Be it wrestling with headphones or earbuds, or sharing a bed with someone that prefers silence, drifting off to sleep with an audio soundtrack is not always the most practical method of relaxation. But this handy, inexpensive speaker may be just the thing to solve some of the common issues people face at bedtime.
The lightweight PEACE Pillow Speaker from Jabees is designed for your ears only, using bone conduction technology to deliver whatever your chosen audio is – a podcast, music, audiobook or meditation track – just to you. At just over half an inch (13.7 mm) thick it's as thin as a smartphone and around half the size, so it sits flat and unobtrusively between the mattress and pillow, to send vibration-based audio to whoever is resting their head above it.
“We wanted to create a solution for people who share a bed but don’t share the same bedtime habits,” said Jabees co-founder Louisa Cheng. “The PEACE speaker allows users to fall asleep with their favorite audio – without needing earbuds or worrying about waking their partner."
The speaker connects to a smartphone via Bluetooth, or you can load up an SD card with chosen audio and control the volume and tracks via its simple control panel. Obviously, you're not going to get the kind of noise-canceling, immersive sound experience that you'd experience with, for example, earbuds, but it's a damn sight more comfortable – especially if you're a side sleeper.
The advantage this speaker has, however, is the way in which audio is transmitted to the listener – unobtrusive and pleasantly passive, that makes it surprisingly easy to drift off to sleep with and not be then woken up by it. Though it also comes with the option of several timer modes – 30 minutes, an hour and two hours – so it'll switch off and conserve battery once its done it's job. And whatever is being broadcast is inaudible to anyone else alongside you (as long as you're not sharing a pillow, that is).
You'll get around 10 hours of playback from it, so you will need to charge it up during the day. And it's perhaps best suited to side sleepers. I personally enjoy the way it provides "background noise" that doesn't block out everything else in the process. And not waking up having to find a missing earbud somewhere in the bed is also a bonus.
Jabees, which has been making sleep-friendly and audio gadgets for more than a decade, has kept things simple here – the speaker is easy to operate, charge and connect to. And the audio is surprisingly crisp for something traveling through something like a pillow. Weighing just 1.6 ounces (45 grams), the little unit – which comes with a protective pouch – is also ideal for travel.
The speaker supports MP3 and WAV file types, but will also connect to apps such as Spotify. And you'll need around two hours to get it fully charged up after a night's use. The standard unit is US$35.99, with a PLUS version that comes with an SD card loaded up with nature sounds available for $39.99. Shipping is a standard $10 anywhere in the world (free for orders of $50 or more). You'll also get a year's warranty on the speaker, and seven days to return it if it doesn't live up to the hype.
Source: Jabees