My wife snores. Not a delicate little snore. The kind where you lie there at 2 AM wondering if it is too late to sleep in the bathtub. Earplugs helped a little — they muffled the noise but did not block it. White noise machines helped a little more, but she could still cut through.

What finally worked was a sleep mask with built-in Bluetooth headphones. It blocks light and pipes in audio directly to your ears, so the snoring gets replaced by whatever you want to hear. I have used one for over a year now. Here is what to look for.

Flat Speakers Are Non-Negotiable

If you try to sleep in regular earbuds, the pressure of your head on the pillow pushes them into your ear canal. It hurts after about twenty minutes. A good sleep mask has ultra-thin flat speakers — about the thickness of two credit cards — embedded in the fabric over your ears. You do not feel them at all when lying on your side.

The speakers in budget masks (under twenty dollars) are often bulky and positioned wrong. If the speaker does not sit directly over your ear canal, you have to crank the volume to hear anything, and the sound leaks out and bothers your partner.

Battery Life and Controls

The mask needs to last through a full night — at least eight hours of playback. Most good ones get ten to twelve. The control module is usually a small plastic pod embedded in the front of the mask or on the side. Make sure the buttons are easy to find by feel in the dark. The one I use has distinct raised shapes — a circle for volume up, a long bar for play and pause — so I can adjust it without taking the mask off.

Material and Fit

Look for a mask made of memory foam and cooling fabric. The foam blocks light completely by molding around your nose bridge. Cheap masks use flat fabric that leaves a gap around the nose — light leaks in and defeats the purpose. The strap should be fully adjustable with a Velcro closure, not a fixed elastic band that stretches out over time.

The Manta Sleep Mask with the Bluetooth module add-on is the best-reviewed option. It costs about sixty dollars. There are also fifteen-dollar versions on Amazon that work fine for occasional use — just check the reviews for complaints about speaker position before buying.