Sleep Stories

[Paul Whybrow]

An article on the CNN website explores the soporific world of sleep stories.

It's easy to nod off to 'sleep stories.' Making them is hard

Normally, as writers we’d be alarmed if a reader said our story sent them to sleep, but that’s the goal of writers and narrators of sleep stories. Using them to induce doziness is an adult version of being read to by a parent.

That some app developers vary the structure of their plotless stories to avoid the listener becoming stimulated by recognising incidents reminds me of something I do when self-hypnotising each night. For decades, I’ve explored a desert island where I’m a castaway. I fall asleep quicker if I head off in a different direction to the night before.

I always read before turning the light out—at the moment, two novels and three non-fiction titles—this habit serves as a palate cleanser, removing thoughts of my own writing.

Do you read before going horizontal?

Would you use a sleep story app?

 

[Hannah F]

I don't need a sleep-story. Any audiobook, if I'm sitting comfortably, will send me to snooze-land within 5 minutes. (Note to self: never listen to an audiobook while driving).

Sometimes, I don't want to empty my head. My plot can get a good workout while I'm dreaming, even make itself write some lines on a page while I sleep. (Have to work hard to decipher them in the morning!)

 

[Ancora Imparo]

I must look into that, Paul. Perhaps it's worth checkin what they do to encourage readers to feel sleepy, and then do the exact opposite, so we keep stimulating our readers.

I don't need to go to bed to fall asleep. If I sit reading in our sunny naya, I'm guaranteed to drift off. I don't read in bed before I sleep, usually because I'm a bit of a night owl and sit up so late I'm asleep before my head (eventually) hits the pillow. For that reason, a sleep app would be wasted on me.