Feb 8, 2026 11:00 PM PST
I have recently started a sort of weird habit of falling asleep to these A.I. generated stories (at least I think they are generated) on YouTube. The stories are recanted by a computer generated voice most of the time and the ones that seem to be narrated by a real voice are probably just really good software doing the trick. L find it hard to believe that a person would take the time to narrate tons of stories a day about basically the same topic. That said the voices that are used to narrate the stories are very good and at times actually pleasant to listen to.
When I was younger, I used to fall asleep and wake up listening to music from classical to grunge. I listened to it all. However, one day my friend let me borrow the Alice in Chains box set and for a while I fell asleep listening to that which was a mistake.
In the history of my life up to that point, I never had any sort of horror nightmares or scary dreams about supernatural figures. But when I started listening to Alice in Chains, I had the most terrible dreams I’ve ever had in my life. I mean horrific. This is one of the reasons I am very skeptical with dream interpretation when we are supposed to only dream about the real life experiences that we’ve had. Well the figures and monsters that were running around in my dreams are things that I had never imagined before or since and that I have never seen in any film, play, or work of art let alone in real life. These dreams are the scariest and most tangible and realistic things I have ever imagined. Weird stuff.
After that I let up a bit on listening to music as I slept for a while and never really got back into the routine until recently when I came across some interesting channels on the YouTubes.
The channels that have interesting sounds to fall asleep to are nice. The channels usually consisted of the beach, rainforest, street traffic, meditation sounds and drone type of music also certain chants. However, recently I found the spoken word channels.
These channels are usually titles something like “Fall Asleep to the History of the Dark Ages” or whatever the subject of the long narrative will be about. The episodes usually last anywhere from one hour to four in contrast to the music/sounds channels that can last for longer than eight hours.
As you can imagine there are a ton of spoken subjects to fall asleep to. From history to philosophy the subjects seem endless. Recently I have found a new version of these channels. The reddit stories.
These stories are not only poorly written but they are also about terrible subjects. They are some sort of auditory crack that I cannot stop listening to but not because I am completely immersed in the story or characters in them but because I am fascinated by the sheer amount and publication rate at which these things are uploaded. Very interesting.
At this time, I will not tell you what the subject is that I’m listening to but I will make a proper post about it because it is part of a bigger issue that I have with YouTube and what it allows to be published.
While most of these stories are poorly written and boring there are a few that stand out and catch me cheering for the protagonist in a very surreal way. I catch myself and ask what the hell am I doing?!
If you need help falling asleep, I think you should give these channels a try but please be careful and pick a topic that won’t make you catch feelings for the mundane and crappy story.
The Common Rule: A Blog by Danny De La Cruz 