Do you have trouble falling asleep at night? Do you just keep staring at the ceiling and keep tossing and turning in your bed? You’re not alone: roughly one in three people worldwide suffer from various stages of insomnia, with around 10% of Americans having a chronic sleeping disorder.
Lucky for you, several podcasts are recommended for people that suffer from insomnia. Next time you, Google, for something like “How to fall asleep fast?”, look up for podcasts like Sleep With Me, Sleep Whispers, Deep Energy 2.0, and the Alex Jones Show Podcast. This article talks about two such podcasts and why they have proven to be so effective.
Sleep With Me – the podcast that makes you Fall asleep fast
A bit of history
Started in October 2013 and with over 850 episodes to date, the Sleep With Me podcast is a thrice-weekly podcast hosted by “Dearest Scooter”, as performed by the creator, Drew Ackerman. Being an insomniac himself at one point of time, he created this podcast inspired by late-night comedy radio, which is what put him to sleep. He has dedicated his life to helping others who can’t sleep at night by narrating bedtime stories.
What is the podcast’s format?
Ackerman admits that he is not an expert in psychology or sleep studies to guarantee that his podcast works, but rather, he relies on the feedback his listeners give. Sleep With Me is a unique storytelling podcast that combines the pain and suffering of insomnia with lighthearted humor.
Each episode is one to two hours in length, starting with Scooter introducing the crew, followed by a few minutes of a rambling introduction before moving on to the main story for the night. There is a separate podcast called Sleep to Strange, which is an archive of the older episodes with just the main content.
The stories
Across all the podcasts that have aired over 6 years, there are several recurring themes and characters. The story of Cinderella is often repeated, “Superdull” is a regular event where Scooter narrates a superhero story, and “Trending Tuesdays” is when he makes up a story based on the trending news Twitter topics.
The New Yorker calls Sleep With Me “The Podcast That Tells Ingeniously Boring Bedtime Stories to Help You Fall Asleep”, but Scooter doesn’t consider that as criticism. To narrate a story in such a fashion is a skill, and especially so when it does help people to finally fall asleep. Scooter’s deliberately digression into tangential topics and his maze-like stories, which often seem to take the listener nowhere seem like negative qualities, they work like magic as far as insomniacs are concerned.
Audience response
The initial popularity of Sleep With Me was through word of mouth and Ackerman’s Twitter account, and over the years, it has become one of the most popular shows, winning awards like “People’s Choice Podcast Award for Best Health Podcast” in 2016. He currently has around 1.3 million downloads per month.
Many of the podcast’s listeners have expressed praise for Scooter, claiming that the show has given them much needed peace of mind and rested at night (some of them admit that they have slept properly for the first time in years). In fact, listening to Sleep With Me has become routine for many people before going to bed. Of course, a lot of his listeners fall asleep well before the episode ends, some of them even dozing off in the introduction stage!
The Alex Jones Show – How to fall asleep fast
Most of you would expect podcasts recommended for insomniacs to be along the same lines as Sleep With Me. However, Alex Jones’s podcast is something completely different and yet, probably equally effective in making people sleep.
Alex Jones and his shows
Alex Jones is an American radio host and conspiracy theorist, often involved in several controversies himself. The Alex Jones podcast is broadcast on the Genesis Communications Network across the United States as well on online podcast platforms. Jones also runs a website, InfoWars, where he tackles conspiracy theories and fake news.
Popularity
In 2010, The Alex Jones Show attracted over 2 million listeners per week, and in 2011, his online audience alone was bigger than that of Rush Limbaugh (host of The Rush Limbaugh Show), and Glenn Beck (host of Glenn Beck Radio Program) combined.
Jones’s commanding presence and loud voice greatly boost his radio personality. However, the controversial content of his InfoWars website and podcasts in The Alex Jones Show has led to the removal of several episodes from iTunes.
While several listeners complain about Jones’s baseless information and news, others just consider it an excellent source of an entertainment company. The number of viewers Alex Jones gets is proof of this (InfoWars receives more viewers than established mainstream news agencies like The Economist).
What does this have to do with insomnia?
Arguably, many of you, by this point, are wondering what any of this might have to do with insomnia. The idea here is that distracting the mind from depression or anxiety – which are primarily responsible for insomnia – is effective in getting people to sleep. This is the same reason why sleep-related podcasts aren’t only about soothing lullabies or stories; some of them deal with crimes and supernaturalism for the same reason.
Controversial topics and discussions are of interest to everyone, irrespective of whether they have insomnia or not, and being updated on the latest controversial news by a top conspiracy theorist is bound to distract your mind from your depressing reality.
Jones’s podcast gives you a much-needed break and, assuming you are not too sensitive to controversy, sometimes that’s all that is required for you to doze off.
Some sleep at last
If you were a struggling insomniac till now, you are now on your way to getting the sleep quota you deserve. Tune in to either Sleep With Me for some soothing bedtime tales to put you to sleep or listen to Alex Jones’s dose of daily controversy to distract your mind from sadness for a while. Sleep tight!
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