Hack my nap

April 4, 2011 1:36 PM

I want examples of writing, music, films or youtube clips that involve somebody being soothed by the sound of their heartbeat.

Listening to my own heartbeat freaks me out a little bit. It's a problem when I'm having a nap with earplugs and wake up thinking I'm about to be axe-murdered. There's nothing inherently scary about my own heartbeat, really - it shows that I'm still alive, which is nice - I just associate it with high-adrenaline moments in films. So I want some video or music or writing where the heartbeat has a soothing role.

posted by teraspawn to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

I think, but I can't swear to it, that this happens in the eponymous HBO biopic of Temple Grandin, starring Claire Danes. It may be in one of the scenes when she gets into her squeeze machine. (The film is quite good, so not a waste of your time if you watch it and don't come up with a soothed-by-the-heartbeat scene).
posted by Beardman at 2:19 PM on April 4, 2011

- There's a running gag in THE ADVENTURES OF REMO WILLIAMS that tapping out a woman's heartbeat on her wrist makes her amorous and calm.
- It seemed for a while that every story about a new puppy involved the same trick using a clock
- Oh, and look, it's actually been tested on infants

- On preview, they do use a slowing heart rate in TEMPLE GRANDIN to show her calming down
posted by Gucky at 2:21 PM on April 4, 2011

A little tangent to your question, but there was an installation at Burning Man '09, the Heartbeat Amplifier Chair (bonus, you see my wife sitting in it at about 1:40).

I don't remember why, exactly, but in order for it to really work, you had to relax, sink into the chair, and let your heart rate fall. It was trippy, but it was soothing.
posted by adamrice at 2:50 PM on April 4, 2011

There is that bit in Dirty Dancing when Patrick Swayze is teaching Jennifer Grey to dance and he tries to get her to focus on her heartbeat in a kind of soothing, feel-the-rhythm kinda way.
posted by Glinn at 4:09 PM on April 4, 2011

You can buy a CD of heartbeat lullabies that are supposed to soothe a baby to sleep better. We bought this for our baby - it worked pretty well for her, but her crib was in our bedroom and we thought it was annoying. YMMV

Another movie with a hearbeat-teaching-you-to-dance scene is in Strictly Ballroom, where Scott the hot-shot competition dancer meets Fran's father & grandmother who have been dancing the pasodoble as part of their culture forever. Grandma beats on Scott's chest with a heartbeat rhythm to get him to internalize the energy of the dance steps. (Everyone should totally see this movie even if you don't care about hearbeats - it is fabulous)

And you should also remember Edgar Allan Poe's The Telltale Heart which is an example of a heartbeat in a completely NON-soothing manner.
posted by CathyG at 9:35 AM on April 5, 2011