Seeking guided relaxation / meditation cd's / podcasts.

October 28, 2009 2:52 PM

Seeking guided relaxation / meditation cd's / podcasts.

I've been suffering from anxiety and insomnia lately, and want to get back to normal. The cd's I've tried so far are The Mental Medicine Collection (Sacred Moment and Sleep Ease, both with Pakvilai Sudhaswin), The Calming Collection (Sleep Solutions, with Roberta Shapiro), and Living Meditation (with David Harshada Wagner).

The ones intended specifically for sleep seem best so far. I do not want any religious-specific cd's.

posted by mola to health & fitness (10 answers total)

I've used some from this Etsy seller and have liked them. She doesn't have one for insomnia as far as I can see but she does do recordings to order so that may be worth exploring.
posted by paduasoy at 3:02 PM on October 28, 2009

I've used Pzizz with great success.

You can also use it for custom length napping soundtracks (that's what I use it for). I thought it would be hokey, but it knocks me out completely.
posted by quarterframer at 3:59 PM on October 28, 2009

look for hemi-sync torrents
posted by fightoplankton at 4:46 PM on October 28, 2009

I've really like the "Four Relaxation Audio Sessions" MP3s available for free from the UNC Campus Health Services site. In particular, I've found "Relax Those Muscles" to be one of the better guided relaxation audio files I've heard. When I listen to it, I almost always drift off to sleep before it's finished.
posted by esd at 5:45 PM on October 28, 2009

I like the Meditation Podcast, which is available for free. There are 11 episodes so far.

From their website: "Our podcast is unique because we use tones in the audio that actually affect the brain waves, inducing a deep state of relaxation, and a brain pattern similar to REM sleep."

I can never listen to one of these without slipping right into deep sleep.
posted by so much modern time at 6:18 PM on October 28, 2009

I absolutely love David and Steve Gordon's "Pillow Music." I can honestly say I've never consciously heard the second half of it.

But it's not really "guided," I suppose. So I would also strongly encourage you to buy a copy of Pzizz, which is worth absolutely every penny. Think of it as your own personal sleep aid generator.
posted by jbickers at 6:48 PM on October 28, 2009

I'm a big fan of Open Focus. I've recommended them on here a number of times. In my opinion, they're simply best in class. They do have one drawback, they're on the boring side, even for a guided meditation CD. And it is a guided meditation, not a hypnosis CD where you trance out. An Open Focus session consists of a series of "negative visualizations", e.g. "Can you imagine the space between your eyes?".

The originator, Les Fehmi, was an EEG pioneer. There some interesting science underlying it. You can check out some of his papers, and a free exercise or two, at the website. (Warning: Audio)
posted by BigSky at 8:47 PM on October 28, 2009

Try drone zone or some of the other stations on somafm
posted by moorooka at 1:04 AM on October 29, 2009

Meditation Oasis is my favorite meditation podcast, and you can download it (free!) on iTunes.
posted by timoni at 3:39 PM on October 29, 2009

Thanks very much for the suggestions! I will try some of them out tonight!
posted by mola at 5:10 PM on October 30, 2009