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Playlist blog

Insomnia
By Janie Lee, 16, Troy HS

For the past few years, I’ve had trouble falling asleep. During the school year, I find myself trying to stay awake to finish all my homework. Then the moment I finish, I’m wide-awake, staring into the darkness trying to sleep. During the summer, I have days when I stay up late talking to friends or come home from a night out and have too much energy at 2 a.m. A few months ago, my friend suggested creating a mellow playlist to listen to, and it worked. I put this playlist on shuffle and I’m usually asleep by the third song. If you are having one of those nights, this playlist may help!

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Track 1: “Slow Dancing In a Burning Room,” John Mayer
Mayer’s amazing guitar skills really shine through in this song. His soothing voice and guitar playing stunned me so much the first time I heard this song that I didn’t even recognize it was about a fading relationship.

Track 2: “Make Me Whole,” Amel Larrieux
Lying in bed, I have my eyes closed and reminisce about past crushes with this sweet love song.

Track 3: “Sleeping In,” The Postal Service
The chorus of this song is fitting for insomnia … “Don’t wake me up, I plan on sleeping in.” After hearing that lyric about 20 times in this song, I can’t help but want to sleep.

Track 4: “I Will Follow You Into the Dark,” Death Cab for Cutie
The vocalist, Ben Gibbard, is the same vocalist from Postal Service. This song is a little different and has an acoustic feel to it. This song relaxes me and puts me in the perfect mood to fall asleep.

Track 5: “Let it Be,” The Beatles
This song is a classic that brings back great memories I had on a road trip with my brother and cousins. I feel like I am back on the road without any worries whenever I hear the three words, “Let it be.”

Track 6: “Don’t Know Why,” Norah Jones
Jones’s voice is unique. I feel like she is singing a lullaby to me every time I hear this song.

Track 7: “Guilty Cubicles,” Broken Social Scene
An instrumental song that gets me where I really want to be: the place where I think about absolutely nothing and feel complete nirvana.

Track 8: “The Scientist,” Coldplay
The combination of the keyboard and Chris Martin’s tranquilizing voice make this song great for calming me down after a night out with my best friends.

Track 9: “Cannonball,” Damien Rice
Rice almost sounds like he is whispering throughout this song, and it makes me feel like I’m lying on clouds because it’s so soft and soothing.

Track 10: “How We Breathe,” Pinback
There is an electric feel to this song, but I love how it is somehow still mellow.

Track 11: “Falling in Love At a Coffee Shop,” Landon Pigg
I first heard this song on a television commercial and loved the short part that I heard so I bought the song, which was just as good the whole way through.

Track 12: “The Sweetest Love,” Robin Thicke
I can’t help but smile when I listen to this song. On top of my celebrity crush’s soothing voice, the lyrics about being in love with that special somebody put me in a good mood to go to sleep, or even dream about a life with Thicke.

Track 13: “Creep (acoustic),” Radiohead
Radiohead is the last band anyone would expect to be on a mellow playlist, but when my friend showed me the acoustic version of this song, I found it surprisingly calming. The acoustic version of this song is different from the original, which at times is loud and rocky.

Track 14: “Boston,” Augustana
I love listening to this song at the end of any day. It speaks to anyone going through a hard time and is a beautiful song.

Note: The Beatles’ version of “Let it Be” isn’t available on iTunes. Here we’ve included Paul McCartney’s.