In order to relax in the evenings, I have been exploring some of the tens of thousands of worlds in VRChat in my new Valve Index VR headset, and this week I have been visiting a special category of worlds known as sleep worlds.
These worlds, as their name suggests, are intended to evoke an atmosphere conducive to sleep or meditation. Often, they are a bedroom or even an entire apartment, either in an urban, rural, or fantasy setting, where you can adjust the environmental effects (rain, thunder and lightning, fog, fireflies, etc.), the lighting, and the furnishings to achieve the perfect setting for your contemplative or naptime needs.
Often, there is a music player, allowing you to play from a selection of soothing, ambient music to add to the overall atmosphere. Some rooms also have a video player and a mirror. Many times, the creators even share a link to their Patreon profile, so you can show your appreciation by sending a little money to them for their creation!
If you don’t wish to be disturbed in your sleep world, you can create a new instance of the world from the Worlds menu, then set it to Invite Only (which means that only you can invite other avatars to join you in a private instance of the world, if you wish).
Doing a keyword search under the Worlds menu for “sleep” usually gives me any number of wonderful user-created worlds to visit, and the VRChat Maps Discord server actually has a #sleep-maps channel where users post worlds suitable for sleepy times. Here are a few suggestions of worlds from that channel:
- Phunky’s Chill & Sleep
- Hermitage
- Sleepy Fireflies
- Oknuj’s Hangout n Sleep
- Another Home
- The Sleep Room
- Relaxation Particles 2
- Rest & Sleep
- After Life Night
- Alone & Sleep_zZ
- Hotel Beautiful Night
One popular sleep world that I quite like is a wood-paneled bedroom with a enclosed balcony called, quite simply, The Room of the Rain. I always turn the graphics quality all the way up to High, so I can watch the rain running down the floor-to-ceiling windows! On the extensive list of world settings, there’s a special Index filter setting that makes the scene look even more realistic in my Valve Index headset.
I find the sound of the rain quite soothing, and I can adjust the volume of the rain, adding sounds for wind and thunder as I prefer to create the perfect oasis. In fact, I love this room so much that I have set The Room of the Rain as my home world in VRChat, so it is the first one I see when I start VRChat up.
Now, I have heard reports of people who have actually fallen asleep in their VR headsets, both in VRChat and in other social VR platforms (it seems to be quite commonplace among Japanese VR headset owners). Personally, I would find it quite uncomfortable to sleep in my Valve Index, but if it works for you, hey, more power to you!
Do you have a favourite sleep world in VRChat? Please feel free to leave a comment with the name of the world on this blogpost. Thanks!