I don’t fall asleep listening to anything but my fan, but reading knocks me the fuck out most nights. Sometimes I can’t make it through a paragraph before catching myself with my eyes completely closed.
Doris Hall, aka “The Solo Cup Lady”
Still know all the songs!
If you’re looking for bed time stories for adults (non-sexual haha) then I highly recommend the podcast “nothing much happens” by Kathryn Nicolai. She has an amazingly soothing voice perfect for bedtime and she writes her own stories! I normally knock out in less than 10 mins when I pop her on my podcasts now.
A radio either turned to an AM station far away to the point where it’s mostly brown noise with hints of someone speaking, or to some calm music.
Nowadays it’s mostly KnowledgeFight.
The Other Side (series) by Joe Frank www.joefrank.com
Star Trek deep space nine
Beatles albums then, rain sounds now
I never played sleepy music until I was a teen, and every night I played Cake - Prolonging the Magic. Great, mellow tunes, and I learned ALL the lyrics subliminally!
Ok, I did listen to it awake, so maybe it wasn’t completely subliminal, but it’s been a while and I bet I could still sing 80% of the album from memory.
Nowadays, it’s just the fan or AC running.
That’s how I am with the bat out of hell album… Get off my lawn.
When I was a kid I had a record player and usually played a particular record that had various artists on it Like Johnny Horton (Battle of New Orleans) and Elvis Presley (Blue Suede Shoes).
Now 40+ years later, it’s usually stuff like Frog Leap Studios (Leo Morrachelli https://www.youtube.com/user/leolego/videos) mainly so I don’t have to hear my cats screaming around the house in their nightly turbo mode.
I still like Johnny Horton, but anything from Elvis makes my eye twitch.
As a kid? Nothing. Just silence.
Today? My tinnitus, quietly humming away.
Now,.if I’m in a very weird mental spot and just can’t spin down to rest, I put on The Might Jingles’ World of Warships gameplay videos. His English voice just puts me out in moments.
Have you thought about doing that more often. I feel like its actually heathier lol. Everytime i wake up to pure silence is troublesome to me. I like things playing even if impossibly quiet cuz I still pick up on it
No, the goal is to sleep in silence. When I’m able to put aside my worries and truly rest I don’t need any noise or background hum to be completely out.
I only use a short video (under my pillow at mom volume so I can barely hear it) to get to sleep and then I’m usually out for a long time.
I’ve always felt that much of getting to sleep and what makes it easy to rest is training to some extent. Changing the ambient noise (especially if you move homes) can really screw things up until you get used to the normal noises of the new location. While that happens I’ll use something to fuzz the ambient sounds, but I’ll actively remove the white nose or background video over time so I acclimate to the new normal.
I consider it a worthwhile goal to be able to sleep without aids, if possible. Most of the real trouble is in my head (or a neighbor with fucking loud music at 2am to be dealt with), so when I have control I seek silence and a mental even keel when possible.
The barely hear it point is a good one I’ve picked up on. I would even go as far as making it so quiet you almost need to delicately strain to hear it but you’ll mostly be inclined to drift in and out and soon, away
The never ending story!
I barely remember it.
Nothing, mostly. And nothing. Unless there was hard wind or rain or an occasional bird. Loud birds can be a bit annoying to me these days.
This makes me sad for some reason. Like someone who left their baby to deal with pure silence for extended periods
Recording of waves or white noise from a fan.
As a kid in Detroit? Distant gunfire, most summer nights.
Now as an adult in the suburbs? Usually a fan, because my wife prefers that and I don’t mind.
Nothing as a kid. Now I listen to a detuned playlist of fascinating, but dry science/history/tech videos.
My current rotation is Anton Petrov, Sean Wilsey, Red Wrench Films, and Curious Droid, all played at 85% speed, 90% pitch.
What do you use to change the pitch and speed?
NewPipe
Very intriguing answer ;) If you’ll indulge me for a momen, can you tell me more about how you came to decide on those tweaks
Been working on some psychoacoustics stuff recently so this is very appropos
I slowed it down because it’s more sedate sounding. Even though these videos have relatively even tonal qualities, they sometimes speak fairly quickly. I adjusted the pitch only enough to reduce the distortion from the speed shift I just checked and the numbers are actually 85/95, not 85/90. 90% pitch is too unnatural sounding.
