Apps that will help us sleep - often through read stories - are growing explosively. According to Techcrunch, the calming meditation apps had a turnover of over SEK 71.6 million in 2015 and over SEK 1.74 billion in 2019.

For several years, one of the largest meditation apps has, among other things, let celebrities read goodnight stories for adults with difficulty sleeping. Now it is collaborating with a television company to make sleep television series with soothing voices and "meditative images".

-It can work, but not for everyone. There is a market and it works for some people if it is mainly about ending up in a calm mood, says sleep researcher Annika Norell Clarke, at Karlstad University, about the read-in sleep stories.

Blue Light myth

Anyone who turns to the internet to look for tips on how to fall asleep often gets the tip to completely get rid of screens - no watching before bedtime and no mobile in the bedroom. Then the idea of ​​using an app to fall asleep, or watching a TV series, feels contradictory. But Annika Norell Clarke says that screens may have gained an undeserved bad reputation in the hunt for a sleeper.

-There is not much justification for there being a harmful blue light in mobile phones, it is a modern myth. This thing about removing screens from the bedroom is about what emotions, or degree of warm-up, you associate with it. If you get sleepy from watching something, it's not a stupid idea, she says.

Different sleeping voices

The actors recruited for the new sleep TV series are Idris Elba, Mahershala Ali, Nicole Kidman and Keanu Reeves. In Sweden, a voice that put many Swedes to sleep belongs to the actor Stefan Sauk, who is one of Sweden's most listened to audiobook readers.

-Many acquaintances say to me "my wife falls asleep with you every night" - jokingly said then, he says and continues:

-If you want to tilt a TV series, you do it by name. The voice matters, but whether it is known or not does not matter.

Sauk is supported by Annika Norell Clarke. Some voices are more sleepy than others.

- Dark voices. The idea with brighter sounds is to attract attention, baby screams and the like, she says.

See the interview with Stefan Sauk in the clip.