I compared the viral $50 earplugs with my $300 sleep earbuds – here are the results

I’ve reviewed several sleep earbuds designed to play music or ambient noise for a one-way ticket to snooze town. While I’ve enjoyed several of them, like the $300 Ozlo Sleepbuds and the $150 Anker A20, sometimes I don’t need more noise to fall asleep, I need less. 

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That’s where the tried-and-true earplug comes in. It blocks out noise and seals out the outside world without all of the tech and charging that comes with a wireless sleep earbud. I’ve tried Loop’s Quiet earplugs to send me to sleep before, so I was excited to test out its newest earplugs, the Dream earplugs, designed specifically for sleep.

For context, my apartment overlooks a busy Brooklyn street that produces a symphony of sounds — ambulance sirens, police sirens, motorcycle engines, car horns, you name it — as I try to fall asleep. Sleep headphones and earplugs have been a godsend on particularly noisy nights, and I wanted to put the Dreams to the test. 

The Dream earplugs are made with silicone eartips that follow the shape of your ear and reduce up to 27 decibels of noise. Available in Black, Peach, or Lilac, the earplugs come with a small case and four eartips for ear sizes extra small through large. 

As a side sleeper, I liked the flat wing of the earplug that positions itself comfortably so you can lie on your ear and avoid any pressure. I slept with the tiny Dream earbuds for a few nights and found them to nearly dissolve into my ear. The light and thin silicone material fits snugly and feels invisible. 

It took a few tries to get the seal to fit properly so I could experience silence. For a few nights I positioned them incorrectly in my ears with the wrong-sized ear tip, and I thought they were nearly useless; I could hear everything. Then I found the right size and secured them properly. This experimentation and sizing time is essential for the earplugs to actually work for you.

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As I was falling asleep with them adjusted correctly in my ears, I asked myself if this was what silence really sounded like. I hadn’t heard it in a while until I put the earplugs in. The sounds of cars on rainy roads diminished, and honks and horns became a distant memory. To see how a snoring partner would sound with the Loop Dreams in, I played a YouTube audio of ambient snoring and turned it up on my phone. As I laid on my side with the earplugs in, the snoring sounds felt farther away, though still noticeable. The earplugs significantly dimmed down the harsh noise. 

This may seem dramatic, but I was genuinely surprised by the Loop Dream. They inspired revelations and questions. I began wondering where else I could use them to experience true silence – or even reduce noise in louder places, like the subway, the office, heck, even my living room as I vacuum. 

To secure them, you twist them so and the flat coin of the ear tip is pressed up against your inner ear. As you twist the earplugs farther into your ear, you’ll feel the sound seal being formed. This is all to say: the earplugs go pretty deep into your ear, thanks to the design of the conical eartips that can plunge in, taking up space and pushing out sound. 

Unromantically speaking, they tend to get covered in earwax after a proper night’s rest, which explains why Loop encourages people to replace the tips after 100 wears. These didn’t stay in my ears throughout the night, but that’s par for the course; I haven’t used any that lasted the whole night through. 

ZDNET’s buying advice

The big question is: are these worth $50? That’s a lot to spend on some earplugs, I know. But if you are a city dweller in dire search of silence, I recommend the Loop Dreams. They make disturbances sound farther away and, when properly inserted, work well. 

I’d also recommend these to people with partners who snore, although keep in mind that, if your sleeping partner is a thunderous snorer, no earplug or earbud will silence that sound completely. They will, however, reduce the noise.