

That’s why you’ll hear the Snow Queen, Peter Pan, and Sleeping Beauty alongside Beowolf, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Heart of Darkness, among others, all read in his calming whisper, before you nod off to sleep.Īs a 4-year old, Kathryn Nicolai would fall asleep to stories she made up for herself. Gray chooses books based somewhat on whim and somewhat by season or holiday, but he also takes requests and says he has a soft spot for suggestions from younger listeners. In Sleepy, Gray reads from works in the public domain, like Moby Dick and Frankenstein, amassing selections from nearly 100 books in the feed. Gray obliged, sending a recording to his overtired restaurant friends thinking that was as far as it would go, but it turned out people enjoyed using the stories to help them sleep, and Sleepy began to take off. Gray was working in New York City’s restaurant world when coworkers mentioned they’d like to fall asleep to his deeply soothing voice. Otis Gray wasn’t aiming to create Spotify’s most popular health and fitness podcast of 2019 when he started making Sleepy - in fact, he says, the podcast began as a kind of joke. Podcasts to Help You SnoozeĪs we all struggle to calm our bodies and brains in these strange times, any one of these 12 podcasts can help usher you into dreamland, or at least keep you company in the dark. If you’re dreaming about bugs, you’re not alone. They discuss her past research and how that compares to what she’s seeing during the pandemic. Deirdre Barrett, a prominent dream researcher from Harvard (who has become the major media go-to expert on all things dreams during the pandemic). In this episode, host Shankar Vedantam explores what happens when one doesn’t sleep for prolonged periods of time (hint: it’s not good), the ways creativity and sleep work together, and the surprising connection between cancer and a lack of sleep that will inspire you to prioritize your slumber.Ĭoronavirus: Fact vs Fiction, “ In Your Dreams ”ĭr. From the surprising sleep habits of animals like ducks and dolphins to the connection between learning and sleep, to the science of dreaming.

In smart, quirky, sound-design-extravaganza Radiolab co-hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich go deep on sleep. The interview covers a wide range of topics including the fact that most of us don’t get enough sleep, the negative implications of sleep deprivation, the use of sleep aids, how sleep affects memory, and strategies to get more sleep. Matthew Stevenson, the author of the popular book Why We Sleep and the founder/director of the Center for Human Sleep Science.

In this episode, host Terry Gross speaks to Dr. The Science Behind Sleepįresh Air, “ Sleep Scientist Warns Against Walking Through Life ‘In An Underslept State ’” For those who just need something to quiet their brains and help them drift off to dreamland, keep reading for our favorite podcasts that will help you sleep. National Geographic noted, “for all their variety, the one thing many pandemic dreams have in common is how weird they seem to participants in the studies.”įor the slumber-curious, we’ve got four episodes that explore the science behind sleep. Even if you’re managing to fall asleep on schedule right now, you’re likely experiencing more intense dreams or strange nightmares lately.

Recent articles from Vox, Harvard, Washington Post, and the New York Times have all documented a widespread shift in sleep patterns, the cognitive effects of which can be severe on both our daily well-being and long-term mental health. If the intense stress and uncertainty of this moment has disrupted your sleeping habits, you are not alone.
