I surely hope that all those who suggested the Goldberg Variations in
this context were kidding.  This has been a cruel joke played on us for
years by liner note writers.  As pointed out earlier, there's little
restful or sleep-inducing about them.  There's a good reason for this.
They were never meant to be sleep-inducing.  For a little background,
here's what Christoph Wolff says in his New Grove article on Bach
(discussing his travels late in life):

   In November 1741 there was a further journey, this time to Dresden,
   where he visited Count Keyserlingk.  The "Aria with 30 Variations",
   the so-called Goldberg Variations, appeared in 1742-2 as the fourth
   part of the Clavier-Ubung (published by Schmidt in Nuremberg) Bach's
   visit to Dresden may lie behind the anecdote related by Forkel,
   according to which the variations were written as a commission for
   the count.  But the lack of any formal dedication in the original
   edition suggests that the work was not composed to a commission.  It
   is however known that Bach presented the count with a copy, apparently
   for the use of his young resident harpsichord player Johann Gottlieb
   Goldberg, who was a pupil of both J.S. and W.F. Bach.

Most sources agree that a commission as impetus for this work is spurious.
Further, most agree that the copy of the manuscript was given to Goldberg
so that he could play them on nights when Count Keyserlingk could not get
to sleep.  In other words, they weren't meant to put him to sleep, but
rather to aid in passing the time while he was suffering from insomnia.
By all accounts, Keyserlingk was pleased with the gift.

Dave
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