My latest tool for (more) sound sleep
Once upon a time I was a pretty good sleeper. As many of you can probably relate, it all kind of went downhill when I was pregnant with my son—especially during the last few months when I literally felt like I was going to pop and couldn’t ever get comfortable (even with the body pillow my husband still makes fun of although it went in the trash over 12 years ago). Then there were the six or so months before my son slept through the night, and the several years after that when the baby monitor was a fixture on my nightstand. Sleep became even more challenging after my mom died, yet I had no choice other than to learn to live with it (and prescription-based intervention helped a bit). But once COVID happened, forget it. At the beginning of the pandemic I had vivid dreams about people standing too close to me, being at large gatherings where no one was wearing a mask and basically everything else that I’m afraid of when I’m awake and outside of my house.
That’s when I started to play rain sounds to help me fall asleep. My favorite was “distant thunderstorms,” but my dog (who is freaks the f out when it rains) would flee the room if she happened to be in bed with me. That made me feel bad so I tried pink noise, and although it definitely helped me doze off, I didn’t feel any sort of meditative benefits. (I also do a breathing exercise where I inhale for 5 counts, hold my breath for seven counts and exhale for eight counts.) I know, this all sounds like a lot of work—but I’ll basically do anything to get a good night’s sleep.
When I got Amazon’s Halo wellness tracker, it offers several “labs” geared toward nutrition, physical activity, mindfulness and, of course, sleep. I immediately tried the “sound bath” challenge, not knowing exactly what to expect—but I’m so happy I did.
It’s kind of hard to explain a sound bath, but it’s defined as “a meditative experience where those in attendance are ‘bathed’ in sound waves.” (To me, I imagine it’s what a Buddhist monastery would sound like—not that I’ve ever been to a Buddhist monastery.) The sounds include instruments like gongs, singing bowls, chimes, tuning forks and even human voices, but I don’t like someone talking to me when I’m trying to fall asleep.
I go to sleep before my husband every night, and I set a timer so my sound bath turns off after 45 minutes. I didn’t think he even knew what I was doing until I overheard a conversation between him and my son one morning that went a little bit like this: Dude, Mommy’s listening to some crazy shit to go to sleep. It’s like gongs and bells—I have no idea what’s going on in there when she goes to bed.
Regardless, I love my sound bath so much that I keep doing the same Halo challenge over and over again. My sleep quality has remained steady since I started (hovering around 60, which is considered fair—but far from great), but I have to blame 2020 for at least some (if not all) of my issues.
To kick off the weekend, here’s a good one I found on YouTube… Do yourself a favor and try it—at least once! (And BTW, I totally want to be this lady when I grow up.)
