Like many among us, I find it difficult to fall asleep without noise. Left to its own devices, my brain just keeps on going well into the night. That might have flown when I was a teenager, but I’m now an old man who needs his beauty sleep.

For years now, I’ve found that my best bet for getting my 40 winks is to turn on a video essay (with my screen off). Of course, it can’t be just any video essay — it needs to be one I’ve already watched multiple times.

If one of my favorite creators makes a new video, that puppy has no chance at putting me to sleep for at least a few months. No, I need older content that is no longer novel for this brain hack to work.

To be clear, the videos I fall asleep to do not bore me in the least. In fact, this only works to begin with because I’ve already watched the videos a few times. There’s a pleasant familiarity that keeps my brain busy without the novelty that might keep me awake.

Below, you’ll find some of my all-time faves that put me out on the reg. If you have trouble going to sleep, maybe try them yourself. Or at least watch them like a normal person.

Bad Fan Fiction Makes For The Best Entertainment

Sarah Z’s investigation into the authorship of one of the best worst fanfics is filled with twists and turns you cannot possibly see coming. What a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive tweens on the internet.

Nothing Makes Me Sleepier Than Human Atrocity

I have some pretty strong feelings about my country’s history of nuclear warfare, so I was on top of Shaun’s in-depth breakdown as soon as it released. It’s an incredible piece of work, so I revisited it in chunks a handful of times over the years. Add in a layer of dulcet tones, and you’ve got yourself some aural sleep meds as well as the cold, hard truth about our home-grown murder machine.

Flat Earthers Are So Unhinged That My Brain Just Shuts Down

This is less of a flat earth debunking video as it is a dressing down of the modern conspiracy-fueled right-wing. Dan Olsen has put out some wonderful videos about media and social issues, but this is his best work to date.

I Will Never, Ever Play ‘Pathologic’

I’m not even going to pretend that I fully buy into the broader arguments made in favor of this human suffering simulator, but I sure am glad I got to know how buck wild the endgame is. Hbomberguy is doing us all a service with this video, but I especially like it as a replacement for warm milk.

TJ ‘Henry’ Yoshi

I’ve followed these wildly nerdy “Super Mario 64” videos from pannenkoek2012 for about a decade now, and his more recent work has been exceptional. There’s nothing that hypnotizes me better than extremely detailed breakdowns of decades-old video games.

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Image credit: Jackman Chiu