MADELEINE BRAND, host:
We're nearing the end of our show and that means naptime, at least for Alex and me. We have the perfect music. It's a new CD collection called Bedtime Beats. The songs are intended to help you get more and better sleep.
Critic Sarah Bardeen has this review.
SARAH BARDEEN: When I first heard about Bedtime Beats, I figured this was some gimmicky new release, like classic lullabies set to a trip-hop tempo.
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BARDEEN: Well, how wrong I was. Bedtime Beats is old school, and I mean really old school. We're talking Beethoven, Bach, Mozart and Vivaldi. The songs have been chosen to mimic the rate of the human heart at rest, approximately 60 to 80 beats per minute. Studio wizards sanded down the crescendos, transforming what were crashing waves into gentle swells.
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BARDEEN: Their digital trickery worked. I tested the CDs out on my infant son. I put one on just before naptime. Hardly a well-devised scientific experiment, but the kid slept for a glorious hour and a half while I wandered around the house to the strains of Erik Satie's Gymnopedie Number 1, feeling pleased with myself, slightly poetic and at loose ends.
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BARDEEN: The music also weaves a spell on grownups. Bedtime Beats happened to be playing on the stereo one afternoon when I was struck with a bone crushing bout of fatigue. I laid down to rest my eyes, and 30 minutes later I awoke to Mozart's Elvira Madigan.
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BARDEEN: With the harp twittering like morning birds, I felt like I was emerging from some magic chrysalis of sleep, utterly refreshed.
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BARDEEN: The liner notes claim that Bedtime Beats can improve your sleep quality, lower your blood pressure and even help cells repair themselves. Who knows if that's true, but Bedtime Beats is a very pleasant if middle of the road collection of classical music.
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BARDEEN: The best thing about it is that it brings a hint of grace and wistfulness to the often grumpy reality of sleep deprivation. Even if the gentle pace doesn't put you to sleep, listening to Chopin on the couch, preferably with a book of poetry in your hands, certainly beats cycling through reruns of Elimidate on TV. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.