Best VGM To Fall Asleep To?
 

I don't know about you, but whenever I'm having a hard time falling asleep, I like to turn on the ol' Ipod and play the most peaceful music I can find. I've never tried looking for tranquil Videogame music because, well, where would I start?! So many VGM OST's and I'm very inexperienced in the VGM genre. Currently I've been listening to the Phoenix Wright series music to put me to sleep but I'm looking for something new (I hate being woken up at 2 A.M. to panicky "Objection!" music). ^_^

So what soundtracks and/or individual tracks would you recommend I add to my "VGM Sleepytime Playlist"?

Some of the Halo themes, like the crazy choir and the mellower background musics, like "Peril."

Smashing...Live! kind of depends on the song. There are some really high energy moments that will keep me awake. Also another note: Wind Waker is fairly relaxing.

Smashing... Live!? There's nothing like falling asleep to orchestrated SSBM music.

FFVII has always knocked me out (especially the piano arrangements). Gotta try those Halo tracks and I still haven't gotten around to Smashing Live yet. Now that I recall, some of my favorite past VGM relaxers have been Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (whoo, Jungle tones!), Resident Evil series OST's, and the Metroid Prime series OST's. Metroid Prime really had some great ambient tones... Ambient tones seem to put me to sleep better then anything else... ^_^

Any more suggestions? Keep 'em coming!

The Chrono Cross OST, but almost everyone has given that a listen. The softer tunes are really peaceful (Home World, Dream of the Shore, Voyage - Home World, Lost Fragements, Life - Faraway Promise....hell, pretty much the whole OST minus some battle tunes..)

I don't know if this'll be totally appropriate, but I love listening to the OST of Silent Hill 2 at night. The pieces aren't 'soothing' but they're very ambient and abstract. The subtleness of each song really gets to you. Give it a listen.

For some reason, my brother always fell asleep when I played Dragon Quest VIII. Now anytime I play it in my car or at home, he gets sleepy...especially with the World Map music.

I second Chrono Cross original soundtrack.

Here's a few other relaxing pieces from various soundtracks that I like:

Final Fantasy Song Book Mahoraba
Various themes from Genso Suikoden Asian/Celtic albums (they're nice because they're remixed and deep)
Sailing to the World original soundtrack
kiRite
near death experience (Shadow Hearts Arranged Tracks)

Id go with the tracks from Final Fantasy Song Book Mahoraba, and the ones from various Final Fantasy Piano Collections :)

I found the music for Ecco the Dolphin 1 and 2 (Sega CD soundtracks) to be extremely nice music to fall asleep to. Most of it is pretty peaceful sounding, and it's honestly one of the better soundtracks I've heard in a videogame (which is saying quite a bit considering it was released in 1993).

You can download all the tracks from it at this site: http://web8.orcaserver.de/ecco/music/

It's been months that I go almost everynight to sleep to Solstice 2 / Equinox music. Lately, I usually go for the Ghost Ship theme followed by 2 Overworld. It lets you slowly drown in sleep with much atmospheric delight. <3

Also, I'll sometimes put on quiet Adlib recordings like Might and Magic 4 and 5 or Legend of Kyrandia. Those are great too.

There's always those awesome tracks from the Fallout games by Mark Morgan, like Modoc, Brotherhood of Steel and some other militaristic tunes. There's also a tune from Ground Control II, the one played during the first part of the tutorial which is an awesome guitar riff. Also, just about any Save Room theme from the Resident Evil games works well too, along with some tracks from other games like Deus Ex, Fear Effect, ICO and some Oddworld tunes.

As far as I'm concerned, the list is endless. First thing I do when I'm listening to a new album, be it VGM or Mainstream is look for chilly songs that might help me fall asleep.

I usually fall asleep listening to the Potion - Relaxin' With Final Fantasy album. It's just so easy to fall asleep with this on!

I’d recommend some older stuff which I’ve found good for dozing off to.
-Romancing Saga 3 -Windy Tale
-Xenogears Creid
-Dragon Quest VI –Phantom World (Orchestral Disc)
-Chrono Cross

I moved into a new place this past summer, and as result the first few nights I had trouble sleeping. I found a few of the tracks from Shadow of the Colossus to be excellent for knocking me out. Especially the intro

Every single version you can find of FFV's Dear Friends, although I recommend Shinai Naru Tomo E the most out of all of them.

Maybe the peaceful FF Piano Collections songs like Coin Song (could easily pass for a lullaby) and Yuna's Determination may pass off as slumber inducing songs, especially since they're so mellow.

Agreed. This is gotta to be one of the most relaxing song ever. It's very peaceful and I (almost) always fall asleep whenever I listen it.

I recommend you to pick Title theme from Animal Crossing Keke Forest mix though (the fifth track, I recommend you to remove the short intro 'snow' sequence). The accoustic guitar could bring you to complete peacefulness. You gotta try it :D

Although I agree that peaceful and relaxing are usually the same thing, I've found that the music (VGM that is) that relaxes me or puts me to sleep the best is the stuff I like the most. While that usually isn't "Palace of Destruction"-esque rock hard tracks (I like it but probably it wouldn't lull me to sleep), it doesn't have to be all piano and strings either. Lots of beat-y soundtracks have relaxed me- take Eco Quest 1's soundtrack, Sonic CD USA or Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure for example. Of course, if it's too beat-y and you like it too much, you might bop around in your bed all night. But only you as the listener can know what's right for you :)

Good music that you enjoy- that's my recommendation for 'best VGM to fall asleep to'.

- Spike

My nighttime mix CD starts with Suteki da Ne from FFX every night, and I rarely make it past that song to the other ones. I actually can't remember what most of the other songs are, but what I can remember off the top of my head is Chrono Cross - Radical Dreamers, FFVIII - Eyes on Me, Project Majestic Mix - Balamb Garden and Forever Rachel, FFIV Celtic Moon - Main Theme, FFVI Grand Finale - Aria di Mezzo Caraterre, FFVII - Aerith's Theme, FFIX - Melodies of Life, Xenogears - Small Two of Pieces, Xenosaga - Kokoro and Pain. I'm sure there's more.

In general almost any of the piano arrangements of any soundtrack are fairly relaxing for me, and any of the orchestral arrangements of any of the Square/Enix games (FFs, DQs, Xenogears Creid, etc.).

I have a few that I'm easily able to fall asleep with:

A Night of Peace and Quiet - Castlevania 64
Aqua Memory - Musashiden II Blademaster
Hope - Shenmue Chapter 1
Joshua - Vagrant Story
Introduction - Wild Arms the Best-feeling wind-

I totally agree with you, but I also thought about Relaxin' With Final Fantasy albums.

I'll recommend this as well. Although it may do more to keep you awake than put you to sleep, listening to Akira Yamaoka's compositions for the Silent Hill series in darker, quieter settings (such as when you're in bed, about to fall asleep) makes for a unique experience. Silent Hill 2 is great and all, but personally, Silent Hill 4 has had more of an effect on me.

For the most part, the vocal tracks don't evoke the same effect (one exception is Room of Angel from SH4), but they all make for some excellent standalone listening anyway.

I'll go with the Nintendo Wii hardware music. I haven't fallen asleep to it, but the music is very soothing and relaxing.

Oh my -

My favorites are ...

Super Mario RPG - Beware the forest's mushrooms
it is... relaxing... somehow


and a song from
Metal Gear (NES)
I have no idea what it's called but.. - I guess it's the 11th song of the *.nsf file I've got here:


Time for bed ~

I don't usually listen to music to fall asleep, but a lot of ambient stuff relaxes me for some reason. Even the 'scary' tracks from Silent Hill seems to put me in a relaxed state of mind (unless I'm playing the game that is :p). Well, OK, I can't listen to the Silent Hill 1 soundtrack and feel relaxed. But the others work very well (especially Silent Hill 2).

Fallout was mentioned above, and that's another really good one. Great music to 'lose yourself' in.

Chrono Cross has a lot of soothing songs. Ys Healing (I think) is also good for this. Arcanum uses a cello quartet and the songs are really subdued, but I don't remember all of the songs, so I don't know if there's a random one where they go nuts (I must be listening to too much Apocalyptica).

I completely agree with Chrono Cross as being a good bed time soundtrack. Chrono Trigger is also very soft and soothing in some areas. Tracks like 'Secret of the Forest' come to mind. The melodies and orchestration are usually mellow enough to allow for relaxation but very beautiful also to help coerce the mind into producing beautiful thoughts and images that may accompany one on their journeys into the subconscious.

Definitely recommended. :)

Most Final Fantasy music for sure, especially the Piano arrangements, or some of the orchestral ones. Best ones I've heard are from VII to IX (I've only heard/played FFVII+).

But the best to sleep to is the soundtrack for The Dig, Lucasarts classic adventure PC game, most relaxing music ever imo.

The Sailing to the World Piano Album is very nice and relaxing.

Sup, bahamuty. <3

I find that most OST versions of songs tend to be a bit more high energy (I suppose it's so people don't fall asleep playing the game) but there are always a couple of great exceptions to that. There's a music-box rendition of Theme of RENA from Star Ocean 2 that's pretty good, as well as a few songs from the Kingdom Hearts 2 soundtrack.

Can't go wrong with the FF piano collections, though.

The world map theme from Legend of Mana is a nice one, tranquil and even has nature sound effects like birds.

The world map theme from Valkeyrie profile 2 is also a nice one, track is called "Divine Veiw".

Coming back from post one to tout Anarchy Online (google "Anarchy Online volume 2" to download for free) is an amazing konker. I've been listening to it every night for about two weeks and it works.

I've fallen asleep to Dew Prism/Threads of Fate, Star Ocean 2(very dreamy), and Saga Frontier 2. I usually have trouble with Saga Frontier 2, mostly since I am trying to follow his patterns.

Not that I fall asleep to VGM, but I'd recommend the majority of the Zwei!! Original Soundtrack. It's nice and relaxing.

The ones that generally come to mind first would be Romancing SaGa 3: Windy Tale or any of the Final Fantasy Piano Collection albums. I don't usually fall asleep to music though.

I've fallen asleep to Silent Hill 2. Some of the tracks have a very nice ambiance.

I love that CD. as for sleeping though, you usually can't go wrong with any of the Final Fantasty Piano Collections CDs. That is some relaxing stuff. I also like the Zelda: OoT soundtrack played on a really low volume.

I think one of the better soundtracks to fall asleep to is the ICO OST. It's a really short soundtrack but pretty much all of the songs are very soft and ambient and should be able to get you to sleep.

Additional Spam:
Oh, and I forgot to mention Wild Arms ~ feeling wind. It's a piano arrange album with a few instruments (mostly strings) thrown in. Very pleasant to listen to at night.

Ys Healing is a very good album to sleep with, as well as all the FF Piano Collections, and oddly enough, the Silent Hill soundtracks are very good to lose yourself to, the ambient tracks work wonders. Not so much the noise tracks.

But alot of VGM is good to sleep to, I have a whole winamp playlist dedicated to the cause.

Well, it just so happens that I have a choice few pieces that I usually pick from to send myself to sleep... When I'm not so tired I just zonk right out, that is. Here are some favorites:

Secret of Mana Pure Lands (Total Darkness) OC Remix by CotMM
Suikoden Reminiscence (Deep Sleep) OC Remix by Hazama
Secret of Mana Dragon Song OC Remix by Harmony
Metal Gear Solid 2 May Fortune Smile Upon You OC Remix by Vigilante
Chrono Trigger The Place We Knew OC Remix by Reuben Kee & pixietricks
Bound Together - Home Again by Dale North
Xenogears Light | an arranged album - 20 - Into Eternal Sleep by Dhsu
The American Album - 14 - K-Pax for Evermore by mazedude
Shenmue Orchestra Version - 05 - Waves Crashing in the Morning Haze
Onimusha 2 Orchestra Album - 03 - Chapter III: Truth of Resolution
Dragon Quest Symphonic Suite Complete CD-Box - 3-08 - Distant Memories
The Best of Grandia - 13 - The Beautiful Woman of Alent
Genso Suikoden III Music Collection ~Rustling of the Wind~ - 10 - Searching for an Ancient Hero

You get props for knowing about The Dig. Awesome score, and indeed much of it is quite calming yet epic... almost as if the listener is being taken on a journey through the mysteriously awe-inspiring alien landscape.

i always recommend the black isle games osts. there are several awsome themes all suitable for entering rem phase. here some examples:


from Planescape: Torment
- main title
- deionarra theme
- annah theme
- fall-from-grace theme
- mortuary
- sigil
- smoldering corpse bar
- fortress of regrets


from Baldur' Gate
- candlekeep
- leaving home
- exploring the plains
- night on the plains
- helm's temple
- the ruins of ulcaster
- the friendly arms inn
- the dream
- stealth in the bandit camp
- the lady's house


from Baldur's Gate II
- galean bayle sailing
- asylum journey
- jon irenicas encounter theme
- the slums
- nighttime in the docks
- the planar sphere
- the druid glove
- the dreams
- romance I
- romance II


from Icewind Dale
- the tale of icewind dale
- easthaven in peace
- hrothgar's temple
- temple of tempus
- kuldahar theme
- arundel's home
- vale of shadows
- kresselack's tomb


and many others ... in other words, everything :P
download and try, i think you can easily find them on many FTPs in "my stuff" section ;)

I totally agree with your brother. Whenever I play DQ VIII, I also get sleepy -_-
Even in a dungeon O_o

I think the best album to sleep is Chrono Cross OST.
The aruni theme, gardove theme, world map, mabure theme, Reminiscence.

Other favorite tracks:
- Breezy (FF VIII ost)
- Dominia Home town (Legend of Mana)
- The Treasure Which Cannot Be Stolen (Xenogears)
- Creid (Xenogears Creid)
- Morning Fields (Tekken 2)
- Town's theme (FF 1)
- June mermaid (Xenogears)

Final Fantasy has many sleepy music albums

Dealy Beloved from Kingdom Hearts 2. Whether is the orcestral arrangement in the main menu, or the solo piano reprise at the 'The End' Battle report screen.

My, there are so MANY of them! I burned a CD with (almost) just VG music to relax to

- Music box (the ff5 version and dear friends, which sounds better)
- whatever the name of the music box in xenogears
- fragment of memory (ff8)
- omen (xenogears; the absolute best!)
- princess ellis (shining force II symphonic suit)
- rydia (ffIV piano collection)
- path of repentance (ff10)
- dark city treno (ff9 piano collection; softer than the original)
- shevat (xenogears
- junction (ff8; is that the one inside the sea laboratory?)
- landscape (BOF IV)
- another world (chrono cross)
- on that day, 5 years ago (ff7)

I definitely agree. Especially Hippolyta Hill from Super Arrange Version will knock you unconscious in a heartbeat.

My personal favorites:

Morrowind and Oblivion.

The CD I have also has:

Diablo - Tristam
DQ7 Symphonic Suite - Overworld
SotN - Lost Painting and Requiem of the Gods
FFVI Piano - Kids Run Through the City Corner
FFVIII Piano - Fisherman's Horizon
Chrono Cross - Shadow's End Forest

It's not video game music, but the album animal magic by bonobo is great for putting you out. It's not too drab, but it won't grab your attention. The ratchet and clank soundtrack (the first one) is pretty good for falling asleep, but the best one in my opinion is the OST for the legend of dragoon.
But, the best way to fall asleep is total silence. (for me)

The Illusion of Gaia soundtrack puts me in a mysterious dream mood, I like listening to that while I'm falling asleep

My pick is Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. It's very beautiful and peaceful. And the title speaks of itself too, you know.

Illusion of Gaia! Nice one.

There's a couple of soundtracks that have always been really good for laying me out and they are the Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 soundtracks. I picked all the ambient tracks off the albums and MY GOD they're just so entrancing to go to sleep to.

I usually leave a select large group of songs that I have off all four soundtracks and loop them, which would explain why I have so many plays of Akira Yamaoka tracks on my Last.fm profile. Don't get me wrong... He's a great composer but I really don't listen to him THAT much for me to say "Yeah... That guy deserves 900 plays of ambient noise in my head". :p

The Evolution of Dreamcast Soundtrack,
especially
-Blind Ruins
-Descent Ruins
-Shades Ruins
-Heaven Ruins

well, the name of the songs says all lol
"ruins ambient"

Chronocross, Xenogears, some of Halo 2. but i usually fall asleep to the tv - Smallville or X-Files. lol. :p

I find the Metroid Prime soundtrack to be very dreamy :)
Try it out.

I love tranquil/relaxing songs, and my favorite of them is for sure "Awakening Suite" from Enthusia Professional Racing (Nurburgring's theme). It's sooo relaxing, and a good length, too... highly recommended... it's on Galbadia Hotel I'm sure...

There's this really nice song from Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the future that'll bring you into a wonderful state of peace and tranquility. It gets even better about halfway through the song, but listen to it in its entirety and you may agree that it is quite relaxing.

Here: Aquamarine

So what do you think?

Kudos. I forgot how wonderfully entrancing this soundtrack was! This is indeed making me very sleepy. Its also very happy and free flowing. Do you have more tracks from this amazing game?

(Hopefully I fall asleep as a human and wake up in the dream world as a dolphin.)

Anyhoo, my favorite VGM to fall asleep to would probably be either Chrono Trigger or Chrono Cross by Yas Mitsuda. 'Earth Dragon Island', from Chrono Cross, always does the trick. ;)

I usually have both soundtracks (CT and CC) in my playlist on random and loop.
I've dreamed several times that I was Crono.