Audiobooks and my sleep

I have been listening to audiobooks for over 5 years now. I used to listen to them all the time, while cooking, cleaning, walking and anytime I didn’t need my full attention. At some point, I realized that this wasn’t letting me sit with my thoughts and drastically reduced consuming them.

However, I found out they are a great aid for me to fall asleep. Sometimes. Sometimes, they keep me up all night.

Good books to sleep to

For me, a great book to sleep to is one that is barely interesting, has no excitement and is read by a pleasant voice.

My favorite books for this are the ones written and narrated by Bill Bryson. He writes books with a lot of wit and great information on the most mundane of topics. The books have a lot of interesting facts that might be great in isolation but when you listen to enough of them, you fall asleep. I listened to his book At home for over a year before I finished it. I also listened to A short history of nearly everything, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: Travels Through My Childhood and One Summer: America, 1927 on many nights. I loved them. Although I have to admit, The Body: A Guide for Occupants was a bit too boring that I couldn’t make much progress and had to switch to another book.

Voice matters. A LOT. For audiobooks, the narrator is as important as the author. I have stopped listening to books because I didn’t like the narrator. I even “returned” an audiobook from Bryson when I realized that someone else narrated it. I have tried many of the automated “text to voice” services out there, including Speechify and realized that nothing beats a real human. And if I am to listen to them for 30 hours, they better be good.

Books to lose sleep to

Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorite authors, and his books are usually narrated by Michael Kramer whose voice I adore. They are excellent books to fall asleep to, especially because they are long and slow moving. They have just enough momentum that you don’t get bored, but also not enough happens that your mind can easily drift off. There might be a few action sequences, or other bits that can engage you, but it usually doesn’t last more than 15 mins.

However, I am writing this as I was recently up all night listening to the The final empire by Brandon Sanderson. And funnily enough, this is the third time this happened with a Sanderson novel. His books get incredibly quick and thrilling in the last 20% of the book. And the books are long enough that this 20% is going to take all night and then some. Once the book enters this section, sleep is a distant annoyance.

And after a while, usually at around 4AM, the tension picks up and the audiobook is no longer fast enough, and I pick up the actual book and finish at around 7AM. Well, I even bought the eBook at 4AM once. I get a couple of hours of sleep, and wade through the day like a zombie, without a regret, however, mentally noting not to get hooked like that again.

And here I am listening to The well of Ascension and dozing off within 15 mins every day.