If ANY of this sounds familiar, you are probably one of the four in 10 Britons struggling to sleep on a regular basis. It’s such a problem the market is crammed with merchandise offering help. Even the hotel chain Novotel is now giving guests complimentary use of the meditation app Calm. Kat Hopps assesses the advice and products which promise you a dream night’s sleep. 

New audiobook app, Penguin Sleep Tales, was created by the publisher with help from The Sleep Council. Designed to help send you to the land of nod, the descriptive audio tales encourage you to visualise calming settings and landscapes and get you in the right frame of mind for sleep. 

You are invited to picture yourself swinging in a hammock on a tropical beach, relaxing by a campfire or sheltering from a distant thunderstorm. The tales are read slowly and soothingly, accompanied by relaxing sounds of nature, taking listeners to exotic destinations from tropical beach paradises to Mount Koya in Japan. 

Soft raindrops falling, purring cats, waves lapping and birdsong are a few of the tranquil sounds helping to soothe away the stresses of the day in each 15-minute-story. 

And I found they really do work, encouraging you to surrender to your senses and stay in the moment. In one blissful sequence, I was encouraged to imagine myself in a hot spring at New Zealand’s Lake Taupo and to squelch my feet into mud pools, breathing in my ­surroundings in solitude. 

The ­calming voice of actress Sally Scott intoned: “Green moss sits on top of the rocks like a natural cushion. 

“Far beneath the ground the water encounters the hot volcanic rock and is pushed up towards the ­surface emerging as thermal rich waters. You sit back on a rock thickly padded with grass and ­dangle your bare feet in the bubbling water kept deliciously warm by the volcanic rock beneath.” 

Each line is awash with sensory feeling, the language designed to transport you, delivered in a lilting soft whisper. 

By the end, my worries were forgotten and I was drifting off. Lisa Artis of The Sleep Council, explained: “These are descriptive narratives so they don’t specifically have a ­beginning, middle and end. 

“They are read in a soothing dulcet tone with relaxing sounds to subtly engage the brain without overstimulating and getting it to refocus from any stress or worries.” 

Each story was tested by a reader panel before being used for the app. There is even a children’s version, Sleepy Tales, designed to do the same trick for youngsters aged three to six. 

But Lisa cautioned that the new app is not suitable for people with chronic insomnia, which is classified as a sleep disorder and requires specific medical help. 

“At that stage it often takes more than good sleep hygiene – routine, regular hours and the right environment – to really help,” she explained. 

“Most of us will experience short periods of insomnia, which is often rectified when a particular situation or worry has been alleviated. 

“Stories can help with relaxing before bedtime to ease stress and anxiety in this situation.” 

From my personal experience, I can testify to that. Sweet dreams. 

• Adult version is £9 available from Audible; Ladybird Sleepy Tales CD, ages three-six, £6; Puffin Sleepy Tales CD, ages seven and over, £6 

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