History For Sleep with the Drowsy Historian
History For Sleep delivers slow, calm, and slightly unsettling historical storytelling that makes dozing off educationally depressing.
Brought to you by the Drowsy Historian, each episode is 1–2 hours of immersive bedtime history with just enough absurd detail to keep you listening — until you aren’t.
Get early episodes & ad-free audio on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DrowsyHistorian
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- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 118 minutes
- Episodes
- 194
- Years Active
- 2025
The HORRIFYING Life of a Heroin Addict After WWI
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In the long shadow of the First World War, a quieter battle was being fought in back rooms, boarding houses, and rain…
The Entire History of Ireland
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Step into the long, complex story of Ireland — from its ancient myths and stone monuments, through centuries of invas…
The HORRIFYING Life of a Soviet Conscript at Stalingrad
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In the winter-choked ruins of Stalingrad, survival wasn’t a matter of heroism — it was a matter of not freezing, star…
How Victorians Got High: Opium Dens, Cocaine & More
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Step into the gaslit world of Victorian Britain, where public morality stood tall in the daylight, but private indulg…
Why You Wouldn’t Survive a Medieval Exorcism
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Step into the dim, incense-thick air of a 14th-century European village — where illness, misfortune, or even a fainti…
Why You Wouldn’t Survive a WWI Gas Attack
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Step into the mud, the mist, and the silence that follows the shelling. In the First World War, death didn’t always a…
Why Being a Civil War Soldier Was a Living Hell
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The year is 1861, and you are 19 years old. You were promised glory, brotherhood, and a cause worth dying for. What y…
The HORRIFYING Life of a Child Emperor in the Forbidden City
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Tonight’s descent into forgotten history takes us behind the vermilion walls of the Forbidden City — where you are no…
The BRUTAL Life of a Sumo Wrestler in Edo Japan
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What did it really mean to become a sumo wrestler in Edo Japan? Beneath the silk and ceremony was a world of ritual h…
How Did Medieval People Flirt?
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Forget moonlit serenades and grand gestures. Medieval flirting was a murky dance of dowries, dead pheasants, awkward …
The 12 WORST Times to Be a Man in History
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History tends to remember power — kings, generals, emperors — and assumes that being born male meant inheriting contr…
The HORRIFYING Life of a Polio Patient in an Iron Lung
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What happens when your lungs stop working — but your mind never does?
In this immersive second-person story, you becom…
Why You'd Regret Being a Wild West Outlaw
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You’re twenty-seven, sunburnt, hungry, and out of options. The ranch fired you. The saloon cut your credit. One bad d…
The HORRIFYING Life of a Laudanum Addict in Georgian London
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In Georgian London, pain is private, propriety is public, and relief comes in a brown glass bottle.
Tonight, you are t…
The HORRIFYING Life of a Plague Doctor in Renaissance Prague
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Step into the mask and mind of a forgotten plague doctor in Renaissance Prague. In this immersive, second-person jour…
Why Being a Medieval Monster Hunter Was a Death Sentence
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So you’ve been mistaken for a monster hunter. Unlucky.
Welcome to medieval Europe — a place where superstition bleeds …
Why You’d Regret Competing in the Ancient Greek Olympics
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Tonight, we’re heading back to ancient Olympia — land of laurel wreaths, oil-slicked ambition, and deeply questionabl…
Why You’d Regret Being a Flamethrower Operator in WWII | History For Sleep
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Tonight we descend into one of the most quietly horrifying roles of the Second World War: the flamethrower operator. …
Why You’d Regret Getting Pregnant in Victorian England | History For Sleep
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In Victorian England, pregnancy outside of marriage wasn’t a scandal. It was a sentence.
This immersive episode places…
What Sex was Really Like in Feudal Japan | History For Sleep
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Tonight, we explore the silent histories written not in ink, but in gestures, expectations, and silences — the intima…