s a Spatial Audio option, which just makes everything sound more 3D and all encompassing.
Other Features
Pair this AI Brainwave Audio with the Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) option in the app, and you’ve got a blissful period of focus on your hands. I work from home, and was testing these out over the summer holidays whilst the kids were running about and causing chaos. The combination of these two features of the A30s meant I could still actually get work done. It was utter bliss.
Snore masking is a feature that my wife would probably make more use of than me, but it’s a nice thing to have. The charging case has a built-in microphone which detects snoring in the room, and adjusts the volume of your audio in the headphones to adaptively mask the noise. Clever stuff.
Conclusion
If you have trouble getting to sleep, these earbuds are for you.
If you have trouble sleeping, these earbuds are for you.
If you have trouble focusing, these earbuds are for you.
In short, there aren’t many people I wouldn’t recommend the Soundcore Sleep A30 earbuds to, and I’m not just saying that because they were kind enough to send me a pair to review. That’s genuine feedback, from a genuinely quiet brain, genuinely wearing them right now to write this review.
If you want to pick up a pair, head to the Soundcore website (https://www.soundcore.com/) or search for them on Amazon.
