It’s reported that about 35% of adults have trouble falling asleep, and find themselves restlessly tossing and turning at night. Are you one of them? Have you tried all the tricks of the trade? Bedtime tea, weighted blankets, essential oils, white-noise machines? Perhaps these tricks have been too extravagant. Is the answer as simple as an adult bedtime story?
“According to Dr. Lynelle Schneeberg, a Yale Medicine 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.” – WSJ
Why bedtime stories? Apparently, they tap into the comforting experience that we remember, something that helps us relax: being read to as a child. We aren’t focused on our breathing or our thoughts, and we can soothe ourselves into a state of peace and comfort. It’s a relaxing way to distract ourselves from our own thoughts.
Calm, a popular meditation app, used data gathered from their app to see that many people were using the app right around bedtime, and that spurred them to develop “Sleep Stories” for the app. InsightTimer is another meditation app that has begun to incorporate the art of bedtime stories into their mix. They include the classics (i.e. “The Velveteen Rabbit”) as a way to introduce a calming, familiar story into your nightly routine. Along with successful apps, even podcasts and audiobooks have begun to pick up on the trend of adult bedtime stories.
“Some popular podcasters also dose listeners with 30-ish-minute stories carefully selected for optimal zzzzzs. 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 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.”
Has the answer to your sleep-deprived nights been in the form of a bedtime story all along? No matter the app, audiobook, or podcast that may appeal to you, it seems there are plenty of options to try. Hopefully, one of these soothing stories will bring you a peaceful mind and a night of restful slumber.