A sequel to #1029:  Lick It Up (In Bed)

RECORD STORE TALES #1036: Sleeping My Day Away

Insomnia ain’t no joke!  As a long time sufferer (since childhood), I have continually sought new ways to fall asleep.  Last time we checked in, I was looking at using my laptop and a small pair of laptop speakers to play music and rock myself to sleep.  I have since revised the setup and experimented some more, with promising results.  Here’s the scoop.

The idea of keeping my laptop near my bed, next to my alarm clock and night-time drinks, was not ideal.  I’ve spilled plenty of night-time drinks so the laptop was not going to suffice as a long term solution for music in the bedroom.  I’m sure kids today have more efficient ways of playing their music wherever they want, but I also require certain minimum levels of quality.  Gotta have stereo, not a single speaker, for one.  The sound quality has to be slightly better than my buzzy, bass-free laptop speakers.  And I have to be able to play my own music, because Spotify doesn’t have what I want.

I looked around for my old Sony mp3 player, but I couldn’t get it to charge.  I had a second Sony too, but it appears to be lost.  So, my parents bought me a new mp3 player for Christmas.  Yes, they still make them!  It’s an off-brand player called a “AiMoonsa”.  The Amazon writeup said it has an “HD” speaker built in.  I don’t know about “HD”, but it doesn’t sound too terrible.  It does violate my stereo rule.  Gotta have stereo.  Of course, stereo is available through the headphone jack.  What’s nice about this player compared to the old Sony is that it has a removable 64 gig SD card.  Easy to swap in and out, and upgrade if desired.  I find swapping just as easy.  I’ll always put my old Kiss albums on my mp3 player, and the rest of the space can be taken up by other favourite bands and new musical purchases.  The only thing about this player is the controls are a little clunky, and it doesn’t display cover art like the Sony did.  But I also only need it to do the bare minimum of work.  That being, playing mp3 files over a pair of speakers while I try to get to sleep.

I needed new speakers, so I ordered the standard Amazon computer speakers, the Amazon Basics USB speakers for $24 bucks.  This is actually my third pair.  I have a set at the lake and you’d be surprised how far you can hear the music up there.  I also have a set at work.  This third set is for the bedroom.

I needed a power source for the speakers, so I grabbed an extension cord and one of those USB cube charges.  A bit jerry-rigged, but it works.

I loaded up the mp3 player with the aforementioned music, including my entire D-A-D collection as gifted to me by Thor.  Lemme tell something people:  D-A-D is a band with a deep, rich discography of awesome tunes!  Latter day stuff like “Empty Head”, “Something Good”, and “Everything Glows” are great tunes!  I put on the D-A-D compilation Good Clean Family Entertainment You Can Trust, and had a Christmas holiday nap.  And yes, “Sleeping My Day Away” was indeed the first track.

It was perfect!  The music sounded good enough (certainly better than when I used to fall asleep to music on cassette in the 80s).  The D-A-D did the trick, as tune after tune rocked me to sleep.  I fell asleep mid-way through the disc and stayed that way for a couple hours.

Now, who’s to say that I wouldn’t have fallen asleep that day even without the music?  It was a good nap though, and I enjoyed falling asleep that way, like I used to.  Jen came in to nap too, and whaddaya know?  Now she’s a D-A-D fan.

Mr. and Mrs. LeBrain fully endorse D-A-D.  Now go get some!