.theguardian - 4 days ago

In this week’s newsletter: Inspired by a Guardian series, the sights and sounds our culture critics turn to for help when the sandman is asleep on the jobHow do you sleep at night? If you’re like Hannah, a recent subject of the Guardian’s My cultural awakening column, it’s to the sound of a rat whisking eggs. The series shares stories of people who made a significant life change thanks to a piece of popular culture, and in the case of Hannah, that meant curing insomnia by watching Ratatouille. Every night for the last 15 years, at home or abroad, she switches on the Pixar classic and, within minutes, finds herself dropping off, thanks to the film’s comforting, consistent soundscape. It’s so effective, in fact, she’s never even seen it all the way through.Hannah’s might be a bit of an extreme example, but her tale does touch on something universal: culture seems to play an increasingly important role these days in helping people nod off. Head over to Spotify, Apple Music or any of the other music streaming sites and you’ll find endless playlists promising to ease you into a deep sleep. You’ll find similar on the BBC’s radio stations: 6Music’s Dream Time, a late-night audio mix from DJ Zakia S Radio 1’s Deep Sleepscapes, which repurposes audio footage from the Beeb’s nature progr or The Sleeping Forecast, which splices ambient and classical music with snippets from the shipping forecast. That latter series comes from Radio 3 Unwind, a new sister station to Radio 3 designed to “enhance wellbeing”, so naturally encouraging a good night’s sleep is central to a lot of their programming. There’s an entire sub-category of podcasting to send you under, too: series like Nothing Much Happens, which offers storytelling that is interesting enough to hold your attention but pitched at an intensity that won’t keep you gripped and wakeful. Continue reading...

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