Please help my smart 14 year old turn off her brain and sleeeeeep.....

December 29, 2010 10:16 PM

About 30 years ago, I had a cassette tape I used to help me go to sleep as an adolescent boy. It was relaxing music with an over-dub male vocal telling me to tense, then relax, muscle groups from my head to my toes. I would like to find it again now, to help my early teen daughter sleep. Does this ring a bell with anyone?

My daughter, almost 14 now, has a hard time getting to sleep. Once she sleeps, she sleeps soundly, but getting there is a problem. She's very brainy, and "shutting her brain off to sleep" is a problem.

I had the same problem as a boy, and I had this wonderful cassette tape that I used to listen to every night as a boy, which consisted of relaxing music with an announcer dubbed over it, gently telling me to tense, then relax, every muscle group from my neck to my toes. I rarely made it to my toes before I was in LaLa land.

I would love to find that tape again, or something like it, from 30 years ago. Yes. I'm old. :)

If this rings any bells with you, or you have any suggestions of similar non-chemical relaxation techniques for a smart kid who just wants to go to sleep, I would be very thankful for your suggestions...

Thanks so much....

ZZZzzzzz........ (drool)

posted by jwhowa to Health & Fitness (16 answers total)

There are a lot of sleep hypnosis videos on youtube you might want to check out. I can't vouch for any myself, but "sleep hypnosis" returns a pile of results.
posted by phunniemee at 10:17 PM on December 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

I remember using the tape as well! I can't recall who the narrator was but the man who pioneered the technique appears to have been Edmund Jacobsen and I think the keywords that you are looking for are "progressive relaxation".
posted by lunaazul at 10:28 PM on December 29, 2010

Sounds like Progressive Muscle Relaxation by Edmund Jacobson.
posted by jfricke at 10:31 PM on December 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

I sometimes use a similar recording. It's called Guided Meditation for Sleep, and it's narrated by Simonette Vaja. It's available on iTunes.

I'm pretty sure it involves systematic relaxation, but I don't remember how exactly it goes as I never listen to the whole thing anymore- it zonks me out almost immediately, as intended.
posted by charmcityblues at 1:19 AM on December 30, 2010

Tim Rowe has an audio track that is a guided body relaxation known as "Yoga Nidra". Although you're not "supposed" to sleep, I can't seem to stay awake when I listen to it. I don't think I've ever made it to the end of the track (I think it's about 45-55 minutes long).

A google search for 'Tim Rowe yoga nidra' should turn up some results for you to try out.
posted by franc.o.bolos at 1:33 AM on December 30, 2010

My wife does this same thing for me when I'm really tense! It works, even without the relaxing music in the background.. Why don't you just record yourself if you can't find the original tape?
posted by Glendale at 3:42 AM on December 30, 2010

What you're describing is the technique "progressive muscle relaxation" and if you can't find an audio, there are tons of scripts out there and you could record your own file
posted by gilsonal at 4:23 AM on December 30, 2010

Here's Here's a progressive relaxation script that I recorded to use with my son.
posted by lemniskate at 6:02 AM on December 30, 2010

How about one of these?
posted by tomwheeler at 6:43 AM on December 30, 2010

Response by poster: Wow, you people are amazing! After youtube-ing progressive muscle relaxation, that is without a doubt the method on the old tape I remembered. Now to find one of the (many many many) that has a combination of non-cheesy music and non-creepy voices for her! :)

Or I really like the suggestion to make my own for her. What a sweet thing to do for my daughter. At least I think it's sweet. Here's hoping she would not be thinking DAD IS MAKING ME SLEEPY all the time. :)

Thanks, all for your help. The hive mind is so awesome.
posted by jwhowa at 6:58 AM on December 30, 2010

I'm not sure if she has an iPhone or iPod Touch, but Andrew Johnson makes EXCELLENT relaxation apps. I have a hard time shutting down my brain at night and he relaxes me in the way you described.

Here's the iTunes link but I think he has some youtube videos too?
posted by ACN09 at 7:06 AM on December 30, 2010

Depending on your daughter's tastes, she may also enjoy (or hate) the recent trend of whispering videos on YouTube. Turns out a fair number of people find the sound of someone whispering very relaxing. Here's my time-to-sleep playlist: a bunch of relaxation videos, mostly whispers, that you or your daughter might like. Some are more explicitly about muscle/physical relaxation, others are more about guided visualization or meditation. Good luck, and sweet dreams!
posted by hatta at 7:47 AM on December 30, 2010

Since the meat of the question's been addressed: one alternative to progressive relaxation at bedtime is meditation (breath counting would be a good practice) before bedtime. Being able to "turn off" the chatty brain on your own is a good skill to have anyhow, for sleep or anxiety or whatever.
posted by mendel at 8:33 AM on December 30, 2010

Eli Bay used to be on TVOntario all the time, demonstrating relaxation techniques that sound exactly like what you're talking about. I googled him and it looks like he's selling CDs and mp3s now.
posted by chococat at 8:55 AM on December 30, 2010

I can just say as an adult who used to heavily rely on relaxation tapes (jungle noises, though, were my thing) I would not appreciate listening to either parent's voice as a relaxation technique. It would just keep reminding me of quotidian family conflicts or things to do and keep me from reaching my away-from-everything state.
posted by dhartung at 2:31 PM on December 30, 2010

The Pzizz software program allows the creation of one's own personalized relaxation recordings. I've used their 20-minute demo while napping and found it fairly effective considering I was under my desk at the time.
posted by Lexica at 4:43 PM on December 31, 2010