woman sleeping with a slight smile on her face
Image by Marcelo Trujillo

In This Article:

  • How sound therapy can help you achieve restful sleep.
  • The benefits of ASMR, binaural beats, and white noise for sleep.
  • How playlists and sound devices can improve sleep quality.
  • What is the science behind ASMR and its impact on relaxation?
  • Which sounds work best for your personal sleep preferences?

The Power of Sound to Help You Sleep Better Every Night

by Philip Carr-Gomm.

We are so lucky these days. With access to the internet, we can find out whether certain kinds of music or spoken word, white noise, binaural beats, or ASMR recordings can help us nod off. We can set up our smartphone or tablet to play for hours and create our own playlists. So if you find that listening to the radio, podcasts, or music often helps, it’s worth looking at this way of getting to sleep in more detail.

The problem with listening to audiobooks, a radio station, or a podcast is that you can never quite be sure that you won’t be woken by a sudden noise or change of tone, a chilling announcement about some awful breaking news, or simply something unusual or fascinating that catches your attention as you cycle from deep sleep into light sleep, when you reach that peak of alertness in your circadian rhythm.

If this happens for you, try creating a playlist of music that you know is soothing and has no sudden switches in tone or occasional clash of cymbals or blast of trumpets. You could try the composer Max Richter’s eight-hour-long composition, which has been played to live audiences tucked up in sleeping bags all over the world.

Sacred Music

When I had insomnia, I decided to capitalize on the idea of the “gift of the night” offering a mini spiritual retreat, and I created a playlist of Western and Eastern sacred music—John Taverner, Gorecki, Arvo Pärt—with chants from the great traditions of India, too. If I woke up at any time, I could just enjoy their numinous beauty.


innerself subscribe graphic


Nowadays, you can find great playlists on Spotify. Have a look at the ones for psychedelic therapy sessions. Because these sessions tend to go on for hours, the playlists are long and often very soothing.

The Human Voice

If you prefer the human voice to music, there are podcasts of “bedtime stories for adults” that are deliberately designed to avoid being overly interesting, and nothing frightening or even exciting happens in the stories. A particular favourite for people who take our sleep clinic is NothingMuchHappens.com or you could try the Sleep Stories section in the Calm app.

Other people prefer natural sounds to the human voice or music: the sound of rain outside, the sea or wind, or even a storm. Apps such as Infinite Storm will provide you with many variations on this theme.

A favourite device I use for afternoon naps (but which can also be used for sending you to sleep at night) is a sophrology machine called the Morphée, which sits by your bed and plays a variety of music, sounds, and spoken sophrology relaxation routines.

White Noise and Other Colors

Some people find that the consistent ambient masking effect of white noise (which you could compare to the sound of a fan or air conditioner humming away) helps them sleep, but in fact, you can now access a whole range of “sonic hues”, and it’s just a question of finding the one that suits you best.

Go online and you can find eight-hour long recordings of White, Pink, Blue, Violet, Red, Brown, Grey, Green, Orange, and Black Noise. White noise makes use of all the frequencies available to the human ear, whereas the different coloured variations alter this mix. Pink noise has reduced higher frequencies, brown noise even fewer, and so on.

Binaural Beats

Or perhaps what are known as “binaural beats” will help. These beats are a perception of sound created by your brain when tones of different frequencies are played in each ear. If you listen to a tone at 300 hertz (Hz) in one ear, for example, and to a tone at 310 Hz in the other, the binaural beat you will hear is at 10 Hz.

Early research is suggesting that listening to recordings that generate binaural beats may help reduce anxiety and lead to improved sleep, with one study finding that the restorative phase of deep sleep was lengthened in participants exposed to them. Again, you can find many recordings online, including recordings that combine binaural beats with the white or coloured noises mentioned above.

ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response)

You might also like to find out whether you are susceptible to ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response). If you are, you will find that certain sounds or images make you feel very relaxed and generate pleasurable tingling feelings in your head and neck.

Research hasn’t determined how many of us have this ASMR response, but judging by the YouTube viewing figures it must be a good proportion. If you’re not susceptible, the videos seem strange, even a bit spooky. Someone will be simply folding towels or pretending to brush your hair. Running water and even sounds like rustling plastic or scratching nails along a hard surface can generate the experience for some people.

ASMR can be seen as the opposite experience to misophonia, which afflicts those who are extremely sensitive to certain sounds, such as chewing or breathing, and trigger intense feelings of anger, agitation, and disgust. Interestingly, a large-scale study of misophonia found that half the participants also experienced ASMR, and other research has found differences in neural connectivity and networking amongst those reporting ASMR.4,5

Most people with ASMR use the experience to help them get to sleep, and you can find a vast range of videos online, including role-playing “sleep doctor exams”, which have millions of viewings, with at least one video lasting three hours. How do they help people sleep? No one yet knows for certain, but those with ASMR find that the experience lifts their mood, relieves anxiety, and induces relaxation and calm: all important ingredients for easing our entry into the world of dreams. The National Sleep Foundation in the US recommends ASMR University as a good resource.

Copyright ©2023. All Rights Reserved.
Adapted with permission of the publisher,
|Findhorn Press, an imprint of Inner Traditions Intl.

Article Source:

BOOK: The Gift of the Night

The Gift of the Night: A Six-Step Program for Better Sleep
by Philip Carr-Gomm.

A fast and easy-to-follow six-step program to help you sleep better, The Gift of the Night combines knowledge from sleep science and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with techniques drawn from spiritual traditions and insights from the emerging field of psychedelic therapy. This guide presents a myriad of suggestions for creating the best mindset, emotional state, and physical conditions to optimize the environment for sleep, including advice on nutrition and supplements.

Based on the success of his sleep clinic, Philip Carr-Gomm offers thirteen natural ways we can drift into a deep and restorative sleep. In addition, a comprehensive sleep troubleshooting guide tackles topics such as sleep phobia, sleep hacking, and lucid dreaming. Helping you get a better night’s rest, this concise and simple guide shows you how to truly benefit from everything the night offers to body and soul.

Click here for more info and/or to order this paperback book. Also available as an Audiobook and as a Kindle edition.

About the Author

Philip Carr-Gomm is an author and psychotherapist, trained in psychology, sophrology, and psychosynthesis psycho therapy. The founder of the Sophrology Institute, he also works in the emerging field of psychedelic psychotherapy. Philip runs a sleep clinic that offers online sleep therapy and is the author of more than twenty books.

More Books by the author.

Article Recap:

This article explores the diverse ways sound therapy can improve sleep quality, including the use of ASMR, binaural beats, and white noise. It highlights practical solutions such as curated playlists, sacred music, and natural sounds. The article also delves into the science of ASMR, showcasing its unique relaxation effects and the connection to better sleep. Whether through soothing music or specialized sound devices, these tools offer a path to deeper, more restorative sleep.