Sleep is perhaps one of the most important aspects of maintaining good physical and mental health, but we often don't pay enough attention to it. This has led to a host of sleep-tracking devices that can help us better understand our sleep and make changes to get better rest. However, a new pair of earbuds called the For Me Buds from Sleepwave could take that to the next level.
I had a chance to check out the earbuds for myself at CES 2025.
Design
The experience of using the earbuds starts with their design. The earbuds are tiny, fitting snugly in your ears without causing much discomfort. That's important for sleep, as they won't get in the way of you falling asleep.
Their earbuds have tiny sensors that track your heart rate and brain wave activity. The heart rate monitor works just like the one built into your smartwatch. The brainwave tracking works through a PPG sensor that detects your pulse.
Sleeping
Once you start a sleep-training session, the sensors will kick into gear and start tracking your heart rate and brain waves. The idea is they'll be able to detect how calm or stressed you are using that information to track your sleep. That's not the only thing that will happen, though. These are earbuds and not just health monitors. As they track your sleep, they'll play relaxing sounds in an effort to help you get to sleep quicker, all while noise cancellation is on to contribute to a quieter environment.
I was only able to test the earbuds for a few minutes on the showroom floor at CES. I certainly didn't fall asleep at that time. That said, during my demo, it did seem as though the earbuds were tracking things like my heart rate reasonably accurately. I had my Apple Watch running the heart rate app at the same time, and while they weren't exactly the same, the two devices seemed to track a similar heart rate overall. I can't necessarily speak to the accuracy of the brainwave tech, though, as I had no device to compare it with.
After the sleeping session, which, of course, for me, wasn't a sleeping session at all, you'll get a rundown of the data collected in the app. It'll essentially show you your heart rate and brainwaves over time and give you an AI summary of what you can do to fall asleep quicker.
Sleeping better with earbuds?
It's hard to imagine how brainwave tracking could truly improve sleep tracking more than the technology already built into devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers. That said, it may end up being useful.
After all, brainwave tracking is used in certain medical tests, when combined with sleep, to detect certain forms of seizures and other issues. That said, it doesn’t seem like the company is working on any tech related to medical usage right now.
