Partner can't sleep without something playing?

[Shahhhh]

Bit of a random one, but I'm currently 38 weeks pregnant with our first baby. I have an incredible partner who is literally my soul mate and will do anything for me/our relationship and we love eachother very much.

For as long as he can remember he has listened to podcasts/youtube playlists (of speaking, not music, like people playing games and such) to fall asleep to. Since he moved in we have both listened to them, we're both into the same topics so I enjoy listening to them too but I have no issues sleeping without them...

We've recently tried to stop as obviously we will have a new born in the room soon, and we don't want the baby to get used to sleeping with that in the background, especially with bad language and stuff that might pop up occasionally. The alternative is one of those Bluetooth eye masks but, we both agree that it might feel like I'm kind of on my own with a new born and he's in his own little world/oblivious with both ears and eyes covered.

It might seem like such a small thing but since we've tried for maybe the last week to sleep without anything, with rain sounds, white noise, anything BUT the podcasts/YouTube videos, my partner is just not sleeping well. He wakes up constantly thinking he can hear banging downstairs, tossing and turning cause his brain just won't settle. He works so hard for us and does long shifts so I really don't want him to suffer from lack of sleep, but we're about to enter the newest, probably most challenging part of our lives together and I don't want to feel like I'm in it in my own at night, you know?

He's completely understanding and in agreement that we need to think of something, bless him. Has anyone struggled with this? Anything that works?

I haven't had this, my husband sleeps like the dead (jealous? Me?) but you'll probably find your newborn doesn't much like silence either, it's pretty noisy in your womb! Mine needed quite loud white noise to sleep. What about a kids guided meditation or something like that?

My ex was like this and it made me super cautious with my own kids that they wouldn't learn to rely on noise/ games/aids etc to fall asleep.

I didn't try to break his habit so no tips I'm afraid (he's not the father of my children) but I definitely empathise. I won't even have a tv in the bedroom now, it's one of my pet peeves

The Bluetooth eyemasks don't tend to fit really tightly. You can still hear external noises. You don't need to wear them covering your eyes even. You can wear them like a headband.

You can get soft under pillow speakers. You literally have to have your head on the pillow to be able to hear them and you can of course still hear all other noise in the room.
My husband and I both have them, sometimes listen to different podcasts at the same time and can't hear each other's

I use one of Bluetooth eye masks and sleep on my side so on my side that is facing the ceiling, I just slide it above that ear so I can hear if my girls wake up. I don't have any problem waking up to any noises going on and I'm generally the only parent at home as my DH works away. We both did this with my DD2 as a newborn and it was fine- we both need something to fall asleep to also.