Planet Recommends · Before Bed
The Quiet Hour
Low voices, slow tempo, no jolts. What we listen to when the day is finally over.
By Ilse Brandt · 6 Jul 2026
There is a whole category of podcast designed to be half-heard, and getting it right is much harder than it looks. Too dull and your mind wanders back to tomorrow; too interesting and you're awake at two.
These sit in the narrow band between. All of them have talked at least one member of this desk to sleep.
01 · Lifestyle
Nothing much happens: bedtime stories to help you sleep
Deliberately uneventful, beautifully written. The gold standard.
Latest · Summer Feast (Encore) · 32 min
02 · Lifestyle
Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories
A guided descent — the pacing is the whole craft.
Latest · A Body Scan Meditation for Sleep · 35 min
03 · Science
Boring History for Sleep
Genuinely interesting history read in a voice engineered to stop you caring.
Latest · The Entire History of the Cherokee Tribe 🦅🏹 | A Story of Survival, Loss and Resilience | Boring History For Sleep · 3h 14m
04 · Mystery
Lore
Folklore at candlelight volume. Unsettling, but never loud.
Latest · Lore 312: To Serve Man · 27 min
05 · Mystery
The Sleepy Bookshelf
Classic novels, one slow chapter at a time.
Latest · Far from the Madding Crowd, Part 19 of 31 · 42 min