This CD, “Ambient Sleep Music” by Dr. Jeffrey Thompson is just lovely and peaceful without being overly New Age to the point where you want to stab your speakers with a letter opener ten minutes into the recording. Since I’m the type of gal who very often would go from writing or reading or household chores RIGHT to bed and have instantly “what-I-gotta-do-tomorrow-what-did-I-forget-to-do-today” distracting thoughts the moment my head hit the pillow, I am making an effort to do a real wind-down for bedtime. I cut off all communication (phone is the hardest, but we’re working on it) for at least an hour, I snuggle in, I read only prayers or meditations, the cat comes and does her kamikaze flop against my side (with accompanying adorable paw stretching and face-petting), and at about 15 minutes before I want to fall asleep, I put on “Ambient Music for Sleep” or another CD from my collection (I have a Reiki one that I like, and a Shiatsu massage one that I like). I avoid chants or anything vocal, I play it softly, and I’m out and sleeping well for at least a solid 8 hours.
Thanks to my friend Tricia for buying me a clock-radio with a CD player in it several years ago. It had been in the guest room but I went to reclaimed it for my own. Brazilliant invention. You fall asleep to music of your choice, you wake up to it. Ahhhhhh.
I highly recommend the program ‘pzizz’ (http://www.pzizz.com), which generates music (with or without spoken word) to go to sleep. You can generate any length of track, and specify either an ‘energizer nap’ (which gently starts your waking up toward the end of the track and then has an optional alarm at the end) or a track to go to sleep for a longer period (which tries to leave you in deep sleep, and has no alarm at the end). You can play the tracks on your computer or export them as MP3 files to burn to CD or move to an iPod or other portable player. And as I recall, they have an educational price that’s ridiculously low — something like $10, with free updates for life!
This music sounds good. 🙂
But I can´t have any noise around me when I try to fall asleep.
But I know those “´mustn´t forget” thoughts too good.
Therefore I recently started having a sketch-book next to my bed to scribble all those what-I-gotta-do-tomorrow-what-did-I-forget-to-do-today†distracting thoughts down.
Once I pick it up the next morning my “to do” list is already done and my head was empty enough the night before to easily fall asleep. [Awesome idea — if I get too squirrelly I do the same thing – but it’s often a sermon outline that I just GOTTA get down! – PB]
I have a small fresh-water aquarium on my bedside table. I feed the fish just as I go to bed, and spend 5 minutes watching them swim and eat. The filter hums very softly and the water gurgles gently like a fountain. The fish dart and flutter in a soothing and repetitive way. It never fails to put me right to sleep!
They are so bright and lovely, gorgeous live jewels. My last waking thoughts are of peace and gratitude that the universe is full of beauty and life even in the secret depths underwater.
Another upside of this ritual is that I spend a little time each day with the fishes. That feels like good pet stewardship. I often dream that they swim out into the air and happily follow me around!
The downside is that when a fish dies (and they all do eventually), my evening is more sad and dark.
I just realized this would make a nice little blog post, so I’m stealing my own comment for my blog 🙂