Lullabies For Grown-Ups: My Napping Playlist

2008 was the year of the nap. The summer between my senior year of college and grad school, I was commuting an hour-and-a-half-plus to an internship in another Chicago suburb, then commuting back in the evenings to cashier at the local book store. Three hours a day probably could have been filled by productively reading enriching works of literature, but I mostly slept.

I've always needed quiet to sleep, but something about the rocking motion of the train paired with the earbuds in my ears to block out the noise lulled me into a peaceful rest on almost every ride. (I set an alarm to wake me up 15 minutes before arrival time and only snoozed past my stop once all summer.)

Through the years, I've tweaked the original playlist a bit, but hearing that core group of songs has started to trigger sleep like a Pavlovian dog. The playlist has put me to sleep on hundreds of commutes, transcontinental flights, bus rides home to see my family and in the HuffPost nap rooms. (When a tech glitch caused me to lose my playlists about a year ago, I could barely remember it beyond the first few songs -- I'm always out like a light by halfway through song three.)

What songs put you to sleep?

• Falling Slowly -- Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
• Falling In Love At A Coffee Shop -- Landon Pigg
• As I Lay Me Down -- Sophie B. Hawkins
• Hands -- Jewel
• Colder Weather -- Zac Brown Band
• Lights -- Journey
• Come A Little Closer -- Dierks Bentley
• Bright Lights -- Matchbox Twenty
• The Luckiest -- Ben Folds
• Bless The Broken Road -- Rascal Flatts
• Soulmate -- Natasha Bedingfield
• This Year's Love -- David Gray

For more by Laura Schocker, click here.

For more playlists, check out HuffPost Workouts here.