Need help calming down? Give this a try

[Faye]

I'm not sure how many of you also suffer from compulsive rapid cycle MD episodes, when over a period of days or over a course of a week your MD's are more frequent and obsessively intense. When I am caught up in one of those cycles I have great difficulty trying to break out of the loop.

I know that music is a prominent trigger for MD, but I recently found a track called "weightless" by Marconi Union, its 8 minutes long and has no words/lyrics or loud beats. In fact is just sounds like a whole bunch of long droned out subtle tones. It was apparently engineered with the help of the British academy of sound therapy and was scientifically engineering to be calming and put listeners in a relaxed mode/state. 

I was suffering from a manic episode last night and took the time to lie still and just focused on listening, played the song on full volume in my earphones for 15minutes, it didn't put me to sleep but I found that I was surprisingly much calmer....and I was less trapped in my vivid MD.

I'm not sure if it was just a placebo effect. But any thing that may help is worth trying right?

If anyone is interested here is a link,

http://mp3skull.com/mp3/marconi_union_weightless.html

Give it a try, sit through the 8 minutes and focus on the sounds. Let me know if this works at all for you. I'm curious to see if it has a real effect on other people.

[April Dawn Hale]

M Hunter, 

I use the ones that go in the ear canal that are soft and squishy so ear discomfort not a real problem for me, especially if I'm using decent pillows and/or sleeping on my back. I actually need to get some new pillows, or at least throw them in the washer and refluff them.

[Zoe]

This ceased my horrible panic attack from last night, I was finally able to sleep because of this. Thanks so much for posting! 

[April Dawn Hale]

I wish I could say that I think this might work for me, but the truth is, I don't think it will. I've tried many types of music to relax/sleep, and what I've found is that the less that is going on in the music, the harder it is for me to focus my entire mind on it. The track you shared... I like it, but, it makes me think of ideas for stories or movies. In fact it reminds me very strongly of something that ought to be playing while a character is in some sort of messed up part of their life.

 

Good sleepytime music for me would be the Star Trek: Voyager theme on a neverending loop. Luckily I own a pair of earbuds that tend to stay in my ears until I pull them out in my sleep.

 

On a related note, does anyone else here use an eye mask to help fall/stay asleep?