Audiobus: Use your music apps together.

What is Audiobus?Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.

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Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

Let's talk about sleep

13

Comments

  • After years of encroaching early waking, I’ve been trying 5-htp , 200mg in the evening, and it’s got me back up to an average seven nightly hours, from a low of somewhere nearer 5… it’s also helped reduce my propensity to migraines from exercise greatly, I’m not sure if that’s a direct effect, or just a consequence of getting enough sleep. It’s not foolproof however, I managed to get dehydrated a week ago and had to resort to triptamine, and then yesterday after a ten mile run felt the familiar twinges of one coming on despite my best efforts with rehydration and restocking calories, so I took a precautionary dose rather than risk losing a day to head pain.

  • I've started taking this stuff called Nytol in the UK, don't know if it's available elsewhere.
    Seems to working for me at the moment.

  • Im very into natural medicine, but unfortunately nothing has worked as well for me as sleeping pills. Melatonin.... Meh. Not that effective and I felt groggy next day. You need to experiment to find the right pill and dose. Xanax, for whatever reason, made my sleep even worse. Benadryl I found reasonably useful for a while. Zolpidem (ambien) didn't work for me as my problem is not falling asleep, it is waking too early. Clonazepam is the only one that I found effective so far, but I guess everyone will be different. I've been taking Clonazepam regularly for quite a few months now and the quality of my life has improved greatly. I can now sleep for ten hours, when needed, but for many years could never manage much more than 6. I wake up feeling refreshed and well rested. Years of poor sleep catches up on your health very badly, and it is good to nip it in the bud as quickly as possible. Frankly i wish i had gone down the medical route earlier.

  • @cyberheater said:
    Thanks for your helpful comments everyone.

    @BroCoast said:
    Try doing a 5 min body scan before you go to sleep and give yourself 30 min before sleep without screens.

    What's that?

    Google 'body scan meditation'. I'm a fan in general but it doesn't help my sleep, it makes me more alert. That said, if I am in a real insomniac state, doing this through any waking hours of the night does have a restorative power akin to sleep. I also recommend using some kind of app that generates pink noise

  • @Clueless said:
    Oh yes, I cannot remember when I could sleep more than 5 hours (maybe 1-2 times per month with luck).
    Mostly due to pain in the back and neck or some other obscure things like feeling heat everywhere (it seems also due to some issues with my neck irritating some nerves) but the good thing is I was always one without need of much sleep.
    One thing for sure...drinking alcohol does NOT help.
    Maybe the problem is I always have to fight against my nature. I am a men of night but I have to wake up at 4 in the morning to go to work but my body cannot learn it.
    Well, now that i am in isolation (I have a cold....not covid due to the latest test) i still cannot sleep like I would.
    Only thing working for me is to really work hard, make sport to get really tired.
    Even then my sleep is not great and often I wake up 3-4 times in the night.
    Tried everything, new bed, new pillow...etc. Not really helped much.
    I guess i have to deal with it. The older I get, it gets worse.
    But I also have a lot of stress which is one of the worst thing for health.
    Sometimes I just sleep 2 hours a night and then go to work. Maybe its also a more psychological problem.
    Worst thing is when your mind is awake but you can't move anything or even open your eyes....happens often last time....terrible feeling like a locked in thing.
    I gave up on doctors so far but I am sure my biggest problem is stress and trouble with my damaged spine (which especially makes trouble when my muscles try to calm down). Strange that i still really feel good while I turn heavy weights or do hard body work.
    Worst thing I did was trying to get me to sleep with a beer every day or a glass or two of wine.....not a good idea at all, so I stopped it before I gone into a wrong direction.
    Getting not enough sleep regularly really can suck the life out of you and let you do stupid things. It also lets look you fast older. In my youth I could sleep easy 10 hours a day, now its all I got in a week sometimes. :)

    I also felt that muscle stiffness interfered with my sleep a lot. I cannot sleep in a hard bed at night for the life of me, so a soft mattress and good pillow setup are essential. A doctor a while ago suggested I might have mild fibromyalgia. One treatment for that is zoloft. I've had a lot less muscle stiffness since taking that and it has helped my sleep too for sure.

  • @ervin said:

    @FPC said:
    Gavinski's YouTube tutorials help!

    Harsh :)

    Haha! I take it as a compliment, even if not meant as one, though i hope it was 😅

  • @Gavinski said:

    @ervin said:

    @FPC said:
    Gavinski's YouTube tutorials help!

    Harsh :)

    Haha! I take it as a compliment, even if not meant as one, though i hope it was 😅

    Ahh... Awkward... Was hoping you wouldn't stumble across this Gavin!
    I'll just add that I find your tutes informative, helpful, relaxing and meditative.

    Zero offence meant 😘

  • @FPC said:

    @Gavinski said:

    @ervin said:

    @FPC said:
    Gavinski's YouTube tutorials help!

    Harsh :)

    Haha! I take it as a compliment, even if not meant as one, though i hope it was 😅

    Ahh... Awkward... Was hoping you wouldn't stumble across this Gavin!
    I'll just add that I find your tutes informative, helpful, relaxing and meditative.

    Zero offence meant 😘

    Thank you! Sorry they are so few and far between these days. I couldn't make a living off iOS youtube, sadly, so am now scrambling to make a decent living again 😂. I went through a year of poverty building up the channel but realised at a certain point that it would take maybe 5 or ten years of doing the same to make it into something i could actually live off. I'm now actually getting a decent part time wage as assistant marketing manager for a crypto project. Unfortunately the iOS niche is just to small for earning a real salary and i need to make sure I won't be penniless in my old age 😂. I'll still make vids from time to time but I think the era of super detailed walkthroughs is gone for now. I'm still very proud of the body of work that i made during that time. I might even get round at some point to turning off monetisation. Youtube currently pays me about 80 bucks a month, i might prefer that people have an ad free experience of quality content.

  • @Gavinski said:
    Im very into natural medicine, but unfortunately nothing has worked as well for me as sleeping pills. Melatonin.... Meh. Not that effective and I felt groggy next day. You need to experiment to find the right pill and dose. Xanax, for whatever reason, made my sleep even worse. Benadryl I found reasonably useful for a while. Zolpidem (ambien) didn't work for me as my problem is not falling asleep, it is waking too early. Clonazepam is the only one that I found effective so far, but I guess everyone will be different. I've been taking Clonazepam regularly for quite a few months now and the quality of my life has improved greatly. I can now sleep for ten hours, when needed, but for many years could never manage much more than 6. I wake up feeling refreshed and well rested. Years of poor sleep catches up on your health very badly, and it is good to nip it in the bud as quickly as possible. Frankly i wish i had gone down the medical route earlier.

    What’s the dosage of clonazepam for sleeping? I remember taking that one time (recreationally) and it scared the absolute shit out of me cos I was so out of it but I could see where it would help a lot with sleep at lower dosages

  • edited January 2022

    @cyberheater said:
    I've started taking this stuff called Nytol in the UK, don't know if it's available elsewhere.
    Seems to working for me at the moment.

    Yes, it's a common OTC med everywhere ;) It's known as benadryl for the US people, and the substance itself is diphenhydramine. It's originally a first generation allergy med, and as "side effects" these tend to make you very sleepy, they inhibit serotonin reuptake (same as antidepressants), and also work really great against nausea. A real multitool, I take it with me whenever I travel.

    But what I'd like to mention is that the regular, long term use of anticholinergics, of which Nytol is also one, increases the risk for dementia. I love it as a sleeping aid for when I absolutely can't wind down for some reason and lie awake for hours, which luckily only happens every few months. But the data does make me worried about people that take it regularly as a sleeping aid...
    I feel like (CBD rich) weed is the healthier option, and probably doctors can prescribe more suitable options too.

    What helps me sleep when I cant, but the insomnia isn't too severe, is to really focus on what I see behind my eyelids. Might be just noise, might slowly turn into twirling colors, then slowly dreamy sceneries appear and by that point I'm already mostly gone. I guess one could consider it loosely related to visualization meditation or body scanning in that you (hyper-)focus on a certain sense while really letting go of everything else.

    Another thing that works well for me is guided meditation with hypnosis elements.

  • I can sleep at will. Seriously, anytime day or night. If one of you asked me to prove it you wouldn’t get a response until tomorrow morning, if you’re lucky.

  • All he asks is a bowl of cream and a rug beside the fire.

  • @Fingolfinzz said:

    @Gavinski said:
    Im very into natural medicine, but unfortunately nothing has worked as well for me as sleeping pills. Melatonin.... Meh. Not that effective and I felt groggy next day. You need to experiment to find the right pill and dose. Xanax, for whatever reason, made my sleep even worse. Benadryl I found reasonably useful for a while. Zolpidem (ambien) didn't work for me as my problem is not falling asleep, it is waking too early. Clonazepam is the only one that I found effective so far, but I guess everyone will be different. I've been taking Clonazepam regularly for quite a few months now and the quality of my life has improved greatly. I can now sleep for ten hours, when needed, but for many years could never manage much more than 6. I wake up feeling refreshed and well rested. Years of poor sleep catches up on your health very badly, and it is good to nip it in the bud as quickly as possible. Frankly i wish i had gone down the medical route earlier.

    What’s the dosage of clonazepam for sleeping? I remember taking that one time (recreationally) and it scared the absolute shit out of me cos I was so out of it but I could see where it would help a lot with sleep at lower dosages

    Depends on the patient. It has a mild effect on me - i could take it recreationally and feel pretty much normal but it really helps my sleep!

  • wimwim
    edited January 2022

    Who needs medication when we have the ultimate sleep inducing reading material right here: https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/48791/samples-rates-on-ipad-air-3-and-similar-devices-stuck-or-not

    ;) o:)

  • I take Magnesium L Threonate- helps a lot-

  • Lots of good tips here. I also use Wotja with bedphones, and I avoid coffee after 10am and tea after 1pm. Also you are never too old to cuddle a ted.

  • Are we done talking about sleep? I was taking a nap.

  • I also have suffered from waking early for many years and have just recently gotten better at sleeping. The major things that have helped me which have already been mentioned are:

    1. Exercise (even just a 30 minute walk if you’re not into exercise can help tremendously)

    2. No caffeine or much less caffeine. (Used to drink 6 espressos a day now I’m down to 1 or 2 and hope to be at zero)

    3. A Bucky eye mask (others have always been uncomfortable for me - this one is wearable because it doesn’t press on your eyes, and helps get rid of the tiny amount of light leak through the top of blackout curtains.

    4. Super low level wotja 22 on the built in drone patch. It makes me sleep really well. A great recent discovery for me since I thought I required absolute silence for sleeping

    5. Turn lights low in your house when the sunsets and find a color that is relaxing for the light.

    6. Don’t stay up super late. Easier said than done but give yourself a bed time and stick to it.

    7. Turn off the tv and all devices two hours before bed.

  • @cooksferryqueen said:
    Lots of good tips here. I also use Wotja with bedphones, and I avoid coffee after 10am and tea after 1pm. Also you are never too old to cuddle a ted.

    Didn’t know these existed!!! Just ordered a pair. Tired of searching for my AirPods hidden in the sheets in the morning. Thanks!!

  • @bpert said:

    Super low level wotja 22 on the built in drone patch. It makes me sleep really well. A great recent discovery for me since I thought I required absolute silence for sleeping

    Ah absolute silence, the last time i heard that must have been with 14… got like 5 different tinnitus sounds going since my very first concert. In a way they are my own hissy internal drone patch and it even relaxes me to concentrate on them while dozing off

  • @dobbs said:

    @cyberheater said:
    I've started taking this stuff called Nytol in the UK, don't know if it's available elsewhere.
    Seems to working for me at the moment.

    Yes, it's a common OTC med everywhere ;) It's known as benadryl for the US people, and the substance itself is diphenhydramine. It's originally a first generation allergy med, and as "side effects" these tend to make you very sleepy, they inhibit serotonin reuptake (same as antidepressants), and also work really great against nausea. A real multitool, I take it with me whenever I travel.

    But what I'd like to mention is that the regular, long term use of anticholinergics, of which Nytol is also one, increases the risk for dementia. I love it as a sleeping aid for when I absolutely can't wind down for some reason and lie awake for hours, which luckily only happens every few months. But the data does make me worried about people that take it regularly as a sleeping aid...
    I feel like (CBD rich) weed is the healthier option, and probably doctors can prescribe more suitable options too.

    What helps me sleep when I cant, but the insomnia isn't too severe, is to really focus on what I see behind my eyelids. Might be just noise, might slowly turn into twirling colors, then slowly dreamy sceneries appear and by that point I'm already mostly gone. I guess one could consider it loosely related to visualization meditation or body scanning in that you (hyper-)focus on a certain sense while really letting go of everything else.

    Another thing that works well for me is guided meditation with hypnosis elements.

    Thanks for the advise about Nytol.

  • @cooksferryqueen said:
    Lots of good tips here. I also use Wotja with bedphones, ...

    Nice! This solves the drawbacks of two solutions that I favor.

    I've been holding off mentioning something I found that works most times - binaural beats - for the reason that I figure most people would not want to deal with earbuds in bed. But now I will.

    I'll start of by saying I'm a skeptic by nature about such things. While I get the concept of two slightly off frequency sounds generating low frequency "beats" that can be timed to match brain wave frequencies, I have a hard time accepting that listening to such sounds in headphones can induce those waves in the brain. But, on a whim I tried it.

    I have an app called BrainWave. It produces various series of binaural beats intended to help induce certain brain states. Some of these have to do with things like concentration, stress relief, energy. I've had the impression that they sort of work for, but honestly can't say I'm convinced that it's not just my imagination.

    However, a few of them are focused on sleep, and I can't deny that they have worked dramatically, except for a few occasions where I've been otherwise overwhelmed with stress. When I've been having problems falling asleep I have put on a short 10-minute "Deep Sleep" program, and I swear that every time I wake up thinking something went wrong and the app had stopped short of the 10 minute mark ... only to find that it's several hours later. I've also used a different program to help clear my mind and have slept less stressfully consistently with it (at least when not overwhelmingly stressed).

    BrainWave also can play white noise type soundscapes, any of your music, or even sounds from AUM or other apps, helping to shut out other sounds and also contributing to relaxation. I'm not saying it will work for anyone - just relating my experience.

    The problem is the unnatural distraction of the feeling of the earbuds. Same for a mask. So these headphones may solve both of those issues. :)

  • I‘ve also played around with binaural waves before. Still not sure there was anything to it beyond concentrating on the pulsing sound. But I guess it‘s hard to discern placebo from a sort of ‚concentrate on xyz‘ meditation or from an actual ‚brainwave syncing‘ effect. But it definitely did have a very relaxing effect on me too. Although the effect was pretty mich the same between the different frequencies.

    What I came to enjoy lately is a hypnosis app called hypnobox. Puts me in a deep trance and their sleep induction had me doze off as well.

    Theres a bunch of these apps, I guess it comes down to personal preference which one works best.

  • You might try starting a consistent meditation routine. 20-30mins in the morning and another short session when you’ve completed your tasks for the day. Don’t expect results for 6 weeks, but trust that they will come.

    For many, an unruly, racing mind prevents them from falling asleep. Meditation is the best way I know of (besides drugs of course) to address the unruly, racing mind. Combine with an exercise routine for best results. To be clear, you don’t need to meditate right before bed. It’s more like a workout routine that will build the mental muscle needed for the task at hand.

    I didn’t have bad insomnia, but I do have sleepless nights here and there. when I was meditating consistently (I’ve since fallen off the wagon), I would fall asleep much much much faster than when I wasn’t meditating and rarely had a sleepless night.

    Finally, try this general mindset. When you cannot sleep, don’t try to force sleep. Instead, think of your waking time in bed as a restful vacation from your daily grind. Even if you don’t sleep that night, try to avoid the anxiety associated with wishing you did sleep. This can lead to sleep, but even if it doesn’t, You’ll feel better after a night of restful waking than anxious waking. Again, a consistent meditation routine can help you achieve this calm state of mind.

    Like all physical and mental health problems in life, put in the work and try the hard solution (diet, exercise, meditation) before the easy solution (drugs). You may need the drugs in the end as some problems can’t be overcome with healthy lifestyle, but you’d be cheating yourself and your long term wellbeing if you didn’t try the lifestyle adjustments first.

  • @wim said:
    I have an app called BrainWave. It produces various series of binaural beats intended to help induce certain brain states. Some of these have to do with things like concentration, stress relief, energy. I've had the impression that they sort of work for, but honestly can't say I'm convinced that it's not just my imagination.

    I tried the Brainwave app using the Deep Sleep setting and it did make a difference. It has the extra feature of working in the background as a steady state drone while you can create an iTunes play list if that helps.
    I selected 5 tunes from my iTunes library to help focus my mind and then stopped the music and drifted into the pulsing drone. Then I turned on a podcast because I had caffeine when I've been off it for a few weeks.

    I'll also look in hypnobox to keep finding tools that work for me. I bought another hypnosis app but the narrators voice isn't working for me and the musical backing takes me out of it. A feature of the app I bought is a collection of stories that seem to help.

    Maybe IEMs are in order since I like to sleep on my side and the stereo effect is important for brainwaves to create the phased pulsing and earbuds can be painful.

  • I've had my share of restless nights, too. This may sound cliche, but maintaining a consistent bedtime and wake-up time helped me organize my sleep patterns.
    Less caffeine and more physical activity during the day have also worked for me.

  • @bleassapp said:
    I've had my share of restless nights, too. This may sound cliche, but maintaining a consistent bedtime and wake-up time helped me organize my sleep patterns.
    Less caffeine and more physical activity during the day have also worked for me.

    Have a consistent sleep schedule does more for your body than a lot of people know I would say. It goes a long way in keeping you regular (in all respects).

  • Try eating a banana 30 minutes before bed.
    read this article:
    https://breakingnewsenglish.com/2311/231106-fighting-fatigue-m.html

  • @Antos3345 said:
    Try eating a banana 30 minutes before bed.
    read this article:
    https://breakingnewsenglish.com/2311/231106-fighting-fatigue-m.html

    My grandma used to do this every night. Thanks for reminding me.

  • "Dr Ben Kelly, a specialist in preventative medicine at the UK's biggest healthcare charity, offered some advice about how to deal with fatigue and a lack of sleep. He advised people to try his three-step bedtime plan. Step one is to turn the lights off because light keeps our brain active. He said blue light from phones and laptops is "particularly harmful". The second step is a good room temperature of around 19ºC. He said: "A cool room helps to reduce body temperature, which helps initiate sleep." The final step is to reduce all noise. As for food, life coach Simon Alexander Ong recommends we eat bananas to help us get a better night's rest. He said bananas contain chemicals that encourage sleep."

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