Insomniac needs reccomenations to help get some sleep

**Plakespear** · 08-11-2007, 08:24 PM

As a lifelong insomniac, I find it hard to fall asleep without listening to music or watching TV or doing something else to keep my mind from racing. Unfortunately, mot of my music purchases consist of stuff that most people would not consider relaxing (for some reason Soundgarden, the Beastie Boys, and thr Rollins band don't make me want to doze off). So I'm hoping you guys can suggest some tunes to help me relax and get some decent nights sleep. However, there are a few parameters that need to be followed.

1. No "jam band" style music. I can't stand that shit. Same for country.
2. Nothing with lyrics that might actually make me think. If I think, I'll just stay up later thinking.
3. Not a big fan of the female singer/songwriter genre (Joni Mitchell, Carole King, etc.)
4. No show tunes.

Other than that, I'm open to suggestion.

**AsheanMT** · 08-11-2007, 08:26 PM

I suggest drugs. Really good drugs. then you won't care that you're awake.

I mean REALLY good drugs.

maybe some hookers too!

**detroit** · 08-11-2007, 08:32 PM

think about pussy.

it works.

**Woodsy** · 08-11-2007, 08:47 PM

N,
My guarenteed fall asleep music is Knopflers soundtrack album

mellow familiar, good musicianship.
works for me

**mc_roon** · 08-11-2007, 08:59 PM

can you give us a few bands/songs that work well to provide a little more guidance.

and i also recommend strong drugs...but bong rips wouldnt help your lungs

**Pura Vida** · 08-11-2007, 09:20 PM

Ulrich Schnauss, Far Away Trains Passing By

**house** · 08-11-2007, 09:21 PM

waves crashing on the beach. works for me when i have those impossible to sleep nights. or a couple fingers of whiskey.

**deep n' steep** · 08-11-2007, 09:35 PM

Originally Posted by mc_roon

can you give us a few bands/songs that work well to provide a little more guidance.

and i also recommend strong drugs...but bong rips wouldnt help your lungs

Brownies never hurt anyone.

**AsheanMT** · 08-11-2007, 09:37 PM

pot brownies laced with LSD eaten off of a hookers chest.

**deep n' steep** · 08-11-2007, 10:29 PM

That's about as good as it gets. Unless the hookers were on E.

**Spats** · 08-12-2007, 02:46 AM

Brian Eno, "Ambient 4: On Land"

**wi3dzmin** · 08-12-2007, 09:47 AM

Massive Attack + Nyquil

**Viva** · 08-12-2007, 10:01 AM

Tune into a late night jazz program. New York must have a few good ones.

**ICEHOCEY77** · 08-12-2007, 11:33 AM

melatonin and some hypnosis shit.

works like a charm.

**Tippster** · 08-12-2007, 01:28 PM

Originally Posted by Spats

Brian Eno, "Ambient 4: On Land"

2nded. "Ambient 1: Music for Airports" is good too.

I used to fall asleep to the two Eno albums , Jean Michelle Jarre's "Oxygene," and Fripp & Summers' "I Advance Masked" back in the day. My mind has since quieted and I no longer ned the music to keep the noise down.

**Vets** · 08-12-2007, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by Tippster

2nded. "Ambient 1: Music for Airports" is good too.

I used to fall asleep to the two Eno albums , Jean Michelle Jarre's "Oxygene," and Fripp & Summers' "I Advance Masked" back in the day. My mind has since quieted and I no longer ned the music to keep the noise down.

3rded or 2nded on Eno's "Ambient 1: Music for Airports."

DirecTV has some pretty mellow music channels that also might work.

**Rasputin** · 08-12-2007, 10:28 PM

Try some Gregorian chants.

**Hutch** · 08-12-2007, 10:38 PM

I take melatonin. I don't know if its a placebo effect, but I have not lain awake in months.

**rehabit** · 08-12-2007, 10:46 PM

I know you don't like country... Even though the review says county, I'm not so sure... Put this disc on and your out like a light.

Mazzy Star
So that tonight I might See

Mazzy Star's spacey fusion of old blues, creepy psychedelia and down-and-out country & western could've proved as unpleasant as the combined effects of cheap whiskey, magic-mushroom tea and black coffee. But the West Coast duo neutralized the weird mix into cool, laid-back ballads for their highly acclaimed 1990 debut, She Hangs Brightly. Mazzy's follow-up, So Tonight That I Might See, spaces off into even hazier dreamscapes that are so relaxed it makes the Cowboy Junkies seem wired.

Hope Sandoval's vocals echo and waver throughout Tonight as if they were bouncing off the walls of an old, abandoned mansion. Her voice, which rarely peaks or dips, flows in long, languid sighs over reeling background effects by partner and producer David Roback. In "She's My Baby," he spins a web of sheer, trippy feedback under simple acoustic guitar while dragging Mazzy's already slow pace to a crawl. The anesthetized sounds wind out beneath a blanket of foggy production.

While this is all intriguing at first, Tonight grows increasingly monotonous. The muffled "Mary of Silence" nods off into opiated drifts of organ, while in "Five String Serenade," Sandoval's fuzzed-out voice drones to whispery guitar and trancey violin. The songs are pretty but too hollow to allow for real feeling. Slowpoke country guitar wilts, slides and moans over the sparse tambourine shakes of "Fade Into You" yet never comes to life. Even the dusty and resonant sounds of pipe organ in "Blue Light" and the bluesy saunter of "Wasted" dissipate before reaching the gut or the soul.

It's strange. Even though So Tonight That I Might See incorporates many of the same warm elements that made Billie Holiday bloom and Gram Parsons bleed, it still winds up feeling as dull and disconnected as a lone junkie at a crowded party. (RS 671)

**Phall** · 08-12-2007, 11:13 PM

create a pandora.com account, and type in any ambient artist

i use pandora's aphex twin station regularly, it rules

and a dose if not 2 over the recomended on tylenol caugh and cold nightime extrastrength

**johngchrist** · 08-12-2007, 11:24 PM

pure moods...

but yeah um here are some good ones that i frequent

god speed you black emperor
silver mt. zion
slowdive
charlie haden
mogwai
sigur ros

Squatch · 08-12-2007, 11:33 PM

trip hop. Massive Attack is a good suggestion. Depending on how your brain is wired, various forms of beat music can do it.

edit: the single biggest thing for me is exercise. Physical exhaustion and mental exhaustion often come hand in hand for me.

edit2: actually the single best sleep aid are the training video's I had to watch for work. I don't know what sort of pavlovian response has been set up, but I find myself yawning within the first 20 seconds as the opening music comes on. It's a shame, though--everything (including uninteresting stuff) at IBM is confidential. Otherwise you could be dozing off the soothing sounds of an explanation of our "query management facility"

**jbach** · 08-12-2007, 11:34 PM

I usually listen to Alexi Murdoch to fall asleep, second in line is probably Sigur Ros, then Travis, Keane, Aqualung, or plus/minus...come to think of it most of the music I listen to would put most people to sleep.

Reading a book usually puts me fast to sleep though