Good night, go to sleep💤🌘 // an ambient playlist for the nighttime

“Good night, go to sleep” is an ambient playlist I put together on Spotify. It is dedicated to restless nights and comfortable sleep.

Listen to the playlist

Support the artists on Bandcamp

Humble origins

At the time when I first put this together, it’s need was truly dire. I was living in a loft in Detroit’s Eastern Market. Below me was an erotic dance studio, above me was a DJ and next to me… well, I don’t even want to talk about the noise that came from the unit next to me. ??

Detroit Skyline — *Hey, the view was amazing.*

The real issue was the DJ. Look, I lived below John Ryan, who I love and he played amazing music. But, he lived DJ hours and those beats coming through that PA came at times that compromised my sleep schedule. Thus, my ambient playlist was born. I, too, had a PA and loud drones coming through it helped drown out the sounds.

Plus, his roommates would play this at random hours:

Look, any song played repeatedly can be annoying. This, loudly, repeatedly made me want to explode my eardrums so I couldn’t hear anymore. 🤯

These are just the beginning. I also lived behind a butcher shop so I could wake up to cows being slaughtered. I-75 was right out front and it wasn’t unheard of for vehicles to explode out there (or worse).

Hey, it was Detroit! 🤘

I needed to drone out some sound

I set out to put together some good drones that helped block out sound that were also thick and soothing. This was back when my playlists were originally put together with Winamp. I stripped it down for standards and put it on 8tracks.

It wasn’t long before this ambient playlist got moved to Spotify. I kept with the idea of not using a particular artist more than once, and built from there.

Eventually, I moved out of Detroit to pursue opportunities in Arizona. I kept the playlist and it has evolved to meet whatever needs I was struggling with. Typically, it used to drone out the noise so I could focus on work, but these days I’m using it a lot to sleep to again (look, there are a lot of roosters outside of my windows).

Reliable drones

This mix started with two tracks: Thomas Köner, “Teimo” and Brian Eno’s “Late Anthropocene”. The track by Köner is a classic example of super deep, nondistracting drones that I have loved for many years. The Eno track was newer, but I found it very relaxing and felt it needed to be included.

The mix built from there. I have removed and replaced a lot of tracks over the years, adding quite a few this year. There is a good chance I will continue to evolve this as time goes on. Here are some pieces I have included:

Recently, I added a few tracks in there that I used to spin for sleep back in the ’90s, like a piece from Aphex Twin’s “Selected Ambient Works Volume II”. I find that music comforting. ?

Recommended Settings

Shuffle On, Repeat On

This ambient playlist can work with shuffle mode on or off, but I find it more pleasing with shuffle mode on. The same goes for repeat mode. With repeat off, the music that comes up tends to be tranquil and without percussion but isn’t specifically as drone oriented. It’s still great music, though.

Send me your recommendations!

Know something that would work well on this playlist? Send it to me by either leaving a comment below or sending me a DM on Twitter!

@DanielCTuttle