Penguin Random House has collaborated with the Sleep Council and the Children’s Sleep Charity in creating collections of “Sleep Tales” for adults and children.

Combining “cutting-edge technology and the ancient art of storytelling to help solve an age-old problem”, these audiobooks are part soundscape, part descriptive narrative, with softly spoken voices to calm anxieties and take listeners to the land of nod.

Chronic insomnia, in which individuals have difficulties dropping off or staying asleep at least three nights a week for three months or more, is thought to affect about 10-15% of adults.

The Guardian analysed data from NHS Digital, the health service’s data provider in England, showing admissions of those aged 16 and under with a primary diagnosis of sleep disorder rose from 6,520 in 2012-13 to 9,429 last year.