I use Futurama. It's my comfort show and I've watched it so much it makes me sleepy now haha
Hell yeah Futurama sleepers ftw. There used to be a sub for it.
Anything but jurassic bark 😭
I always wake up when Jurassic Bark comes on and it's a real bummer. So I don't watch Futurama going to bed anymore.
Technology Connections doing a deep dive into something like how a VHS cassette tape works. I’m interested, but if it’s late, the topic also knocks me out in about 15 min.
This is mine too. Half the time my brain records bits and pieces when I'm asleep and I wake up knowing a few facts about how street lamps work or some shit.
Technology Connections: REAL SHIT
Technology Connextras: I sleep
A fan and total darkness.
...my fan broke earlier this year; i'm shopping for a mechanical white-noise generator...
...when our central air conditioner failed during this summer's hundred-degree spell, i installed a temporary window-box unit and sleeping was BLISS: tinnitus gang needs fans...
Audiobooks.
Mostly the one I'm currently reading, but I have to listen to that part again the next day.
If that's too engaging I listen to Nothing much happens, Bedtime stories where as it says, not much is happening, read in a soothing voice.
Same. Whatever I’m currently listening to I add a bookmark before bed and go back to that point the next time I listen.
My audiobook player has a sleep timer that after it expires, will gradually fade out to nothing.
Best part is if you're still awake enough that you notice it happening you can just shake your phone (with an adjustable intensity) without turning the screen on or anything and it resets the sleep timer.
My ability to fall asleep has never been better.
I've been listening to Fall of Civilizations, with some Kosmo before that.
I used to try to put on ocean things, but the animals were all too pretty, so I'd end up watching it instead of sleeping.
Alarm clock sound.
Works every time!
Darkness and a home server fan
Math class
Great Lectures are so fantastic too. Interesting stuff but the production quality is so great and soothing and excellent speakers. I don't stand a chance haha.
For sure
Classic movies, usually from TCM. I love classics but they’re often fantastic to fall asleep to with their slower stories and quieter dialog.
Over the last year or so I've conditioned myself to fall asleep to "Seasons" by Chris Cornell. It's the first song on my sleep playlist and I realized I was conditioned a few weeks ago when my wife was watching the movie Singles (which features the song repeatedly) and every time a bit of the song was played I would yawn.
ASMR videos. I know some people associate them with fetish stuff but they're really varied and most are just about relaxing.
The fetish stuff is all created by people who can't experience ASMR and just assume it's what being horny feels like. Sad really.
The I cant sleep podcast. Just a guy reading random wikipedia articles.
A book.
Fucking quiet. Which is damn near impossible to get, which is what gives me insomnia
If you haven't tried already: use earplugs. I realized embarrassingly late that my sensitivity to sound wakes me up quite often and earplugs have been a life changer.
More Kitboga for the last few months.
Extremely longform videos where an incredibly talented voice actor/software engineer/performance artist/ADHD dad calls scammers and wastes their time, collecting things like bank accounts to report as compromised, BTC wallet addresses to investigate, and the like. Streams all of his calls live, uses a physical voice transformer, and plays like 12 different characters on the fly. Sometimes plays four characters AT A TIME.
The relaxing sound of scammers just screaming obscenities in other languages.
An irreverant/fantasy show with sypathetic well-intentioned protagonists, at minimum understandable volume, with characters and plotlines that invite analysis. Something about the pointlessness of studying a fantasy universe is a quite effective sleep aid. Various Star Trek series, Futurama, X-Files, Grimm, Family Guy...
For shows that are a great fit except for a few segments (boisterous theme songs, jarring fight scenes, etc) the PotPlayer Skip Playback function (hotkey ') is super useful. Also I have a basic script that gradually mutes the volume after 40 minutes.
A couple YouTube channels I regularly turn to:
The Exploring Series - He does read throughs of SCP files and Lovecraft stuff, as well as other things. His voice and inflection are excellent for being calming, but not hammy like a lot of sleep story channels.
Astrum - Astronomy and physics related material. Also an excellent voice for this purpose.
Otherwise I sometimes just pull up a dungeon synth album that has the right mood that I'm feeling for the night.
Astrum is in of my favs! The other is History of the Universe.
D&D lore, or any other fictional lore is really good for this. It's not nearly interesting enough to really keep my attention, but just interesting enough that I kinda half listen.
Put this on, and just try to stay awake at night, I dare you.
For background listening while I'm winding down in the evening I like something a little more interesting, and my best for that is probably SEA. One of the best astronomy channels around.
Almost all the suggestions here are videos. Who wants light from a screen keeping them awake when they are trying to sleep? Put on some very quiet music instead. Best for me is when it's something I know pretty well.
I have a giant monitor and just press two buttons and it turns the brightness and contrast all the way down to where it’s just visible enough to watch and barely illuminate the room, but dark enough to have hella darkness with my eyes closed.
I usually just have an earbud in and face the screen of my phone/tablet down on the nightstand.
...dark mode text while lying in repose on my side usually does the trick for me, but then i wake up later with a drained ipad propped against the wall...
My phone display doesn't keep me awake. Either the effects of blue light are overblown or I'm immune.
Whatever book I'm currently reading.
Used to watch Forrest Gump and Harry Potter to fall asleep quite a few years ago.
Reading paper books.
Futurama. used to be Dan Carlin podcasts
This is the way.
Malcontent.
Anything presented by Simon Whistler.
Am I married to you?
Cosmos with Carl Sagan
Anything I’m watching by the time it hits 11:30 at night. Unless it’s a really great movie/show, I’m falling asleep on the couch.
Casefile. It's not that content is boring or uninteresting. It just knocks me out.
I listen to a small fan generating white noise and sometimes my cat purring
I have a playlist of meditation/yoga music I put on when I go to bed.
The Office (US). I've seen them all a million times but there's still enough to distract my mind. It's using the ubiquity of all the one liners and memes to advantage.
There's this Dutch fella who has a huge library of videos on YouTube where he plays these incredibly difficult custom levels for Doom. Despite the difficulty of playing them pistol start on the hardest difficulty, he's (almost) always very calm, narrating his experiences live with a low, calming voice. Game volume is also set low, so even with tons of explosions and screaming revenants his voice takes center stage.
While he isn't uploading gameplay videos anymore, save for user submitted levels, he was uploading daily videos for the better part of five years. There's plenty of material. I like to put a video or two on while unwinding for bed, and once I start feeling sleepy enough I just lock my phone screen, drop the volume til I can juuuust clearly hear his voice, and fall asleep.
There's a few short fiction podcasts I like for bedtime stories:
- Myths & Legends
- Fictional
- LeVar Burton Reads
- The Magnus Archives
Pink Floyd: Dark side of the moon
Feldup, the French version of scare theater or other channels like that.
If it is really noisy or I need to sleep during the day (working shifts), waves sound from my Ozlo sleepbuds.
The non musical family guy episodes.
It's the only comedy show where there's no laugh track, loud noises, and they explain every scene as it's happening.
Usually nothing but silence, but if I can not sleep or am thinking to loud I try to distract myself with some glitch in the matrix or anything by as the Raven dreams.
Cutting Edge Engineering. Aussie machinist who fixes large mining equipment parts
https://www.youtube.com/@JohnMichaelGodier
This guy's videos. He has the perfect cadence and voice for it, and the right video length too. To be perfectly honest I have no idea if the content of the videos is good, but they're very useful.
This... JMG is the best. Him and Isaac Arthur...
"Words for granted" podcast
I like to listen to podcasts/youtube videos about religion. The two I use the most are Religion for Breakfast and Let's Talk Religion. I also sometimes listen to "Fall of Civilizations Podcast". I always get bored if I do nothing but listen to podcast, which helps me sleep.
I do wish I could listen to that last one though, since I like history and the production quality is good. A video can hold my attention for longer than a podcast for some reason.
Long edits of Jerma streams :D
I’ve heard of that fella a lot. Happen to have any links?
Luetin09 more Warhammer Lore then you can poke a stick at.
The crickets and frogs outside through an open window.
Usually a science video on yt
Law & Order, Forensic Files, Inside the Actor's Studio, OSW Review, but to be honest, I don't really need any of it because I tend to pass out entirely within about 30 seconds of my head hitting the pillow anyways.
Woodworking or restoring old appliances and tools.
Spraycan artists videos on mute will put me to sleep. Could be someone on the street or at home.
Horror movie soundtracks
Dr Roy Casagranda lectures on YouTube lately.
Austin school channel: https://youtube.com/@theaustinschool?si=5_mJ-mcugKPS1GST
Silence. It's not uncommon for me to fall asleep watching a Jaws or Alien movie, either.
"Content"
Astrum and or SEA. calm space documentaries. interesting enough to hold my attention and keep my mind from racing, not critical enough that I'm afraid to miss it.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia or Seinfeld. I know they are always yelling but it soothes me. I think me visualizing the scenes as I listen helps.
Occasionally I fall asleep reading but I'm usually too interested in what I'm reading to sleep. Same with music it's either too interesting or too boring.
Zelda OOT or Majora's Mask speed runs.
My kid swears by train-crossing channels on YT.
Same. I've listened to so many I have a playlist pared down to just Japanese trains and specific crossings I found on YT. okok, Imma nerd. But still.
Oliech. Belgian streamer who plays the Battleground mode of Hearthstone. I don't play that game but I watch his videos on Youtube and whenever I do, I fell asleep and usually sleep well.
Otherwise, silence.
Machining or lathe work videos. For some reason, it's very satisfying for some reason.
Any video on WWII
I go to sleep listening to music. Some of my favorite sleep time artist:
Carbon based lifeform, Solar fields, Aes Dana, Emancipator, Album leaf, Random Rab, Sync 24, Ulrich Schnauss
Dreamscape ASMR (YouTube channel)
Every vid is a thoroughly thought out and immersive artistic experience, unlike many ASMR channels with regular soft talking in the room.
The inside of my eyelids have this weird shapes and light show, work every time.
Adventure time
Any sitcom made by Greg Daniels or Michael Schur.
Good sleep hygene ie dark quiet cold is incredibly good for you. It makes you 5-10% better at literally everything. Falling asleep to content is incredibly bad for this its literally making ur dumber and more distracted.
How is it bad sleep hygiene to fall asleep to noise? If it is adequately non-engaging, it is pretty much the same as other white noise. Furthermore, it really depends on each person what makes them relax.
To paraphrase an actual sleep scientist (and not just talk out of my ass like most people do about health):
It is easy to see know if you are getting enough sleep. If you feel tired during the day, you need more sleep.
Because the issue with noise is it causes disruption in your sleep cycle and possibly prevent you reaching deeper stages of sleep. White noise is fine and actually considered beneficial because it provides sufficiently consistent noise that can help mask other sounds that may be disruptive. It boils down to monkey brain still worried about animal coming to eat you but not worried about sound of rain hence millions of years of evolutionary selection on our brains to wake on sudden noises but not consistent noises.
Do you drink coffee? If so how are you going to know if your tired or not?
David Gilmour - Live in Pompeii
The box fan.
Lofi girl.
A Playlist made up of a bunch of 90's primetime cartoons
The hum of my oscilating tower fan.
Listen to Fred again... - 10 April 2021 by Fred Again... on #SoundCloud https://on.soundcloud.com/RJUDy
Painting videos are the best.
Omnibus.
Formula 1 and tennis matches. Not because they are boring but they are relaxing.
KnowledgeFight, usually. Sometimes an audio book.
When not in the mood for talking, singing bowls for sure.
When my brain can't stop and I need a distraction, either the sleep with me podcast or welcome to nightvale. Sometimes Sleep Whispers but that one can be over stimulating for my lil ASMR brain.
PBS Spacetime or Space Matters at 0.75 speed.
Alan Watts, Eckart Tolle, Great Meditations (the sleep ones as there is no wakeup bit at the end)
Police interrogation videos
The girlfriend masturbating. Wish she would keep it down though...
I also say this guy's girlfriend masturbating.
I'm not your guy, pal.
As I transition to being an old man I'm increasingly falling asleep on the couch while my wife and I watch through the Alone show again. It's quite relaxing.
Last night I fell asleep listening to PBS WashingtonWeek but that's the first time I've fallen asleep with an earbud in in a long time. Usually I just have a fan on.
