Using Audiobooks to Fall Asleep: A Unique Trick

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Transcript

There's a trick to using audiobooks to fall asleep, or podcasts, or really anything with words. When I use it, I'm out like light within 10 minutes. I use this anytime I get into bed and find my mind stuck in rumination mode, about my day or the future or Einstein's field equation. First up, the research on using audiobooks to fall asleep isn't great. These two studies compared audiobooks to using soft music or control with nothing, and found that the music helped a little, especially subjectively. But the audiobooks were pretty much the same as the control, not helpful.

But I don't think they did it right. I love reading. I mean, I go through two or three books a week. But if I'm listening to one of those books before bed, I get invested in the story, which can keep me up longer. I was one of those kids who used to hide under my blanket at night with a flashlight and a book and stayed up till 2 a.m. If I'm listening to an audiobook before bed and then I start to nod off and then suddenly I come to and realize what I'm listening to, my mind instantly jolts me awake because I don't want any spoilers. Absolutely not, no spoilers.

So here's the trick. Choose descriptive fiction that you don't care about yet. best. You want to ease your mind into generating imagery, sort of like you would when you're dreaming. I can give some great podcast recommendations for this if you guys want. Step two, bookmark your place and set your app sleep timer for 30 minutes. You don't want it playing in your ear all night. Step three, and I've never heard anyone else recommend this, but set your playback speed to 0.5x, painfully slow, enough that your mind starts to wander in between the words. Step four, lower the volume to as low as you can handle without straining your ears. I usually do this with my sleep mask headphones. You'll never know because you're already asleep. Let me know how it goes.

Additional notes

Caption: Replying to @accinpgh steps 3 and 4 are super important! Ignore them and you could disrupt your sleep instead. ⁉️🙋‍♂️what other sleep science questions do you guys have? #sleep #sleephacks #sleeptips #sleepsounds #learnontiktok #audiobooks #edutok #science

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