7 Best Podcasts to Fall Asleep To

If your brain won't switch off at bedtime, a sleep podcast can work wonders. These shows use calming voices, gentle stories and ambient sounds to help you drift off naturally — no meditation experience required.

Waking up with a podcast on iOS

Podcast Alarm is a fully featured podcast player and alarm. You can set up queues of your favourite episodes and listen to them whenever you like. Why not subscribe to your favourite podcast and have the latest episode wake you up every weekday morning. There are lots of screenshots and videos in our "How to set a podcast as an alarm on iphone?" blog post.

1. Sleep With Me

The original sleep podcast. Host Drew Ackerman tells long, meandering, deliberately boring bedtime stories in a soothing monotone. It sounds strange, but it works — the stories are just interesting enough to distract your racing mind, but too dull to keep you awake. Over a billion downloads and counting.

2. Nothing Much Happens

Kathryn Nicolai reads original bedtime stories for adults. Each episode paints a cosy scene — walking through autumn leaves, sitting by a fire, wandering through a quiet village — and then reads it twice, more slowly the second time. The effect is genuinely hypnotic.

3. Get Sleepy

A mix of guided meditation and sleep stories, Get Sleepy starts each episode with a short wind-down before easing into a calming narrative. The production quality is excellent, with subtle ambient sounds layered beneath the narration. New episodes three times a week.

4. Slow Radio — BBC

No narration, no music — just real-world sounds. Dawn birdsong in a Scottish forest. Rain on a tin roof. Waves on a Cornish beach. The BBC captures natural soundscapes from around the world, and the result is deeply relaxing. Perfect if voices keep you awake.

5. The Moth

Real people telling true stories on stage, The Moth isn't designed as a sleep podcast — but its warm, conversational storytelling makes it perfect for winding down. The stories are engaging enough to stop you doomscrolling, but gentle enough to let you drift off.

6. Boring Books for Bedtime

Exactly what it sounds like. Public domain texts read in a calm, steady voice — think Victorian gardening manuals, old geography textbooks, and forgotten etiquette guides. The content is wonderfully dull, and that's the whole point.

7. Deep Energy

Ambient electronic music designed for sleep, meditation, and deep relaxation. No words, no stories — just long, flowing soundscapes that last 1–2 hours. If you want something playing in the background all night, this is ideal.

Set a bedtime alarm

Podcast Alarm isn't just for mornings. Set an evening alarm to remind yourself it's time to wind down, and let your favourite sleep podcast play automatically. Download Podcast Alarm and build a better bedtime routine.