My Virtual Reading Room

It's very pretty, but it's not a real video - it's just a repeating loop with a dubbed-in loop of repeating sound.

No doubt it's an Aspie hyper-sensory thing, but such repeating loops aren't soothing to me - they're like listening to a skipping record; I can't help focusing on the place where the loop breaks to start over.

Now, a ten-minute loop, or even as little as three minutes, would probably be enough to lull the mind. Sadly, there aren't a lot of places in the civilized world where one can record ten minutes of water-and-birdsong without getting some machine-noise in there as well.

A very effective non-pharmaceutical remedy for insomnia is to put all the flickering electronic toys away a couple of hours before bedtime, read a real book in mellow lamp-light, go to bed in a totally dark room, and visualize a beautiful place in as much detail as possible. I still put myself to sleep by visualizing the Olentangy River bike trail in Columbus, OH, that I last rode in 1987: works like a charm.