It's 11pm and your mind won't stop. You're exhausted, you know you need sleep, but something just won't let you switch off. In this episode, Clare Savory takes an evening walk through the lamp-lit streets of Glossop to talk about one of the most requested topics she hears from sound bath clients: sleep. How to get more of it, how sound can help, and why rest is a habit your body needs to learn.

In this episode:

• Why falling asleep in a sound bath is absolutely fine — and what it tells us about how rest-deprived we really are
• Binaural beats explained: what they are, how the frequency following response works, and why headphones make all the difference
• The brainwave journey from beta to delta — and why you can't skip the gears
• Solfeggio frequencies: the ancient tones rooted in Gregorian chant, and why 174 Hz features in Clare's sleepscape recordings
• Why safety is the key to deep sleep — and how sound helps the body feel safe enough to truly let go
• The difference between breathwork and meditation — and which one to reach for at bedtime

Want to try it for yourself tonight? Head to Clare's blog for a free 30-minute delta binaural beats sleep recording, plus a deep dive into the science: feelingsound.co/blog/cant-switch-off-to-sleep-your-brain-might-just-need-shifting-gear

Presented by Clare Savory, produced by ASFB Productions. For more about what we do, and to listen to free guided meditations and sound baths visit FeelingSound.co

Feeling Sound — Episode 6

Sleep, Sound and the Art of Switching Off

Hello. It's that twilight time of evening, and I find myself heading out for a walk around town to clear my mind. I hope you're well. Maybe you're listening to this in bed — given the topic tonight, you might even find yourself drifting off mid-episode. I wouldn't take it personally.

It's dark here in Glossop, the high street lit by lamp posts and the warm glow from the town hall. And I thought tonight would be a perfect time to talk about sleep — one of the main reasons people come to a sound bath in the first place. People often worry they might fall asleep during a session because they feel so relaxed. Honestly? To me, that's a compliment.

Sleep is something so many of us want more of, isn't it? Good quality sleep feels almost mythical these days. That extra hour in the morning — we'd all take it.

I recently wrote a blog post exploring some of the themes we've covered on this podcast — the parasympathetic nervous system, brainwave states, and how sound connects us to deeper rest. I'll link to it in the episode description. But tonight I want to talk about something you've probably seen all over YouTube and Spotify: binaural beats.

You might remember from episode one that I talked about the five brainwave states: gamma, beta, alpha, theta and delta. Binaural beats are sounds — best listened to through headphones — that are said to help with audio entrainment. That's the process by which these tones encourage your brain to sync up with a slower, more restful frequency. You play the frequency, and your brain, your mind, your body, responds. It's called the frequency following response, and it's pretty cool.

I've put together a 30-minute sleep recording using delta binaural beats — delta being the slowest of all the brainwave states, that deep, restorative sleep where the brain is at its quietest. I'll share the link in the episode description. The idea is simple: lie down, close your eyes, pop your headphones on, and just allow yourself to absorb the sound. Your brain slows in response. No effort required.

I see this shift happen all the time in my sound bath sessions. People arrive with busy heads after busy days, and I watch them leave looking lighter — a different energy in their step, something released. What's happening is that as we close our eyes and the sound begins, brain activity slows and we move through those brainwave states: from beta, where we're doing and thinking, down through alpha — that relaxed wakefulness — and into theta, where people often describe seeing colours, that kaleidoscope effect, or feeling like they're floating, losing their edges. And then, for some, all the way down to delta: deep, restorative sleep.

In the last twelve months I've been working on increasing my own deep sleep — using my recordings before bed, putting the phone down, turning the TV off, and instead closing my eyes and listening to thirty minutes of delta binaural beats. In a way, I think it signals to the body: I'm safe. I can let go. It's time to rest. And it's remarkable how much our bodies pick up on those signals. What's happening with sound goes way deeper than our thinking minds can fully understand.

This connects to something you might have come across: somatic practices. The idea of switching from thinking into feeling. Because often the things that block sleep aren't really about the body at all — they're about not knowing how to turn off the mind. We expect to flip straight into deep rest, like flicking a light switch. But the body doesn't work like that. Just like a car, you wouldn't try to go from fifth gear directly to first — there'd be a crunch. We need those intermediate states too.

I also want to talk about solfeggio frequencies — an area I find genuinely fascinating, even though I should be clear that the science here is more in the realm of holistic research than peer-reviewed evidence. The story goes that these frequencies originated in the chants of Gregorian monks — a series of ascending and descending tones, each now associated with a specific healing property.

One frequency I come back to again and again — especially for sleep, pain relief and tension — is 174 Hz. If you played it on a piano, it would be an F3. It happens to be present in both my crystal bowls and my Himalayan singing bowls, which I only discovered by accident. Now, whenever I incorporate binaural beats into my sleepscape recordings, I always build them around that 174 Hz foundation. Other solfeggio frequencies are associated with things like releasing fear and guilt, or facilitating transformation — each with its own particular tone and intention.

What I find so compelling about all of this is the blurring of ancient wisdom and modern neuroscience. The lessons carried down through generations — through the playing of gongs, Himalayan singing bowls, crystal bowls — and the cutting-edge research that is now beginning to explain why they work. In our fast-paced modern world, so much of this was pushed aside when productivity became the priority. But I think there's a real call for these ancient techniques right now. We are genuinely yearning for deep rest. And there's nothing more primal than sleep.

Some of the benefits of regular sound bath and meditation practice for sleep include boosting endorphins — our natural painkillers — which help release physical tension held in the body. We've talked before about oxytocin, the love hormone, and the sense of connection it brings. And over time, regular practice activates the prefrontal cortex and shrinks the amygdala — our fear and stress response — making it genuinely easier for the body to feel safe enough to rest.

Safety is key. When we sleep, we're in our most vulnerable state. So of course, if the body is holding stress or threat — real or perceived — it won't easily shift from the sympathetic nervous system of fight-or-flight into the parasympathetic rest-and-digest state. Practicing rest regularly is how we teach our body that it's safe to make that shift.

I should mention Yoga Nidra here too — incredible practice for sleep, though not something I teach myself. If you're in the Whaley Bridge area, Sam at Knapp Club is brilliant and well worth exploring.

In last week's episode I talked about stick-ability — finding where a regular meditation practice can live in your day. For me, it started with a few minutes before bed. A way of bookmarking the day, processing what had been, and clearing the slate ready to settle. And I find it really helpful to understand the difference between meditation and breathwork here: with breathwork, we physiologically change the body, and the mind responds. With meditation, we work with the mind, calm it, and then the body responds. Both valid — just different routes to the same place.

I remember reading research comparing monks with newer meditators, which showed that because the monks had been practicing for decades, their natural resting state was predominantly alpha — that relaxed, middle-gear wakefulness — rather than the constantly activated beta that most of us default to. They were just naturally more at ease, day to day. That really stuck with me. That's what I wanted. Not to have to work at relaxing, but for ease to become my default.

I'll be honest — the last year has been a challenging one for sleep. Perimenopause has thrown its own particular curveballs. But I'm here for the long game. And I'm closer today than I was ten years ago.

So as I near home, ready to put my pyjamas on and head to bed, I want to leave you with a question: what is it that you need to do to make rest a higher priority in your life? What are the tools, the practices, the habits that could help you get there? Whether that's a regular sound bath, a meditation practice, listening to this 30-minute sleep recording, or simply putting your phone down a little earlier — you're already halfway there by listening to this.

I hope you have a restful night's sleep, wherever and whenever you get there. Go well, rest easy, and take care.