In the womb, it is calm, quiet, and comfortable. We float about for our first nine months largely unbothered, with noises muffled, and enveloped by the sedative cadence of our mothers’ internal rhythms. It’s no wonder that, postpartum, humans tend to feel most at peace—and achieve the soundest sleep—in environments that imitate these serene, lulling conditions. “As far as sleep is concerned, we’re basically all trying to get back into the womb,” says doctor Keith Sigel, who encountered this phenomenon while studying the effect of aural environments on sleep. “Infants crave the white noise and deep rhythmic pulsations [of the space], and we retain this instinct our whole lives.” Inspired by these findings, Sigel, who’s also a musician, teamed up with drummer Mason Ingram to create Slowave, a New York–based ambient-music project that seeks to recreate the sonic landscape of our earliest days.