I will soon be 55 years old and have begun wrestling with the age-old question, “What Have I Accomplished?”  The answer… not much. At least that’s how it appears to be on the surface. I have little money saved. I haven’t been spent the last 35 years working in one particular career that would allow me to retire with a pension and a gold watch… But are those things truly accomplishments anyway?  Is my life’s worth based on those goals? I was raised at the tail end of a generation where those ideals were the end-all-be-all. The next generation, however, had more of an impact on shaping my goals and philosophies. As a boomer, I have taken a second look at my accomplishments. Here’s a list-

• I have traveled across the US, Canada and Mexico by car, camping out and discovering “life” on all levels. I’ve visited Alaska and Hawaii. I’ve visited Appalachia.
• I spent 4 years in Los Angeles working as a musician, ultimately living out one of my dreams, producing an album. I became friends with Tom Jones’ musical director and trained with him for a short time before his untimely death.
• I wrote music that was used for the soundtrack of a movie.
• I married someone who swore she’d never get married again but managed to see something in me that would cause her to change her mind.
• I have 2 stepchildren that actually like me.
• I have done stand-up comedy.
• I have acted in a dinner theater murder mystery.
• I make my grandson laugh.
• I make my wife laugh.
• I make my kids laugh.
• I laugh till it hurts.
• I have no credit card debt.
• I read as much science fiction and Stephen King books as I have time for.
• I eat cheese.
• I make music.

Guess I’ve led a pretty accomplished life. And I don’t mean it to sound like it’s over. Actually its just beginning. That last accomplishment on the list is also my most current. After decades of listening to, studying, enjoying, collecting, living and breathing music, I’ve built myself a studio in my home and am producing my own again. The last time was in 1978. It’s taken me 30 years to get back on track.

I have most recently produced a CD called Somnience. Somnience is an 8-hour CD of ambient music with brainwave pulses to help you sleep. My wife has always had a problem staying asleep; falling asleep was no problem, but she would wake up at 3AM and play solitaire on the computer for the rest of the night. The sound pulses in Somnience match your normal healthy brainwave patterns as you sleep and help to keep you asleep all night long.

The difference between Somnience and other sleep music CDs is that Somnience is 8 hours long. It lasts the entire night as opposed to 60 minutes. It is the first and only sleep CD that lasts all night. And I doesn’t contain one brainwave pulse as the others do. It matches the full range of hills and valleys that your brain cycles through as you sleep. Somnience is quiet wisps of sound that fill your bedroom, like musical wallpaper. It’s a slowly evolving 8-hour lullaby - not distracting songs with piano bass, guitar, wind chimes or singing whales.

I created it for my wife. I am offering it to everyone.

I will never, ever get rich from selling this CD. I will never, ever sell millions of copies. Ambient music is not a marketable niche. Bruce Springsteen, Christina Aguillara or Brittany will not be covering my songs. But I am proud of the CD and I am trying to get the word out to as many people as I can, to help as many people with insomnia as I can.

Hello, all. I will be participating in the Healthy Spirit Expo on Saturday, January 10 and Sunday, January 11, 2009 at Vision Quest Metaphysical Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona, from 10AM to 5PM each day. This is a semiannual event that features lecturers, artists, musicians (including myself) and all manner of holistic, naturopathic and metaphysical professionals. I will be showcasing “Somnience”, my 8-hour sleep brainwave entrainment CD.

Somnience is a unique product that is being purchased and enjoyed by two diverse audiences. First, Somnience is the first sleep CD that lasts 8 hours. It’s also the first CD to contain sound pulses that match your normal 8-hour brainwave pattern to help you fall asleep and stay asleep.  Most other sleep CDs on the market are 30-60 minutes long, and the majority of them are salon-type new age music that may help you fall asleep, but after that you’re on your own! Sometimes the CD label instructs you to set your player to repeat the CD over and over all night long. That’s fine and dandy if you don’t mind waking up at 4AM and hearing harps, pianos, guitars and singing whales. Occasionally these same CD contain brainwave pulses, generally delta waves since delta is the deepest stage of sleep. Unfortunately, repeating this type of 60-minute CD all night long is not creating a healthy sleep pattern. In fact, you fall into the deepest delta sleep for only about 1 hour every night – and even that is broken up into 2 separate segments, the first segment during your first hour of sleep and the second during the second hour. After your second hour of sleep, you rarely drop back into a delta pattern. So why would you listen to delta pulses on a CD all night long?

Somnience’s sound pulses match a normal, healthy pattern of brainwaves beginning with alpha waves, present during the relaxed, meditation-like state that sends you to sleep. As you slip deeper and deeper into sleep, you brainwaves slow down to theta of varying frequencies. You are now asleep but are still aware of your surroundings. Your partner moving or sneezing may wake you, but only for a moment. After about 45 minutes you slip into the delta stage, the deepest sleep, where you go completely limp as the muscles and tissues of your body are refreshed and oxygenated. This is stage where you sleep right through a thunderstorm or the dog barking, but it lasts only about 20-30 minutes before you move back up into a theta pattern. Shortly after, you move into REM or dreaming sleep. REM brainwave patterns are very close neighbors to waking alpha waves. This is why you remember your dreams – you are still dreaming moments before you wake up.

This entire series of brainwave patterns represents only your 1½ hours of sleep. The series repeats itself 5-6 times a night, each wave pattern adjusting slightly, with the delta stage disappearing altogether after the second hour. The sound pulses incorporated into Somnience matches this 8-hour pattern of hills and valleys. In addition to helping you fall asleep, Somnience is most effective in helping you fall back asleep when you naturally wake in the middle of the night. Instead of waking and immediately focusing on your job, your bills or your in-laws, you focus on the quiet music filling your bedroom and let the brainwave pulses bring you right back where you belong – fast asleep.

The other audience enjoying Somnience are lovers of ambient music. Ambient music, without melody, beats, words or structure, creates an environment, like wallpaper made of sound. It’s meant to be heard and enjoyed without actively listening. (That’s not entirely true. When I listen to certain ambient artists, I listen intently for every subtle nuance in their work, how sounds are phrased, constructed, deconstructed… but just as often, I have ambient music playing while I’m reading, driving or… writing blogs.)

My music is heavily influenced by some of the masters of the genre - Steve Roach, Brian Eno and Robert Rich. In fact, I had the great honor of studying with Steve Roach at his ranch and studio last year. The experience left me empowered and musically energized.

If you are in Scottsdale on January 10 or 11, please stop by to see me. I will be happy to answer any questions and you can listen to samples of the music. I will be giving away free preview CDs of other works with the purchase of Somnience, but I’ll give you a preview CD just for mentioning this blog. Vision Quest is at 2225 North Scottsdale Road, just south of Oak.

Beware... this is a shameless plug. I'm trying to keep my head above water just like everyone else.

I have a CHEAP, HEALTHY alternative to popping sleeping pills. The first thing you should do to combat insomnia is create a quiet, peaceful environment to sleep in, and try and free your mind, clear your thoughts. I've produced a CD of sleep music unlike any other on the market. It is 8 HOURS LONG, it plays all night and contains brainwave pulses that match your normal brainwaves over a full night's sleep. I won't jam you with a bunch of facts and figures here - please go to www.somnience.com for the full story.  SLEEP WELL.