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).