
Boring but possibly interesting audio for going to sleep - snake117
https://trackchanges.postlight.com/the-worlds-best-sleepy-time-media-abf2ec2c667c#.99hfyjsva
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ChikkaChiChi
The article somewhat misses the point about the Sleep with Me podcast: it's
not boring content; it is boring by design.

Drew Ackerman has a keen understanding of cadence, stream of consciousness,
and knowing his audience that allows him to craft an efficient insomnia
assassin. You want to follow him down the rabbit hole and see where he goes
with it, and by the time your brain realizes it hasn't been thinking about
that big presentation you have tomorrow, you're already asleep. If you happen
to jolt awake, you struggle to figure out how long it has been...and you are
out like a light again.

Boring content simply gets tuned out quickly, and you are back to your racing
thoughts. Boring content doesn't entice you to try and stay with it, and that
is why this hasn't worked before.

Sleep with Me is an absolute gem and I feel like it's just beginning to
scratch the surface of how technology can help us rest instead of distracting
us from sleep like it has done so much up to this point.

~~~
tedkx
"The article somewhat misses the point about the Sleep with Me podcast: it's
not boring content; it is boring by design." I have not yet tried the Sleep
with Me podcast, but based on what I've read, it is its "by design" part that
got me more interested in trying the author's methods.

I could instantly relate when I read that "I need to convince myself that I’m
doing something meaningful in order to finally disengage". Many people go to
bed with a feeling of not deserving their rest, of having a debt to themselves
because they missed opportunities or procrastinated heavily during the day, a
debt that can be repaid by using their last minutes of the day to do something
meaningful to compensate for the wasted time. Presidential speeches, old radio
shows, financial crisis analysis, all these create the illusion that you take
full advantage of your time, keeping your brain active and broadening your
knowledge. Them being boring is an added bonus.

On the other hand, actively trying to get myself bored would most probably get
me anxious, wondering exactly how wisely I am spending my time, which is not
really what you want when trying to fall asleep.

~~~
wodenokoto
I think the point is it has to be interesting enough to keep you preoccupied,
but not interesting enough to keep you awake.

I sleep to old Simpsons episodes. I know them inside out, and at least the
older ones have a fairly calm rhythm. I don't need to pay attention because I
know what is happening but it still distracts me from all the kinds of
thoughts you mention. I love the episodes, so I don't feel like I'm wasting my
time.

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cven714
I discovered a few years back that chess instructional videos knock me out
immediately. I used to play competitively and am genuinely interested, but
have never, not even once, survived an entire 20-30min video--usually Alex
Yermolinsky and his fantastic accent in the "Every Russian Schoolboy Knows"
series on the internet chess club.

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dignati
The "chessnetwork" channel on YouTube is absolutely great. Interesting
narrative and soothing voice.

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PKop
Only saw one other mention of this, but ASMR[0] videos are often helpful to
promote sleepiness, in addition to the pleasurable feeling they give some
people.

Here's a good example of one I've found that has helped me to fall asleep [1].

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_re...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_response)

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRcdrgPA5wI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRcdrgPA5wI)

~~~
DiabloD3
I'd also like to mention ASMR.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/asmr/comments/26mqkp/meta_the_100_m...](https://www.reddit.com/r/asmr/comments/26mqkp/meta_the_100_most_popular_asmr_channels_by_paul/)

There is a newer version of this list, but I can't find it.

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Artlav
> In 2016 it is a normal thing to go to bed with earphones in your ears

Huh? Does anyone else find doing so completely impossible?

I start to feel kinda claustrophobic when i'm in headphones - not being able
to hear the world around me leads to the "fire, burglars, plane crash,
doomsday" kind of anxiety.

~~~
zeta0134
I'm much more terrified of rolling around during my sleep, wrapping the
headphones around my neck, and suffocating myself.

I move around a lot during my sleep, mostly to roll to one side or the other
and get comfortable again. I don't trust a dangling wire. I could probably do
wireless earbuds, but I'm not made of money; a simple speaker would work fine.

Then again, I don't find audio to be a big issue for me, but rather light. I
installed blackout curtains in my room, and immediately found that I could
more consistently stay asleep for 7.5 hours without any trouble. Distracting
audio is a problem, but the low drone from my air conditioner is usually more
than enough to help me zone out for the day.

~~~
rzzzt
It was less suffocation, and more pulling off the phone along with everything
else in its path on the nightstand for me. :) I also found it uncomfortable
how the pillow pushes on the earbuds at times.

I usually put the phone to a very low volume instead, and place it either face
down or propped up against something, to get more direct sound from the
speaker at the bottom.

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robert_tweed
Lately, I've been listening to a lot of audiobooks, mainly at bedtime. I've
found that using a 30 minute sleep timer is ideal to fall asleep. It doesn't
require that the audiobook be boring. The advantage of this is that I'm not
wasting the time listening to waves, white noise, a droning voice or whatever.
I'm catching up on works of fiction that I don't have time to read otherwise,
but wish I did.

The only downside is that out of those 30 minutes, I might remember 30, 10, or
nothing. It all depends. So I spend a lot of time seeking backwards trying to
figure out if I remember hearing that bit, made more difficult by trying to
avoid accidental spoilers.

~~~
dominotw
>The advantage of this is that I'm not wasting the time listening to waves

Maybe that's why people are having a hard time going to sleep in the first
place. Do you have to be productive even while falling asleep?

Also, do you have dreams from the audiobook story? I was doing this for a
while but had to stop due to nightmares.

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grapeshot
My favorite YouTube channel for getting to sleep lately is "Mr. Carlson's
Lab". Soothing voice, no music and long-winded explanations on electronics
repair seems to work pretty well.

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chrismealy
"In Our Time" podcast. Works every time.

~~~
dangravell
This. It's actually quite frustrating!

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petercooper
Brilliant idea for a post :-)

I've listened to spoken word stuff (podcasts, audiobooks) for a few years now
and found it cured my insomnia 100%. I realized I'm a verbal thinker who
struggles to think properly when other people are speaking and listening to
speech sends me to sleep fast. I don't even need boring stuff though, I work
my way through audiobooks about 5-10 minutes a night :-)

~~~
stdbrouw
Yeah, I would definitely recommend people to try more interesting or even
active stuff first. My most effective sleeping aid is a Spanish language
learning audio course that's just a little below my level. I get 15 minutes of
solid learning/review out of it, and then doze off.

Teaching Company audio courses are great too.

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Symbiote
There's the Shipping Forecast [1], broadcast on BBC Radio 4. That was always a
sign that it was way past my bedtime when I was a child.

I think it usually follows "Book at Bedtime" [2], but that's less soporific.

[1] Example:
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07gct6w](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07gct6w)
(works for me outside the UK). As an additional treat, if you listen to the
end and through the national anthem, you'll hear the "time pips"
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Time_Signal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Time_Signal)

[2]
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qtlx](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qtlx)

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cr1895
Has anyone listened (well, ideally only briefly) to Max Richter's eight hour
Sleep composition?

[http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/cat/4795267](http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/cat/4795267)

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artur_makly
Bob Ross's "Happy little clouds" instructional painting is like a 10mg Xanax.

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NegatioN
There are some brilliant ideas here (many made me smile), and I don't struggle
with insomnia per se. But I have found meditation before sleep really gives a
lot back in quality of sleep, and quality of life. I'm a complete novice at
meditation, so I simply follow along with instructions specific for sleeping
from apps like Buddhify.

Of course this is nothing revolutionary, but I highly recommend trying it for
anyone going to sleep with a lump of stress in their chest or stomach at
night. :)

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juscommanr
I struggle with going to sleep and have tried myriad methods of falling
asleep. One of the best ways was to plug in my iPhone headphones and listen to
a documentary on Iplayer or TED.

However several months later a huge problem occurred. Both my ears were
infected, left moreso than the right, that caused me a great deal of
irritation and pain. Many months of visiting doctors, hospitals and medicine
did this horrible problem get better.

Bear this in mind even though I was using dettol wipes to disinfect my
headphones daily!

~~~
lostcolony
Have you tried bone conducting headphones?

~~~
juscommanr
First time I'm seeing this! You believe this will help?

~~~
jarnold
I just got the Trekz Titanium, put them on my head backwards for the first
time last night. Works great. Nothing in the ear – wireless so no cords to get
tangled up in. Super flexible so I'm not afraid of breaking them.

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brianberns
There's plenty of great music that can be used for this purpose as well. Put
on The Pearl by Harold Budd and Brian Eno. You can thank me when you wake up.

~~~
pimeys
I'm a big fan of Aphex Twin, but I've never been able to listen his Selected
Ambient Works II without falling to sleep. It's amazingly beautiful music, but
I always just fall asleep and don't remember what kind of music the album has
after the fourth track. Maybe this was Richard's original idea...

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booleandilemma
YouTube ASMR videos do the trick for me.

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scandox
I cannot sleep without audiobooks any more. This has been a fact of life for
me for 22 years.

My technique is simple. I listen only to things I have already listened to in
a fully waking context. No surprises, no excitement.

Spoken word only. Nothing with music or sound effects.

I hope to take a year off sometime and kick this habit.

~~~
wodenokoto
How would you go about kicking this habit?

~~~
scandox
Same way I kicked smoking. Extreme levels of contentedness.

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yoodenvranx
I recently discovered that I can easily fall asleep to two types of Youtube
videos: a) videos about the lore of Warhammer 40K and b) a random episode of
Jay Leno's Garage. Both will put me to sleep in 10-15 minutes even if I am
extremely stressed.

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rikkus
Drone Zone by Somafm is a great radio station for this. Good to save some for
offline listening though so you're not sucking their bandwidth unnecessarily

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xyzzy4
The best way to beat insomnia is to wake up at the same time every day.
Lowering the volatility in your sleep times will lead to better rest.

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throwawayornot
i like these: [http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2014/07/29/the-ambient-
sou...](http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2014/07/29/the-ambient-sounds-of-
science-fiction-spaceships-playlist/)

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aphextron
Wow I thought I was the only one who does this. I find Alan Watts lectures to
be a pretty good fit.

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iopuy
bookmark

~~~
trentmb
In your profile page there's a link labeled 'upvoted stories'

