It's gonna take a bit of explaining, so bear with me.
You guys know Al Jazeera, right? The news channel that everyone loves. Well uh... in the 2000s, they had other non news related television networks. A series of sports channels, a documentary channel, and... a children's channel (we'll call it JCC for short). Depending on the time period, at night they don't broadcast programs at all, and instead they aired an animated test card that looped all night long. Before 2009, it looked like the EBU color bars, but they actually made it seem alive. I don't remember that one very fondly. From 2009 to about 2012-13, it was just the channel logo in a night setting, but with extremely soothing music (a remix of the channel's theme song) and sound effects that actually genuinely made me fall asleep on multiple occasions.
I actually managed to find recordings of both test cards on this French website, right here.
If there is any discernible pattern to noise it keeps me awake (talking, music FUCKING STUPID MOTHER-FUCKING NIGHT BIRD). I use a noise machine with white noise or fan sounds running. Creates a lovely sound blanket from that mother-fucking night bird.
Usually just a fan, but a few nights ago I left The Twilight Zone on in the background and it was very cozy to sleep to.
Vin Scully(Dodgers), Dick Engberg(Angels, Rams), Chick Hearn (Lakers) and Jiggs McDonald(Kings) on my 9 volt transistor radio well hidden under the covers. So well hidden that it ended up switched off and in the drawer by morning.
Breeze, rustle of leaves, sounds from birds and insects. Fan if no breeze.
I shared a bedroom with my twin, so no audio. I prefer the sound of the AC on over off though, lovely background sound of nothingness.
Almost like white noise, right?
Hilary Duff CDs on loop. I felt like every song had something to relate too. Anytime I try to play them now and my friends tell be to turn it off.
Mostly nostalgia for me now. Remembering a time I had dreams.
I was nearly always grounded from all electronics from 6-13 (autdhd, and authoritarian parents, bad mix), and had a bedroom with no exterior windows. My window went to a modified 3-season porch thing, in 2 of the 3 places (the third was an apartment for like 6mths, I barely remember it), and that’s where my mom slept, so.. really quiet dead silence, mostly, else I was in trouble. Again. Or whatever garbage my mom had on tv, muffled through the wall.
Now I have tinnitus, so silence is really loud. I have aquariums tho and the hum and bubble of the air pump helps a lot (plus really loud circulation fans).
As a kid varius radio play cassettes like Benjamin Blümchen, Bibi Blocksberg, later the Star Wars soundtrack.
Nowadays various science shows on YouTube. Mainly astrophysics stuff. My favourites are Dr Becky, Harald Lesh and PBS Space Time.
Not astrophysics exactly, but you should check out Astrum. He even has Astrum Sleep content.
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.
I listened to piano music from the Suzuki method. The Suzuki thing is to treat music like a language, so immerse young kids in it when their brains are young and mushy.
Now I fall asleep to nothing most often, sometimes to a podcast or to an episode of a show I don't really care about; something old and formulaic like Columbo.
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.
Is there a way I can haz specific episodes of whatever like in a portable file I can retain? I wanna do freaky audio stuff to it lol
As a kid I rarely listened to anything, these days I put on Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio show, just go bacl to the start I've heard up to the third phase often but not the further ones as much. In the more recent past it may have been a Harry Potter (UK) book or again Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy voiced by Stephen Fry. Guess that's a lot of UK stuff considering I'm Canadian, but Fry has such a nice voice to drift off to.
Hundreds of bullfrogs croaking the night away around a nearby pond. Now if I hear a bunch of frogs I get nostalgic.
Reeeeee! Haha
Silence, it was usually my pose rather than the background noise that affected sleep. When I sleep, I often look like I was carried out of the chamber of secrets.
I never played sleepy music until I was a teen, and every night I played Cake - Fashion Nugget. 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.
EDIT: I typed the wrong Cake album originally.
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, it was the local oldies station for a while, then swapped to this long-form recording of ocean surf my parents had on CD.
These days a fan is fine, though I'll put on rain or surf white noise, or ambient music, with headphones if I'm travelling somewhere & it's noisy.
Underwater is really nice too, particularly bubbly
I had different audio cassette of Airwolf where they told the story from the episodes in audio form and in German. I would listen to them when going to sleep.
Today I fall asleep seconds after I hit the mattress because I'm so exhausted every day, no time to listen to anything :D
As a kid I usually listened to CDs from the series "Was ist Was". Originally it's a science book series for about 10-15 year old with topics like weather, the sun, mathematics, pirates or vulcanos. The series usually goes pretty in depth for a series more or less aimed at kids.
Apparently it's a translation from the series "How and Why Wonder Books".
For anyone interested: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Was_ist_wasAnyway, I enjoyed listening to the audio versions of the books (they were moderated by characters).
Later on I just listened to general music.
Nowadays I do not listen to anything. Sometimes to self recorded sea noises from vacation.
I uploaded them as well :)
-> https://on.soundcloud.com/RD6PWA 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.
As a kid, CD documentaries about constellations and astronomy
Modern day, video essays about the lore of soulslikes and random media I've gotten sucked into
That sounds like such a neat childhood! I wish I had those documentaries growing up.
I was lucky and my parents were able to get me one of those ceiling projection globes that makes the shadows in your room look like a night sky in a forest clearing, been thinking a lot about inspirations from growing up because I was able to find one of those rare actual starter homes we've all been told of in myth and legend and have started to hype myself on all the ways I get to make it mine
Robot chicken. Now, I usually have on some kind of space documentary, creepypasta or some long gameplay videos.
Beatles albums then, rain sounds now
Star Trek deep space nine
The Star Wars audio cassette. No idea what it would do for me today, but I miss that tape.
Now I just listen to rain or ocean waves on Alexa.
You should try to find it, is it on Youtube if you search it?
Like
Star Wars [name of episode] original sountrack
Lets make this happen for ya 🤠
as a kid, current favorite music or radio
as an adult, science podcasts, movie directors commentaries (ridley scott, francis coppola highly recommend), select rain sounds and currently the watergate senate hearings
Shitty hair metal like Dio, Dokken, etc. It reminds me I had really, really shitty taste in music as a teenager.
There was a particular easy listening station when I was a kid that played 60s, 70s, and 80s folk, soft rock, motown, and other singer-songwriter stuff that helped me deal with the anxiety of fighting parents and the deathly silence in between.
These days I listen to old episodes of MST3K or Rifftrax on YT, Best of the Worst, or one of the myriad of "oldies playing quietly in the next room and it's raining" that you can easily find.
My mind still races at night. I eventually made a playlist to recreate that old radio station vibe. It doesn't hit the same way it used to.
What music were you listening to at the most happy/content period or even just moment in your life? I know sometimes that can be dificult but just indulge me for a sec
The Doctor Demento Show! And they're all available online!
Bugs bunny and Friends sing The Beatles.
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, 95% pitch.
Edit 95 pitch, not 90.
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.
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
The never ending story!
I barely remember it.
The Other Side (series) by Joe Frank www.joefrank.com
Doris Hall, aka "The Solo Cup Lady"
Still know all the songs!
When I was a kid, I fell asleep to a fan (and still do).
When I became a teen though, it was the time of the very early beginnings of ASMR, and man it was the shit back then. I'm not sure why or how but I was extremely sensitive to it.
Sadly overtime that sensitivity went away, and although it is relaxing to listen to, I don't get the same "effect" from it.
P.S no it didn't make me horny.
A cassette on one of those small kid stereos, later it was my mom reading me stuff. I don't know if I could listen to music falling asleep but nowadays I have YT videos on and lots of white noise to drown out the crackhead neighbours upstairs.
As a kid? My drunk dad fucking shit up downstairs. Falling down the stairs. Throwing plates at the tv.
As an adult? "Hey it's Josh from Lets Game it out! Today we're checking out Satisfactory! So NEW GAME!"
Haha, I love how Josh finds ways to break games that are still in early access. Like, he's not actually playing the game, he's looking for an exploit or a way to break the framerate.
Sorry to hear about the way your house sounded at night growing up.
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.
Where you at now? Detroitian suburbs?
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.
