NightBuds are tiny, sleep sensing headphones that work with an app to intelligently look after your sleep. 

Developed with sleep scientists, NightBuds help you transform your sleep and relaxation naturally through audio. Escape stress, an active mind, snoring, noisy neighbours and find the perfect, peaceful sanctuary to enjoy your sleep & relaxation.  

We got our start right here on Kickstarter nearly 6 years ago with a belief that technology can help everyone enjoy a better night’s sleep. After shipping over 30,000 headphones and helping over a million sleeps we’ve distilled all the feedback, lessons learnt and ideas to create the Kokoon NightBuds.  

Perfect for side sleepers these soft & tiny earbuds sit deep within the ear secured via a patent-pending five-point anchor system. 

 Relax to your favourite audio, letting sleep sensors detect as you fall asleep, bookmarking your place and then gently fading out your audio

Created with sleep scientists, NightBuds monitor your sleep providing personalized coaching, insights and tips specific to you, to improve your sleep.

Experience immersive 4D audio and escape to incredible soundscapes. Click here to experience an early example developed on our 4D soundstage – Listen with In-ear Headphones! Final experience optimised specifically for NightBuds  

Intelligent noise-masking and passive noise blocking help mask out snoring, noisy neighbours, traffic and can even help with tinnitus.

NightBuds are also a great set of Bluetooth headphones from the gym to the office

The past 12 months have seen us develop numerous designs, tests and iterations of NightBuds.

We enlisted the help of our Kokoon Beta community – ranging from current customers, our most ardent sceptics, and curious newcomers – to trial the NightBuds at each stage of their iteration, to ensure we would arrive at the most comfortable sleep headphones possible.

We invited just a few of our Beta members to share a deep dive into how they got on…

NightBuds use a PPG sensor, located in the right earbud to gather information on your sleep and sleep quality, to feed into the app.

PPG (photoplethysmogram) is an optical sensor used to measure volumetric changes in your blood flow through the use of infra-red light at the skin’s surface. PPG can be used to measure your heart rate and heart rate variability, which has been clinically proven to correlate with physical, mental and emotional stresses.

Using sensor data from your NightBuds, your app analyses and produces a daily summary of your sleep; this includes sleep efficiency, length and quality. Adopting a holistic view of sleep, your app will also begin to identify what has been helping or hindering your sleep and provide specific recommendations to you on how to improve those valuable hours of rest.

We discuss more about the science behind this over on our blog here.

Over the past 18 months, we’ve been working to create the design you see today.

We’ve worked through prototype after prototype, slowly shaving down the size of the earbud for the most discrete fit, creating the most comfortable headphone experience. We’ve spent countless hours analysing ear shapes and sizes, through available data and tested the resulting earbud design extensively with both staff and Kokoon customers. 

A small selection of our testers

To keep the earbud small and slim, we’ve moved the battery, the USB-C connector and the electronics from the earbud itself to a small, flat module placed at the back of the head.

The earpieces are connected to the module via an electrical cable shaped as a flat spring designed for a snug but comfortable fit, to prevent the headphones from moving around. They also allow the headphones to adapt to the size of the user’s head. Pre-moulded in a shape which will stay positioned against the side of the head and deforms in a controlled manner to suit most user’s head and ear shapes and sizes.

Our chosen factory has been working with us most of this year and have produced fully functional samples which we have been testing. The video below shows one of these samples in action showing the core functionality of the app and device. You’ll note this is still a prototype with cosmetic, UX and mechanical improvements still to be made, 

Once our campaign closes, and final pledges have been counted, we will be able to release more detailed information of when we expect to complete shipping backer pledges.