Are you experiencing insomnia? Check out a podcast that puts you to sleep: www.sleepwithmepodcast.com

Are you experiencing insomnia? Check out a podcast that puts you to sleep: www.sleepwithmepodcast.com

This article was not written by a medical doctor and should not be considered a substitute for medical advice or medical care. If you are experiencing difficulty sleeping that persists for more than two weeks, see a medical doctor right away for a complete physical check-up. Insomnia can itself be a medical condition which requires medical treatment, or it can be a symptom of a medical problem that needs attention. Sometimes, insomnia is caused by anxiety or worries about something going on in your life. But sleep problems can also be caused by a serious or even life-threatening illness, and should be thoroughly investigated by a medical doctor. And many people have trouble sleeping due to physical pain or other physical symptoms that can be successfully treated with pain medication or other medical treatments. Your doctor can advise you or prescribe medication or medical treatment if appropriate. Insomnia creates untold misery for anyone suffering with this very painful problem, disrupting their careers, home life, relationships, and quality of life.

Check out a podcast that puts you to sleep: www.sleepwithmepodcast.com

Many people struggling with insomnia have found that listening to a podcast called www.sleepwithmepodcast.com helps them get to sleep and stay asleep, and helps them fall back to sleep if they wake up during the night. What is this podcast and how does it work?

It is disarmingly simple, just a really nice guy recording an hour-long podcast three times a week in his closet in his apartment in Alameda, California, that lulls people to sleep. His name is Drew Ackerman, who goes by the nickname Scooter on the podcast, and he is a life-long insomniac who has always had problems sleeping. He discovered somewhat by accident that he has a talent for putting people to sleep with his voice. For the past three years, he has been making these hour-long podcasts where he tells very long, rambling stories in a very soothing voice. His warm, welcoming, but dull delivery tends to engage your mind just enough to distract you from whatever may be keeping you awake, whether that is stress, anxiety, physical pain, noise, an uncomfortable or unfamiliar environment, a snoring partner, or other problems.

The trick seems to be that his stories are just interesting enough to keep you listening, but boring enough that they don't keep you awake. As he says himself, “When you listen to me droning on with the podcast, your mind tells you, 'this guy is s goofball, he’s not saying anything that important, I don't have to listen to him or pay attention to this, I can fall asleep now.' I'm like a boring friend sitting at the edge of your bed telling bed time stories until you fall asleep.” He apparently is onto something, as he has literally hundreds of thousands of listeners who download his podcasts and listen to them every night, falling asleep somewhere between the five-minute introduction and the ending of the story over an hour later. Over 600 episodes of the podcast can be downloaded for free, but thousands of people voluntarily subscribe to the podcast by sending monthly pledges through Venmo or Patreon. Many people have sent testimonials which appear on his website, claiming they had tried every other insomnia cure without relief, and that the podcast really helps them sleep. If you want to check it out, go to www.sleepwithmepodcast.com.

For more information about different treatments and strategies for insomnia, see the companion article on this website called “Help! I can’t get a good night’s sleep!”