I have something of an odd request: Does anyone have suggestions for calming or relaxing short stories?

To elaborate a bit, my wife suffers from occasional bouts of anxiety. Certain things that frighten her can induce anxiety attacks or raise her anxiety to levels that severely inhibit her ability to relax and, crucially, sleep. One source of comfort she often finds is my reading voice. We have long made a habit of me reading right before bed, both as a means of sharing some quality time at the end of they day and as a means to help her get to sleep. When her anxiety is elevated, this is one of the only ways she can fall asleep, and it necessitates me continuing to read for quite some time after she falls asleep, otherwise she won't be sleeping deeply enough and she will wake up.

In years past, this wasn't too much of an issue. I could deal with a night or two of staying up hours after we planned to fall asleep and I'd be fine. The difficulty now is that we have three children under the age of two (two of those children being four-month-old twins), and at the end of the day, I am exhausted. I would stay up to help my wife fall asleep if I could, but my body simply has limits. There comes a point when I simply cannot focus on the page and I can no longer read properly.

A possible solution suggested by my wife some time ago was for me to record myself reading so she could listen to it if I was too tired to continue reading. I entertained the idea for a while but eventually forgot about it. However, just last night my wife was unable to fall asleep due to her anxiety, and I was unable to remain awake long enough to get her to the point of deep sleep. With that fresh in my mind, I have made a more serious determination to fulfill my wife's suggestion as a (hopefully pleasant) surprise. Obviously this will not replace me reading as part of our nightly routine, but for those moments when she has difficulty falling asleep, she can have recordings of my voice reading to her.

Now, I am aware there are apps designed for this sort of thing. I myself used a free trial of the app Calm, and I enjoyed it immensely. I wouldn't mind paying the subscription for my wife's sake, but I don't know how effective it would be for her. She has mentioned several times that it is my voice in particular that soothes her. She says it brings her comfort. Ideally, then, I would like to be able to do that for her.

The issue I'm running into now is deciding what to read. When my wife suggested I do this, she suggested I just record myself reading the books we read before bed. I don't know that this would be ideal, though. She enjoys these books for their content, too, and she often laments that she doesn't want to miss out on anything (which means I often have to reread some sections, but I don't mind). I fear that this might be somewhat counterproductive, or at least less effective than it could be. Even if her ultimate desire was to fall asleep, I fear that any interest in the plotline itself might subconsciously hinder her ability to do so. I read an article in which the developers of the Calm app specifically design their stories to avoid this kind of thing. The stories' openings are written to grab their audience's attention to focus their mind on what they are listening to rather than any worries or concerns for the next day, but as the story progresses it essentially gets more boring and slower paced to lull the mind to sleep.

That's what I'm looking for. Something that is just interesting enough to capture my wife's attention, but just boring enough that she won't care if she hears it all the way through. I realize that may be a weirdly specific request for something, but it seems ideal for my purposes. If anyone has any suggestions for stories that might fit that format, or that are just relaxing in general, I would greatly appreciate it.

EDIT: I realized based on questions below that I neglected to say the kinds of stories my wife prefers. She generally prefers fantasy; the young adult variety is a particularly guilty pleasure for her. Bonus points for romantic subplots. She also has some interest in science fiction, though her tastes there are a bit more unpredictable. For reference, one of her favorite book series is the Harry Potter series. The last series we read to completion was the Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and we are currently reading the sequel series, Heroes of Olympus. For other taste references, her favorite TV shows are Friends and Supernatural.

Anxiety and insomnia sufferer here. I find audiobooks to be quite useful myself.

Can't think of much to help (as I tend to roll with sci fi or horror stuff), but I did recently get Danny the Champion of the World and Fantastic Mr.Fox (both by Roald Dahl) audiobooks. Neither one lasted more than a couple of hours and both were fairly calming I suppose. Maybe thats a starting point?

Edit: Forgot to suggest that these may be a starting point because even if it doesn't work for your wife, maybe it'll be of interest to your kids.
The books are cheap enough to pick up.

Those are good suggestions. To be honest, I didn’t even consider books geared toward kids, but such books might be perfect.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Well, Danny the Champion of the World also generally appeals to adults as well. and no prob!

hmm , how can you get those ? do you use too much twitter?

Does she have a preference for a genre in particular, or have you guys found a certain type of literature or story to be better suited at helping her relax than others?

This probably won't help much but if you're looking for stories, you can always use as a resource the fiction and poetry section of The New Yorker. I recommend it because there's a lot of variety from which to find something that could suite you, and also because there's a podcast version in which they read and discuss a different story each time.

I hope that helps somehow. You're a true superhero, keep it up.

What type of stories/fiction does you wife like?

If I read long enough, she’ll generally fall asleep to most anything. That said, she tends to stay awake longer when there is a lot of action or significant plot development, simply because she wants to know what happens next. We haven’t experimented much with a wide array of genres or literature types, though, so I’m afraid I can’t answer that question helpfully.

Thank you for the suggestion. I’ll take what I can.

Also, I’ve updated the OP with a little more insight into her genre preferences. I didn’t think to add that, but now that I’ve been asked, I realize that would be helpful information.

If she likes fantasy that is relaxing, there are many books out there of the "Lit RPG" (literary role playing game) style that are nice relaxing fantasy adventures. Do a search and see what sounds interesting.

Tor.com has some fantasy and sci-fi shorts on their site.
A Dead Djinn in Cairo is particularly good, IMHO.

Have you tried soothing sounds? There are sound machines as well as sound "videos" with relaxing sounds and images. Machines can have things like waves, rain, birdcalls, and videos can get more specific, like "tropical birds in rainforest" or "waves on rocky shore". If she has any kind of "happy place", finding settings similar to that can help imagine being there, which may help reduce anxiety. ASMR vids might also help.

While stories have the benefit of mental engagement (in the story), they also have the potential of disturbing events. Sound effects don't have a plot, but they usually have no people either, the standard source of anxiety.

I assume sensory deprivation wouldn't help (blocking light and sound), but if you haven't tried it it might be worth a go. Have you tried melatonin, or other sleeping pills?

If it hasn't to be short stories, but also longer books that can be read chapter by chapter, you could go to the classics, if you haven't read them all yet. I like to read stories to my girlfriend in the evening too - or she to me. We take turns.

One of the best reading books for calming down is Winnie the Pooh!

Other recommendations:
Daddy Longlegs and it's successor Dear Enemy, by Jean Webster
Also, basically anything be Astrid Lindgren. With Vi på Saltkråkan (translated to: Seacrow Island) being my favourite.
Little House in the big Woods, and all it's successors, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Little Prince, by Saint-Exupery
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

... and, of course, Anne of Green Gables and all it's successors by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Who, by the way, has also written a lot of short stories.

so how do you get this Anxiety?
maybe it would be better to fix than instead of these calming stories

And if it doesn't have to be your reading voice, but maybe other voices work too, librivox.org is full of public domain works.

IMO Arielle Lipshaw is a very good reader, with a nice, clear voice: https://librivox.org/reader/3536?primary_key=3536&search_category=reader&search_page=1&search_form=get_results
But if a deeper voice is necessary, there are also lots of male readers.

There are also very nice dramatic readings, where each person in the books is read by someone else. For example the previously mentioned Anne of Green Gables: https://librivox.org/anne-of-green-gables-dramatic-reading-by-lucy-maud-montgomery/

However, maybe they aren't calming enough. Your wife could just sample some readers and decide for herself, whether someone has a voice that might work.

My daughter has a white noise machine with various nature sounds, and we have also played similar sounds through Spotify or YouTube. They hep to some extent, though some sounds, especially when her anxiety is especially high, can actually exacerbate the problem. We’ve also regularly listen to a children’s radio drama at a low level; I will typically put one of these on when my wife falls asleep, but I never considered that might make things worse. If it makes any difference, her anxiety usually isn’t caused by people.

As for stories potentially having disturbing events, this is something I’ve considered and am concerned about. I suppose that’s one of the reasons why I am requesting advice. I want something that has little possibility of producing such issues.

She has considered melatonin before, but she despises taking any kind of medication or supplement due to both of her parents being addicted to medication when she was a child. Addiction of various types has occurred often in her family, and her refusal to follow that path makes her leery of medication of any kind. I might suggest melatonin again, though. I imagine she won’t have too much objection to trying it, at least.

And as for using audiobooks or stories being read by others, I have considered this, and I am not opposed to trying it. I feel determined to provide my own recordings to my wife, though, for two somewhat connected reasons: First, one of her great fears (and thus one of her sources of anxiety) is being awake by herself at night. It’s partly a fear of the dark and partly a fear of being alone. The fear of the dark can be lessened with a night light (which we use), but the fear of being alone is more difficult. This is why hearing my voice specifically is such a comfort to her. Not only does she find it soothing, it tells her that someone she loves and trusts is nearby and awake, so she won’t be alone. This is a big reason we always read right before bed. She can fall asleep much more easily when she hears my voice and knows I’m still awake. Otherwise she lies awake for hours with her mind going 100 miles per hour. When her anxiety is already high, this is especially important to her, hence my current predicament and my desire to find a solution. I wish I could just stay up all night reading or droning on about nothing, just so she can hear my voice and know I’m there, but alas, a nine hour workday, parental responsibilities, and the occasional responsibility to family or friends makes this impossible.

The second reason is that, well, she’s suggested before that she’d like recordings of me reading, and her birthday is coming up. I’d love to be able to present at least one recording of decent length to her for her birthday. She isn’t big on purchased gifts, but I know something like this will mean a lot to her.

I want to say again to everyone who has posted here with advice or suggestions that I greatly appreciate you taking the time to respond. I know we don’t know each other beyond maybe occasionally seeing each other on the forums, but it’s comforting to know that help can be found among a community of people who share a hobby. Thank you all again, for suggestions already given and any other suggestions to come.