If you use music/podcasts as a sleep aid, what do you listen to?

[oddsandends]

I often wake in the early hours and need something to help me sleep.There are plenty of threads for baby sleep music, but I didn't see any for adults. I've tried soundtracks aimed as sleep aids, such as rain, white noise, relaxing musak, but end up lying there, relaxed in body, but mind active, thinking how awful they are. I've tried more general playlists like "peaceful piano" or gentle pop music but if I do start to drift off the changes in pace and pitch between the tunes can jolt me awake. If you have something that works reliably for you, what is it?

I listen to documentaries, life stories, history etc, on quiet volume and it stops my mind worrying and I fall asleep ! Never hear a whole program!

The Insight Timer app is great and has loads of free meditations and music, as well as sleep stories. It’s my go to.

Sometimes i also listen to audiobooks of children’s classics I loved as a child, with the sleep timer on

True crime 😂 but I imagine that isn’t everyone’s cup of tea

I have chronic insomnia and find listening to David Suchet reading the Bible very comforting and often helps me drift off.

Some time ago he recorded the entire Bible and you can search for whichever book you want on YouTube.

Here’s a more recent recording of him reading John’s gospel (this is a favourite of mine)

I have a particular brown noise track on YouTube I really like. It somehow makes my brain go a bit numb, like the thoughts can’t keep going and I can’t generate any new ones. Sounds a bit weird now I write it down!!

Stephen Fry reading the Harry Potter books. I know them well enough that I don't get drawn in, they aren't going to keep me awake wondering what's happening next/not wanting to miss bits. But they stop my mind wandering too much as well.

BBC sounds history or science programmes.
In Our Time is brilliant for falling asleep to - interesting enough to distract from internal chatter, serious and boring enough to drop off. I mean boring in the sense that you don't want to know what happens next as you might with a story...

I use Boring Books for Bedtime on Spotify. I set a 20 minute automatic shut off on my phone and I never hear when it switches itself off.

The Dan Jones sleep stories on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@DanJonesHypnosis
and on Spotify Nothing Much Happens bedtime stories

I often listen to Jane and Fi off air when I can’t sleep but if I’m anxious I find Nuns singing plainsong so reassuring.

Jason Newland!!! Have been listening to him for years.

Thanks everyone. I'll try some of these. 🤞

I love Michael Rosen's Word of Mouth on BBC Sounds. He has such a calm gentle voice, but also he's very warm and generous in spirit. He's my favourite.

I have recently drifted off happily listening to 'The Wind in the Willows' which is free on BBC Sounds.

Jason Stephenson sleep meditations on YouTube. They never fail.

BBC radio comedy mostly. Nothing I haven’t heard before, or I’ll want to stay awake and listen. I rotate through Reluctant Persuaders, Party, The Train at Platform 4, Elvenquest, The Architects, Hut33, Cabin Pressure….loads more too.

I used to do this meditation in bed and when I started feeling tired I just switched off my phone without looking at it and fell asleep.

The Shipping Forecast or The Archers omnibus, both on BBC sounds. There's one called The Sleeping Forecast, especially for this purpose, but I find the music irritating so prefer the standard one

Not sure if it counts but in the Balance App there’s a free sleep meditation that often (not always) works for me. Just a guided conscious relaxation of muscles and breathing. Think over time my mind and body have gotten used to the voice of the narrator as a sleep signal.

An audiobook, starting at the same place midway through every time. I rotate through 5 or 6 favourites.

The Get Sleepy podcast is great

I was just wondering whether to start a thread asking for what others use - thank you!

I recommend The War of the Worlds read by Michael Bertinshaw on BBC Sounds as his tone is just so soothing and soporific. I have it too quiet to actually hear the words: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p07lbzbp?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

I listen to books on Audible. Something light and a bit silly, usually, and I don't mind things I have listened to before.
Terry Pratchett is good. The Harry Potter books. I very much enjoyed all the Jodie Taylor books.
It has to be a book read by an English person as I get annoyed trying to work out what has been said in an American accent, and a straightforward reading not a dramatisation.

Definitely In Our Time. Melvyn Bragg’s monotonous drone outperforms any pharmaceutical product on the planet.

Audio books that I know well, like Agatha Christie, so I don’t need to follow the plot, and which are read in a quiet, non-dramatic voice so I don’t get jerked awake with an abrupt change in pitch. Hugh Fraser is good, also Diana Bishop reading Patricia Wentworth or Matt Addis reading Georgette Heyer’s detective novels.