Radio LBB: The Sound of Sleep

Something I’m sure we can all relate to is that sleep is a precious commodity, and that we probably don’t get enough of it. However, have you ever wondered how sleep ‘sounds’?  

I took inspiration for this playlist from Dr. Diana Walcutt’s 2018 article on the ‘Stages of Sleep’, which details the fixed sleep process we go through almost every night. Based on Diana’s descriptions of these stages, and my experiences in them too, I’ve tried to interpret the ‘sound’ of our sleep over the course of one night, with the playlist including genres such as ambient, jazz, techno and dub.

The tracks are grouped in blocks of five, with each block corresponding to a different stage of sleep as follows:

1. Pre-sleep (Tracks 1-5) 
2. Drifting off (Tracks 6-10) - This stage is where we begin to fall asleep. According to Diana's study, 'during this stage, it's not unusual to experience strange and extremely vivid sensations, otherwise known as hypnogogic hallucinations. You may, for example, hear someone call your name, or the phone ringing.' 
3. Deep Sleep (Tracks 11-15) - As we drift off, our body temperature begins to drop and our heart rate starts slowing down. We then enter a period of deep sleep, which lasts for roughly 30 minutes. 
4. Rapid Eye Movement [Dreams] (Tracks 16-20) - REM is when we typically dream. Whilst we may have images float by in earlier stages, the actual dream state occurs in REM.
5. Rapid Eye Movement [Nightmares] (Tracks 21-25) - Although Diana doesn’t mention nightmares in her study, I wanted to highlight how our experience of a nightmare would differ to that of a dream. 
6. Waking Up (Tracks 26-30)