The Smiley Smile Message Board

It's a great pleasure to fall asleep to music. Not because it's boring, or you're not listening, but because it relaxes you and blisses you out ... I used to use Santana's "Welcome" album for this - the final, epic soar-a-thon with John McLaughlin "Flame/Sky" would always carry me off.

Any other nod-out recommendations?

McCartney II (with two or three songs programmed off the CD).  Most relaxing, turn your mind off album I think I have.  Perfect for that.

My girlfriend, when she left her house and moved in with my family, and before we moved into an apartment together, loved listening to the Jellyfish's "Spilt Milk" album every night. I'd browse the internet and we'd listen to that as she drifted off to sleep.

It used to be Simon & Garfunkle until I dropped the habit. Now I'm addicted again, can't sleep without music on.
I sometimes stay up late to make playlists and new mixes to put on when I fall asleep. I never get past the 3rd song. Stupid habit.

Young Marble Giants and The Feelies -played softly- used to do the trick for  me many years ago. Long before that, my parents used to etherize me with gentle Pete Seeger records, or wear me down and then knock me out by playing White Album's  Revolution Number Nine followed by Good Night (!sounds strange, but if you're really stressed and agitated before bed and bouncing off the walls, this combination works remarkably well!)

I don't program music for the overnight portion of my day any more -music playing in the background interrupts my sleeping too insistently so I'm more in a kind of lucid dream trance state,  enjoyable as a soy burger substitute for lysergic tripping  but no way to get a decent night's rest.

Instead I cue songs for weekend nap time, a favorite leisure activity of mine. If I want to trance out blissfully I find that Sinatra and euro lounge singers of either sex crooning incomprehensible sweet nothings puts me there on a little castaway south seas island beneath a pink cloud.

If I want to rock the dream boat, Suzi Quatro, Runaways and various other glam-dynamic seventies girl bands make for very pleasant fantasies!

(http://www.gothicrevue.com/brian%20eno%20-%20another%20green%20world.jpg)

(http://www.studioriley.com/Apollo.jpg)

I used to use Clouds Taste Metallic, Music for Airports, and tried Metal Machine Music a few times.

Dennis Wilson's "Thoughts Of You", always set the stage for very pleasant dreams  ;)

"Wouldn't It Be Nice - A Jazz Portrait of Brian Wilson" is very relaxing

For years it was L.A. Woman. Now it's the All-Elvis Sirius station.

I can't do it. My adrenaline gets pumping when I listen to music.

Maybe Eno could do it, though.....

Beck - Sea Change
Zero 7 - Simple Things
Koop - Waltz for Koop (probably the best of the bunch!)
Michael Hedges - Watching My Life Go By

In college, it used to be:
Neil Young - After the Gold Rush
Heart - the Butterfly side of Dog and Butterfly (back in the vinyl days!)

Lou Reed's Berlin, for some reason. And without fail, I'd wake up and hear those damn kids yelling "MOMMYYYYY!!!!!!" Pretty unsettling.

It helps to beat your kids to a pulp and tell them they'll die if they make another noise. Then they don't wake you up any more.

Ah, another gem from the Murry Wilson school of parenting...

Hey, you want your kids to be geniuses right?

Damn straight.

I give that post 4 couches! (my new rating system)

Haha! (http://www.planetsmilies.com/smilies/happy/happy0009.gif)

Maybe, but the kids doing that screaming are older than me. That album was recorded years before I was born.

Oh, you were talking about the album? Never mind.

I never do.

Try Raymond Scott's "Soothing Sounds For Baby" series. Very simple music, but immensely relaxing. Recommended for all Scott fans.

Pink Floyd - "Us And Them"
Pink Floyd - "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"
R.E.M. - "Airportman"
Peter Gabriel - "My Head Sounds Like That"

Ian, maybe you shouldn't have children....

 ;D

Who ... WHO ... RELAXES TO THIS sh*t? It's fuckin' MADDENING, is what it is.

I listen to early 70's Pink Floyd bootlegs especially Amsterdam 1969 and Montreux 1971 (includes 30 minute Atom Heart Mother)

Anything by Ulrich Schnauss.. very calming..

Spiritulized, ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space

Jeff Buckley Grace

Discreet  Music Brian Eno  (thats my sh*t..my fav.. I had a friend call and wake me up once  he said he heard the  sounds of heaven  coming outta  my house.... thats right  I do it up right when I sleep...  )

xoxoxoxo
suga :D

It's put me to sleep a few times.

Agreed, also R.E.M. Up and anything by Stereolab.

Rush - Hemispheres

Why, I don't know. 

The only album I remember falling asleep while listening to is a compilation cover album of cartoon theme songs, featuring artists such as Sublime, Liz Phair, Semisonic, and the Ramones.

It's so strange that I did this. I remember listening to that CD, but never while drifting off to sleep.

Interesting revived topic. I have a few that I generally put on closer to lights out:

"Tide" and "Wave" by Jobim
"Andromeda Heights" by Prefab Sprout
Snippets of Paddy McAloon's "I Trawl the Megahertz" (it's so damn hard to find)
"On the Beach" by Neil Young (sometimes "Tonight's the Night") -- not necessarily sleepy music but definitely nighttime music.
"Bryter Layter" by Nick Drake
The "Music from Twin Peaks" (season one)

Radiohead - Tree Fingers (althought it's a very creepy/strange song I tend to always listen to it when I need to relax and zzzzzzzzzz)

Color Wheel by Growing
Paul Simon
Slave Ambient by The War On Drugs

I use music to get me super-tired, but I can never actually fall asleep with it on - mainly because I'm a stomach/side sleeper and that doesn't work when you have headphones.
I don't listen to any aggresive music, so pretty much anything works.

As soon as I saw this thread I knew I was going to post Brian Eno's Discreet Music. Looks like someone beat me to the punch, but then again, I should have known it wasn't a very original thought! I've listened to that album at least 100 times in the past 3-4 years to go to sleep. Other Eno stuff too, but mainly that one.

Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space is one of my all time favorites too. I had the good fortune to see Jason Pierce after a Brian Wilson Smile show in London back in 2004 and thank him for that album. :)

Another one heavy in the beddy-bye rotation: Slowdive's Pygmalion.

Oh, and various Cocteau Twins. Some guys down the hall from me in college played Blue Bell Knoll EVERY night on repeat. I would often hear it while staying up late using their computer to type papers.

Brian Eno "Julie With..." from his album Before and After Science.

What a fantastic album.

I was driving on the last leg of a 12 hour road trip at 12'o'clock at night, I put on Eno's Apollo and it was a fun game trying to keep myself awake - incredibly surreal experience!
______

Any of James Horner's soundtracks always lull me to sleep fairly fast...(Apollo 13, A beautiful Mind, Searching For Bobby Fischer, etc).

The Moody Blues' "Days Of Future Passed". Gets me everytime. I can either intently listen to it all the way through during the day, or put it on at night and be asleep by the time "Dawn" comes on. :)

Someone tell me if I'm the only one.


I can't listen to music and go to sleep.  I'll never go to sleep!  I can't listen to anything, even the radio.  It'll keep me up all night.  I always pick up on the melody, or the beat of the song and hum along or whatever.  Even if I've never heard it, or don't like the song. 

I also can't sleep in complete silence.  What I do, every night, is turn on the television in my bedroom, and play.... INFOMERCIALS!  It's the only thing I've found that's boring enough that I can ignore it, but has enough ambient noise that I don't get annoyed by the silence.  I turn it down to where I can just barely hear it. 

I can't put it on a movie or a television show either, because I'll get interested in it and want to see how it ends, lol. 

I'm somewhat similar, I can't sleep with films/tv/music on but I enjoy having my window open a tad so as to enjoy the sounds of the outdoors (even better if it's raining) - obviously if it's very cold then some compromises may have to be made. Never thought I'd discuss sleeping habits on this forum but then again anything can happen here ;D

The choices I mention above are usually the albums I play during that period between stopping being active and getting into bed to watch Family Guy or something til I drift off (nothing too stimulating, like Frasier, or I'll be up all night). Works a treat.

I fell asleep listening to "My Bloody Valentine" last week and had a night of unsettling dreams.  Great, dreamy music...but it must have been out of balance with my subconcious mind.  I've often fell asleep to the great Spector's "Back to Mono".

Shepherd Moons by Enya. Yup.

Enya is also great when you have a little one.  I don't know what it is...but man...it's knocked out our kids quite a few times...for which I'm very thankful.  It's just relaxing music.

In college, during the years 1991-1992, I listened to Loveless every night for oh, 5-6 months straight. Kevin Shields has specifically stated there is a hypnogoic element to his work.

I can not NOT go to bed with music.

I was listening to "Loveless", too!

Aybe Sea by Frank Zappa puts me to sleep every time. It's got such a soothing and pretty melody.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnAnpOUUzow

Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports or to be more precise, the first 5-10 minutes of 1/1, as I've never gotten past that. That piano melody can do no wrong.

Others: Miles Davis' A Silent Way, Joanna Newsom's YS, Lou Reed's Berlin, Bob Dylan's John Wesley Harding, Neil Young's After The Gold Rush, Beck's Sea Change, the second side of "Heroes", King Crimson's Islands (the song), The Moody Blues' 'Days of Future Passed'.

I love music too much.  I turn it off and go right out.

 I agree with Banana. Enya would be great for that or the LP  " Friends "  or just buy a good quality recording of the ocean  with the sound of the waves coming in to the shore............ you WILL snore for shore. :lol

Tapestry by Carole King is a great album to fall asleep to.

Lately I've been going to sleep with Aaron Copland's Our Town Suite.  Very hushed, meditative and RELAXING!  Also, his Quiet City is nice to nod off to!!!

There's got to be a John Cage 4'33 joke in here somewhere.

Wow, can't believe I missed this thread after posting. Some interesting suggestions, will check them later.

Excellent post, Ron! Doubt about infomercials (coz I'm allergic to them & don't watch TV anyway), but it's still quite an idea. In addition to the underlined bit, you can set the sleep time of your TV by clicking on remote's Menu --> Timer. Even old models have this function - f.ex., my "Vestel" (early 2000s). So you needn't wake up in the middle & switch it off yourself, very convenient. Just giving some sort of advice here (though maybe you already know this stuff).

Henry Gross' "Shannon" works amazingly as the lullaby. Also "Hammond Song" by The Roches, it's got that tranquil effect.

Oh, you...

While I've never actually tried it, the soundtrack to the film "Children of A Lesser God" by Michael Convertini is incredibly soothing, and would be very nice to fall asleep to. A wonderful combination of strings, keyboards and synth. The only bummer would be "Boomerang", (a horrid 80's pop song that sounds like it was made by a goofy dad trying to look cool in front of his daughter) but we don't have to talk about that...

A very relaxing album overall.

Eno/Fripp: Evening Star
Grateful Dead: Live Dead
Radiohead: Kid A
Pink Floyd: Obscured By Clouds
Nico: The End (if you wanna have really horrendous nightmares)
Can: Saw Delight
John Cale/Terry Riley: Church Of Anthrax

Falling asleep to LIVE DEAD are you kidding ..?  Your pulling our leg now right..! LOL

Not at all! I'm usually out by the time Dark Star's not even over and when lucky will wake back up just in time for  And We Bid You Goodnight! :)

You slept thru FEEDBACK..?  I never cared much for side 4 of the lp..1st 3 sides I would party to on a regular basis..

Oh perfect, I love this kind of music. I usually never fall asleep to music, but living in the city... sometimes it helps to block out all the frat partying next door or the ambulances with something that actually sounds nice.

I've listened to Wincing the Night Away many times before while falling asleep.
On a really noisy night I put on Fear Fun by FJM, which worked amazingly.

But I'm all down for suggestions, either for any future noisy nights or just some relaxing music playlists. I'm a sucker for listening to full albums while falling asleep, though. Even though you just end up listening to the A side... haha.

I used to have that on while falling asleep and I'd inevitably wake up into some not-quite-conscious-not-quite-unconscious state at "The Kids." This was unpleasant.

Similarly, back in the late '90s and early '00s I used to listen to Radiohead's OK Computer while falling asleep and I'd just start dozing when the latter part of "Paranoid Android--maybe 8 minutes into the album? but before the hard guitars at the very end--would come on. When you're nearly asleep, that is very creepy. Very creepy.

Side 1 of "Strange Days" by The Doors, low volume.
"Love Me Two Times" might wake you up a little, but "Moonlight Drive"... ahh.   

http://youtu.be/VxnpBbRnIM0

This album by Jon Mark and Johnny Almond makes pretty good end-of-day listening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPYyjdSZa0M

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark-Almond

I think I've listened to Strange Days once. I'm not super familiar with them. My friend loves the Doors, though.

Listening now. I dig it. Very chill music. I'm enjoying 70's tunes lately.

 Brian's first solo album is just about the best thing in the world to drift off to.

I never used to fall asleep to music, but my fiance likes putting the light classical station on the TV, so I've gotten used to falling asleep to that.

for the past few nights I've been falling asleep to Sufjan Stevens. Futile Devices is a perfect way to lull yourself to sleep.

My ex-gf made a tape to fall asleep to, one side Paul McCartney, the other side John Lennon. The Paul side had Back Seat of My Car, Some People Never Know, So Bad, No More Lonely Nights, Junk; the John side had Old Dirt Road, Bless You, Out the Blue, Jealous Guy, Oh My Love. I can't remember all the songs, but it was great music to doze off to.

 Rockabye Baby........ A CD of Beach Boys songs for infants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npn_J9CxKZ0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npn_J9CxKZ0)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y21VecIIdBI