What Is a News Sleepcast? (And Why It Beats Doomscrolling)
A news sleepcast is a nightly audio briefing that turns the day's top headlines into calming bedtime listening. The stories are rewritten in neutral, soothing language, read by a calm narrator over ambient sound, and paced to slow down as the night goes on — starting as a briefing and ending as a guided descent into sleep. You stay informed; you also fall asleep. That's the whole idea.
The problem it solves
Most of us end the day the same way: in bed, phone in hand, "just checking the news." According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 38% of American adults say viewing news on their phone before bed makes their sleep worse — rising to 46% among 18–24-year-olds. Sleep scientists call the mechanism presleep cognitive arousal: emotionally charged headlines keep the brain processing threats when it should be winding down, and the screen's blue light tells your body clock it's daytime.
The standard advice — no screens an hour before bed, phone in another room — works, but it asks you to choose between being informed and being rested. A news sleepcast removes the choice.
How a news sleepcast works
The day's top stories are selected in the categories you care about — world, tech, business, finance, science, sports, culture.
Each story is rewritten for calm. Facts stay; outrage framing, alarmist language, and opinion go.
A narrator reads the briefing over ambient sound — rain, ocean, fireplace, white noise — at a pace designed to lower arousal rather than spike it.
The audio softens as it goes. The most important stories come first, while you're alert. By the time the briefing reaches the lighter stories, the pacing has slowed and the descent into sleep has begun. A sleep timer fades everything out.
Falling asleep before the end isn't missing out — it's the design.
Sleep stories solved the "fall asleep to audio" problem but give you nothing back for the time. News podcasts keep you informed but are engineered for engagement — the exact opposite of what your brain needs at 11pm. The news sleepcast is the missing middle: content worth your attention, delivered in a way that releases it.
Who it's for
SBusy professionals who never get to the news during the day and pay for it at midnight.
Anyone whose bedtime news check turns into a 45-minute anxiety spiral.
Sleep-story listeners who want real content instead of fiction.
People actively trying to quit doomscrolling — replacing the habit works better than banning it.
Try it tonight
SnooNews is the nightly news sleepcast — the day's top stories rewritten for calm and narrated into sleep, so you fall asleep informed. It's free on iOS and Android: pick your topics, choose a narrator, layer in a soundscape, and press play.
Stop scrolling. Start snoozing.
Sources: American Academy of Sleep Medicine bedtime doomscrolling survey; Sleep Foundation reporting on presleep arousal and screen use.
