Max Richter, British Music Composer, Consults Science To Design 8-Hour 'Sleep' Album
Trouble sleeping? Play this clip from the new “Sleep” album by British music composer Max Richter.
Fans of the HBO show The Leftovers and the movie Shutter Island may recognize Richter’s name from the accompanying soundtracks, Time reported. Only now Richter isn’t so much trying to haunt you as he is trying to get you to slow down and sleep. To make sure his music would effectively lull listeners, Richter consulted author and neuroscientist Dr. David Eagleman of the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas over the two years he spent composing the album.
The final product is a “perfect lullaby for a frenetic world,” Richter told Time.
Classical music has previously been shown to help people fall asleep. The Huffington Post cited a 2005 study that found seniors with sleep problems improved their sleep quality when they listened to subdued classical music at least 45 minutes before they went to bed. Time added, too, that more recent research from the British Academy of Sound Therapy found that a relaxing song called “Weightless” could reduce a womens' heart rate by 35 percent among women — that was more than Mozart and Coldplay.
Richter will debut the full album during a series of live performances scheduled for this fall in Berlin. The series will begin at midnight and end at 8 a.m., at which point Richter will ask the audience about their experience. "We basically will play in the round, so the band is in the middle, and ringed around it are four or five hundred beds," Richter told NPR.
But you don’t have to be in Berlin to get a feel for this album. Check out the video above for a sample of Richter's sleepy track titled "Dream 13."