Bedtime stories for adults: the podcasts, apps and audiobooks that actually put you to sleep

Why a story works better than silence

When you lie in the dark trying not to think, you think. A story gives your attention somewhere soft to rest. The best bedtime stories for adults have three things in common: a calm voice, a slow pace, and nothing you will need to stay awake for. No cliffhangers, no twists, no villains.

Free podcasts made for falling asleep

Nothing Much Happens

Yoga and meditation teacher Kathryn Nicolai reads short, cosy stories about small pleasures: a walk to a bakery, a rainy afternoon, a bath. Each story is read twice, the second time more slowly, so if you are still awake after the first telling you get another, quieter go. It is free in any podcast app, with an ad-free paid version for people who listen every night.

Sleep With Me

Drew Ackerman, as "Dearest Scooter", tells long, wandering, deliberately dull stories, and has done since October 2013. It sounds like a joke, and partly is, but the point is serious: the rambling is just interesting enough to stop your own thoughts, and too dull to keep you awake. Good for people whose minds race at night. There is also a "just the stories" feed without the introductions.

Sleep-story apps

The meditation app Calm has a library of Sleep Stories read by well-known voices, including Stephen Fry's 24-minute Blue Gold; Headspace has its own long, slow "sleepcasts". Both need a subscription after a free trial, so they make sense if you will also use the meditations. Our meditation books guide covers the practice behind them.

Audiobooks that work at bedtime

Some audiobooks are close to perfect at night: gentle, familiar, read by a warm voice. The trick is choosing a book you already know, so it does not matter if you fall asleep mid-chapter. Good choices are the childhood classics you loved, a favourite novel you have read before, or slow nature writing.

You do not need to pay. Most Australian council libraries lend audiobooks free through the Libby or BorrowBox apps with a library card; see is Audible worth it for how they compare. For older classics, LibriVox has thousands of public domain books read by volunteers, free to download.

Tips for listening in bed

1. Set a sleep timer. Most podcast and audiobook apps have one; 30 minutes is enough for most people.
2. Keep the volume low, just loud enough to follow.
3. Use a soft speaker or sleep headphones, so ordinary earbuds do not press into your ear on the pillow.
4. Put the phone face down, and leave the screen off once the story has started.
5. Choose the same kind of story each night. A bedtime story works partly as a habit.