Forget expensive sleepbuds. Buy this pillow instead

别再买昂贵的睡眠耳机了，买这个枕头吧

Tech companies love to sell us expensive gadgets to solve all of life’s little problems. Sleepbuds sold by the likes of Anker and Ozlo are a good example. These miniature marvels of engineering sit flush in the ear, and allow side-sleepers to doze off listening to podcasts, audiobooks, music, or white noise without annoying their partner. But why pay over $200 for a second pair of highly specialized buds when you can spend a fraction of that for a product that never needs charging, never loses its Bluetooth connection, and won’t need replacing in a few years after the battery wears out?

科技公司热衷于向我们兜售昂贵的小玩意儿，以解决生活中的各种琐碎问题。Anker 和 Ozlo 等品牌销售的睡眠耳机就是一个很好的例子。这些微型工程奇迹可以完全嵌入耳道，让侧睡者在听播客、有声读物、音乐或白噪音时入睡，而不会打扰到伴侣。但是，既然你可以花一小部分钱买到一个无需充电、不会断开蓝牙连接、也不会因为电池老化而在几年后报废的产品，为什么还要花 200 多美元去买第二副高度专业化的耳机呢？

Piercing pillows, as the name suggests, promise pain relief for anyone with a freshly pierced ear. They feature cutouts that suspend the ear while sleeping, to avoid putting pressure on the sensitive tissue. I’m here to tell you that they also work great with bulbous AirPods, Galaxy Buds, Pixel Buds, and any other modern earbuds you might already own.

“耳洞枕”（Piercing pillows）顾名思义，旨在为刚打耳洞的人提供疼痛缓解。它们设有镂空设计，可以在睡觉时悬空耳朵，避免压迫敏感组织。我在这里要告诉你的是，它们与你可能已经拥有的 AirPods、Galaxy Buds、Pixel Buds 以及任何其他现代入耳式耳机搭配使用，效果也非常好。

There are dozens of piercing pillows to choose from in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and firmness. I bought the $55 Ear Pillow from Blissbury for a few reasons, primarily because it has two ear cutouts for added flexibility.

市面上有几十种耳洞枕可供选择，形状、尺寸和硬度各异。我购买了 Blissbury 出品的 55 美元“耳枕”（Ear Pillow），原因有几个，主要是因为它有两个耳洞镂空，灵活性更高。

I sleep in two side positions. One I like to call the authoritarian cuddle, where my bottom arm is fully extended under one side of the pillow while my top arm strangles the other side. The second is just an unsprung fetal position. Blissbury’s piercing pillow accommodates both positions nicely.

我睡觉时有两种侧卧姿势。一种我称之为“权威式拥抱”，即我的一只手臂完全伸展在枕头下方，而另一只手臂则环绕着枕头的另一侧。第二种就是自然的胎儿蜷缩姿势。Blissbury 的这款耳洞枕能很好地适应这两种姿势。

The base of the pillow aligns with my shoulder so hunting for the earholes at night becomes effortless. The cover can be unzipped and washed and a simple 1-inch, included foam insert lets you adjust the thickness.

枕头底部与我的肩膀贴合，因此晚上寻找耳洞位置变得毫不费力。枕套可以拉开拉链进行清洗，随附的一个 1 英寸泡沫垫片还可以让你调节枕头厚度。

I also like that the cutouts fall just below the centerline allowing the holes to align naturally with my ears when the pillow is nestled up against my shoulder. That makes the earholes relatively easy to locate when tossing and turning at night.

我还喜欢它将镂空位置设计在中心线下方，这样当枕头靠在肩膀上时，耳洞能自然地与我的耳朵对齐。这使得晚上翻身时，耳洞位置相对容易定位。

The memory foam used in the Ear Pillow also suits my preference for a relatively thick, firm pillow — though I do wish it was as firm as the $59.99 Ikea Klubbsporre pillow it replaces. The Blissbury’s thickness is adjustable between 4 and 5 inches using a removable insert. The outer cover of the Ear Pillow can be removed and washed as required.

这款耳枕使用的记忆棉也符合我喜欢较厚、较硬枕头的偏好——尽管我确实希望它能像我之前用的 59.99 美元的宜家 Klubbsporre 枕头一样硬。通过可拆卸的垫片，Blissbury 的厚度可以在 4 到 5 英寸之间调节。耳枕的外罩可以根据需要拆卸和清洗。

The Ear Pillow is 26 inches (66cm) long and 15 inches (38cm) wide, which makes it slightly narrower than a US Standard pillow. That means a Standard pillowcase will sag a bit, which is good because the extra fabric can be stuffed into the earholes. I use mine with a pillowcase that matches my bedding because I’ve been told that’s what full-grown adults do. Blissbury ships the pillow with foam fillers for the holes in case the Ear Pillow ever gets demoted to a guest pillow.

这款耳枕长 26 英寸（66 厘米），宽 15 英寸（38 厘米），比美国标准枕头略窄。这意味着标准枕套会显得有些松垮，但这其实是好事，因为多余的布料可以塞进耳洞里。我用的是与床上用品配套的枕套，因为有人告诉我，成年人就该这么做。Blissbury 随枕头附赠了用于填充耳洞的泡沫塞，以防这款耳枕以后被降级为客用枕头。

Sleepbuds might still be the way to go if your partner snores, however. I found the Soundcore Sleep A30’s masking algorithms to be very effective at canceling out light to moderate snoring. Just know that even the latest sleepbuds often require side-sleepers to adjust their pillows just so to make sure the pressure isn’t too acute and the audio isn’t muffled.

不过，如果你的伴侣打呼噜，睡眠耳机可能仍然是更好的选择。我发现 Soundcore Sleep A30 的遮噪算法在消除轻度到中度鼾声方面非常有效。但要注意的是，即使是最新款的睡眠耳机，侧睡者通常也需要调整枕头的位置，以确保耳朵受到的压力不会太大，且音频不会被遮挡。

I’ve been a dedicated user of Anker’s A30 sleepbuds for almost a year. After a bumpy start, a flurry of firmware updates corrected most of the early issues. But there’s no amount of software that can overcome the inherent limits of devices that require drivers and batteries that are much smaller than traditional earbuds. Having spent a week with the Blissbury pillow, I now feel silly for spending 4 倍 the amount on earbuds that are inferior to the AirPods Pro I already owned.

我使用 Anker 的 A30 睡眠耳机已经快一年了。在经历了一段坎坷的起步期后，一系列固件更新修复了大部分早期问题。但无论多少软件优化，都无法克服这些设备固有的局限性——它们的驱动单元和电池必须比传统耳机小得多。在使用 Blissbury 枕头一周后，我现在觉得自己花 4 倍的钱去买一副还不如我已有的 AirPods Pro 的耳机，真是太傻了。

The makers of consumer electronics would love for us to believe that only they can smooth out the friction of modern life. But sometimes, all you really need is an oddly shaped piece of foam.

消费电子制造商很希望我们相信，只有他们才能消除现代生活的摩擦。但有时，你真正需要的只是一块形状奇特的泡沫而已。