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Catchin' zzzzz's...or the lack thereof

Posted at 9:23 AM on February 6, 2007 by Mac Wilson (7 Comments)

Norah Jones' latest album, Not Too Late, is apparently a swell listen...if you can stay awake, that is. Quite a few reviews, such as this one from PopMatters, note how easy it is to drift off while listening to the record. I suppose this makes it the natural counterpart to the Shins' Wincing the Night Away, the title of which refers to frontman James Mercer's well-documented struggles with insomnia. Wincing's lead track may be called "Sleeping Lessons," but it appears that the best sleeping lesson one could give Mercer would be to simply put on the new Norah Jones album. What do you think: is releasing an album that is the aural equivalent of warm milk necessarily a bad thing? What other albums or artists do you turn to in order to help falling asleep?

Comments (7)

I'm really hoping people will chime in on this, since I've always thought the perception that "if music puts us in a relaxed state, it must be crap" is one of the most ill-founded and ignorant notions about music there is. (Not that you're saying this, Mac -- it's just that conversations like this often go in that direction).

I could write a dissertation on this -- and might yet someday, in fact -- but I'd rather people get in on this discussion themselves. So howabowt it folks?

Posted by Steve Seel | February 6, 2007 1:03 PM

Shameless plug ahead.... Our friends over at Weekend America just did a feature on this topic. My first roommate in college used to insist on falling asleep to Grateful Dead bootlegs. Ever since then I've been a "let's have it quiet at bedtime" kinda guy.

Posted by Steve Nelson | February 6, 2007 2:33 PM

Let's try that link again.
Music For Sleeping

Posted by Steve Nelson | February 6, 2007 2:35 PM

Hey, if there was no place in the world for music that puts us to sleep, where would that leave Sigur Ros? While we're at it, Red House Painters make me want to sleep, too ... forever.

Posted by Jacquie Fuller | February 6, 2007 3:13 PM

I've always looked at this topic from both ways though. There is some music that puts me in a state of complete peace and relaxation. Whether or not I fall alseep, my mind is numb.
But there is also some music that bores me to the point of wanting to sleep just to escape to another place. Or pound my head against a wall.
It all depends on what I'm into at the moment. I don't equate slow music with sleep. I also don't equate heavy metal with energy. I've put on Pantera before naps.

Posted by Jill Riley | February 6, 2007 3:16 PM

In high school I had a tape with "Murmur" on one side and "Reckoning" on the other, and I kept them on loop all night. I couldn't sleep without them on. For like a year. I think all through junior year, in fact. Not that I think they are sleepy records, but for some reason they were the most soothing things I could think of at the time.

Listening to the Grateful Dead before sleeping would be like sticking sharp pins into my eyes... not conducive. But then, I am pretty sure one ring of hell will involve me being stuck between two people arguing the merits of Filmore 1971 versus Winterland 1974. Only if you have lived this nightmare can you really understand and fear it.

Posted by Ali Lozoff | February 6, 2007 5:22 PM

I could never actually fall asleep while listening to music, but I listen to it a lot lying in bed at night. For example, is there really any other way to listen to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska than in dark silence? Also, Stylus did an interesting article a few years back about late-night music.

Posted by Mac Wilson | February 7, 2007 3:01 PM

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