Insomnia, short nights, nightmares, daytime sleepiness… millions of people worldwide suffer from sleep disorders. While there are various treatments to remedy the situation, some people try listening to podcasts to help them fall asleep more quickly.
And, according to a new survey, this technique is gaining in popularity.
The Swedish platform Acast conducted a study in July among several hundred regular podcast listeners to find out about their habits. Of those surveyed, 48% listen to one of these audio programmes at bedtime in hopes of getting to sleep more easily.
Over three quarters of them do so to relax, which could indirectly help them fall asleep as well.
There are two types of listeners who make podcasts part of their evening routine. The first are those who prefer programmes in the Sleep and Relaxation genres to help them fall asleep. They may also listen to podcasts in the Health and Wellness, or Fiction categories, to prepare for bed.
Most of them are aged between 25 and 44 (78% of cases), and are male (55%).
The second group is made up of listeners who listen to the same kind of podcasts during the day and in the evening, with favourite genres being Comedy and True Crime. This cohort covers a wider age demographic than the first group, although 20% are under 25.
Despite their differences, these podcast listeners have a lot in common when it comes to their nightly ritual. Firstly, they delay falling asleep to listen to a bit more of their evening podcast. In fact, on average, they take 10 minutes longer to fall asleep than those who don’t listen to podcasts before bedtime.
Furthermore, a third of evening podcast fans take more than 30 minutes to fall asleep, versus 14% of other listeners. This finding is reminiscent of children who try to stay awake longer to enjoy the stories their parents read them before bedtime.
In addition, people who listen to podcasts before going to sleep are far less likely to skip the advertisements they contain than those who listen to podcasts during the day. What’s more, 54% of podcast listeners even remembered an ad they heard the night before, prior to falling asleep.
More than a third have also made a purchase after hearing an ad while drifting off to dreamland.
These statistics indicate that, when listening to podcasts in a soothing environment, listeners are extremely focused on what they are hearing, which is good news for advertisers.