Sleep with Me (podcast)

Sleep with Me is a twice-weekly podcast that began on October 18, 2013. It is hosted by "Dearest Scooter" as performed by Drew Ackerman. "Sleep with Me" joined the Feral Audio podcast network in February 2017 and moved to Night Vale Presents on March 28, 2018. The podcast's tagline is "The podcast that puts you to sleep".
Premise and influences.
"Sleep with Me" is meant to distract listeners, keeping their minds occupied when they experience insomnia, while gently lulling them to sleep.
Ackerman is open about his own struggles with insomnia; he has said that his rambling storytelling style began in childhood, when he told his brothers boring bedtime stories when they could not sleep. He names "The Dr. Demento Show", Kurt Vonnegut and the Beastie Boys as some of his influences. Ackerman describes his storytelling style as "the good type of weird but not creepy". He does not claim to have expertise in psychology or sleep science, and he relies on feedback from listeners to shape the podcast.
Format and structure.
Each episode begins with Ackerman, in character as "Dearest Scooter", introducing the podcast. He then mentions the episode's sponsors; singer-songwriter Jonathan Mann, also known as the "Mystery Bard", often sings a "lullaby" jingle about one of the sponsoring companies. Scooter continues with a rambling introduction for a few minutes before moving on to the episode's main story. Each episode ends with Scooter saying, "Thank you and goodnight" to listeners who have recently donated to the show or contacted him on social media.
Ackerman also maintains a separate podcast playlist of older episodes, called "Sleep to Strange", that have had the introductions removed so listeners can listen to just the main story.
Reactions and response.
"Sleep with Me" has largely gained listeners through word of mouth and Ackerman's Twitter account.
In January 2017, the podcast had reached 2.3 million monthly downloads.
Drew Ackerman and "Sleep with Me" were featured on the October 20, 2016, episode of "The Dr. Oz Show", entitled "Sleep Brain Connection".
In 2016, "Sleep with Me" won the People's Choice Podcast Award for Best Health Podcast.
Both "Sleep with Me" and its spinoff "Game of Drones" appeared on the "Mental Floss" list of "10 Podcasts to Help You Sleep".
"Sleep with Me" has been ranked as one of the top 50 most popular podcasts.
"Esquire" named "Sleep with Me" one of The 25 Essential Podcasts of 2016.