Sleeping With a Mix-tape.

Sony Walkman circa 1980

First of all for those of you who don't have the slightest idea what I am talking about, we have to take a quick trip into the WayBack Machine. Set time for 1980, because that was when Sony introduced the Walkman audio player. 

The Walkman - pictured above - was a portable cassette player that was not only portable, but private. You listened to the tape with the now ubiquitous "ear buds." Which meant you could listen to what was playing, but nobody else could. [A lesson that seems to have been lost in contemporary society, where people in restaurants, libraries, buses, - are perfectly content to shout conversations - of kinds which should remain private - into their phones as if they were at home, or in their workplace; anywhere private. But I digress.]

Back to the Walkman. It allowed for the creation of "mix tapes." A mix tape was pretty much what it sounds like. You created a cassette tape from your Walkman - which soon had a cassette record function - that contained songs that you wished to share with your current heart throb. You would then give your beloved the tape to play in their Walkman - a sort of a portable, musical valentine. Kinda cool. And unique for the era.

Yet, that is not the mix tape to which I refer. The old mix tape has gone the way of the Dodo, tho' I imagine the notion remains feasible in the digital environment. But, the "mix tapes" I am considering are those streams made possible by various streaming services. Streams that can be tailored to your specifications. I use Pandora, but I'm sure the other streamers offer similar options. You can instruct the app to create streams of music from a particular artist, era, genre, instrument, style, what have you.

OK, keep that in mind, but let's shift gears. I am a bit of an insomniac. I have trouble shutting my brain off at night. Which numerous sources of varying credibility all tell me is a problem. "You do not go to sleep. You fall asleep. And to facilitate this falling you must quiet your brain." Well, there's something I can think about tonight - hmm, quieting your brain. How do you do that? . . . Oh, wait I'm not supposed to be thinking, right?

Anyhow, starting with the personal reality that I cannot get this "falling" done in a silent room - which my brain sees as a blank screen upon which any of a million thoughts can be projected - I have sought other audio options. Other "mix tapes" if you will: A variety of nature sounds. Rain forests at night. Just a forest at night. Just rain at night. Rain with thunder. Rain without thunder. Gentle guitar, piano, violin, what have you. White noise. Blue noise. Purple noise.

Just kidding about the last two. But you get the idea. But then I stumbled across another option. I was reading a mystery on my iPad at night. ["Bad, Robert! Bad! How can you expect to fall asleep while that toxic blend of light and words assaults your brain!" I know, I know.] Anyhow, I had my music stream set to sort of mellow singers of the 60's and 70's. And, kerplunk, I fell asleep. Color me amazed.

So I began to think about the characteristics of that music. [Thinking during the day. Not at night while trying too sleep.] A number of things came to mind. The songs were "mellow," which can stand in for calm, "not strident." The voices were, with the exception of an occasional Bob Dylan track, pleasant, clearly modulated, understandable.

But, and this may be this may be the important variable - I knew all the songs. Knew all the words, knew all the music, pauses, shifts in key. Given the necessary skill set with an instrument, I could have played them, note perfect. My brain didn't have to work at anything. But neither did it wander off into curiosity about the chaos of contemporary politics, the potential danger of AI, I'm sorry - SI, and why the hell he kept messing with words and titles. I just flowed along with the music - an occasional pleasant memory - and fell asleep.

I tried it again last night and it worked. I'll see if it will, in the words Guy's and Doll's thoughts on luck "Stick with me baby, I'm the fellow you came in with" or will it "Wander all over the room and blow on some other guy's dice."

Sorry. You can take the major out of the theater, but you can't take the theater out of the major.

Breaking News: This just in - Three nights in a row! I'm thinking that there might be something to this. You lull the brain with an audio stream that is comforting and familiar. It vegges along on Alpha waves and - whoops, falls asleep.

I'm also thinking the soundtrack you choose should contain lyrics, as I find classical or gentle jazz without words tends to give my brain the freedom to find various trains of thought that distract me and keep me thinking - aka awake. Familiar lyrics seem to keep my brain soothingly occupied.

Also, I think you shouldn't use earphones, unless they are incredibly comfortable, I find them distracting. So the audio plays at a discernible but comfortable level into the bedroom. This obviously can create an issue if you are sharing a bed - but that ball is in your court. However, the "University Hospitals website" says: The biggest pro of sleeping separately is better quality sleep for both partners.

Any relevant future data will be reported here. - R.L. Schrag, Ph.D [who freely admits to no related training in this area of study.]