History For Sleep with the Drowsy Historian

Latest episodes

Showing 20 · updated from the feed

Fall Asleep as a Railway Signalman Working the Night Shift in Victorian England

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Spend a quiet night beside the rails as a Victorian railway signalman, keeping watch f

Oct 13
2 h 15 min

Fall Asleep as a Powder Monkey Aboard a Royal Navy Ship During the Napoleonic Wars

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Fall asleep aboard a Royal Navy warship during the Napoleonic Wars, where oak timbers

Oct 12
2 h 06 min

Fall Asleep as a Merchant Living Through the Tulip Mania in the Dutch Republic

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Fall asleep in seventeenth-century Amsterdam as you experience the strange rise and fa

Oct 11
2 h 13 min

Fall Asleep as a Medieval Sheep Drover Walking England’s Great Roads

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Fall asleep as a medieval sheep drover and spend weeks walking the green roads of Engl

Oct 10
2 h 21 min

Fall Asleep as a River Pilot Guiding Barges Along the Nile in Ancient Egypt

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Drift along the ancient Nile and experience a day in the life of an Egyptian river pil

Oct 9
2 h 12 min

Fall Asleep as a Mammoth Hide Tanner on the Ice Age Steppe

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Fall asleep on the frozen grasslands of the Ice Age as you spend your days transformin

Oct 8
2 h 08 min

Fall Asleep as a Keeper Caring for Patients in an Early 20th-Century Leprosy Colony

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Fall asleep as a caregiver in an early twentieth-century leprosy colony, where daily l

Oct 7
2 h 33 min

Fall Asleep as a Bronze Age Amber Trader Crossing Northern Europe

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Travel the ancient trade routes of Bronze Age Europe as an amber trader carrying golde

Oct 6
2 h 56 min

Fall Asleep as a Refugee Walking Across Europe at the End of World War II

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian The war is over, but for millions of people across Europe, the journey home has only b

Oct 5
1 h 57 min

Fall Asleep as a Harbor Pilot Guiding Ships Through Dense Fog

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Step aboard a ship disappearing into thick coastal fog and experience a quiet day in t

Oct 4
1 h 58 min

Fall Asleep as a Wealthy Merchant Building a Mansion in Colonial Boston

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Fall asleep in Colonial Boston as a wealthy merchant overseeing the construction of an

Oct 3
2 h 44 min

Fall Asleep as a Miller Grinding Grain During a Medieval Famine

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Step inside a medieval village mill during a time of famine, when every sack of grain

Oct 2
2 h 03 min

Fall Asleep as a Roman Census Collector Traveling From Village to Village

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Travel the dusty roads of the Roman countryside as a census collector tasked with reco

Oct 1
2 h 17 min

Fall Asleep as a Victorian Cocaine Patent Medicine Salesman in the 1890s

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Step into the 1890s and travel from town to town as a patent medicine salesman, carryi

Sep 30
2 h 28 min

Fall Asleep as a Sailor Hunting Whales in the Arctic During the 1800s

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Sail into the frozen Arctic aboard a nineteenth-century whaling ship, where creaking t

Sep 29
2 h 04 min

Fall Asleep as a Court Gardener at the Palace of Versailles

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Fall asleep as a gardener at Versailles, where royal beauty depends on muddy boots, sh

Sep 28
2 h 07 min

Fall Asleep as a Medieval Pilgrim Crossing the Alps in Winter

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian With a worn staff in your hand and tired boots beneath you, you follow lonely mountain

Sep 27
1 h 58 min

Fall Asleep as an Ancient Chinese Potter Firing Ceramics in Ancient China

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Step into an ancient Chinese pottery yard, where clay, water, smoke, and fire shape th

Sep 26
2 h 02 min

Fall Asleep as a Laudanum Addict in Victorian England

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Step into Victorian England, where a small bottle of laudanum sits quietly among the o

Sep 25
2 h 03 min

Fall Asleep as a Coal Trimmer Aboard a Steamship Crossing the Atlantic

Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian Tonight, descend below the passenger decks of a transatlantic steamship and experience

Sep 24
2 h 04 min

Chart trend

Position in the History chart (US), last 90 days.

#1#88#174JulAugSepOct

#59

all-time peak

169

days in the top 100 since May 2025

Chart positions

Where History For Sleep with the Drowsy Historian ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Oct 13, 2026).

#124 ▲ 6 History US

What listeners say

A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.

I have been falling asleep to this , it has helped me a lot as I can’t usually fall asleep quickly. It takes me a few hours, but the deep soft voice even if it’s Ai, is great. Yes it’s Ai. But, that’s okay. Ai was made and created to help humans. Just because it is Ai does not mean you should not listen to it. The video does glitch or repeat itself from time to time, and the commercials are pretty loud, but the voice is great and it really helps me fall asleep. There is like 30 minutes or more in between each commercial, so it’s not very often. I do love listening to this every night to help me get a good rest. Give it a try and see how you like it

charizardian46725 · Feb 2026

I love love love this podcast. I fall asleep to it every night in central. Arkansas. Sometimes I even listen to it in the car just to relax. Love the narrator’s voice and the historical tidbits I come away with.

photofy review · Oct 2025

I don’t know why this works, but it works. These stories should be horrible and terrifying to fall asleep to, but they aren’t. Somehow I find myself gently drifting off to sleep, listening to stories that should leave me with nightmares, but don’t. I haven’t slept this good in a very long time. I find myself going back the next night trying to find the spot where I dozed off so I can learn more. Listening from Cleveland, about 11PM each night. Absolutely recommend.

Renegade Kate · Aug 2025

Sleepily writing front m New York, I love the various topics, your voice is very soothing. I like the firewood sounds in the background. I fall asleep in 10 mins tops. I wish there were more happy stories but overall my top podcast to fall asleep to. I respect the dedication to upload daily!

vernie bernie · Aug 2025

This podcast is entirely AI generated. And if you start listening to it you can tell - weird and annoying repeats of information, failure to get into any meaningful specifics, etc. It could actually be really cool subject matter if a human did it with real historical research, but it’s not that. If you’re going to sleep to something and support it, support podcasts created by actual humans. They’re so much better and they deserve listener support unlike this one.

Greta Reed · Oct 2025

I would love to give this podcast a higher star rating. I really enjoy the storytelling and the host’s voice. Up at the top of the episode, he mentions that I can pay extra to get the show without commercials, but I pay for a lot of subscriptions and don’t want to add another. Each time I was nearly asleep, the loudest and most obnoxious commercials would break up the show and wake me up. I know a lot of hosts do their own commercials and that would be nice in a fall asleep podcast. If you want to pay for this show and skip the sudden jarring wake-up breaks, for it. Personally, I unsubscribed.

Mo Collins · Sep 2025

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