Bedtime stories for grown‑ups, made for tonight.
Short, original stories written for the evening you're actually having, read aloud by a voice that knows how to lower itself. Pick a length to match how sleepy you are, press play, and put the phone face down.
Why a story at bedtime
Most of what we listen to at night is built to keep us awake: feeds, news, one more episode. A story does the opposite. It gives the mind one thread to follow, and a voice to follow it with, until the thread goes slack on its own. Most of us fell out of the habit somewhere around age nine. This is a way back in.
These are not children's stories. They are short fiction — a lighthouse in fog, a market at dawn, a beekeeper's cottage — written for an adult who wants twenty calm minutes and no cliffhanger.
Choose a length to match the evening
Some nights you're gone in five minutes; others need a whole half hour of somewhere else. Stories run from three minutes to thirty, in three-minute steps, and the story is written to fit — it ends where it should rather than fading out mid-sentence. How long you can go depends on your plan; a free account writes stories of up to three minutes.
The brief takes ten seconds: a feeling (calm, cozy, a little wistful), a place, and the minutes. Slice of life, folk tale and cozy are the shelves most people reach for at bedtime, though nobody will stop you choosing a mystery.
Voices that lower themselves
Iris is the bedtime narrator most people pick: warm, hushed, soft British. Auden is grand and patient, with a mid-Atlantic slowness that suits a long story. Tomás is low and confidential, the voice of a friend telling you something at the very end of the night. Fen, Marlowe and Saoirse are there when you want a little more weather in the reading. You can hear all six before you choose.
When characters talk, they have their own voices, so a quiet conversation in a story sounds like one — two people, not one reader doing both parts.
Nothing to hold, nothing to scroll
Once the story is playing, the phone can go face down. Play, pause and skip sit on the lock screen on iOS and Android, and in the browser's media controls on the web. If you drift off halfway, the app remembers where you were: the story waits under Continue listening tomorrow night, at the line you missed.
Stories you like can be saved to a playlist — a small shelf of nights that worked — and played again, in order or shuffled.
Questions people ask
Are these bedtime stories for children?
No. They are written for adults, in adult prose. You can set the vocabulary anywhere from Simple to Literary, but the subject matter is grown-up fiction, not nursery tales.
Is there a free bedtime story?
Yes. A new account comes with four welcome minutes, enough for a first three-minute story. Plans start at $1.99 a month for 30 listening minutes.
Can I hear the same story again?
Every story is written fresh, so no two are the same — but once a story exists it stays in your library, so a night that worked can be played again whenever you like.
Does the story stop when I fall asleep?
It ends on its own at the length you chose, and nothing plays after it unless you queued a playlist. If you expect to go quickly, pick a short length.
More: AI storyteller · Audio stories