I (Peter) often use songs to help me fall asleep, or go back to sleep if I have woken up in the night and can't stop thinking about stuff...
Here are some of my favorite peaceful, mind-quieting, rest-restoring songs! (And these sleeping "pills" have no known side effects!)
The version that appeals / works best for me is in parentheses. I like the first video unless otherwise noted. I tend to choose songs with a slow rhythm that matches my heartbeat during sleep...
Lullabies:
- John O' Dreams by Bill Caddick (Bok, Muir & Trickett)
- Dream Angus - trad. Scottish (The Corries)
- A La Puerta Del Cielo / At the Gate of Heaven (Freyda Epstein)
- Douglas Mountain by Raffi (orig rec is the best)
- Watch the Stars (See How They Run) - trad. St. Helena's Island (Moira Smiley, also early rec by Mike & Peggy Seeger)
- One Grain of Sand by Pete Seeger (Odetta)
- Bye'm Bye (Kevin Roth)
- Owl Moon by Bruce O'Brien (O'Brien's rec)
- Watts Cradle Song (The Heath Sisters)
- Sea of Dreams by Joel Mabus
- Baby Mine (Alison Krauss)
- All Through the Night - Welsh trad. (Laudibus)
- Sweet & Low by Joseph Barnby
- Stone Harbor by Judith Fox played by Rolly Brown
Love songs:
Many of these songs I find deeply comforting, even if they are sometimes sad. I begin with several by Kate Rusby:
- Bring Me a Boat
- Who Will Sing Me Lullabies
- Falling
-
Underneath the Stars (this one is played to photos taken from the Hubble Space Telescope of deep space galaxies - amazing)
plus two covers by Kate: - Wild Mountain Thyme Scottish trad. (Kate Rusby)
- You Belong to Me (Kate Rusby)
Here are other love songs that I find really restful:
- Fields of Gold by Sting (Eva Cassidy)
- Who Knows Where the Time Goes by Sandy Denny (Judy Collins)
- I Will by Paul McCartney (Alison Krauss)
- Broom of the Cowdenknowes - Child Ballad #217 (Archie Fisher)
- Beeswing by Richard Thompson (Roy Bailey)
- Sweet Thames Flow Softly by Ewan MacColl (Christy Moore)
- The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Ewan MacColl (Roberta Flack)
- Hello Young Lovers from The King & I (Julie Andrews)
- Down by the Salley Gardens - words by William Butler Yeats
- Since You Asked by Judy Collins (orig rec)
- I Don't Know Why I Didn't Come by Jesse Helms (Norah Jones)
Songs of faith:
- Sanctuary by Eliza Gilkyson (Lucy Kaplansky & John Gorka)
- 23rd Psalm by Bobby McFerrin (MUSE - Cincinnati Women's Choir)
- Crossing the Bar - setting by Rani Arbo to poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson (St Martin in the Fields)
- Guide My Feet - trad. African-American spiritual (Bernice Johnson Reagon)
- Healer of the Broken-Hearted by Rena Branson (Psalm 147:3-4)
- Ahava Raba also by Branson (a morning prayer from Jewish liturgy re-imagined)
- Slow Down also by Branson (a chant)
- These Hands by Cantor Linda Hirschhorn (video w photos of women's lives
- Christ Has No Body Now but Yours words by St Theresa of Avila (Guilford VT Community Church Choir)
- Come On Up to the House by Tom Waits (live rec)
- Your Labor Is Not in Vain by by Wendell Kimbrough (live rec by The Porter's Gate)
Other songs:
- What a Wonderful World (Chris Botti & Mark Knopfler)
- Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz (Eva Cassidy or medley with What a Wonderful World medley by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole)\
- For Real by Bob Franke (2009 live rec)
- Here Is My Home by Si Kahn (2012 live rec w Peter Amidon)
- I Bid You Goodnight by Joseph Spence (Grateful Dead)
- I Think It's Gonna Rain Today by Randy Newman (Nina Simone)
Songlists:
- Lullabies chapter in Rise Again
- Lullabies chapter in Rise Up Singing
- List of songs of lullaby song genre in The Music Box
- Healing & Letting Go chapter in Rise Again
- Hope & Strength chapter in Rise Again
- Hope chapter in Rise Up Singing





