8 ms·

Boring but possibly interesting audio for going to sleep

86 points by snake117 10y ago

petercooper 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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.
iopuy 10y ago
bookmark
- trentmb 10y ago
  In your profile page there's a link labeled 'upvoted stories'
brianberns 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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...
ChikkaChiChi 10y ago
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 10y ago
  "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 10y ago
    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.
cven714 10y ago
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.
- dignati 10y ago
  The "chessnetwork" channel on YouTube is absolutely great. Interesting narrative and soothing voice.
- kaitai 10y ago
  Math lectures from Russian mathematicians also work (unfortunately well in a lecture room, too).
juscommanr 10y ago
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 10y ago
  Have you tried bone conducting headphones?
  - juscommanr 10y ago
    First time I'm seeing this! You believe this will help?
    - jarnold 10y ago
      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.
    - lostcolony 10y ago
      No idea, but they don't go in your ear, so much less likely to trigger an infection I would think.
chrismealy 10y ago
"In Our Time" podcast. Works every time.
- dangravell 10y ago
  This. It's actually quite frustrating!
yoodenvranx 10y ago
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.
booleandilemma 10y ago
YouTube ASMR videos do the trick for me.
cr1895 10y ago
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
grapeshot 10y ago
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.
xyzzy4 10y ago
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.
artur_makly 10y ago
Bob Ross's "Happy little clouds" instructional painting is like a 10mg Xanax.
PKop 10y ago
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_response https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_re... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRcdrgPA5wI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRcdrgPA5wI
- DiabloD3 10y ago
  I'd also like to mention ASMR. https://www.reddit.com/r/asmr/comments/26mqkp/meta_the_100_most_popular_asmr_channels_by_paul/ https://www.reddit.com/r/asmr/comments/26mqkp/meta_the_100_m... There is a newer version of this list, but I can't find it.
throwawayornot 10y ago
i like these: http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2014/07/29/the-ambient-sounds-of-science-fiction-spaceships-playlist/ http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2014/07/29/the-ambient-sou...
Artlav 10y ago
> 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.
- superuser2 10y ago
  Most people's headphones aren't nearly that good, not should they be turned up that loud.
- zeta0134 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    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.
- DiabloD3 10y ago
  Use open headphones, not closed ones.
aphextron 10y ago
Wow I thought I was the only one who does this. I find Alan Watts lectures to be a pretty good fit.
robert_tweed 10y ago
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 10y ago
  >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.
- sxcurry 10y ago
  I just finished Crime and Punishment using the 30 minute method. I ended up having to back up 20-25 minute each time - took a long time to finish the book! (I listened to the last few chapters during the day to make sure I heard the entire conclusion.)
- wodenokoto 10y ago
  Doesn't the stop wake you up?
scandox 10y ago
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 10y ago
  How would you go about kicking this habit?
  - scandox 10y ago
    Same way I kicked smoking. Extreme levels of contentedness.
rikkus 10y ago
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
Symbiote 10y ago
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
NegatioN 10y ago
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. :)

86 points by snake117 10y ago

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 10y ago
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.

iopuy 10y ago

bookmark

trentmb 10y ago
In your profile page there's a link labeled 'upvoted stories'

brianberns 10y ago

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 10y ago
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...

ChikkaChiChi 10y ago

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 10y ago
"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 10y ago
  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.

cven714 10y ago

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.

dignati 10y ago
The "chessnetwork" channel on YouTube is absolutely great. Interesting narrative and soothing voice.
kaitai 10y ago
Math lectures from Russian mathematicians also work (unfortunately well in a lecture room, too).

juscommanr 10y ago

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 10y ago
Have you tried bone conducting headphones?
- juscommanr 10y ago
  First time I'm seeing this! You believe this will help?
  - jarnold 10y ago
    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.
  - lostcolony 10y ago
    No idea, but they don't go in your ear, so much less likely to trigger an infection I would think.

chrismealy 10y ago

"In Our Time" podcast. Works every time.

dangravell 10y ago
This. It's actually quite frustrating!

yoodenvranx 10y ago

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.

booleandilemma 10y ago

YouTube ASMR videos do the trick for me.

cr1895 10y ago

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

grapeshot 10y ago

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.

xyzzy4 10y ago

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.

artur_makly 10y ago

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

PKop 10y ago

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_response https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_re... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRcdrgPA5wI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRcdrgPA5wI

DiabloD3 10y ago
I'd also like to mention ASMR. https://www.reddit.com/r/asmr/comments/26mqkp/meta_the_100_most_popular_asmr_channels_by_paul/ https://www.reddit.com/r/asmr/comments/26mqkp/meta_the_100_m... There is a newer version of this list, but I can't find it.

throwawayornot 10y ago

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

Artlav 10y ago

> 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.

superuser2 10y ago
Most people's headphones aren't nearly that good, not should they be turned up that loud.
zeta0134 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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.
DiabloD3 10y ago
Use open headphones, not closed ones.

aphextron 10y ago

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

robert_tweed 10y ago

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 10y ago
>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.
sxcurry 10y ago
I just finished Crime and Punishment using the 30 minute method. I ended up having to back up 20-25 minute each time - took a long time to finish the book! (I listened to the last few chapters during the day to make sure I heard the entire conclusion.)
wodenokoto 10y ago
Doesn't the stop wake you up?

scandox 10y ago

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 10y ago
How would you go about kicking this habit?
- scandox 10y ago
  Same way I kicked smoking. Extreme levels of contentedness.

rikkus 10y ago

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

Symbiote 10y ago

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

NegatioN 10y ago

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. :)