Sleepytime History

Welcome to Sleepytime History — true stories from the pages of history for a full night’s rest. Join us to meet Alexander Selkirk, the real-life Robinson Crusoe, marooned alone on a tropical island. Or visit Prohibition-era Chicago to encounter the ruthless yet charming Al Capone. Fall asleep with Sleepytime History on Spotify.

Welcome to Sleepytime History — true stories from the pages of history for a full night's rest. Tonight, we journey into the windswept deserts of the Middle East to explore the remarkable life of T.E. Lawrence — a man who remains one of history’s most fascinating contradictions. Immortalised as Lawrence of Arabia and revered in legend, he was at once a scholar and a soldier, a loyal ally and a man...

Tonight, we journey back to the windswept shores of 16th-century North America to explore the haunting mystery of Roanoke — the English colony that simply vanished. It was one of England’s earliest attempts to plant its flag in the New World, an ambitious outpost built on the edge of an uncharted continent. Over one hundred settlers — farmers, craftsmen, soldiers, mothers — staked their futures on...

Tonight, we follow a quiet line of wagon ruts stretching two thousand miles into the unknown — a path that promised hope and new beginnings, yet delivered heartbreak and hardship to so many who dared it. The Oregon Trail shaped a nation, carrying pioneers, families, and dreamers westward through untamed plains, blistering deserts, and snowbound mountains. For some, it brought land, freedom, and th...

Born in the gentle hills of Tuscany, Leonardo da Vinci was much more than a painter. He was an engineer, an anatomist, and — astonishingly — the inventor of the world’s first known robot. As you unwind with history tonight, you’ll hear how he sketched the human body with unmatched detail, designed machines of war and dreams of flight, and built a mechanical knight centuries ahead of its time. His...

Welcome to Sleepytime History — true stories from the pages of history for a full night's rest. Tonight, we journey across the cold Atlantic with the Viking explorer Leif Erikson, the first known European to set foot on the American continent—some 500 years before Columbus. Born in the fjords of Iceland and shaped by the hard winters of Greenland, Leif’s voyage began not with conquest, but with cu...

Welcome to Sleepytime History — true stories from the pages of history for a full night's rest. Tonight we’ll be exploring the remarkable true story of Al Capone – Millionaire Gangster or 1920s Robin Hood? Long before he became one of the most feared and famous names in the American underworld, Al Capone was just a sharp-witted boy from Brooklyn with a disarming smile and a growing hunger for powe...

Welcome to Sleepytime History — true stories from the pages of history for a full night's rest. In this episode, we’ll be exploring the remarkable true story of Krakatoa — an obscure tropical island obliterated in an instant during one of the most extreme volcanic events in history. For centuries, this jungle-covered peak in the Dutch East Indies stood quietly in the calm waters of the Sunda S...

Welcome to Sleepytime History — true stories from the pages of history for a full night's rest. Subscribe to Sleepytime History - https://www.youtube.com/@sleepytime_history?sub_confirmation=1 Or Buy Us a Coffee - https://buymeacoffee.com/sleepytimehistory In this episode, we follow the extraordinary true story of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca — a Spanish nobleman turned reluctant explorer, cast adri...

Welcome to Sleepytime History — true stories from the pages of history for a full night's rest. Step into the stillness of the Antarctic night as we follow the extraordinary journey of Sir Ernest Shackleton—a towering figure in polar exploration history. In this history documentary, we recount the legendary Shackleton expedition and the haunting tale of the Endurance Antarctica mission. Set in...

Welcome to Sleepytime History — true stories from the pages of history for a full night's rest. Subscribe to Sleepytime History on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0KP99A1YtXj7wsHgAd7ukm?si=BhOJ6HWoQkaZ7CmPwtQKvg Or Buy Us a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/sleepytimehistory Tonight, we invite you to unwind with history and discover the true story of William Wallace—a tale far richer, strang...

Welcome to Sleepytime History — true stories from the pages of history for a full night's rest. Tonight we'll be exploring... 00:00:00 - Betrayed & Driven to Revenge - Pierre Picaud 00:59:59 - True Story of 'The Revenant' - Hugh Glass 01:52:47 - The Real Life Robinson Crusoe - Alexander Selkirk 02:52:41 - The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine That Was Never Found 03:53:05 - A Team Trapped for Two Years on...

In this episode, we explore the true story of Hugh Glass, an American frontiersman whose name has quietly echoed through the wilderness of early American legend. In 1823, while serving as a scout for a fur trading expedition along the upper Missouri River, Glass was attacked by a grizzly bear in the remote Dakota wilderness. Gravely injured and unable to walk, he was left for dead by the two men a...

In this episode, we explore the true story of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor whose name may be lesser known, yet whose quiet endurance would echo through literature and legend for centuries. In the early 1700s, Selkirk found himself aboard a privateering vessel in the vast Pacific, caught in rising tensions with his ship’s captain. Trusting his instincts over command, he made a fateful choic...

Welcome to Sleepytime History — true stories from the pages of history for a full night’s rest. In this episode, we explore the true story of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish nobleman and explorer who set out in search of conquest but returned forever changed. Born just two years after Columbus first crossed the Atlantic, De Vaca was raised in a world suddenly opened wide—one filled with maps...

Welcome to Sleepytime History — true stories from the pages of history for a full night's rest. In this episode, we explore the remarkable true story of Sławomir Rawicz — a young Polish cavalry officer who, after being captured by Soviet forces during World War II, was sentenced to twenty-five years of hard labour in a Siberian Gulag. But Rawicz escaped. With eight others, he slipped away under co...

Welcome to Sleepytime History — true stories from the pages of history for a full night's rest. In this episode, we explore the true story of Sir Edmund Hillary, the unassuming New Zealander who became the first man to reach the roof of the world—Mount Everest—and return to tell the tale. Together with Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, Hillary embarked on a journey that many believed was all but...

Welcome to Sleepytime History — true stories from the pages of history for a full night's rest. In this episode, we explore the true story of Jacob Waltz — the solitary and secretive figure better known as the Dutchman — and the enduring legend of what may be the most storied, elusive, and richest lost gold mine in American history. Tucked somewhere deep within Arizona’s Superstition Mountains lie...

Welcome to Sleepytime History — true stories from the pages of history for a full night's rest. In this episode, we explore the true story of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor whose name may be lesser known, yet whose quiet endurance would echo through literature and legend for centuries. In the early 1700s, Selkirk found himself aboard a privateering vessel in the vast Pacific, caught in risin...

Welcome to Sleepytime History — true stories from the pages of history for a full night's rest. In this episode, we explore the true story of Hugh Glass, an American frontiersman whose name has quietly echoed through the wilderness of early American legend. In 1823, while serving as a scout for a fur trading expedition along the upper Missouri River, Glass was attacked by a grizzly bear in the rem...

Welcome to Sleepytime History — true stories from the pages of history for a full night's rest. In this episode, we explore the extraordinary true story of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese intelligence officer whose life took a path few could have imagined. Sent to the Philippine island of Lubang during the final years of World War II, Onoda was tasked with conducting guerrilla warfare and intelligence gat...