My colleague’s snoring almost ruined the entire press trip, so I packed these little earbuds.

There are many challenges that come with being a tech journalist, but no one warned me about the biggest occupational hazards of covering audio shows: my coworkers. Now, I love my travel companions, but over the past few years of attending press trips, launch events, and trade shows, I’ve found that quite a few of them (you know who you are) are snoring like idle freight trains. If you’re sharing a hotel room and have to be sharp for a 7 AM briefing, that’s not exactly good. Of course I spent a few nights staring at the ceiling, covering my head with pillows, and downing gallons of coffee to work through the next day.

The thing that finally fixed it was the Soundcore Sleep A30, a true wireless earbud designed for sleep. Unlike regular earbuds, which can pop into your ear as soon as your head hits the pillow because they stick out, the A30s are small and flat enough that I can sleep on my side without noticing them. That’s more important than any specified sheet: sleeping earbuds only work if they’re comfortable, and they can easily last a night of folded sheets.

But what makes the A30 so different from other headphones or earphones I’ve tried is its noise reduction (ANC). These are some of the few earbuds with ANC, which is surprising, given how important silence is to a good night’s sleep. Snoring is exactly the kind of low-pitched, ear-sucking noise, and it’s exactly what ANC does best. Couple that with the A30’s snore masking feature, which plays variable white noise to mask any noises, and I can’t even hear my roommate’s nocturnal lumberjacking as I recline. I often play some rain or fire crackling sound from the Soundcore app, and it does the trick.

I have only two real complaints about the A30: the seven-hour battery life, which cuts it off on long nights, and the price. I had to wait and buy because both of those are still being talked about. Soundcore now only sells the Sleep A30 Special — the same version with an otherwise longer battery life and a $30 lower price of just $199.99 at the Manufacturer’s site. It’s still not cheap, but I’d happily pay it again, because one shows up at a show that runs four hours of broken sleep and caffeine.

If your travel plans involve shared rooms, thin hotel walls, or a colleague who is too loud or a friend who is too polite to mention and be embarrassed, these have found a permanent place on my way. Co-workers are still snoring; I can just ignore it now.