Sleep Music

Rose knows that falling asleep can sometimes be hard to do especially if you are traveling for business or for pleasure. When my nephew, Batboy comes to visit I’ll often hear, “I can’t sleep.”, because he is not in his usual crypt. Many of us find it hard to sleep and for a number of reasons. One reason being we just cannot get our minds to relax. Relaxing our minds is essential for a good, deep sleep which is necessary for our overall health. Over time we have found many ways to help relax our minds and forget the stress we deal with in our daily lives. In order to get our minds from racing we have even counted bouncy little sheep leaping over a fence. No wonder that doesn't work. Bouncy sheep are hyperactive and wide awake. They're the last thing you need to dwell on when you want to fall asleep. Personally, I’d rather have sheep as a snack then count them.

One way that works is to relax your mind with dream recollection. When remembering a past dream it takes the focus off work or family problems and helps your subconscious mind relax so you can get to sleep quickly. If you have a hard time remembering your dreams keep a dream recall register next to your bed and when you first wake up write down as much as you can remember. Over time you will remember more and more of your dream because you have trained your mind to do so.

Another way to get your mind to relax is using music to sleep to as a sleep aid. Sleep music varies depending upon the persons tastes. There are some limitations as you don’t want to fall asleep to heavy metal or rap music. Music for sleep is usually soothing and has a softer edge to it like soft rock. Many soft rock listeners favor the ballads as do the people that like easy listening music. While soft rock has more vocals, drums and guitars, easy listening emphasizes on acoustic arrangements about love songs or oldies but goodies. Definitely soft rock and easy listening is music to sleep by.

Sleep music that always works for me is classical music. Classical music has been used as sleeping music for many years and there are many artists to choose from. Classical music is string arrangements, orchestral movements or gentle wind instruments. If your employer’s pipe in classical music where you work and you are not getting enough sleep at night, you might find yourself falling asleep on the job!

Ambient music or New Age music is music to help sleep because it focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an atmospheric, visual or unobtrusive quality by conjuring up images of peaceful places like the sea, forest or beach and/or places that bring happy memories as those in your childhood.

Nature Sounds and White Noise are not musical but sounds of waves crashing against the rocks, rain or thunderstorms, sounds of nature in a forest, a whale song or a simple rush of continuous air. You can purchase a machine that has nature sounds and white noise built in and can be programmed to turn off at intervals of 30, 60, or 90 minutes. Some of the machines will even play all night if you wish to hear the sounds throughout your sleep. These sounds are designed to promote a feeling of well-being allowing the mind to relax and drift away from any stress. Many doctors write prescriptions for these white noise machines before they will write a prescription for a sleeping prescription drug or even recommend an over-the-counter drug because it is a natural way to fall asleep. (My grandchildren have to fall asleep with a fan which is a simple way to use white noise for a sleep aid)

When preparing yourself for sleep you may want to fix yourself a warm glass of milk or a cup of sleepy time decaf tea. This allows you to get into a mind set for sleeping. Try to adhere to a schedule even on the weekends. Don’t eat or drink a lot close to your bedtime. If you need a snack eat something that makes you sleepy such as a small bowl of cereal, milk, tuna or a slice of turkey. (And we wonder why we want to nap after our Thanksgiving or Christmas meal) Avoid hot or spicy foods that may cause heartburn and/or acid reflux. No caffeine or nicotine as they are stimulants. If you exercise, do so in the afternoon as exercising will increase your pulse and blood pressure and you need time to cool your body down or you’ll be too hot to sleep. Speaking of being too hot, reduce the temperature of your bedroom to at least 65 degrees. If the air conditioner dries out the room use a humidifier. Try not to nap, but if you do, only nap for 20 minutes to insure that you get the required hours of sleep during the night.

If you still feel you are to tense to lie down and fall asleep take a bath to relax your muscles. When lying in bed turn off the TV, your computer or video game. You’ll never get to sleep if you are wondering how to get the bad guy. If you are traveling bring ear plugs and an eye mask to keep intrusive noises and light from disturbing your sleep.

Some people use self-hypnosis relaxing tapes or breathing exercises to encourage relaxation. Take slow, deep breaths, through your nose and deep into your abdomen (rather than your chest). If you are doing this correctly your belly will expand and contract with each breath. Exhale slowing counting backwards from 8 to 1, repeat the words relax and take another deep breathe. Do this for at least five minutes.

Engage in other relaxing activities like reading, yoga or listening to sleep music. Your CD or MP3 player should be close to your bed just in case you want to turn it on or off later in the night. Don’t have the music too loud as you fall asleep sounds appear louder and this will only wake you up later. Again, soothe, relaxing sounds are best used as sleep aid music. White noise is also a sleep aid because it has shown to relax and calm the mind so you can fall asleep easier and faster.

Don’t rely on sleeping pills. They have many side effects, do not interact with other medication and are habit forming. If you feel that you have a chronic sleeping problem, please contact your doctor, he may recommend getting tested at a sleep clinic for apnea or other sleep disorders.

Listen to this sleep music video:


Good Day,
Rose Sheepskill


Music Design in Review
"... fantastic for those with insomnia or looking to relax, relieve tension, calming the nerves and finding much-needed peace... "

Product Description
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to just lay your head on your pillow, fall fast asleep and sleep all night long? This heavenly collection of soothing melodies and pristine sounds of nature from award-winning healing music pioneers David and Steve Gordon, effortlessly guides you to that place of deep rest. With Pillow Music, the cares of the day fade away as you float naturally into refreshing sound sleep. Peaceful atmospheres and hypnotic nature sounds lull your body and mind into complete relaxation. The Gordon’s have designed this recording to assist you in easily moving through the different stages of relaxation into deep restful sleep. Through the use of tranquil soundscapes, soothing melodies, lush textures, subtle 60 beat per mintute pulses and pure natural sounds, you are gently coaxed into relaxation and sleep. Let go of stress and get the rest you need. You may never hear the end of this CD!

Includes 10 tips for falling asleep easily from Dr. Steve Bratman, M.D., President, AltMedConsult.com, Inc.