Between stressful jobs, busy workout schedules and always being glued to some type of back-lit device, falling asleep has become, well, a struggle. If you find yourself tossing and turning after counting the thousandth sheep, throw on one of these sounds to ease yourself into dreamland.
-
Rain. This is our favorite. Noises found in nature are great, since they naturally vary in frequency. Doctors recommend, though, that if you're going with water sounds, to go to the bathroom before you get settled.
We listen to: Rainy Mood. It's hands down the most popular rain simulator, and the site offers a different music option to accompany the rain daily. Whether it's the score from Star Trek or your favorite David Bowie hit, or you're just listening to the rain by itself, you won't get bored. -
Music. Music can be a bit tricky, and a lot of what you'll want to fall asleep to depends on your taste. People listen to anything from metal to classical to jazz to fall asleep, but regardless of your taste, keep one thing in mind: don't listen to music with distracting lyrics. In fact, try to stave off lyrics altogether. We recommend listening to one album in full and avoiding records with dramatic changes.
We listen to:(1) Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata – it's slightly dissonant, sad and beautiful. And since it's a classic, it's very familiar. Perfect for sleep!
(2) Boards of Canada's Music Has the Right to Children – calming, textured electronic music. This album has been worshiped by music critics for its sheer excellence, but it's praised by insomniacs everywhere, too, because while it's very interesting, it's very lovely and relaxing. It does have some lyrics and some speaking here and there, but on the whole, the vocal element isn't distracting. -
White noise. White noise is the result of combining a bunch of different sounds of different frequencies together, and it's really great to sleep to (and, studies show, do work to) because it masks all other sounds. We're really into utilizing white noise when trying to doze off because it masks the sound of the big city.
We listen to: TMSoft's White Noise app. It's available on all platforms, has 40 sounds included and provides continuous playback of looped audio.
Here's to falling asleep a little bit faster,
Bear
