I've never really had any trouble whatsoever going to sleep, so when I put on music to sleep, it was literally what I felt like listening to in the ten minutes max I had before I dropped off - this led to situations where I was listening to heavy metal or bouncy pop when I was going to sleep, which seems in hindsight rather counter-productive.

These days, my gf has enough trouble getting to sleep as it is, so no music at bedtime! She tends to listen to Storybooks - they help her sleep and they give her something to listen to if she can't. For me, I've had to fine-tune the art of blocking out things I don't want to hear, as voices are pretty much the only thing that can keep me awake!

It is possible to use sound as a sleep aid, although music may not be the best option. In a quiet room, the mind gets very alert and so intrusive sounds coming from outside the room like a car driving past, a neighbor slamming a door and so on will be perceived as relatively loud in a quiet environment. If you have some sort of background noise going on, that will help "dampen" intrusive sounds. The background sound itself won't be noticeable after a little while because the brain will become habituated and filter it out. The sound of a fan f.ex in a bedroom may actually help the room sound more peaceful.

This is the reason some businesses have started using white noise generators, for example in office landscapes. Instead of fans or white noise generators, one can use ambient nature sounds like waves crashing on a beach or the sound of a rainstorm perhaps. It's good to use the same sounds so you don't have to get used to (habituate yourself to) new ones all the time.

^ Where I used to work graveyard shift and slept all day I've gotten quite used to the white noise while sleeping angle. The constant hum blocked out the majority of noises and sounds from the other tenants in the building going about their business.

As for music specifically. There are 3 albums that I've relied on almost exclusively over the years, since the last time I formatted my iPod / reinstalled iTunes the album counts are up to...

Boards of Canada - Geogaddi - 62+
Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right to Children - 51+
Bowery Electric - Beat - 41+

I say ##+ because I don't always get to hear the full album before the charge in my battery runs out on certain evenings, the top track on Geogaddi actually has 75 plays at the moment. Oddly enough it's one of my least favourite tracks on the disc hahaha (Beware the Friendly Stranger).

Sometimes I listen to Lullabye rock renditions :laughing:

if i have insomnia, i usually put on Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms, and skip "Money for Nothing" and "Walk of Life" - i'll sleep like a baby

i have fallen asleep numerous times to the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo, even when i don't intend to - it's just so pastoral

i have also fallen asleep a few times to death metal but that's just because i was dead tired

I used to always listen to Azure Ray when drifting off to sleep...



All of their songs are so soft and dreamy.

Seeing you, Lateralus, reminded me that I used to love falling asleep to Tool. Throw on No Quarter follow by Pu**** Live and I'd be out. I'd cushion it with instrumental tracks like Disposition, Intolerance, etc. just in case, but they soothe me awake or asleep.

Indeed I've found Tool to be a fantastic band to drift off to. Surprisingly, I think that Keiji Haino's I Said, This is the Son of Nihilism is another great sleep album, it really strikes me as odd since it's predominately noise, but then again I am soothed by offsetting music.

The live version of Pushit is one of my favourite things ever.

And yeah, drifting off to Disposition... very soothing.

This is what I do. I have an app on my iPhone I use called Naturescape. I love it. They make you feel immersed in the sounds, and it's also not just 30 second-1 minute loops. Sometimes I used other apps and could tell it was doing the same thing over and over again, which for some reason made me concentrate on it.

Also, the infamous I-Doser app has a track or whatever called Insomnia, which is meant to help put you to sleep. It's rather obvious to see how when you listen to it. The tone or frequency or whatever plays for awhile, and then drops down, plays for awhile, drops down again, etc.