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keeping the heart rate and brain activity low.”

Victoria Lockard and Nicholas Bernat, sleep

partners and two-thirds of “Snoozecast,” first

test texts they select for the show—ranging

from “Peter Pan” to Albert Einstein’s “The

Meaning of Relativity”—on each other. Any-

thing is fair game so long as it’s not too jarring

like, say, “The Call of the Wild” by Jack Lon-

don. “We were surprised by how disturbing

and violent it was. But it was so gripping,” said

Ms. Lockard, who eventually found a long,

suitably boring passage befitting of bedtime.

Some popular podcasters also dose listeners

with 30-ish-minute stories carefully selected

for optimalzzzzzs. Kathryn Nicolai, host of

“Nothing Much Happens,” writes and narrates

her stories, but she’s not offended if you pass

out before the final takeaway. “I want people

to know you’re not going to miss anything.

This is just a track to steer your mind to.”

On “Bore you to Sleep,” host Teddy Sands

dully reads Jane Austen, Herman Melville and

other public domain authors. “The speed of the

reading is slow,” he said, “with the aim of

Its narrators are less celebrated, but like

Calm, it features a mix of classics including

“The Velveteen Rabbit,” and lesser-known fic-

tion like “Claire and the SageWoman.”

If scrolling through a smartphone to find a

story each night seems too tedious, you can

simply ask Alexa to read you a random tale.

Or request that she play you a downloaded

audiobook (Siri’s got you covered here, too)

like “Bedtime Stories for Grownups” whose

author and narrator, Ben Holden, quenched

my thirst for sedating British accents.

The Most Sedating Story Ever Told

If anxious thoughts and traffic noise are keeping you awake at night, these apps and podcasts for adults—which feature bedtime tales

read by soothing voices—might help you slumber like a kid again

F

or decades, I’ve been among the
35.2% of adults restlessly failing to
get the recommended seven hours
each night. I’ve tried burying my-
self under a weighted blanket and
misting my room with sleep-inducing essen-
tial oils. My white-noise machine is no match
for the blare of New York City traffic that only
seems to grow more intrusive after sunset.
But maybe I’ve been trying too hard. Ac-
cording to Dr. Lynelle Schneeberg, a Yale Med-
icine psychologist and author of “Become Your
Child’s Sleep Coach,” achieving those blissful
hours of slumber is just a two-step process:
“You should have a quiet, dark room and
something to distract your mind. The end.”
And the simplest distraction is one we likely
last enjoyed as children: a bedtime story.
Daily meditation—as steered by digital apps
and tools meant to quiet addled adult minds—
can sometimes feel more like a chore than a
respite. But bedtime stories tell a different
tale. They tap into the comforting experience
of being read to as a child without requiring
you to focus on your thoughts or your breath-
ing, said Dr. Schneeberg. It’s distracting, it’s
relaxing, it doesn’t require anything of you.
And it’s just interesting enough to keep your
brain from bringing up all the fretful thoughts
that flood your mind when your eyes close.
Nicholas Head, executive producer of con-
tent at Calm, a popular meditation app, said an
uptick of usage around bedtime witnessed by
his team led him to introduce a Sleep Stories
category—now with more than 140 recordings.
“A big reason people have trouble sleeping
is because they can’t stop their racing
thoughts from the day,” he said. But Calm’s
Sleep Stories aim to engross your senses, “so
you can let go of the day’s stresses and drift off
to sleep.” While most of Calm’s meditations are
guided by instructor Tamara Levitt, Sleep Sto-
ries’s narrators come from all walks of fame.
Three months into my Calm subscription
(from $13/month, calm.com) , I doze off easiest
while listening to the dulcet tones of English
comedian Stephen Fry or “The Wire” actor
Clarke Peters. But with only three stories be-
tween them, I had to search for alternatives.
Insight Timer (free, upgrades for $60/year,
on Android and iOS) is another meditation-
heavy app now dabbling in bedtime stories.

BYSUZANNEZUPPELLO

ILLUSTRATION BY JAMES GULLIVER HANCOCK, GETTY IMAGES

GEAR & GADGETS

Don’t Give Up on Your Dreams

Plenty of sleep-aiding podcasts and apps are available now.

Which is right for you? Answer a few questions below to find out:

Give a listen

to “Beauty and

the Beast,”

read by British

actor Abbe

Opher on the

Sleepiest app

(free for iOS)

Download “A

Trip to Venus,”

narrated by

“Snoozecast”

host Nicholas

Bernat

Seek out “The

Lost City,” a

curios tale

read by Dan

Jones on the

Slumber app

(free for iOS)

Do you find

fantasy and

science-fiction

worlds fun to

get lost in?

Do you prefer your bedtime stories to

be made up or based on true tales?

Do you prefer a

classic fairy

tale when turn-

ing into Sleep-

ing Beauty?

MADE-UP STORIES

NO, NO, NO

YES, PLEASE

YES, OF COURSE!

NOTATALL

Tune in to

“Crossing Aus-

tralia by Train,”

narrated by

Steen Bojsen-

Møller on Calm

(from $13/mo.,

calm.com)

Try “Woodcraft

and Camping,”

read by Teddy

Sands on the

“Bore you to

Sleep” podcast

Do you prefer

yawping in the

great outdoors

to a quiet day

inside?

Swedish IKEA

staffers listing

product names

on the “IKEA

Sleep Podcast”

may work per-

fectly for you

Do Ken Burns

documentaries

put you to

sleep—in a

good way?

TRUE TALES

NOT REALLY

ABSOLUTELY

INDEED!

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