There is something incredibly nostalgic about music, which it makes it a great tool to use at the end of the day to wind down for sleep. Creating a bedtime playlist adds to the options available to you for your bedtime routine. We are encouraging you to #BringBackBedtime for yourself and for your family. Turn off the devices and embrace pre-sleep routines and activities that promote calm, quiet and connection with yourself and/or your partner and child.
I can barely hold a tune and my dancing…well…the effort is there, the moves are not. But give me a song from my past and I can give you date, time and place details. And I’m not just talking about the “typical” songs like my wedding song or the anthem of my final year at high school (The Sign by Ace of Base – yes, I’m that old). I’m talking about the “moments” songs. The song that was popular the week that you met your future partner, the song that was on repeat during your most memorable road trip, the song that immediately brings you back to your favourite vacation. If given the opportunity, I bet that we could all come up with at least one playlist of songs that takes us back to moments in time that are worth revisiting and honouring.
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Creating A Bedtime Playlist – Where To Start?
Consider how your personal sound track might feed into your bedtime playlist. You can build a playlist either on your own or together with your partner. Spend time over a week making a list of songs that you can include in your bedtime routine playlist that bring forward really good memories. They can be the songs that remind you of a certain time in your life, specific events, best days, etc. My husband and I have been doing this and it’s been both heart warming and hysterical to do this together. I’ll admit it may have been the second glass of wine that lead us down the Air Supply & REO Speedwagon path the other night, but we sure had fun with it.
It amazed me how one song would bring forward memories of another and how one life event would naturally lead to another. Before I knew it we had a playlist that spread from high school, to our wedding, our favourite road trip to The Yukon and the week my first daughter was born. I loved the mental road trip we went on together. And it resulted is a playlist that evokes really happy memories. The playlist is something that we can listen to prior to bedtime to connect, reminisce and ease us into a mind space that is conducive to sleep.
It’s all about connecting and letting go of the day. Music has the power to do that. It can facilitate a mindset that is free from the worries of the day and shift the focus onto moments in time that are worth reliving. Creating a bedtime playlist could soon become your go-to on those nights that you need a little help settling into sleep.
If you need some help to get started, here are some suggested songs you can add to your bedtime playlist:
- Thinking Out Loud – Ed Sheeran
- Halo – Beyonce
- Imagine – John Lennon
- Hasn’t Hit Me Yet – Blue Rodeo
- You Found Me – The Fray
- Fields Of Gold – Sting
- When We Were Young – Adele
- The One I Love – David Gray
- Peaceful Easy Feeling – Eagles
- Long Time Running – The Tragically Hip
- All of Me – John Legend
- Earned It -The Weeknd
- Let Her Go – Passenger
- FourFiveSeconds – Rihanna, Paul McCartney, Kanye West
- Fix You – Coldplay
- Photograph – Ed Sheeran
- Latch (Acoustic version) – Sam Smith
Contributed by Good Night Sleep Site Consultant – Kim Pawlak
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