Best hearing protection for sleeping
This is a common question for hearing protection, be it due to external noise from life in a town or city, shift workers trying to sleep when everyone else is awake, trying to sleep in hotels, or just with a partner who snores a lot.
There is a lot of utter cobblers marketed for this, with wild claims made by new entrants to the market about their hearing protection being the highest noise reduction there is, which usually either turns out not to be true or they simply don’t back that up with a certified SNR figure.
(SNR is a Single Number Rating, how many decibels an ear plug reduces noise by - that tells you how strong an ear plug is).
No Snore Earplugs
To pick one example at random purely based on how often I see them marketed at me in my own social media feed - No Snore earplugs. I see their ads a lot so had a look at them - nowhere on their page does it make it clear how many decibels they reduce noise by, just vague marketing guff about ‘uninterrupted rest’ or ‘advanced noise cancellation’. What exactly is that? What makes it so advanced?
Given they are not shouting front and centre about how many decibels the No Snore Earplugs reduce noise by I suspect the answer is either ‘not a lot’ or ‘not been independently certified’. Oh, and they charge a whopping £34 for them!
No Snore Earplugs comparison table.
Sometimes they just outright mislead, this is the Trump version of ear plug marketing. For example, in this table they seem to say ‘normal’ earplugs are rigid; no, many are not rigid and some are extremely soft. They say normal earplugs don’t block out snoring, yes they do. They say they are disposable, some are, some are not, you can choose. They say they are bulky but some are very small. And they say they have no case but a lot of normal earplugs are sold with a case.
That entire comparison table is just marketing nonsense.
What to look for in earplugs for sleeping
You need two things really:
A decent noise reduction. We have SNR, meaning Single Number Rating, and this is how many decibels an ear plug reduces noise by. For sleeping, generally higher is better.
A soft plug so you can sleep on your side without pressure on the ear canals which will cause aches over time.
Other than that there is nothing special about earplugs for sleeping - a decent decibel noise reduction, and soft.
Recommended ear plugs for sleeping
As part of my working life in noise assessments, part of that is also assessing suitability of hearing protection and staying on top of the hearing protection market. Added to that, I stay in hotels two or three nights a week and always have a bad night from the noises going on - when will people learn that when they are on the corridor they are only a door away from people who may be trying to sleep, but no, they bellow down them ever damn day. Anyway, that means I wear earplugs for sleep routinely.
I do not make or sell ear plugs so have no horse in the race, and there are no affiliate links for these recommended products, indeed to avoid the appearance of a back-hander there are no actual links at all.
E-A-Rsoft FX
These are the Rolls Royce of earplugs for sleeping. They have the highest noise reduction on the market with an SNR of 39dB, and they are VERY soft. No problems sleeping on your side.
On the negatives, they are a little big so someone with smaller ear canals may struggle a bit, but don’t get put off by how big they look as they are VERY soft and squeeze down into a tiny shape, and they are disposable. Given that, you can still wear them three or four times before they don’t expand as much as they used to.
They are however only a few pence a pair so you get a lot of those for the £34 charged by No Snore.
These are what I use all the time, very good. Try a pair and as long as you are OK with the size, and most people will be given how soft they are, you won’t get better.
Honeywell Max Earplugs
Smaller than the FXs, but still very good noise reduction at 37dB, that’s a very good level of attenuation. Soft for sleeping on your side and cheap at about 7p a pair.
E-A-Rsoft 21
Very soft, and smaller than the FX. Still cheap. The main downside is lower noise reduction than the FX, knocking 21dB off against the FX’s 39dB.
