I’ve worn ear plugs every night for as long as I can remember. I’m a light-sleeper and super sensitive to noise, so sharing a room with my sister as a child proved too much at times. One day, with a daughter driven to despair over sleeplessness, my dad bought some bright yellow foam ear plugs to try.
Fast-forward 15 years and I haven’t looked back: I live in a shared flat in the city and the plugs are still my bedtime companion. They’re cheap and cheerful, but also disposable – meaning I get through about one pair per week. I bulk buy them every few months to save cash, but recently have been thinking about how much more environmentally-friendly it would be to have a reusable pair.
I decide to try Flare Audio’s Sleeep Pro ear plugs, promisingly described as “revolutionary” and designed specifically for “all-night comfort and blocking irritating noises”. On paper they sound perfect, but how do they fare in real life?
The plugs use metal to block sound, rather than absorbing it like my beloved foam ear plugs, according to the website. When I open the box there are two metal shafts (one for each ear) alongside varying-sized pieces of black foam, which you attach to each size of the metal depending on your ear canal size, I guess.
Night one: ‘They take a big of wiggling around to get in right’
I’ve been putting plugs in my ears for longer than a decade and I’ve never struggled to get them in, but the Sleeep plugs take a bit of getting used to. This is mainly because of the rigid metal core with foam pieces on each side (unlike my usual ones that can be squished in any position or direction).
I follow the instructions on how to slot them into your ear comfortably on the pack, and it takes a bit of wiggling until they slot in and the sound around me becomes muffled. For the first night, I use the medium-sized buds. The pack says to start with the small versions, but I already feel like the small-ish looking ones won’t filter noise enough for me – trust me, I could hear a feather dropped on a carpet.
When I go to bed, I can hear the muffled voices of my neighbours in their living room, which I don’t usually hear. I’m stressed about not falling asleep quickly because I have an alarm set for 5.45am the next morning, so I switch back to my usual ear foam ear plugs and squish them right in. The sounds are gone and I fall to sleep.
Night two: ‘I realise how aware I am that they’re in my ears’
I’m not ready to give up just yet. The next night I move on to the bigger ear plugs – yes, that’s a size large. I wiggle them around until I can feel they’re positioned in the right spot and push them in further than the previous night. The sounds of my flatmates are muffled and near non-existent, but as I try and fall asleep I realise how aware I am that they are in my ears.
Considering I sleep with ear plugs every night, it’s a strange feeling. I know it’s down to how rigid they are. The metal means they aren’t as soft in my ear and it sort-of feels like they are throbbing. Alas, I fall asleep with them in and they do block out sound. I wake up in the morning and they still aren’t comfortable. Some might say the noise reduction makes up for the discomfort – but my foam ear plugs do both.
Night three: ‘They’re more comfortable the less you push them in’
I try the bigger ear plugs again, but don’t push them in as far. I’m lucky this night, because my neighbours are quiet and my flatmates are out, too – so there aren’t many irritating sounds to block out (aside from the weird boiler tick in my radiator). They work fine and I wake up in the morning after a peaceful night’s sleep. They’re more comfortable the less you push them in, but this also blocks out less noise.
I try them sporadically over the next few nights – some nights they seem fine and others I swap them out last minute with my trusty yellow foam pair.
The verdict?
The ear plugs do block out noises – but they’re not better (and perhaps even not as good) as my trusty foam plugs. This is probably because the foam ones, without a rigid centre, allow me to push them in at an angle quite far.
I know I’m incredibly sensitive to noise, so I can’t help but think I’m being too fussy – but I wouldn’t be spending my cash on these for sure.