A calm bedtime story for grown-ups, about an old turtle making a picture on a rock from what the beach has given him. Horatio knows what it is before it is done. Prince Freddie spends the afternoon fetching the exact piece of sea glass, the driftwood of the right weight, the pale spiral shell that goes right of centre. When it is finished he still cannot tell what it is from where he is standing, and has the feeling that from above it would be perfectly clear. A slow, patient story about work that does not need you to see the result.

Prince Freddie is a small dog in a flat gold crown who lives in a sleepy village on the Spanish coast, where the days are warm, the sea is always close, and nothing is ever in a hurry. These are unhurried sleep stories for grown-ups, written to quiet a busy mind and soften the end of the day. You are not meant to reach the end.

How to listen: lie down, dim the light, and let the words do the walking. If you drift off before the last line, the story has done its job.

Follow Prince Freddie: Sleep Stories for Adults for a new story to fall asleep to. Read the written stories at stories.princefreddie.com and find everything at princefreddie.com.

If this one ends before you do, there is a longer telling. The Settle, Night 29, is the same story told twice, slower the second time, over a steady sea, with an ending you are not meant to hear. settle.princefreddie.com

Every story is written by the Prince Freddie studio and read by a calm synthetic voice.

Press play, and let the day settle.

A calm bedtime story for when you cannot stop overthinking at night, about a morning where the sand is the colour of the sea and the sea is the colour of sand. A young spirit has dropped her vials and the colours have tangled. Prince Freddie helps her put them back one by one, the white walls, the lavender garden, the lighthouse with its red band. Then they reach the sea, which is blue, and green when the wind comes from the west, and silver at dawn, and will not agree to be one colour. A gentle story about the things that are not supposed to be fixed.

Prince Freddie is a small dog in a flat gold crown who lives in a sleepy village on the Spanish coast, where the days are warm, the sea is always close, and nothing is ever in a hurry. These are unhurried sleep stories, written to quiet an anxious mind and soften the end of the day. You are not meant to reach the end.

No ads, ever. How to listen: lie down, dim the light, and let the words do the walking. If you drift off before the last line, the story has done its job.

Follow Prince Freddie Sleep Stories for a new story to fall asleep to. Read the written stories at stories.princefreddie.com and find everything at princefreddie.com.

If Freddie has helped you sleep, a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts helps someone else find him.

If this one ends before you do, there is a longer telling. The Settle, Night 28, is the same story told twice, slower the second time, over a steady sea, with an ending you are not meant to hear. Ad-free, and the first seven nights are free. settle.princefreddie.com

Every story is written by the Prince Freddie studio and read by a calm synthetic voice.

Press play, and let the day settle.

A calm bedtime story for anxiety at night, about keeping a promise made months ago in an empty lighthouse. On the full moon Prince Freddie climbs the cliff path and sits at the base of the wall to keep watch. Far out, further than the fishing boats, a light is taking its time toward the harbour. He faces it through the whole cold night, thinking companionable thoughts about deep water and reasonable wind, until at five in the morning it comes in between the breakwaters and the morning swallows it. A story about holding something steady until it arrives safely.

Prince Freddie is a small dog in a flat gold crown who lives in a sleepy village on the Spanish coast, where the days are warm, the sea is always close, and nothing is ever in a hurry. These are unhurried sleep stories, written to quiet an anxious mind and soften the end of the day. You are not meant to reach the end.

No ads, ever. How to listen: lie down, dim the light, and let the words do the walking. If you drift off before the last line, the story has done its job.

Follow Prince Freddie Sleep Stories for a new story to fall asleep to. Read the written stories at stories.princefreddie.com and find everything at princefreddie.com.

If Freddie has helped you sleep, a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts helps someone else find him.

If this one ends before you do, there is a longer telling. The Settle, Night 27, is the same story told twice, slower the second time, over a steady sea, with an ending you are not meant to hear. Ad-free, and the first seven nights are free. settle.princefreddie.com

Every story is written by the Prince Freddie studio and read by a calm synthetic voice.

Press play, and let the day settle.

A calm bedtime story for a mind that will not shut off at night, about a dune that gives way underfoot and the room beneath it. Prince Freddie falls through the ceiling of a library holding everything the sea has ever carried to this shore, catalogued on hand-lettered cards by Francisco, an octopus in spectacles with eight arms all doing something useful. There are bottles and charts and a great many boots. There is a card for a pearl that is no longer there. A slow, absorbing story about things being kept, things being only remembered, and how good it feels when someone else is doing the sorting.

Prince Freddie is a small dog in a flat gold crown who lives in a sleepy village on the Spanish coast, where the days are warm, the sea is always close, and nothing is ever in a hurry. These are unhurried sleep stories, written to quiet an anxious mind and soften the end of the day. You are not meant to reach the end.

No ads, ever. How to listen: lie down, dim the light, and let the words do the walking. If you drift off before the last line, the story has done its job.

Follow Prince Freddie Sleep Stories for a new story to fall asleep to. Read the written stories at stories.princefreddie.com and find everything at princefreddie.com.

If Freddie has helped you sleep, a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts helps someone else find him.

If this one ends before you do, there is a longer telling. The Settle, Night 26, is the same story told twice, slower the second time, over a steady sea, with an ending you are not meant to hear. Ad-free, and the first seven nights are free. settle.princefreddie.com

Every story is written by the Prince Freddie studio and read by a calm synthetic voice.

Press play, and let the day settle.

A calm bedtime story for an anxious mind at night, about a young cloud who has landed on the sea and will not get up again. It is her first morning, she is supposed to be high above the water where clouds live and work, and she has decided against it. Prince Freddie wades in to his knees, sits down facing her, and is quite good at waiting. Then Nimbus Junior comes down in a thoughtful spiral with a story about a first December storm and no useful advice whatsoever. A slow, kind story about fear and first times not being the same thing, and about the morning happening anyway.

Prince Freddie is a small dog in a flat gold crown who lives in a sleepy village on the Spanish coast, where the days are warm, the sea is always close, and nothing is ever in a hurry. These are unhurried sleep stories, written to quiet an anxious mind and soften the end of the day. You are not meant to reach the end.

No ads, ever. How to listen: lie down, dim the light, and let the words do the walking. If you drift off before the last line, the story has done its job.

Follow Prince Freddie Sleep Stories for a new story to fall asleep to. Read the written stories at stories.princefreddie.com and find everything at princefreddie.com.

If Freddie has helped you sleep, a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts helps someone else find him.

If this one ends before you do, there is a longer telling. The Settle, Night 25, is the same story told twice, slower the second time, 29 minutes over a steady sea, with an ending you are not meant to hear. Ad-free, and the first seven nights are free. settle.princefreddie.com

Every story is written by the Prince Freddie studio and read by a calm synthetic voice.

Press play, and let the day settle.

A calm bedtime story for when you wake in the night and can't get back to sleep, set in a little clock shop above the harbour at siesta hour. A small brass clock has been left outside Tiempo Honesto before the shutters went up, with no name and no note, ticking steadily and perfectly backwards. Señor Tiempo checks it over and finds nothing wrong with it at all, only a maker who meant it. Prince Freddie sits beside the workbench through a long golden afternoon while the hands move the other way. A slow, warm story about something being very good and very strange, and not needing to explain itself.

Prince Freddie is a small dog in a flat gold crown who lives in a sleepy village on the Spanish coast, where the days are warm, the sea is always close, and nothing is ever in a hurry. These are unhurried sleep stories, written to quiet an anxious mind and soften the end of the day. You are not meant to reach the end.

No ads, ever. How to listen: lie down, dim the light, and let the words do the walking. If you drift off before the last line, the story has done its job.

Follow Prince Freddie Sleep Stories for a new story to fall asleep to. Read the written stories at stories.princefreddie.com and find everything at princefreddie.com.

If Freddie has helped you sleep, a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts helps someone else find him.

If this one ends before you do, there is a longer telling. The Settle, Night 24, is the same story told twice, slower the second time, 27 minutes over a steady sea, with an ending you are not meant to hear. Ad-free, and the first seven nights are free. settle.princefreddie.com

Every story is written by the Prince Freddie studio and read by a calm synthetic voice.

Press play, and let the day settle.

A calm bedtime story to help settle a wound-up nervous system, set at first light on a flat rock at the western end of the beach. Prince Freddie goes back to sit with the old fisherman, this time on purpose. There is a rod in the water, a thermos, a gannet working the waves, and a second cup handed across without ceremony when Mateo rows in around the headland. Almost nothing is said. A fish is caught, admired and let go. A slow, quiet story about the kind of company that asks nothing of you, and about arrangements that hold together without ever being explained.

Prince Freddie is a small dog in a flat gold crown who lives in a sleepy village on the Spanish coast, where the days are warm, the sea is always close, and nothing is ever in a hurry. These are unhurried sleep stories, written to quiet an anxious mind and soften the end of the day. You are not meant to reach the end.

No ads, ever. How to listen: lie down, dim the light, and let the words do the walking. If you drift off before the last line, the story has done its job.

Follow Prince Freddie Sleep Stories for a new story to fall asleep to. Read the written stories at stories.princefreddie.com and find everything at princefreddie.com.

If Freddie has helped you sleep, a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts helps someone else find him.

If this one ends before you do, there is a longer telling. The Settle, Night 23, is the same story told twice, slower the second time, 26 minutes over a steady sea, with an ending you are not meant to hear. Ad-free, and the first seven nights are free. settle.princefreddie.com

Every story is written by the Prince Freddie studio and read by a calm synthetic voice.

Press play, and let the day settle.

A calm bedtime story for when you can't switch your brain off, about an evening that refuses to end. The light should be turning from gold to copper to grey, but the sun is still hanging above the water, not setting, not moving. Prince Freddie walks the length of the beach to ask her why, sits down on the warm sand, and waits. It turns out she has noticed something on the water she had not looked at properly in years, and the moon and about forty stars are waiting politely for her to finish. A slow, warm story about being allowed to linger, and about the evening arriving anyway.

Prince Freddie is a small dog in a flat gold crown who lives in a sleepy village on the Spanish coast, where the days are warm, the sea is always close, and nothing is ever in a hurry. These are unhurried sleep stories, written to quiet an anxious mind and soften the end of the day. You are not meant to reach the end.

No ads, ever. How to listen: lie down, dim the light, and let the words do the walking. If you drift off before the last line, the story has done its job.

Follow Prince Freddie Sleep Stories for a new story to fall asleep to. Read the written stories at stories.princefreddie.com and find everything at princefreddie.com.

If Freddie has helped you sleep, a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts helps someone else find him.

If this one ends before you do, there is a longer telling. The Settle, Night 22, is the same story told twice, slower the second time, 28 minutes over a steady sea, with an ending you are not meant to hear. Ad-free, and the first seven nights are free. settle.princefreddie.com

Every story is written by the Prince Freddie studio and read by a calm synthetic voice.

Press play, and let the day settle.