Recommendations for podcasts to fall asleep to?

autumn@reddthat.com to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 94 points –

Something not high energy, and interesting but not too interesting lol

Examples I've been enjoying include 99% Invisible, Ologies, and Common Descent

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Sleep With Me

How about you invite OP to a dinner first?

Love scooter! Feels like a super low key barely funny comedy sketch. Helped my sleepless night and mid night waking a lot.

I've been listening to Scoot for probably 5 or more years now. Makes me go lights out 20 min top

Love Sleep with Me!

It's basically soothing white noise

If I remember the name correctly, "Sleep With Me" is designed specifically for this purpose.

Yup and they gave a large archive too! Other recommendations: Nothing much happens, and Boring books for bedtime.

Drifting Off with Joe Pera a sleep podcast.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOg1r3RmAaWkKAJVrVpQYCS2BBmzfX2B5

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/drifting-off-with-joe-pera/id1669125364

https://www.patreon.com/DriftingOffwithJoePera

Came here to recommend the same thing. Incredibly relaxing, funny, and wholesome.

I'd recommend the Welcome to Night Vale podcast. It's an audio play that presents itself as a local radio news station for a town called Night Vale, where all sorts of weird and spooky things happen but are all totally normal and mundane to the people there. It's very entertaining, and because all the "bits" are told like very short little news segments. Each story is pretty much self-contained and not intrinsically related to anything else, so it's easy enough to tune in and out while you fall asleep, and you won't really be missing anything "important".

The weather always does a good job of waking me up. It's why I stopped "listening" to Night Vale .

The History of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan is over a decade (edit: typo) old but it's ideal for that. He has an incredibly relaxing voice, and even though I'm legitimately interested in Roman history I would find myself drifting off sometimes. The audio quality in the early episodes aren't great but he gets a better mic later.

Hardcore History is my go to if you're a fan of, well, history.

"The British History Podcast" is also really solid for this.

There are also good ones on Japan, The Crusades, Rome, and the Byzantine Empire although I don't remember their names exactly. They're all variations on "The History of [x]" or "[x] History Podcast".

The history of the crusades one is done by an Australian professor and she's really good. I believe she did one on the Normans as well which was excellent, too.

Really, if you're going with History, I would do a bit of research on how they're perceived and make sure you like the narrator's voice. It's almost always one narrator which is perfect for sleep.

Additionally, I will go out and find lectures from "The Great Courses" series which are pretty well vetted for oratory because the speakers are genuine college professors. Just finished one of those on Balkan history which was really solid.

As far as vetting of podcasts goes, most of them are done by well meaning amateurs, but it should become clear whether they actually know what they're talking about. I'd recommend Hardcore History or Great Courses lectures as a jumping off point and then see about podcasts that are similar in respect for the subject matter.

Fall of civilizations too. Only get an episode every 6months or so but it's real good

Stuff You Should Know is a podcast by some well-meaning, curious, kind of dumb dudes from Atlanta. Libs but that doesn't seem to be a disqualifier. Anyways they have very gentle and calm voices and basically have done a straight up book report-style podcast for like fifteen years and have done basically every topic.

They have the right voices to fall asleep to because they never get so excited they change their register and seem to like each other. Kind, friendly energy. It's also easy to fall asleep to because you don't have to hang on every word because they usually don't really know too much about what they're talking about so it never really matters if you hear the next part because you'd have to fact check it anyways

Episode 1, every episode is the first episode of a podcast. It's like 90% improv. Might be my favorite podcast.

I like Hey Riddle Riddle if improv comedy is something you like. Both for falling asleep and listening while awake.

Sleepy - American male host reads classic literature

CaseFile - Australian male host tells true crime

The PurrrCast - People talk about their cats

I like Levar Burton Reads. His voice is so soothing. You can pick a story with a topic you are less interested in for nighttime listening since there are plenty to choose from.

I love Startalk Radio for this. It’s very interesting, funny and they make breaks every couple of minutes with a jingle that triggers me to wake up slightly with enough focus to take my headphones off and then fall asleep

Fall of Civilization. His voice is absolutely soothing and the topics of how certain people found these lost Civilizations and then how they fell into ruin is super interesting.

I usually listen to any podcast with tech bros talking about tech because it is fun enough but completely inconsequential, so I don’t miss anything when I fall asleep. Examples: Accidental Tech Podcast, Upstream, Cortex, Waveform

I like Roman Mars' voice so 99% invisible is my go to. But I'm still searching for a way to automate listening to British shipping traffic in a podcast like fashion.

I sleep to Lore

I really enjoyed Lore for a while until he got involved in his TV series. I feel the quality dipped a bit after that (but not a big issue if you're just falling asleep to them).
other similar ones for falling asleep to:
Criminal and This is Love - Pheobe Judge has a great voice to fall asleep to. The content is interesting enough to have your mind not wander too much but her voice relaxing enough to lull you to sleep. I often end up listening to an episode over several bedtimes to hear it all.
Hidden Brain is another great one to fall asleep to.
The Memory Palace, similar to Roman Mars' narrating.

Used to fall asleep to the Unexplained podcast. No idea why as it was intensely creepy and ended up giving me bad dreams!

I recognize the irony of this, but sometimes I like to fall asleep to the No Sleep podcast.

I subbed just last week, haven't listened to many episodes, but it's been good.

I listen to DnD podcasts every single night.

The adventure zone. Dungeons and daddies. Naddpod.

These three have kept my brain occupied and entertained for YEARS.

It's just frustrating to set a 15 minute timer and have no idea where you fell asleep and what you missed the next day when you press play.

I've always found RadioLab cozy, especially episodes from when it was still at its peak.

Also, not a podcast, but old-time radio is great for this. On a similar note, check out Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour.

Last Podcast on the Left. They talk about serial killers, but the subject matter doesn't bother me. It's a topic that I'm ok with not catching all the details after I fall asleep.

Damn, I tried to get into it years ago. It must be good because they still going at it, but couldn't stand the multiple mfs talking at once about random bs.

Yeah, I sometimes listen during the day and want to scream at the clowns to shut up and let the narrative move ahead. Luckily, I tend to go to sleep with a strong buzz or straight up drunk and then it doesn't bother me.

Maybe I should give it another shot after hitting a joint lol

Same, I've tried this one a few times, and I'm just annoyed every time.

Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell.

Look up the Art Bell Tape Vault and the Art Bell Archives on Spotify.

Smashing Security or Darknet Diaries. I always put them on before bed and fall asleep. I have to relisten from the latest bit I remember to make sure I get all the information.

Any book read by Samuel West, his voice is very relaxing.

Welcome to nightvale is great but maybe too interesting? It has a plot but I feel like it isn't that important. You can enjoy it without really following it too much

It usually has a music section which can be a mixed bag in terms of sleep aid. Don't think it would work.

Clarkesworld Magazine and anything from Skyboat Media.

Kate Baker narrates the former, Stephen Rudniki a lot of the latter’s content and both deliver sonorous, resonant readings that are easy to nod off with.