I've been sleeping with IEM for almost 12 years now, and I happen to own a couple IEMs, and was looking for what was the latest news in the field of IEMs for sleeping when I saw your topic which prompted me to register an account to share my experience.
Here are a few things I experienced:
- If you sleep on the side, then your head is lying flat on the cushion and it is super important to have a small size IEM, otherwise it makes it very uncomfortable.
- You want to use foam tips in my experience, they definitively are the most comfortable and the less likely to leave your ear feeling like it was stabbed if the IEM moved strangely while sleeping. I usually use the Comply Foam ones from their Isolation line. The triflange from Etymotics or the silicone tips tends to get "watery" when plugged into your ear for a whole night, whereas foam tips are holding up better.
- The smaller the tip, the better because then it means more foam between the tip and your ear. I recommend IEMs that can fit the TX100 range from Comply in general.
- Most common problem is the fact that the cables have a problem at the Y split, or at the connector between the cable and the IEM. (But notice I'm using them every night with a timer set at 40 minutes to get asleep, that's roughly 240 hours of usage within a year, and then since I'm asleep I might be moving around and the cables are suffering, it makes sense that they get broken quicker than I wished)
- Try and avoid cables with a mic or a remote, they tend to get in the way and get printed on your face while sleeping or so.
Now, from the IEMs POV, here are the few I tried to sleep with:
- Phonak Audeo PFE, any model : the best I ever slept with, sadly the cables would break after a year or two, and they are now discontinued. Very comfy, you could press all you want against your ear and it won't bother you at all. I owned 3 models, I'd love them to come back
- SoundMagic PL50: not the BIS gear, but these are a bit easier to source nowadays than the Phonak, sadly they also break after like a year of use. For reference, I ordered 2 pairs from a drop last year in May, and the left one stopped working last week, and I'm now using the second pair. I recommend them, especially given the price tag.
- Jays q-JAYS: I got the first generation in 2011 and the cables sadly broke after a year or two, which is sad given the price tag. They were so small though, it was comfy. (I'm hesitant to buy the new ones, they are expensive, but you can replace the cable...)
- Cosmic Ears BA1: I wanted to try with molded ones, and they were fairly inexpensive compared to others... But sadly sleeping with molded IEM is not comfortable. They fit tightly and isolate well, but they are too hard, and too warm, and are just not comfy for a night.
- Etymotic HF2 & HF3: I started with the former, lost them and bought the latter out of frustration upon the loss of the first ones. I LOVE them for outdoor stuff, they isolate very well and are very comfy, with very tight fits. But for sleeping, they are useless to me. I tried a couple times, and honestly, as soon as you move around in your bed, they will be pulled or pressed in weird direction, which can fairly easily hurt after staying like that for I while. So I do not recommend them at all for sleeping, but I do recommend them as much as you want for taking the subway, the train or so. For walking and sport, they can be a bit dangerous being given they isolate even better than the molded IEM I got! (I actually bought 3 months ago the ER4XR because I love the Etymotic sound and fit, but that's not for sleeping, only for enjoying my music while standing/sitting)
Now, I've recently notice the KZ ZSA, which are very cheap and seem to have a size and form that could fit nicely, but I haven't tried them yet. I plan to order them and test them in the coming weeks. I also noticed the Shure se215, but I couldn't source them without a Mic in Switzerland and was too lazy so far to order them along with a third party Mic-less cable.
Here are my few cents, hope it helps
Holy Molly guacamole, you have earned a medal in my book! Such an informative post, I'm really impressed, and very thankful as well! I ended up getting the Shure 215's cause I felt like they hit all the required marks that I was looking for. My new Shure 215 IEM's came today, talk about fast shipping from my favorite site Amazon. This marked the first day in years, that I have ever worn ear buds. Once I got them in my ears, using the stock tips, I was truly amazed at how good the sound isolation was, dude, they were covering up most of the noise from a all metal 12" desk fan!
(DING) We have isolation, thats 100-points earned!
Now when it comes to comfortability, keep in mind, I have so little experience with IEM's, I cannot really be considered an expert in this area. However, this was my first time wearing them, so obviously my ear canals need time to adjust to something new. I only wore them for 20-minutes, long enough to get a feel for them. Comfortability wise, for first time use, not too comfortable, but not really bad either.
(DING) Somewhat comfortable, 50-points earned!
Now lets talk about sound quality. My only experience with ear buds were the 10 to 20 dollar pair that you could buy in Radio shack that would also often come with mini Walkman's, back in the 90's, and they were so tiny, no mids, and no bass, just terrible. Add the fact that I could never keep them in my ears, I developed a hate for ear buds. Now the Shure 215's are much better sounding then those things by miles! I can't believe that these tiny things have sub-bass, not a whole lot of it, but its noticeable on Hip Hop music! They seem to provide a very warm sound, and seem to favor the mids quite a lot. There are also noticeable highs, but they are not very well done. So do they match up with Audiophile quality?
(BUZZER) Sound Quality is not good -50 points lost!
Now lets talk about the style. I really do like the style! I have got to admit, for 100-dollars, you do get a nice looking pair of IEM's. Best part is, you can even pick the color you want. I was about to buy the black pair, but I saw they had a blue pair, I like blue, so I ordered those. They are shaped to contour your ear, so that they are a flush mount, and thus, don't stick out, good ergonomics there I think. So survey says?
(DING) Style and ergonomics are great 100 points earned!
Final thoughts: I haven't slept with these yet, but I have a feeling that they might work for me, we will just have to see how it goes. When it comes to the sounds quality, these are going to be perfectly fine for a sleep aid, which is what I bought them for. But I wanted to be honest about the sound quality, incase an audiophile is wanting to buy these. Shure makes some much higher quality IEM's that might suit an audiophiles thirst for excellent sound, but the 215's are not it. Additionally, I didn't want to spend a lot of time taking pics, so I just took them quick lol.