Sleepbound (free)

The Princess and the Pea

He would lie in the dark and feel the whole of the bed beneath him, every crease and crumb and unevenness of it.

Tonight, we settle into a small, rain-soaked kingdom with Rasmus — a prince who feels every crease in the linen, every draught from a half-open door, the whole quiet weight of the sleeping castle while the world sleeps on.A slow, warm bedtime retelling of a beloved fairy tale — wide enough to actually let go in. A king who answers his own gate. A mother who sees everything. A prince waiting, quietly, for someone who feels the world the way he does.
This is a slow, fairy-tale reading for sleep — soft spoken. No drama. Just rain on old stone, a candle at the window, one small kingdom holding its breath.
Thanks for listening with us tonight. Sweet dreams.
— Ian & Alex

💤 This story is for you if

You fall asleep better with a voice than with silence

You love slow, expanded fairy tales with room to breathe

You want something unhurried enough to actually let go

Candlelit kingdoms and quiet rainy nights are your kind of bedtime

🌙 Best experienced

Headphones on. Lights off. Somewhere warm.

Let the rain on old stone do the rest.
Includes mentions of: Weather, Animals, Mention of Loss.

Hansel and Gretel

A Sleepbound Bedtime Retelling

Tonight we step back to the edge of the great forest — Hansel with the wooden wren in his pocket, Gretel watching for the white bird among the bean-rows, and their father humming a slow going-down tune into the dark after them. The hunger hasn't come yet. The good years are still going by, quiet as a stream.

This is a slow, fairy-tale reading for sleep — soft spoken, no music. No urgency. Just the woodcutter's fire, the sound of cold water over mossy stone, and two children who know the wood the way other children know the rooms of a house.

We've taken the old story and breathed more room into it — room for summer afternoons by the spring, for a little birch-bark boat, for the warmth of a remembered voice. It's a bedtime telling: unhurried, close, and made for the hour when the world shrinks to the small gold reach of the firelight.

Settle in. There's no rush to what comes next.

Thanks for making space for stories like this one. Sweet dreams.
— Ian & Alex

💤 This story is for you if

You fall asleep better with a voice than with silence

You love fairy tales told slowly, with room to breathe

You want something gentle enough to actually let go

Cottages at the forest's edge and firelit evenings are your kind of bedtime

🌙 Best experienced

Headphones on. Lights off. Somewhere warm.

Let the going-down tune do the rest.
Includes mentions of: Food, Loss, Animals, Fire, Weather, Forest, Children.

Lady Pembury begins her campaign at seven — six hours to make the Brook Street drawing room look as though it has never been touched. The Chinese screen hides the damp patch. Sir Marcus is given his instructions about what not to discuss. And Patrick arrives five minutes early, clutching narcissi from a street barrow. There is no vase.

Includes mentions of: Beverages, Food, Mention of Debt, Romance.

About Sleepbound Premium

Bedtime stories for grown-ups. Sleepbound is the chapter-a-night audiobook — original stories, classic literature, and hidden gems, narrated calmly to drift you off. As a Premium member, you get the entire back catalogue ad-free, plus new chapters before they hit the public feed.

Thanks for being here. Sweet dreams.

— Ian

Downton Abbey: The Young Countess – Episode 2

By Hugo Ashcombe

"If we appear to be trying, we have already failed."

Welcome back, and thank you for being here tonight.

Episode 2 settles into Brook Street on a May morning in 1860, as Lady Pembury wages a six-hour campaign to make the drawing room look as though it has never been arranged. The damp patch disappears behind a Chinese screen. Sir Marcus wanders in — magnificently unhelpful — and is handed a strict list of subjects he must on no account raise. Then Patrick arrives five minutes early with narcissi from a street barrow and no vase to put them in, and the Pembury household is quietly, tenderly laid bare: the hired furniture, the mismatched teacups, the landlady's stolen sherry. Warm, a little heartbreaking, and perfectly suited to the last quiet hour of the day.

Episode 3 brings the visit itself — and everything Sir Marcus cannot quite help saying. Settle in.

As a Patreon supporter, this episode is yours to download and keep — thank you, always, for making this channel possible.

Downton Abbey: The Young Countess is an original fan fiction work, independently produced and not affiliated with or endorsed by Carnival Films, ITV, or the official Downton Abbey franchise. If tonight's story leaves you wanting more of this world, our sister channel Sleepbound Nights carries a sequel series set in the world of Downton — well worth a quiet evening.

Patreon · YouTube · Website

Includes mentions of: Beverages, Food, Mention of Debt, Romance.

(00:07) - At Home

The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin — Part 7 Audiobook | Calming reading for sleep

Spears greet them at Obehol's shore — and before Ged and Arren can turn back, the wound is dealt and Sopli, lost to the pull of an immortal dream, slips beneath the waves. Two survivors, adrift on an empty sea, are gathered at last by the quiet people of the great raft-town, who ask nothing and offer shelter.

It is there, in the slow time of healing, that Arren speaks aloud the shame he has carried — the doubt, the betrayal, the creeping despair that had nearly unmade him. And Ged, for the first time, calls him Lebannen, and speaks of death and selfhood and the dance above the abyss. A chapter of reckoning and restoration — one of the most quietly luminous nights in all of Earthsea.

All Sleepbound readings are calm, unhurried, and made for quiet listening at night.

☾ Listen ad-free & get early access:
→ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/SleepBound
→ Website: https://headphonesaudiobooks.com/sleepbound/

☾ More from Sleepbound:
→ Original Sleepy Stories: https://www.youtube.com/@SleepBoundNights
→ Ambient Sleep Music: https://www.youtube.com/@sleepboundsoundscapes

☾ About this audiobook
The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin is the third book in the Earthsea Cycle — a luminous, philosophical fantasy in which the Archmage Ged and the young prince Arren sail to the ends of the world to find why magic is fading from the land. Its deep stillness, ocean rhythms, and meditations on mortality and meaning make it one of the most naturally suited novels ever written for slow, late-night listening.

Sleepbound brings classic and contemporary stories to life with calm, unhurried narration — perfect for sleep, relaxation, or quiet evenings.