Bedtime stories for grown-ups

Sleep stories for adults, read slowly.

A free 90-second listen from History of Rome, no sign-in. The full 91 minutes, and 127 more stories, are in the free trial.

Long, narrated bedtime stories for adults, sleep fiction, slower sessions and factual Universe listens, written for grown-ups and read at the pace of the part of the day that needs less speed. No ads, no gimmicks.

For the 3am visitor: the way out is rarely trying harder to sleep. It is giving the mind something better to hold. Two things do this well: soft, textured sound like rain or ASMR, and a slow, deep narration into something vast (space, ancient history, distant places) that is interesting enough to hold your attention and calm enough never to demand it. That is what these stories are built to be: no cliffhangers, nothing urgent enough to keep you up, a steady voice walking somewhere quiet until you stop following. Everything here is signed off by our BSc (Hons) & MSc Psychology team. If your mind is loud tonight, start with the Universe shelf, or read Why Can't I Sleep? The Sleep Effort Trap.

History of Rome
Latest sleep story

History of Rome

Somewhere in the middle of Italy, a river bends slowly through low hills, and a city begins. A calm, true walk through Rome's long life, told slowly enough to carry a busy mind gently under.

91 minHistoryNarrated by Thomas
Listen tonight
Guided programme

Sleep Hypnosis

Fourteen nights of guided sleep hypnosis. A soft voice talks directly to you, walking you slowly down into sleep in a new and quiet place each night.

14 nights Start the programme
The Slow Descent
Night 1 The Slow Descent A slow, steady step-down from the day into the first night's stillness.
The Lantern Path
Night 2 The Lantern Path Follow a soft lantern light along a quiet path as the day loosens its hold.
The Quiet Harbour
Night 3 The Quiet Harbour Moored boats, still water, and the slow rhythm of a harbour at rest.
The Snow Cabin
Night 4 The Snow Cabin A warm cabin, soft snow at the window, and nowhere else you need to be.
The Meadow at Dusk
Night 5 The Meadow at Dusk Long grass, fading light, and the hush of a meadow settling for the night.
The Warm Spring
Night 6 The Warm Spring Warm water, rising steam, and the weight of the day easing away.
The Night Garden
Night 7 The Night Garden A moonlit garden, cool air, and the quiet unfolding of the evening.
The Sleeper Train
Night 8 The Sleeper Train The gentle sway of a night train carrying you softly onward.
The Closing Library
Night 9 The Closing Library Quiet shelves, low lamplight, and a library settling into silence.
The Glowing Shore
Night 10 The Glowing Shore A calm shoreline, a glowing tide, and the slow pull of the waves.
The Cloud Terrace
Night 11 The Cloud Terrace High, soft clouds and a terrace above the world, far from the day.
The Moonlit Orchard
Night 12 The Moonlit Orchard Still trees, ripe air, and an orchard resting under the moon.
The River of Stars
Night 13 The River of Stars A slow river of starlight carrying you gently downstream.
The Deepest Descent
Night 14 The Deepest Descent The final step down, the slowest, softest descent of them all.
New collection

The Classics

Whole classic books, retold slowly for sleep a night or two of chapters at a time, plus more single classics, each switching on the night it is ready.

11 books · 99 nights Explore the classics
Alice in Wonderland
6 nights Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll's 1865 book, retold whole and read slowly, night by night.
The Wind in the Willows
12 nights The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame's 1908 book, retold whole and read slowly, night by night.
The Secret Garden
9 nights The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1911 book, retold whole and read slowly, night by night.
Treasure Island
12 nights Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 book, retold whole and read slowly, night by night.
The Wizard of Oz
8 nights The Wizard of Oz L. Frank Baum's 1900 book, retold whole and read slowly, night by night.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
10 nights Twenty Thousand Leagues Jules Verne's 1870 book, retold whole and read slowly, night by night.
Moby-Dick
12 nights Moby-Dick Herman Melville's 1851 book, retold whole and read slowly, night by night.
Jane Eyre
10 nights Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë's 1847 book, retold whole and read slowly, night by night.
The Time Machine
6 nights The Time Machine H. G. Wells's 1895 book, retold whole and read slowly, night by night.
Dracula
9 nights Dracula Bram Stoker's 1897 book, retold whole and read slowly, night by night.
Winnie-the-Pooh
5 nights Winnie-the-Pooh A. A. Milne's 1926 book, retold whole and read slowly, night by night.
01

Fiction

Quiet reckonings, civic-archive letters, late-life regret. Moral weight, not melodrama.

15 stories
A Debt of Dust
41 min A Debt of Dust A slow western bedtime tale of a quiet stranger and a town that takes too much.
Salt and Paper
42 min Salt and Paper A Lisbon typesetter sets a fifteen-year confession in metal type for his sleeping wife.
First Tile
70 min First Tile In a quiet Portuguese ceramics studio, Zélia inspects a flawed batch of tiles for a small station…
Corn Song
62 min Corn Song A slow Oaxaca sleep story of maize, stillness, and hand-ground masa.
Shepherd's Frequency
83 min Shepherd's Frequency A slow Kyrgyz mountain sleep story of wind, flute, field recordings, and a cello returning to voice.
Burnt Garden
92 min Burnt Garden A warm sleep story of ash, returning neighbours, and a garden growing back differently.
Flicker and Fix
96 min Flicker and Fix Sink into the worn velvet seats of the Star-Light Cinema, where the air smells of warm popcorn and dust,…
Sand and Seed
93 min Sand and Seed Drift off on a rooftop garden steeped in the last of the afternoon light.
Night Freight to Bellacera
Night Freight to Bellacera
Old Roses at Miremont
Old Roses at Miremont
River Dilemma
River Dilemma
Salt Hour
Salt Hour
Sand Between
Sand Between
Scorpion Find
Scorpion Find
Void Thread
Void Thread
02

Travel

Sleeper trains, Mediterranean ports, river barges, lost cities. The unfathomable through place.

14 stories
What the Box Carried
45 min What the Box Carried Step aboard a sleeper train rocking gently through the night, where Leo cradles a small wooden box across…
Documentation Cartographique
99 min Documentation Cartographique A Marrakech archivist reconstructs a lost Atlas mountain path from torn maps, notebooks, and memory.
Four Hours in Doha
99 min Four Hours in Doha Stranded by a growing delay in Doha, Thomas watches a queue of anxious travellers become a fragile circle…
Grass Shadow Distance
76 min Grass Shadow Distance Jiyoon arrives on the Mongolian steppe with schedules still buzzing in her mind, then finds herself riding…
Kites at Dawn
87 min Kites at Dawn After a long winter journey, Leo arrives at Aunt Yuki’s house feeling like a guest in a family rhythm he…
Night Float
89 min Night Float Seven strangers push off from a creaking mangrove dock for a night kayak into a moonless bay.
Ohrid Morning Pier
79 min Ohrid Morning Pier At dawn on Lake Ohrid, a traveller wakes to find the guesthouse pier twisted by rain just as the market…
Platform Tea
88 min Platform Tea On a fogbound morning at Fenqihu station, Hsu finds Chang, the wife he has not spoken to in three months,…
Refugio After Rain
72 min Refugio After Rain Rain holds three travellers at a Patagonian refugio, where a flooded river and Santiago’s gauge decide when…
Salt and Yeast
82 min Salt and Yeast On a fog-bound ridge, a disused seismic station fills with the cold scent of pine, instrument oil, and…
Well of Echoes
71 min Well of Echoes A traveller follows a stray goat through a banyan's roots and finds a hidden stepwell, cool with damp…
Windcatcher Lessons
71 min Windcatcher Lessons A restless traveller arrives in Yazd with a tight itinerary and finds his guesthouse stifling, its…
Driftwood Shore
67 min Driftwood Shore Finnish · Mozambican · Likoma
Suitcase of Sap
69 min Suitcase of Sap January · Santos · Cerrado
03

Mystery

Truth real but hidden. A case worked, an absence listened for. Resolution within story, never cliffhanger.

7 stories
Orpheus's Silence
47 min Orpheus's Silence A noir detective listens through the rain as a cold case dissolves into silence.
Lanterns Below
91 min Lanterns Below A warm mystery sleep story of hidden lantern-light, ancient tunnels, and trust restored.
Dune Song
142 min Dune Song A warm sleep mystery of singing dunes, a lost trawler, and grief turning slowly into life.
Mountain Threads
153 min Mountain Threads Climb to a fog-bound indigo workshop where an old cloth hides a map of the mountain.
Sand in the Gears
125 min Sand in the Gears A night train stalls in the Atacama dark, where a carved line leads to a poet's hidden journal.
Garden Below Lanterns
83 min Garden Below Lanterns Drift off in a tea-house garden as the lanterns glow and five old friends gather on a stone bench in the…
Salt and Silk
75 min Salt and Silk Laila arrives in Khiva to scatter her mother’s ashes, but a torn silk robe reveals hidden Persian…
04

History

The real world and its past, told slowly, great monuments, turning points and the people who made them, alongside stories set in real periods.

27 stories
The Acropolis of Ancient Athens
The Acropolis of Ancient Athens
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Cleopatra
Cleopatra
Columbus and the Crossing of 1492
Columbus and the Crossing of 1492
Easter Island
Easter Island
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
The First Atlantic Cable
The First Atlantic Cable
The Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London
Kitty Hawk and the First Flight
Kitty Hawk and the First Flight
Machu Picchu, the City in the Clouds
Machu Picchu, the City in the Clouds
Magna Carta
Magna Carta
Notre-Dame de Paris
Notre-Dame de Paris
The Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles
Petra
Petra
Pompeii
Pompeii
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
The Colosseum
The Colosseum
The Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower
The Leaning Tower of Pisa
The Leaning Tower of Pisa
The Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone
The Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel
The Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty
The Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal
The Tower of London
The Tower of London
The Discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb
The Discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb
The Voyage of the Beagle
The Voyage of the Beagle
The Treasure Fleets of Zheng He
The Treasure Fleets of Zheng He
History collection

Famous people

Quiet lives that changed the world

3 stories
Messer Ottobono
49 min Messer Ottobono A Genoese clerk loses a sealed letter at sea, then carries its meaning to Palermo by memory and honour.
Titu
68 min Titu An Inca tambo keeper handles a damaged quipu on the royal road.
Leonardo da Vinci
74 min Leonardo da Vinci Drift through Renaissance Italy with Leonardo da Vinci, from his watchful childhood among the Tuscan hills to Verrocchio’s bustling Florence workshop and the court of Milan. Thomas gently traces Leonardo’s boundless curiosity, tender regard for living things, luminous paintings and restless designs, ending with the great bronze horse that remained only a dream.
History collection

Famous places

Drift through remarkable places

3 stories
The Great Wall of China
68 min The Great Wall of China A slow, true bedtime journey along the Great Wall of China, from its earliest earthen ramparts to the long stone dragon winding over the mountains north of Beijing.
The Great Pyramid of Giza
67 min The Great Pyramid of Giza A slow, true bedtime journey to the Great Pyramid of Giza, the last of the ancient wonders still standing, and the quiet arithmetic of the men who raised it.
Angkor Wat
73 min Angkor Wat Before sunrise, Angkor Wat waits beside its glassy moat as birds wake in the Cambodian forest. Follow its sandstone from distant quarries and quiet canals to towers aligned with the equinox sun, built under Suryavarman II for Vishnu. Beyond the western gate, lotus pools, stone lions and cosmic galleries lead towards Mount Meru at the temple’s heart.
History collection

Historical moments

The nights when history quietly turned

1 story
The Discovery of Penicillin
79 min The Discovery of Penicillin On a bench in a small room in London, a stack of shallow glass dishes sat waiting through the last warm days of summer. The room was on an upper floor of a hospital medical school in Paddington, and it was crowded. Papers leaned in drifts against the walls.
History collection

Civilisations & empires

Long worlds, remembered slowly

3 stories
History of Rome
91 min History of Rome A calm, true walk through Rome's long life, from a river bending through low hills to an empire's slow hush.
History of the English Kings
85 min History of the English Kings A slow sleep story to drift off to, following History of the English Kings at an unhurried pace so the mind can let go without needing to solve anything.
The Terracotta Army
72 min The Terracotta Army Beneath a farmer’s field near Xi’an, thousands of clay soldiers stand where they have waited for more than two millennia. Follow their discovery back to the reign of Qin Shi Huang, through the vast burial pits, silent ranks and vanished workshops that shaped an emperor’s hidden world. Thomas tells their story in a calm, measured voice for sleep.
05

Adventure

Quest, voyage, expedition. The journey is the unfathomable. No sustained peril.

10 stories
Bayankhongor
58 min Bayankhongor A bicycle courier crosses the Gobi with a weather sensor and a promise to keep.
Yard Still
49 min Yard Still A quiet Arctic sled journey through weather, pressure, and an old promise.
Cloud Meadow
74 min Cloud Meadow A soft sleep story through a meadow above the clouds.
Storm Festival
68 min Storm Festival A typhoon turns a village's lantern festival down a sheltered path.
Hull and Sail
71 min Hull and Sail A widowed boatbuilder finds his way back through the work of his hands.
Path of Stone
77 min Path of Stone Two old companions cross the Patagonian steppe, stone by stone.
Passage Restored
74 min Passage Restored A blocked mountain pass, cleared stone by stone.
Salt Return
71 min Salt Return Stranded on an alpine ridge, signalling for rescue through stone.
Silver Run
92 min Silver Run A brother, a sister, and one last salmon run through the fog.
Saffron Ridge
75 min Saffron Ridge Four walkers trade a mountain summit for a quieter path down.
06

Sci-Fi

Speculative present and near-future. Real laws, unfathomable scale, but invented fiction, invented stakes. (Factual cosmic content lives in Universe.)

6 stories
Stoplight at Three Forty
43 min Stoplight at Three Forty Sixty-two feet beneath the surface, marine biologist Mara Osei watches the last blue light surrender to…
The Relay Station
38 min The Relay Station A quiet journey to the edge of the solar system, where one person tends the invisible threads that connect…
A Different Green
45 min A Different Green A scientist keeps vigil with a plant remembering another world.
Alloy Drift
58 min Alloy Drift A comet-forged cup becomes light, shelter, and a story.
Storm Glass
64 min Storm Glass A warm Mars sleep story of storm shelter, repair, and shared light.
Float Audit
84 min Float Audit A gentle station farewell about twenty kilos, an old harmonica, and what still travels with you.
07

Future

Far-future, post-scarcity quiet, civilisational scale. The world has moved on; the protagonist sits inside the new shape.

7 stories
Aurora Hall Rotation
82 min Aurora Hall Rotation A stalled Venusian sky-dome, closed at last by one shared rhythm.
Gravity-Core Dispute
63 min Gravity-Core Dispute A failing moon homestead bargains for warmth through the long night.
Pulp and Press
61 min Pulp and Press A grieving woman learns papermaking aboard a quiet station.
Podlight Exchanges
82 min Podlight Exchanges Strangers trade quiet gifts through a station wall.
Blue Token Return
74 min Blue Token Return A courier retraces a quiet market morning to find a lost token.
Kettle Wake
81 min Kettle Wake One Earth-made kettle, passed through generations on a starship.
Solstice Algae Harvest
78 min Solstice Algae Harvest A quiet algae harvest aboard a station sliding into its dark season.
08

Survival

One person against weather, wilderness, circumstance. Resolution by competence, not luck.

3 stories
Callum Shore
55 min Callum Shore A Southern Ocean skipper keeps a wounded yacht moving toward the Falklands.
Pour Papa
46 min Pour Papa A guide returns to avalanche snow for a father's lost notebook.
Last Sweet Water
Last Sweet Water
09

Paranormal

Hauntings, unexplained presences. Atmospheric, never menacing. The strange thing is real but the night holds it.

7 stories
Atacama Hum
90 min Atacama Hum A low hum rises from beneath an Atacama desert village, and a geologist and an old healer must learn to…
Dust Songs
92 min Dust Songs A slow drive out of town along a two-lane desert blacktop, where salt-cedar windbreaks slide past and the…
Fog Season
101 min Fog Season Drift off to a remote island village preparing for the season of fog, where black basalt houses step down a…
Singing Stone
91 min Singing Stone A quiet paranormal sleep story set in a mountain village, where Lena returns to a weathered stone tied to…
Soundings
103 min Soundings A polar-night sleep story about Sigrid and a village drawn by a bell sounding from beneath the fjord.
Steam Figures
93 min Steam Figures A mountain sleep story about Lira’s arrival at a forgotten bathhouse where steam carries shapes from older…
Stone Breath
88 min Stone Breath A calm sleep story about Anahit, a stone carver asked to shape a piece of tuff that seems to hold more than…
10

Detective

Hard-edged, noir, procedural. An investigator with method, a case with stakes, a city the case cuts through.

7 stories
A Quiet Eye
74 min A Quiet Eye On a hillside stairway above the harbour, a tired delivery driver finds a quiet ritual at an old woman’s…
Egret Hour
78 min Egret Hour At a lagoon research camp, Dr Elise Moran’s missing field notebook becomes a quiet mystery traced through…
Label Shift
85 min Label Shift A quiet sleep mystery set inside a rural seed exchange, where Lena finds tomato packets deliberately…
Light Returned
93 min Light Returned At dusk on a snowbound harbour, Elin discovers the church’s whalebone lantern has vanished before the…
Pasture Echo
81 min Pasture Echo At dawn on Don Eliseo’s coffee finca, Lucero the goat is gone, and the village’s brass good-luck bell has…
Tidal Drift
73 min Tidal Drift A slow-burn sleep mystery set around Horta harbour, where marine researcher Sara joins a salvage dive for a…
Desert Whispers
Desert Whispers
11

Fantasy

Invented worlds. Rule-bound magic. Distinct from history (real) and sci-fi (speculative-real).

5 stories
Apsis Tower
65 min Apsis Tower A moon-watcher, a tiny mark in the sky, and a town held by constant light.
Cold Came
61 min Cold Came A riverkeeper's apprentice, a missing brass pin, and a winter gate that must hold.
Merra Filled
68 min Merra Filled A moss-keeper tends a stone forest in a dry season.
Old Gate
56 min Old Gate A night tram carries a lost bell schedule through the fog.
Amber Dusk
81 min Amber Dusk Fenn · Enough · Two
12

Romantic

Adult romance, slow-burn, reunion, found-letters, a meeting deferred and then arriving.

3 stories
Whale Song Off Tofino
85 min Whale Song Off Tofino A week of grey mornings, whale song, and slow thaw off Tofino.
Danse Macabre in Oaxaca
77 min Danse Macabre in Oaxaca A photographer, a dancer, and Oaxaca's Day of the Dead.
Quinta Harvest
65 min Quinta Harvest Two feuding vineyards race a storm through one long night.
13

Universe

Factual night listens. Real places, real data, real missions, the solar system, deep space, galaxies, stars, time itself, and the missions humans have sent.

36 stories
Integrity
57 min Integrity Float alongside four astronauts drifting home through the long dark, three hundred million miles from…
Titan Rain
Universe Titan Rain A sleep story set on Saturn's largest moon.
The Rings
Universe The Rings Drift among Saturn's ancient rings in perfect silence.
Olympus Mons
Universe Olympus Mons A slow, immersive walk up the tallest mountain in the solar system.
Europa Beneath
Universe Europa Beneath Something like thirteen hundred atmospheres at the floor.
The Far Side
Universe The Far Side A journey to the far side of the Moon, where no signal reaches and ancient silence stretches in every…
The Pillars
Universe The Pillars A journey into the vast columns of the Pillars of Creation, where scale dissolves and stillness deepens.
Enceladus
Universe Enceladus If there were a motorway here, if there were mornings.
Pale Blue Dot
Universe Pale Blue Dot The slow arithmetic of a half-life measured in decades.
Io
Universe Io It does not rise or set.
Sagittarius A*
Universe Sagittarius A* Travel to the gravitational heart of our galaxy, where four million suns compress into stillness.
Andromeda Approach
Universe Andromeda Approach A faint smudge just below the chain of stars.
The Cartwheel
Universe The Cartwheel A gentle journey to the Cartwheel Galaxy, where a single collision set off a wave of creation still…
Bootes Void
Universe Bootes Void The data came back with a gap.
Betelgeuse
Universe Betelgeuse One point two billion kilometres across.
A White Dwarf
Universe A White Dwarf For most of human history, no one knew it was there.
The Crab Nebula
Universe The Crab Nebula The Song dynasty astronomers were meticulous people.
The Cosmic Calendar
Universe The Cosmic Calendar There is nothing to carry sound through.
Deep Time
Universe Deep Time It is four billion years old.
The Cosmic Web
Universe The Cosmic Web A contemplative journey through the largest structure in the universe.
Heat Death
Universe Heat Death The universe is still full of light.
Golden Record
Universe Golden Record The clean room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has no windows, and the air inside it has been washed…
Grand Tour
Universe Grand Tour On the twentieth of August, nineteen seventy-seven, a rocket lifted from the Florida coast into a sky still…
Pale Signal
Universe Pale Signal Somewhere beyond the edge of everything the Sun can reach, a machine the size of a small car drifts through…
Earthrise
Universe Earthrise Travel to the stillness of deep space through the eyes of Apollo 8's crew.
Tranquility Base
Universe Tranquility Base Rest in the most absolute stillness ever known, the untouched silence of the lunar plain where the Eagle…
Lunar Rover
Universe Lunar Rover They had folded it flat against the flank of the spacecraft, packed tight as a card table in a cupboard.
Opportunity's Last Drive
Universe Opportunity's Last Drive Travel alongside a rover that outlived every expectation, across a silent Martian landscape measured in…
Jezero Crater
Universe Jezero Crater Travel to the red planet and settle into the vast stillness of Jezero Crater.
Philae
Universe Philae Ride alongside the Philae lander on its seven-hour fall toward a comet older than memory.
Hubble Deep Field
Universe Hubble Deep Field There is a building in Baltimore, on a university campus, that most people walk past without a second glance.
Cupola
Universe Cupola The hatch is open, and the module below is dark except for the glow of Earth through seven windows.
Last Shuttle
Universe Last Shuttle The crawler moves at one mile per hour, and the ground shakes with it.
How the Stars Are Born
How the Stars Are Born
A Journey Through the Solar System
A Journey Through the Solar System
The Apollo Moon Landing
The Apollo Moon Landing
14

Nature

Factual night listens from the living world, deserts, reefs, rainforests, mountains and the creatures in them, told slowly and truthfully.

8 stories
The Secret Life of the Honeybee
The Secret Life of the Honeybee
Mount Everest and the Himalayas
Mount Everest and the Himalayas
The Age of the Dinosaurs
The Age of the Dinosaurs
The Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest
The Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon
The Great Barrier Reef
71 min The Great Barrier Reef Drift above the Great Barrier Reef as fading light reveals a vast living world built by countless coral polyps. Its quiet story unfolds through ancient ice ages, rising seas, Indigenous sea country and early voyages along the Queensland coast. Beneath the surface, sunlit coral gardens, seagrass meadows, turtles and manta rays form a gentle landscape for sleep.
The Northern Lights
The Northern Lights
The Sahara Desert
The Sahara Desert
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