There is a similar podcast, "Boring Books for Bedtime": https://www.boringbookspod.com/episodes.

The problem with that podcast is that most of their selections are genuinely interesting - I even listened to them on long drives (e.g. "Origin of Species"). Even something I thought would boring like or "Farm Engines and how to Run" them turned out to be fascinating.

This one, on the other hand, seems to be genuinely boring. I couldn't get past the intro.

Not sure how accessible all this is outside of the UK (you'd need to check the BBC Sounds website & app), but the BBC has perfected a couple of great "gets you to sleep" radio outlets.

The oldest is Radio 4, the BBC's national spoken word radio station (there's also Radio 5 which focuses on sport and news, Radio 4 is more a mixture of comedy, arts, culture and news).

Late at night (UK time), there are programmes that were for many years my soundtrack to getting to sleep - news, a short programme (on Sunday it's a recording of some church bells from some church somewhere in the UK countryside - it changes each week), followed by the shipping forecast. The service "signs off" with the national anthem before switching over to the BBC World Service at around 1am through until 6am when it switches back to the iconic Today programme.

The shipping forecast though - that's the gold. If you've never listened to it before, try and find a recording. As an island nation with a decimated but still strong fishing trawler fleet, it's framed as essential safety information, but in truth its just an iconic, beautiful, ever-changing structured poem, read on national radio several times a day. It is perfect for helping calm the mind, it's a weighted blanket for the brain.

Somebody, somewhere realised that a continuity announcer slowly rattling through the shipping forecast was so good at putting over-active minds to sleep that they created a podcast - "The Sleeping Forecast" - which is a mix of slow/ambient music with old shipping forecasts read over them. I love it, but my partner finds it "weird" so I can't listen to it without wearing headphones late at night.

This, somehow, then led to the realisation that Radio 3 (the national classical music station in the UK), could provide more of the same. Cue other programs - Sleep Tracks, Night Tracks - where there is a composition of calming, quieting music, mostly rooted in classical tradition but overall just very ambient and calm.

And then the final inevitable chapter: in the world of DAB radio and digital platforms (including the BBC Sounds app that seemed absurd at its inception but now slowly becoming loved), the BBC realised they could cheaply put together a whole new station: BBC Radio 3 Unwind (or "3U" for short).

All of this being the BBC, there are no ads. No pledge drives. 3 Unwind has no news programming. It's my new go to when anxiety hits.

The BBC isn't perfect, the funding model needs to evolve, but while we have this - just in case one day we don't - do try and enjoy this stuff if you can.

Marfa is an amazing little town. I was there 3 months ago; while it is out of the way, even as a visitor, everyone is nice and genuinely there to provide an amazing artistic experience. If you ever want to experience the actual weird, southwestern, cowboy country, go to Marfa. And have a drink outside this public radio station. It's quite a nice getaway.

> It's a sleep podcast wherein we read you the boring documents essential to our jobs, in the hopes we might lull you into slumber.

What a great idea, I feel li... zzz

For me, Edward Witten (1), Sheldon Axler (2), Patrick Winston (3) and many others do a far better job.

1. https://youtu.be/UW_M7hotSlk

2. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGAnmvB9m7zOBVCZBUUmSinFV...

3. https://youtu.be/TjZBTDzGeGg

I used to fall asleep to NPR as a kid, so this resonates. Curious if anyone else has a go-to station or podcast they use as a sleep aid?

> Ever wondered what NPR's code of journalistic ethics involves for the newsroom?

I have been thinking a lot through the years about the choice between joirnalistic ethics and journalistic activism in the ranks of organizations like NPR. This is an extremely important topic because today's media are as impactful politically as the "regular" political process.

My point is, such discussion would not make me sleepy, the opposite would happen.

One of my greatest memories is performing at the Chinati Foundation. Marfa is such a gem with tons of cool people just being creative out in the desert.

See also the Myths and Legends podcast: https://www.mythpodcast.com/.

https://archive.ph/GkyK5

They've seemed to configure Cloudfront to block access from Singapore.

Just thinking about that little big neck of the world puts me to sleep. In the best of ways. I love West Texas.

I wonder why the telephone number read aloud, and that on the web page, are different.

Too bad they missed the opportunity to read it, very, slowly.

fastsleep.app does kinda similar thing... but instead of long podcasts, you are given something to imagine at a time interval.

Like if you hear "calm river", imagine that. If you hear "heavy rain over a tree", imagine that.

In short → Close your eyes, listen & imagine.

I’d like to filter the offerings to get the most monotonic voice

> The Amazon CloudFront distribution is configured to block access from your country.

Thank you very much.

So tired of the cloudflare shit.

clicks fingers instead of clapping.

What a brilliant idea. I’m here fo…zzz.

I am using https://www.youtube.com/@EpicNate for the same purpose. Works like a charm.

Listening now, after a day long coding binge, and I need to wind down.

It has a decent sleepy background vibe to it too. Reminds me of Joe Perra Talks You To Sleep (Adult Swim). I dig it!

i want a sleep app that reads me things that will put me to sleep, but i need it to track when i may have gone to sleep, or more importantly when I have not, so i can restart the next night past the point i've listened to. but it needs to be some crazy simple UI, i don't want the light on my phone to turn on, i don't want to fiddle, just skip forward, skip back, that's about it

there's all sorts of stuff that is dry but interesting that I'd like to plow through over time, a few paragraphs a day would suit me fine

Meh, not math finance. Thats literally lorezapam.

another is "Sleep With Me" by Dearest Scooter which are nonsensical steam of consciousness monologues.

Am I the only one that can't fall asleep to music? I need human voice rhythms, so podcasts, or whatever. The downside is not learning anything from the podcast because I'm asleep and it works its way into dreams sporadically

"Do you lay awake wondering what FCC compliance entails?"

I guessing FCC compliance doesn't involve knowing the difference between lay and lie. Or maybe they fell asleep in English class. X-p