There is a specific kind of frustration that only happens at 3:11 AM.
It’s the moment you realize the “Heavy Rain on a Tin Roof” track you’ve been listening to for the last three years has a distinct, looping “click” every forty seconds. Once your brain hears it, you’re done. You aren’t sleeping; you’re just waiting for the next click.
For a long time, I was a power user of the big-name meditation apps. They are beautiful, sure. But after a while, they suffer from the “Netflix effect” — you spend more time scrolling through the library of sleep stories than actually sleeping. And even when you find a good one, the third time you hear about that specific lavender field in Provence, your brain starts to tune it out. It’s too static. It’s too… predictable.
I started wondering: Why can’t my sleep environment be as dynamic as my actual dreams? If our brains are designed to process new information, maybe the reason we can’t switch off is that we’re bored of the same audio loops.
That’s when I stumbled onto a different corner of the wellness tech world — generative audio. Specifically, a tool called SleepGen.
But the logic at SleepGen is different. Instead of a fixed library of 50 stories, it uses AI to generate narratives and soundscapes on the fly. The first time I tried it, I asked for something specific: A quiet, Victorian-era library in a snowstorm, with the faint sound of a crackling fire and a narrator with a soft, slightly gravelly voice.
A few seconds later, I had it. It wasn’t just “Track #04.” It was a unique piece of audio that had never existed before and would never be repeated exactly the same way.
There’s something uniquely relaxing about the “bespoke.” When you know a story was created based on your specific mood that night — maybe you want a sci-fi journey through a nebula or a simple walk through an Irish cottage — your brain engages just enough to stop the “anxiety loop” but not enough to stay awake. It’s a gentle form of cognitive shuffing.
The quality of the narration was what surprised me most. We’ve moved past the robotic voices of 2018. These AI voices have breath, cadence, and — strangely enough — what feels like empathy.
I don’t think AI will replace human storytellers, but for the functional purpose of falling asleep, the ability to “infinite-scroll” through your own imagination is a game-changer.
If you’re like me and you’ve “memorized” every sleep track on Spotify, it might be time to stop listening to recordings and start generating your own rest. It’s a strange, quiet thrill to know that as you drift off, you’re listening to a story told only for you.
If you’re curious about how it sounds, you can play around with the generator at sleepgen.net. Just don’t blame me if you don’t hear the ending.