Technology Connections doing a deep dive into something like how a VHS cassette tape works. I’m interested, but if it’s late, the topic also knocks me out in about 15 min.
When not in the mood for talking, singing bowls for sure.
When my brain can't stop and I need a distraction, either the sleep with me podcast or welcome to nightvale. Sometimes Sleep Whispers but that one can be over stimulating for my lil ASMR brain.
This guy's videos. He has the perfect cadence and voice for it, and the right video length too.
To be perfectly honest I have no idea if the content of the videos is good, but they're very useful.
Usually nothing but silence, but if I can not sleep or am thinking to loud I try to distract myself with some glitch in the matrix or anything by as the Raven dreams.
Over the last year or so I've conditioned myself to fall asleep to "Seasons" by Chris Cornell. It's the first song on my sleep playlist and I realized I was conditioned a few weeks ago when my wife was watching the movie Singles (which features the song repeatedly) and every time a bit of the song was played I would yawn.
Extremely longform videos where an incredibly talented voice actor/software engineer/performance artist/ADHD dad calls scammers and wastes their time, collecting things like bank accounts to report as compromised, BTC wallet addresses to investigate, and the like. Streams all of his calls live, uses a physical voice transformer, and plays like 12 different characters on the fly. Sometimes plays four characters AT A TIME.
The relaxing sound of scammers just screaming obscenities in other languages.
Almost all the suggestions here are videos. Who wants light from a screen keeping them awake when they are trying to sleep? Put on some very quiet music instead. Best for me is when it's something I know pretty well.
The Exploring Series - He does read throughs of SCP files and Lovecraft stuff, as well as other things. His voice and inflection are excellent for being calming, but not hammy like a lot of sleep story channels.
Astrum - Astronomy and physics related material. Also an excellent voice for this purpose.
Otherwise I sometimes just pull up a dungeon synth album that has the right mood that I'm feeling for the night.
An irreverant/fantasy show with sypathetic well-intentioned protagonists, at minimum understandable volume, with characters and plotlines that invite analysis. Something about the pointlessness of studying a fantasy universe is a quite effective sleep aid. Various Star Trek series, Futurama, X-Files, Grimm, Family Guy...
For shows that are a great fit except for a few segments (boisterous theme songs, jarring fight scenes, etc) the PotPlayer Skip Playback function (hotkey ') is super useful. Also I have a basic script that gradually mutes the volume after 40 minutes.
D&D lore, or any other fictional lore is really good for this. It's not nearly interesting enough to really keep my attention, but just interesting enough that I kinda half listen.
Put this on, and just try to stay awake at night, I dare you.
For background listening while I'm winding down in the evening I like something a little more interesting, and my best for that is probably SEA. One of the best astronomy channels around.
The Office (US). I've seen them all a million times but there's still enough to distract my mind. It's using the ubiquity of all the one liners and memes to advantage.
There's this Dutch fella who has a huge library of videos on YouTube where he plays these incredibly difficult custom levels for Doom. Despite the difficulty of playing them pistol start on the hardest difficulty, he's (almost) always very calm, narrating his experiences live with a low, calming voice. Game volume is also set low, so even with tons of explosions and screaming revenants his voice takes center stage.
While he isn't uploading gameplay videos anymore, save for user submitted levels, he was uploading daily videos for the better part of five years. There's plenty of material. I like to put a video or two on while unwinding for bed, and once I start feeling sleepy enough I just lock my phone screen, drop the volume til I can juuuust clearly hear his voice, and fall asleep.
Good sleep hygene ie dark quiet cold is incredibly good for you. It makes you 5-10% better at literally everything. Falling asleep to content is incredibly bad for this its literally making ur dumber and more distracted.
Law & Order, Forensic Files, Inside the Actor's Studio, OSW Review, but to be honest, I don't really need any of it because I tend to pass out entirely within about 30 seconds of my head hitting the pillow anyways.
Oliech. Belgian streamer who plays the Battleground mode of Hearthstone. I don't play that game but I watch his videos on Youtube and whenever I do, I fell asleep and usually sleep well.
Astrum and or SEA. calm space documentaries. interesting enough to hold my attention and keep my mind from racing, not critical enough that I'm afraid to miss it.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia or Seinfeld. I know they are always yelling but it soothes me. I think me visualizing the scenes as I listen helps.
Occasionally I fall asleep reading but I'm usually too interested in what I'm reading to sleep. Same with music it's either too interesting or too boring.
I like to listen to podcasts/youtube videos about religion. The two I use the most are Religion for Breakfast and Let's Talk Religion. I also sometimes listen to "Fall of Civilizations Podcast". I always get bored if I do nothing but listen to podcast, which helps me sleep.
I do wish I could listen to that last one though, since I like history and the production quality is good. A video can hold my attention for longer than a podcast for some reason.
As I transition to being an old man I'm increasingly falling asleep on the couch while my wife and I watch through the Alone show again. It's quite relaxing.
Last night I fell asleep listening to PBS WashingtonWeek but that's the first time I've fallen asleep with an earbud in in a long time. Usually I just have a fan on.