Sounds of sleep – narcolepsy playlist

Hey all, for my first proper blog I thought I’d start out with something a little bit fun rather than launching straight into the serious stuff – so this is my narcolepsy inspired playlist 🙂

I’ve been a bit obsessed with making playlists on Spotify lately, and so of course I had to get a narcolepsy one in there as well…

It’s mostly “indie” kind of stuff, just because that’s the type of music I listen to most, and I tried to get a balance between the upbeat and more depressing songs as I truly believe that listening to positive music is better for your brain!

The Smiths – Asleep

Quotable lyrics:

Sing me to sleep, Sing me to sleep
I don’t want to wake up – on my own anymore

This is the song that got me going on this narcolepsy playlist quest… Basically just Morrissey doing his usual melancholy British thing, but on the topic of needing some sleep. And whether or not you manage to sleep peacefully at night, all narcoleptics are lacking the deep sleep that allows our bodies to rest and repair themselves.

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Neon Indian – Sleep Paralysist

Quotable lyrics:

Won’t be you when I’m awake so just… don’t sleep
In the morning this’ll all seem fake so… don’t sleep

I thought this was an interesting one as he seems to be talking in a generalised way about dreams, and the blurring of the lines between what is real and what isn’t. Then of course there’s the constant refrain of “don’t sleep”, not that we really need the reminder!

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Rural Alberta Advantage – Sleep All Day

Quotable lyrics:

Well I shouldn’t sleep all day, you’ll waste the afternoon.
‘Cause I know if I’m up all night… you’ll be going to bed soon.

This song was an obvious choice for me. It speaks a lot to me, a literal reminder of the way that sleepiness can make relationships difficult just by not allowing you to spend time with the person the way that you want to, and leaves them feeling disconnected despite the fact that you don’t want to be spending all your time that way…

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Eels – I Need Some Sleep

Quotable lyrics:

Everyone says I’m getting down too low
Everyone says you just gotta let it go

Another slow one, which I think references not just the need for sleep but also the feeling that nobody understands how complex the problem is – you can’t simply “let it go”. Side note: apparently there are also heaps of remixes of this song due to it’s appearance on one of the Shrek soundtracks?

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Empire of the Sun – Walking on a Dream

Quotable lyrics:

Walking on a dream – how can I explain?
Talking to myself – will I see again?

Okay, so I may have included this one just to include another non-depressing song, but it’s still related! Walking on a dream… isn’t that pretty much what narcoleptics are doing all the time? The video also looks a lot like one of my dreams, in that it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever 😉

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Magnetic Fields – Asleep & Dreaming

Quotable lyrics:

I’ve seen you laugh at nothing at all, I’ve seen you sadly weeping
The sweetest thing I ever saw was you asleep and dreaming

The Magnetic Fields are one of my favourite bands, and I just think this song is beautiful.

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My Chemical Romance – Sleep

Quotable lyrics:

So shut your eyes, kiss me goodbye, and sleep… just sleep.
The hardest part is letting go of your dreams

A pretty emotive one, with all the typical melodrama you’d expect from My Chemical Romance. I think it is quite evocative of a certain feeling you get when you are quite sick of everything yet also kind of delirious… And there you have a perfect explanation of why I used to love this band as an undiagnosed narcoleptic teenager!

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The Dandy Warhols – Sleep

Quotable lyrics:

Well I could sleep forever, but it’s of her I dream
If I could sleep forever – I could forget about everything

Speaking of myself as a teenager, I was confused for a long time about my constant sleepiness because I used to use sleep as a way of avoiding thinking about or facing my problems. This kind of thinking is very unhealthy for anyone, but can be particularly problematic for narcoleptics who cant easily wake up from it.

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Fatboy Slim & Riva Starr Ft. Beardyman – Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat

And then this cat walked in, you know, not like a cat, like a feline cat, like a real, like, you know, like, you know what I’m saying dawg? Like cats and dogs…
It was raining, it wasn’t raining, we were raving

Okay so I did put this on here as a bit of a joke, but listening back to it I noticed how the guy talking throughout sounds remarkably similar to how I probably sound trying to explain my dreams to other people in a weird stream-of-consciousness kind of way. Like when you are in one place, then suddenly another, but it’s the same place… Anyway, I also just didn’t want to finish off the list with a really depressing one 😉

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Got a  favourite sleepy song to recommend?
Feel free to share it in the comments 🙂

In fact if I get enough I may make it into another future post with some of the songs I left off this list!

x Elle