This is a great example of the tricks and surprises n.o.w. has up its chrome-plated sleeves. Today I thought it would be fun to look side-by-side at these two very different reviews regarding sleep and the n.o.w. Tone Therapy System.

2 out of 5 stars

Does not help to sleep.

“Just does not work for me.”

5 out of 5 stars

Positively impacts my sleep.

“I love these! I use them every night before sleep. Since I started using them my fitness tracker confirms that I transition very rapidly to deep sleep and stay there several minutes longer than was normal for me before I started using them. They run for 3 minutes and I typically initiate them twice, but there are some occasions that I am asleep after the first 3 minutes.”

I have three initial thoughts:

One: People are so different from one another that the causes of sleep issues cannot help but run the gamut of everything; when one puts head to pillow, that head is connected to the person’s interior self, their environment, their day, their food, their history, brain chemistry, hormonal balance, ancestry, culture, their neighbors, their sensitivities, the kids and the spouse and the parents and the job, and…

I think that’s a good enough start to the list.

Two: The issue of not being able to sleep when it’s your time to rest varies in degree from person to person, from being only a minor frustration all the way to the kind of disorder that, for the sufferer, can effect almost (say it with me!): everything. I understand it to be a painful, maddening and lonely affliction. Those of us who can take sleep for granted are lucky people, indeed.

Three: The n.o.w. Tone Therapy System is NOT a sleep aid and never was! In fact, the n.o.w. Tones were designed to be a unique and superior aid to awakening.

But as it turns out, awakening might just make for better sleep.

We at solu listen not only to the Tones, we listen to you. And we hear so regularly from our customers about using the Tones for sleep that we cannot ignore the feedback (or, as I also like to call it, the “data”).

I’ve observed that just because n.o.w. is not intentionally a sleep aid, that doesn’t mean it won’t help you sleep, and sleep very well. n.o.w. in fact helps a LOT of people to sleep at night, from babies to the elderly. But, if you set out to use n.o.w. solely as a sleep aid, it might not work as you’d expect. Let’s look at why this could be.

First, we need to chuck from this discussion any comparison to sleep-sound machines, white-noise machines, pre-recorded guided imagery meditations for sleep, and all soothing sound-aids for sleep. These can all be very helpful in their own way (with a big shout-out to the inimitable Belleruth Naparstek and her research and ongoing development of excellent guided meditations, one of which a family member of mine uses for a fabulous night’s sleep!). And I say, whatever trolley will take you into dreamland, hop on it!!

Only, don’t put n.o.w. in that same category because it doesn’t precisely belong there.

AND YET: n.o.w. also doesn’t not belong in that category. Bear with me here for a moment, because when exploring the n.o.w. Tone Therapy System we find contradictions. The Tones do one thing: bring peace through sound, and they also do so many things, but they do them by not doing (lol, remember please that I said bear with me). We actually have come to see the Tones as a nothing, an experience that isn’t really a noun, which can lift the listener out of thoughts and out of regular time. It can deliver peace to you.

In other words: n.o.w.’s Tones give you a chance to experience disconnection from the human state of compulsive mental thoughts into the state of NO-thing and thereby, a connection to EVERY-thing.

Contradictions in terms are fun but weird. Let’s move on.

All the chitchat in the world about the “whats” of the simple n.o.w. System is not as exciting as the “results” of just plain using it and letting it show you what can happen when you bring a bit of peace into your life on a regular basis, and who you can be with a little less worry.

So let’s go back to sleep. 😊 It is clear from feedback that when n.o.w. helps someone sleep, it does this in a way that is different from soothing-sounds and sleep noise-machines. Our users tell us that n.o.w.’s Tones put them into a different state which allows sleep to be induced, and then carries them into a more restful condition of sleep. Some users tell us that the change in anxiety during the day has fostered better sleep for them, even when they don’t listen to the Tones at night.

I can certainly understand the disappointment of the reviewer who said it just does not work for her to help her fall asleep. Her review indicates that, most likely, she thought she was buying a sleep aid. I wish I could have told her that n.o.w. is more of a life aid, and that it’s worth using it as we suggest: listen twice a day for the full 3-minute session through the fade-away of the Tones when the units shut themselves off. And feel free to listen as many more times as you might want beyond that, and in whatever ways you might want!

The very positive reviewer seems to have discovered that n.o.w. can be worked with in ways unique to our suggestions, and that it can indeed help with better sleep. We love that they used their fitness tracker, too, to quantify! One listener, Holly, told us this:

“I have to tell you something exciting about the n.o.w. “knobs”: I’m a hard-core insomniac, and recently got “sober” from the Xanax I’ve been taking for years to fall asleep. What I do is read for as long as it takes to get sleepy, but last night it was 1AM and I was still wide awake. I brought the system into bed with me, figured out how to feel for the little buttons in the dark. Those blue lights are an amazing part of the nighttime experience! So I didn’t necessarily feel sleepier, but as I stretched out under the covers, I was in such a graceful frame of mind that sleep settled over me the way it’s supposed to do, such as when parents tuck you in and say, “Go to sleep now.”

The last time she reported to us, she had continued to use them to relax herself into a sleepful state, along with her 3-minute daily mindfulness sessions of listening.

Perhaps most gratifying is when we hear from someone getting relief for severe symptoms in their life; another customer of ours, Karen, got a set for herself and her adult daughter who suffers from a traumatic brain injury due to a car accident. We asked if they were aware of changes when using n.o.w.

“YES! My daughter (who has a very hard time settling her brain from TBI) can relax and shut down. And I get a feeling of lightness and peace.”

We also wanted to know if they’d been able to make listening to the Tones a regular practice.

“Definitely… for (my daughter) it’s part of our daily routine. Especially before bed.”

More and more we hear of people incorporating the n.o.w. System as part of their bedtime routine, and it makes so much sense when you consider that, by listening to the Tones, a great opportunity to release the thoughts that cling and repeat happens for your brain, and your body. It does not lullaby the brain to sleep so much as it relieves the entire being into a place of “ahhh.”

Sweet Dreams to you. I want you all to have them!  —Alene

To listen to a n.o.w. session for yourself, click here.

“We have animals in our home and I’m wondering if you know anything about using Tone Therapy with them? Can we play n.o.w. for our animals?”

“These tone therapy speakers have helped my son calm his anxiety. They help him get centered and open to relaxing. He has been suffering from panic attacks and general high anxiety. It has not cured him however I would say it has helped him with about a 25% reduction in symptoms. That is worth 5 stars to me. Anxiety sucks!”

The review from this father gave me a number of things to consider. I felt his pain, I felt his hope; behind his few words sits a lengthy story of personal struggle.

Anxiety is a tremendously difficult challenge. It is frightening to experience even once, for a short period; I can only imagine chronic anxiety and how it leads to increased isolation. Anxiety can be self-perpetuating for a host of reasons, and no matter the intellectual understanding that “everything is okay,” anxiety is experienced so bodily that it cannot be easily reached with rational thinking, or all the loving support in the world. But… it can be reached.

Just one moment of calm, or presence, or release of gripping thoughts, is a big trip-up to a raging mental process and physical overwhelm. I imagine anxiety as something akin to drowning, and so, I imagine what it might feel like to get a breath suddenly, finally. And after that maybe another, and another. It’s the beginning to something other than sinking helplessly and hopelessly, because a bit of oxygen can keep you going. To this father’s 25% reduction in symptoms for his son, and presumably himself as a witness, I take in my own relieved breath.

We hear from many people who tell us that the quick, deep peace experienced with the 3-minute session of n.o.w.’s unique tones has led to direct changes in how anxiety operates in their life. I’ll share more of these in future blogs, because every life is different and every story is significant. We humans cannot be cured of our humanness, or of our particular, individual experiences, but we can live better! We can recover, we can find relief.

When we made the n.o.w. Tone Therapy System, we trusted it to work in its own way with each individual listener. We wanted it to be free of any intentional words, agendas or goals so that it can create a new relationship each time it is played and combined with that particular person’s history and environment and personal factors. More than even we expected, n.o.w. continues to build on our trust and that of its listeners, helping people to find a doorway into their own calm, their own peace, and onward into what sits in the place where inspiration resides.

n.o.w. is but one option in a world that has support for you that you simply may not have found yet. Never give up on this journey! One step at a time, and with n.o.w., also one listen at a time. We believe in n.o.w., and that is because we believe in you.

And lastly to our reviewer Big Dad, I continue to think of you and your son very, very regularly, with great care, gratitude and love. –Alene

If you’d like to experience a n.o.w. session for yourself, click here.