Let us assume that an audiophile with sleep issues would find this topic interesting, and that they could come close to recognizing the value in older more bulky stereo equipment for a  finer more enriching listening experience.

They could be interested in older technology that is less distracting and more durable. Perhaps they like equipment that is more hands on.

So is your CD player still working? Portable CD players are also still available online and in stores.  It is true that a  CD can always be transferred to your iPhone, once you take the time out to do it.

The popularity and convenience of “ripping”, borrowing, downloading the streaming of music is now the norm, so some homage must be paid to the older CD technology less for comparison and more for contrast to show how it still has some benefits.

CDs and Portable CD players:  a Brief History

You rarely hear any sales person in electronics talk about ASP – Anti Skip Protection, or electronic skip protection anymore thanks to the almighty and much-in-demand MP3 player and downloads, but for fans of the retail pressed CD (a retail made CD not bootleg) presumably of your favorite band, musician, or artist, you have had affordable access to advanced anti skip protection technology in CD players since 1995. In fact if you still own a portable  or high end CD player it should have some form of ASP installed in it.

For those who liked to play CDs while driving or walking around, or while doing some mild exercise in your living activity, whatever music CD you purchased is enhanced if you had a newer – post 1995 portable CD player with ASP at that time. During those days such portable CD players averaged around $70.

Along with ASP was something called buffering. This buffering I am talking about is the feature that could save the spot on the CD if there was a skip. If there was a skip, ASP could memorize the skipped part of music for brief period so to maintain a steady stream of audio playback, and put the reading laser right back where it should be.

Retail purchased CDs that already had the recording pressed in a production house licensed to manufacture or duplicator plant can be used flawlessly in portable CD players with ASP.  But this is also where home recorded CDs from CD burners used to show less playability with the anti skip feature.  Many users may recall some frustrating moments when CD players were not playing the burned CDs at all, and which then eventually prompted CD player manufacturers to make some technical upgrades and label their product “MP3 compatible”. Too late, of course, since right after that upgrade to the CD player came the MP3 player and eventually Napster and then  iTunes became popular, forever changing the way music would be marketed and distributed.

What Does the CD Have to Do With Better Sleep?

The new medium in portable digital audio players, with its multiple compression formats and  all those other neat things like the clever user interface, and the storage of 1000 songs  on something smaller then a book of matches – hands down wins over many  people who see it as more convenient to use.

But as of this writing more evidence points to people getting better sleep when they learn to unplug from the multi-media and multi-function formats of devices in the early evening (texting addictions is another study) after a certain time of day, and re engage the simpler ancient ways of the CD player for their wind down time.