Music for Sleep

robbie · 2022-10-06T15:07:13.132Z

Worth noting that this week’s Disquiet Junto assignment is to “Record something to help someone fall asleep”.

Disquiet Junto Project 0562: Sheep Music Disquiet Junto

These instructions popped up at disquiet.com/0562 (thanks to the powers of automation) shortly after 12:10am Pacific Time on October 6, and then at twitter.com/disquiet a little further along. (I was — fittingly, given the week’s topic — asleep at the time.) The email containing those instructions went out via tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto later in the morning (after I wake up), and then I’ll post them here. [0562] Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, a new compositional challenge is se…

909one · 2022-10-06T23:10:13.360Z

I used to always fall asleep to this record or I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. Both of those records are some of my favorites awake or asleep.

radioedit · 2022-10-07T06:07:49.666Z

About 15 years ago one of my favourite things to do was put Heart, Inside Out or Summer Sun on the very moment I woke up and then doze to it for an hour or so.

fourhoarder · 2022-10-07T15:59:28.551Z

circuitghost · 2022-10-13T15:50:53.531Z

I actually work with this, mostly as a producer but sometimes as a composer, and we’ve done some experiments lately on spatial audio and music.

I think the most far out thing I’ve produced yet, is when we recorded the sounds from a shoreline coast and then had a cellist perform a solo piece from one of the cliffs close by the water. Distancing the microphones to get that one right wasn’t easy. But damn, the music was good.

My favourite would have to be when we wrote an entire section for strings in CuBase though, then transcribed everything to sheet music and brought it to an acoustic quartet and performed the entire thing live in studio. That was just beautiful.

Jordskred · 2022-11-22T06:39:56.794Z

my favourite piece by olive, titled ‘sleep’

spacelordmother · 2022-11-22T15:55:26.800Z

Lovely, thank you for the rec!

kuorinki · 2022-11-22T20:58:40.553Z

These two KD releases work well for me… I never use music for falling asleep but it sure helps me to stop thinking and in that way open a a possibility for rest.

Cementimental · 2022-11-22T21:19:40.401Z

Used to sleep to this a lot, alas the hours-long continuously mixed youtube version seems to be gone now

Illiacsound · 2022-11-22T21:24:35.550Z

Love his sleeping pill series.

Anything by Chihei Hatakeyama is my go-to for sleep music:

hypnosapien · 2022-11-22T21:28:47.848Z

I find Monolake’s long edit of Gobi usually does the trick for me.

hardworking · 2022-11-22T22:19:46.967Z

I love to listen to the minimal Drumm stuff ‘properly’, on headphones or good speakers, but also like to just play it v quietly from my phone speakers. You end up with just a thin whisp of sound, and trying to focus on that can really zone me out.

Kheone · 2022-11-24T16:47:08.414Z

This always works for me.

soysos · 2022-11-24T17:28:49.534Z

Slight side track, but I’ve been bringing my own generative music system when I get a massage lately. Most new age stuff folks tend to play actually distracts me and takes me out of the zone.
My wife and I have a great masseuse who’s really in to it and I’ve offered to set her up with something similar to what I use.
I bring an iPad with AUM running a combo of Borderlands, PaulXStretch, Drambo playing filtered noise and some delays and reverbs. I keep it fairly harmonious and low and it’s really calming coming out of her bluetooth speaker.

kuorinki · 2022-11-25T13:56:38.027Z

This release which is rather atypical for O’Rourke might be great for rest/falling sleep. Slow fade in and very long fade out. Delicious.

mateo · 2022-11-25T17:08:29.133Z

Speaking of Monolake, there’s also this release of his that I’ve fallen asleep to a few times:

Ya-L · 2023-02-25T07:14:48.694Z

I fell asleep three times this week to this music from Holbeck, Still

graymazes · 2023-03-25T05:43:08.137Z

i have a 2-year-old son who likes music before sleep at night (not something i’ve done myself since childhood really)

heavy on the pianos

some favorite tracks and albums include:

harold budd “preludes for solo piano”
jessica williams “paradise of love”
bill evans “lullaby for helene” (quartet version)
stephen drury playing john cage: “in a landscape,” “dream”
hiroshi yoshimura “nine postcards”
steve reich “six marimbas” (1986 nonesuch recording)
(bonus: we like to segue into this from “let it be me” by the everly brothers)
gavin bryars “sinking of the titanic”
low “over the ocean”
kitka “cradle songs”

also sometimes of course home grown sounds (mostly viola and e.g. bell/chime loops)

orbit_f · 2023-03-25T06:34:09.078Z

I don’t use music to fall asleep, works quite the contrary for me, but this album surely brings me to an otherworldly dimension, it relaxes and soothes me, like meditation.
I guess someone could find it great to fall asleep to

New Zion Trio - Fight against Babylon

bharris22 · 2023-03-25T13:58:12.031Z

Like many of you here, I’m sure, I can’t help but be mentally engaged by music. Unfortunately for me, this makes it impossible for me to listen to music while I work. In addition, it also often makes it difficult for me to listen to music when I am trying to go to sleep. For a while, I tried listening to podcasts for this purpose, but assuming the topic is one that I am interested in, that also activates my brain in a way that is not conducive to sleep.

Recently, I discovered the BBC Radio 4 Shipping Forecast through this article in the New York Times. While apparently a tried-and-true remedy for our friends in the UK, I have just begun listening to this with great success. It serves the dual purpose of having sound in my ears without requiring active listening; words are being spoken, but no understanding or mental engagement is required. It sounds crazy, but give it a shot!