The 15 Best Insomnia Podcasts (2026)

Drew Ackerman, who goes by "Scooter," has been putting people to sleep since 2013, and he means that as a compliment. Each episode of Sleep With Me runs about an hour and follows the same basic formula: a deliberately meandering, tangent-filled bedtime story told in a gentle, droning voice that gets progressively more boring as it goes on. The genius is in the structure. The stories are interesting enough to grab your attention away from anxious racing thoughts, but dull enough that your brain eventually gives up trying to follow along and drifts off. Topics range from recaps of Star Trek and Doctor Who episodes to completely original stories about sea noodles or jungle rivers. With over 700 episodes and a 4.5-star rating from nearly 16,000 reviews, this is the most popular insomnia-specific podcast in the world for a reason. Ackerman has talked openly about his own struggles with sleep and anxiety, which gives the show an authentic warmth. New episodes drop weekly, and there's a premium tier called Sleep With Me Plus for $4.99 a month that removes ads and adds bonus content. The advertising in the free version is handled carefully, without jarring volume changes that would wake you up. If you've never tried a sleep podcast before, this is the obvious starting point.

Kathryn Nicolai is a yoga and meditation teacher who writes original short stories specifically designed to put you to sleep, and over 180 million streams suggest she's figured out how to do it. Each episode starts with a brief guided breathing exercise, then Nicolai reads a short story about quiet, pleasant scenes: walking through a farmers market, watching snow fall from a cabin window, tending a garden. Nothing dramatic happens. That's the entire point. She reads each story twice in the same episode, the second time at a slower pace, so if you're still awake after the first pass, the repeat catches you on the way down. The writing is precise and sensory, full of specific textures and temperatures and small details that give your imagination something gentle to hold onto. With 533 episodes and a 4.7-star rating from nearly 10,000 reviews, this show has built a devoted following. Nicolai also published a bestselling book based on the podcast, now translated into over 20 languages. Episodes come out twice a week. A premium subscription at $4.99 a month removes ads and unlocks exclusive stories. The show works particularly well for people whose insomnia comes from an overactive mind rather than physical discomfort, because the stories give your brain a soft place to land instead of your to-do list.

Get Sleepy combines two things that work well for insomnia into a single package: a short guided meditation followed by a slowly narrated bedtime story with soft background music. Host Tom Jones kicks off each episode with a few minutes of body relaxation and breathing, then hands off to one of several narrators who read an original story at a pace that's deliberately unhurried. The stories themselves cover everything from a lazy afternoon in the French countryside to a midnight visit to a magic library, and they're written to be absorbing without being stimulating. With over 1,100 episodes and a 4.6-star rating from more than 8,700 reviews, it's one of the biggest sleep podcasts out there. The rotating cast of narrators, including Vanessa Labrie, Arif Hodzic, and Jessika Downes-Gossl, means you can find a voice that specifically works for you rather than being stuck with one host. Produced by Slumber Studios, the production quality is consistently high, with ambient sounds that complement rather than distract. New episodes land weekly, and a premium membership at $7.99 a month gets you ad-free episodes plus access to the full back catalog. The meditation intro is short enough that it doesn't feel like homework, but long enough to actually slow your breathing down before the story starts.

This is the podcast for people who want to actually understand their insomnia rather than just mask it with background noise. Martin Reed is a certified health and wellness coach who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), and every episode of his show features a real person who recovered from chronic insomnia by changing how they relate to sleep. The format is simple and effective: Reed interviews a former client or community member about what their insomnia looked like at its worst, what they tried that didn't work, and specifically what did. Guests like Amber, Natasha, and Dan talk about how they stopped structuring their entire lives around sleep and gradually let the anxiety dissolve. Reed's approach is rooted in CBT-I and acceptance and commitment therapy, which means the conversations focus on behavioral changes and mindset shifts rather than supplements or sleep gadgets. With 77 episodes, a 4.6-star rating, and new episodes every month or two, it's not a huge catalog, but the quality per episode is high. Each conversation runs about 45 minutes to an hour and is packed with specific, actionable takeaways. If your insomnia has become wrapped up in fear and hypervigilance around sleep, the recovery stories on this show can genuinely change your perspective on what's possible.

Sharon Handy reads old, mildly interesting nonfiction in a calm, steady voice for about 50 minutes per episode, and that's the whole show. The material ranges from Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species to Vitruvius's Ten Books on Architecture to a 19th-century guide about dogs. The trick is in the selection: the books are just interesting enough that your brain latches on instead of spiraling, but not so gripping that you stay awake to find out what happens next. Handy reads everything herself with no AI narration, and her delivery is clear and even without being monotone to the point of being robotic. The show is completely ad-free, which is a significant detail for insomnia listeners since nothing kills the drift-off quite like a loud mattress commercial. With 385 episodes and a 4.6-star rating from over 1,200 reviews, the back catalog is massive enough that you won't run out of content anytime soon. New episodes drop weekly. Listeners consistently report that the combination of Handy's voice, the deliberately unexciting subject matter, and the lack of interruptions makes this one of the most effective sleep podcasts they've tried. It's especially good for people who find guided meditations annoying or sleep stories too contrived. Sometimes you just need someone reading about the architecture of ancient Roman aqueducts.

Otis Gray reads classic literature in a deep baritone voice at a deliberately slow pace, and it works remarkably well as a sleep aid. The catalog draws from fairy tales, Sherlock Holmes stories, mythology like The Gods of Pegana (which apparently inspired Tolkien), and other public domain texts that are well-written enough to be enjoyable but familiar enough not to keep you awake with suspense. Episodes typically run 45 to 60 minutes, which is long enough to outlast most people's time to fall asleep. Gray's reading style is the key ingredient here. He doesn't perform the texts dramatically or add character voices. Instead, he reads at a measured, unhurried pace that sounds like a very literate friend reading to you from across the room. With 498 episodes and a 4.7-star rating from nearly 2,900 reviews, the show has built a loyal following of nightly listeners since it launched. Some people have been using it every night since 2020. New episodes come out weekly, and there's a Patreon for ad-free access. The free episodes have ads mostly at the beginning, so once the reading starts, you're not interrupted. If you grew up falling asleep to someone reading to you, this podcast recreates that experience almost perfectly.

Christopher Fitton is a hypnotherapist who turned his clinical skills into a podcast, and the result is one of the more versatile sleep shows available. Each episode blends guided hypnosis techniques with ambient music, nature sounds, and bedtime stories that range from folk tales to Greek and Norse mythology retellings. The format varies more than most sleep podcasts: some episodes are pure sleep talk-downs designed to knock you out in 15 minutes, while others are longer narrative pieces that run close to an hour. With 551 episodes and a 4.6-star rating from over 2,000 reviews, the variety means you can match the episode to how your insomnia is hitting on any given night. Fitton's voice is calm without being artificially hushed, and the background music is mixed at a level that enhances rather than competes with the narration. Listeners dealing with anxiety, PTSD, and chronic pain have specifically called out this show as helpful, which makes sense given Fitton's clinical background. Recent episodes include Chinese folk tales for Lunar New Year, guided meditation sleep stories set in winter manor houses, and rapid-fire sleep talk-downs. Premium subscribers get access to over 400 ad-free episodes. The free version has occasional ads, but they're generally placed before the relaxation content begins.

Tracks To Relax has racked up over 100 million listens, and the formula is straightforward: guided sleep meditations with soothing narration and gentle background music, delivered weekly. Each episode typically runs 20 to 40 minutes and follows a theme, like a seaside serenade, a butterfly meadow visualization, or a lantern meditation about letting go. The pacing is slow and the narrator's voice is warm and steady, guiding you through progressive relaxation, body scans, and visualization exercises designed to ease you from wakefulness into sleep. With 119 free episodes and a 4.5-star rating from over 4,200 reviews, the show has proven itself over many years. There's also a Patreon tier that unlocks hundreds of additional meditations without ads. The free episodes do include ads, and some listeners note that the volume difference between the meditation and the commercials can be jarring, so the premium option is worth considering if you're a regular user. The show also occasionally offers "get back to sleep" episodes specifically designed for middle-of-the-night wakings, which is a thoughtful touch that most sleep meditations overlook. If your insomnia responds well to guided visualization and you want a deep library of options, this is a reliable pick.

Joanne D'Amico reads public domain literature in a soft, melodic voice that listeners consistently describe as one of the most naturally soothing in the sleep podcast space. Each episode begins with a brief relaxation exercise to help settle your body and mind, then transitions into a calm reading of classic stories. The catalog mixes standalone fairy tales and folk stories with serialized readings of longer works like Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter and Dorothy Canfield Fisher's Understood Betsy. Episodes typically run 30 to 45 minutes with gentle instrumental music underneath the narration. With 365 episodes and a 4.7-star rating from over 1,500 reviews, the show has built a strong following since launching in 2021. D'Amico updates weekly and offers a premium tier at $3.99 a month for ad-free listening and exclusive episodes. The serialized format is a nice touch for insomnia sufferers because it gives you something gentle to look forward to the next night without creating cliffhanger anxiety. The reading selections lean toward warm, nostalgic material that feels like comfort food for your ears. If you find meditation-style sleep podcasts too structured and prefer just being read to like you were a kid, this is the show to try.

Jim Butler composes and performs ambient electronic music specifically for sleep, meditation, and relaxation, and he's been doing it almost daily since 2012. That output level has produced nearly 1,000 episodes of slow, drifting soundscapes with names like "A Delicate Drone," "Serenity of a Sunset," and "Gradients." Each episode runs about 28 to 29 minutes and features no narration, no guided instructions, and no sudden changes in volume or tempo. It's pure ambient music, created entirely by Butler without any AI assistance. Episodes are often released in three-part series, so if a particular sound works for you, there are usually two more installments of it. The 4.1-star rating from nearly 700 reviews is slightly lower than other shows on this list, largely because some listeners are frustrated by ad placement in a relaxation context. The music itself consistently gets high praise. For insomnia sufferers who find voices distracting rather than soothing, or who need something to play on a timer that won't jolt them awake with a narrator's inflection change, this is an ideal choice. Butler also offers ad-free versions on Bandcamp. The sheer volume of the back catalog means you'll never hear the same track twice if you don't want to, which matters when you're listening every single night.

Harris whispers. That's the core of this show, and for the subset of insomnia sufferers who respond to ASMR-style audio, it's extremely effective. Each 30 to 37 minute episode features gently whispered content that rotates between bedtime stories, trivia rounds, guided meditations, poems, and "Whisperpedia" segments where Harris reads curious Wikipedia articles in a hushed voice. The trivia episodes are a clever touch because they give your brain just enough to chew on without revving it up. The show has been running since 2016 with over 430 total episodes, though only 71 are available for free. The full catalog of 600-plus episodes across the ASMR & Insomnia Network is available through a Silk+ subscription at $9.99 a month. The 4.3-star rating from over 1,100 reviews reflects a genuine split: people who respond to whispered audio tend to love it, while those who find whispering irritating or creepy obviously don't. There's no middle ground, really. If ASMR works for you, this is one of the longest-running and most polished whisper-based sleep podcasts available. Harris is also behind several other shows on the network, including Calm History, which uses the same gentle approach with historical content.

Soothing Pod takes a more ambitious approach to sleep storytelling than most shows in the space. Rather than sticking to one genre, episodes bounce between romantic tales, ancient Greek mythology, space voyages, Aboriginal legends, history deep dives about figures like Hannibal, reimagined fairy tales, and travel narratives set in cities like Barcelona. The production involves a full team of scriptwriters, composers, narrators, and editors, and it shows in the audio quality. Episodes run between 30 minutes and a full hour, with longer mythology and history episodes giving you plenty of runway to fall asleep before they end. With 239 episodes and a 4.3-star rating from 78 reviews, it's a smaller show than some competitors, but the content quality is solid. The entire catalog is free with ads, which is unusual for a show with this level of production. Updates come weekly. The variety is both a strength and a potential drawback: some insomnia sufferers prefer the predictability of hearing the same voice tell the same kind of story every night, while others get bored with repetition and want something different each time. If you're in the second camp and want adult-oriented sleep stories that actually have interesting subject matter, this is worth trying.

Alina runs a smaller, newer podcast that takes a psychological approach to insomnia recovery, and it fills a specific gap that bigger shows don't cover well. Instead of giving you something to fall asleep to, Fearless Sleep focuses on why you've developed fear around sleep in the first place and how to dismantle that fear piece by piece. With just 18 episodes so far, the catalog is compact but deliberately structured. Topics include understanding why you still think about insomnia even after your sleep improves, the four core elements of insomnia recovery, how to actually sit with anxiety instead of fighting it, and how to read self-help books during recovery without making things worse. That last topic is surprisingly practical and not covered by anyone else. Alina speaks from personal experience overcoming chronic insomnia, not from a clinical background, which gives the show a peer-to-peer feel rather than a doctor-patient dynamic. Episodes range from 3-minute check-ins to 50-minute deep conversations with other insomnia coaches. The 5.0-star rating comes from only 3 reviews, so the sample size is tiny, but the content quality is genuine. If your insomnia has become tangled up with sleep anxiety and you've already tried the standard sleep hygiene advice without success, Alina's perspective on breaking the anxiety cycle is refreshingly specific and honest.

Nathan Pali's show is a focused, no-frills education in cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and sleep neuroscience. The 23 episodes cover the mechanics of why insomnia persists and specific CBT-I techniques for breaking the cycle, delivered in short, daily drops that you can listen to during the day rather than at bedtime. Topics include stimulus control, sleep restriction therapy, cognitive restructuring for sleep-related thoughts, why naps don't fix bad sleep, how to handle recovery plateaus, and what to do when early improvement suddenly reverses. Pali frames insomnia as a learned stress response rather than a permanent defect, which is a crucial reframe for people who've started believing something is fundamentally broken about their ability to sleep. The episodes are short, most under 20 minutes, and they're released in a structured sequence that builds on previous concepts. He also covers practical variables like exercise timing, screen exposure, food, and bedroom setup. With a 5.0-star rating from a handful of reviews, the show is still very new and small, but the content is grounded in solid evidence-based approaches. This is a daytime podcast about nighttime problems. It won't put you to sleep while you listen, but the techniques it teaches might help you sleep better when you actually try.

Martha, who goes by "The Sleep Detective," takes a distinctly different approach to insomnia than most shows on this list. Instead of soothing you to sleep or teaching behavioral techniques, she investigates the physiological root causes that standard sleep advice ignores. The 25-episode series is structured as a sequential course, starting with an explicit instruction to begin at episode one. From there, she walks through how cortisol dysregulation, metabolic dysfunction, food sensitivities, blood sugar instability, gut health problems, hormone imbalances, liver function, and neurotransmitter deficiencies all contribute to sleep problems. The episodes are short and digestible, typically 6 to 20 minutes each, making them easy to work through during the day. Martha's argument is that sleep hygiene, the advice you've heard a thousand times about dark rooms and no screens, fails when the underlying cause is biochemical rather than behavioral. The 4.8-star rating from 24 reviews suggests the people who find this perspective resonate with it strongly. The show leans into the alternative health space, so listeners who want strictly evidence-based clinical guidance may find some claims less rigorous than they'd prefer. But for insomnia sufferers who've done everything the standard advice recommends and still can't sleep, the show's focus on body-level root causes offers a different angle worth considering.