The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

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   Number 1: Books at Bedtime by Calming Anxiety - The Hound of the Baskervilles - Chapter 12

   Sleep Story for Insomnia — The Hound of the Baskervilles, Chapter 12: Death on the Moor | A Sherlock Holmes Bedtime Audiobook | Books at Bedtime A sleep story for insomnia, read slowly and softly for anyone lying awake in the small hours. This is Chapter 12 of The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — Death on the Moor — narrated for Books at Bedtime by Martin Hewlett, clinical hypnotherapist, former frontline paramedic and host of Calming Anxiety. Tonight the mist settles low over the moor and the light drains slowly out of the western sky. Watson sits alone in a stone hut among the ancient dwellings, waiting in the dark for a stranger to return. A step on the gravel. A voice he knows better than any other in the world. And Sherlock Holmes, thin and weathered and quietly amused, is sitting on a stone outside the door. What follows is a long, low-voiced conversation in the twilight — two friends piecing a puzzle together while the chill comes down and the stars come out over Dartmoor. And then, far off across the shadowy plain, a cry. A prolonged yell of horror that turns the blood to ice. The deep, muttered rumble of something running in the darkness. A stumbling chase over broken ground, gorse and boulders and the moon rising behind them. And a shape lying still against the silver stones. This is one of the most atmospheric chapters in all of Sherlock Holmes — night air, granite, moonlight and mist — and it is read here at a deliberately unhurried pace, with long pauses and a lowered voice, so that the story can carry you down into sleep rather than keep you up. You do not need to follow the plot. You do not need to remember a single name. Let the words blur at the edges. Let the moor go quiet. If you drift off long before Holmes and Watson reach the gates of Baskerville Hall, that is exactly what this recording is for — the story will still be here tomorrow night. Best listened to lying down, in the dark, with the volume low. The Hound of the Baskervilles was first published in 1902 and is in the public domain. Books at Bedtime sits alongside the daily ten-minute guided meditations of Calming Anxiety and the reflections of Coffee Break for the Soul — a free library for anxiety relief, insomnia, overthinking and the long nights. You can also take the whole library with you and download Anchored on iOS. Searchable, offline-ready audio sessions, sleep stories with Books at Bedtime, and a built-in nightlight for the small hours. 👉 Download Anchored on the App Store today: https://apps.apple.com Sleep well, my friend. And in everything, be kind. 👉 Click to subscribe and unlock ad-free episodes now! Support the Show: Ad-Free Listening: Enjoy Calming Anxiety without ads at https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/calming-anxiety--4110266/support Buy Me a Coffee: Support hosting costs at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/calminganxiety Newsletter: Subscribe on Substack at https://calminganxietypodcast.substack.com/?r=6zm0sc&utm_campaign=pub-share-checklist Rate & Review: Leave a 5-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to help us reach more listeners! YouTube: Watch all episodes at https://www.youtube.com/c/calminganxiety?sub_confirmation=1 Social Media Support: For younger listeners struggling with social media stress, visit https://www.icanhelp.net/ Music: All music by Chris CollinsReady for More Calm?Thank you for listening to the Calming Anxiety Podcast, featuring guided meditation, mindfulness, and sleep hypnosis sessions with Martin Hewlett. Our mission is to provide you with proven tools for anxiety relief, stress reduction, and a path toward deep relaxation. Use this episode anytime you need to calm your mind and feel more at ease.

   August 11, 2026·34min
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   Number 2: I Can’t Slow My Breathing Down — Panic Attack Relief

   Panic Attack Relief — Mindful Breathing to Calm a Racing Chest | 10-Minute Guided Meditation with the Physiological Sigh Panic attack relief starts with one breath — and this ten-minute guided meditation gives you the fastest one there is. If your breathing has gone high and shallow, if you are trying to take a deep breath and it keeps stopping halfway, this session is built for exactly that moment. Hosted by clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic Martin Hewlett, today's practice is about mindful breathing and one named technique: the physiological sigh. Two breaths in through the nose, a short sip of air stacked on top, then one long, slow release. It is the quickest way we know of to bring a heart rate down in real time, and it is the breath Martin coached people through on the front line. From there you are guided into stillness beside water at dusk — the setting sun, the ripples and reflections on the lake — while five gentle affirmations settle the nervous system and remind you that a panic attack cannot outlast a long, slow breath out. Whether you are riding out a wave of anxiety right now, managing daily stress, or looking for a breathwork practice you can return to every morning, this is anxiety relief you can carry with you and use anywhere. You are not broken. You are not in danger. Your breathing has simply got ahead of you — and it can be brought back. ⏱️ Time Chapters * 00:00 – Your breathing has got ahead of you* 01:06 – Welcome to Calming Anxiety* 01:25 – Anchored arrives on iOS this Thursday* 01:45 – Instant Calm: your always-on panic attack session* 02:18 – Settling in* 02:32 – The physiological sigh explained* 02:50 – Guided breathing, three rounds* 04:54 – Letting the words land* 05:23 – Today's affirmations* 06:22 – Stillness by the lake at dusk* 06:51 – Affirmations, second pass* 08:08 – Your three daily caring tips* 08:58 – Coming back into the room* 09:37 – Anchored, sharing, and the sign-off 🌿 Today's Gentle Affirmations Let these land. You don't have to believe them — just let them be. * Every breath out is stress leaving my body.* I do not have to fight a panic attack. I can breathe it out.* My out breath is longer than my worrying and it is stronger.* I let this exhale carry the whole day out of my shoulders.* A panic attack cannot outlast a long, slow breath out. 💡 3 Daily Caring Tips 1. Rehearse it while you're calm. Practise the physiological sigh twice today while you are calm — once mid-morning, once mid-afternoon — so your body already knows the road before you ever need it in panic. 2. Breathe out before you reply. Before you answer any message that makes your stomach drop, put the phone down and take one long breath out first. 3. Five slow breaths out at bedtime. Tonight, before sleep, rest one hand on your lower ribs and count five slow breaths out — not in, just out. 📱 Take Calming Anxiety With You Anywhere This Thursday, Anchored arrives on iOS — with Android following next month. Everything you hear here, in one calm place: thousands of searchable, offline-ready audio sessions, sleep stories with Books at Bedtime, and built-in nightlight features for the small hours. The first thing to find when you open it is Instant Calm — a focused panic attack session that sits permanently in the same place, works offline as many times as you need it, and needs no subscription. Because when you actually need it, you will not be in a state to go searching for it. If these ten minutes helped you today, please share this episode with one person who breathes the way you were breathing at the start of it, and leave a 30-second rating or review on Apple Podcasts. It costs you nothing and it genuinely changes someone's day. I'll be right here with you again tomorrow, and every day for as long as I can. And in everything, my friend… be kind. 👉 Click to subscribe and unlock ad-free episodes now! Support the Show: Ad-Free Listening: Enjoy Calming Anxiety without ads at https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/calming-anxiety--4110266/support Buy Me a Coffee: Support hosting costs at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/calminganxiety Newsletter: Subscribe on Substack at https://calminganxietypodcast.substack.com/?r=6zm0sc&utm_campaign=pub-share-checklist Rate & Review: Leave a 5-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to help us reach more listeners! YouTube: Watch all episodes at https://www.youtube.com/c/calminganxiety?sub_confirmation=1 Social Media Support: For younger listeners struggling with social media stress, visit https://www.icanhelp.net/ Music: All music by Chris CollinsReady for More Calm?Thank you for listening to the Calming Anxiety Podcast, featuring guided meditation, mindfulness, and sleep hypnosis sessions with Martin Hewlett. Our mission is to provide you with proven tools for anxiety relief, stress reduction, and a path toward deep relaxation. Use this episode anytime you need to calm your mind and feel more at ease.

   August 11, 2026·11min
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   Number 3: I Need to Feel Calm Again — 10 Minute Guided Meditation for Anxiety, Stress & Irritability

   Anxiety Relief for Irritability & Overwhelm — I Just Need to Feel Calm Again | Alternate Nostril Breathing Guided Meditation Anxiety relief for those days when everything is getting under your skin. This ten minute guided meditation is for the moment you catch yourself thinking "I just need to feel calm again" — when the noise, the questions, the one more thing have worn your patience thin, your shoulders are tight, your jaw is clenched, and your voice is sharper than you meant it to be. Underneath irritation there is almost always something quieter. You're tired. You're overloaded. You've been holding too much together. Today we use alternate nostril breathing — nadi shodhana, the balancing breath — breathing in for four and out for six, giving your mind one gentle thing to do at a time while your nervous system finds its way back down. Slow, rhythmic breathwork for stress relief, overwhelm and an overstimulated nervous system. Hosted by clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic Martin Hewlett, Calming Anxiety is a daily ten minute guided meditation for anxiety relief, panic attacks, stress and sleep. You don't have to become a different person today. You don't have to be endlessly patient. You simply need a little more space. ⏱️ Time Chapters * 00:00 – I just need to feel calm again * 00:20 – When the smallest things get under your skin * 00:47 – What's underneath the irritation * 01:13 – Welcome — this is your moment * 01:31 – Finding your quiet place * 01:42 – Alternate nostril breathing (nadi shodhana) explained * 02:23 – Guided breathing — in for four, out for six * 04:24 – Softening the shoulders, forehead and hands * 04:56 – Visualisation — laying the weight down * 05:44 – Today's gentle affirmations * 08:04 – You don't have to become a different person * 08:21 – Three daily caring tips * 09:14 – Returning to the room * 10:05 – Anchored, sharing and closing thoughts 🌿 Today's Gentle Affirmations Repeat these in your mind's eye, on the outbreath, and see them in your thoughts. * I am allowed to slow down. * I do not have to carry everything at once. * I can feel irritated without becoming irrational. * My feelings are signals. They are not instructions. * I can pause before I react. * I am safe in this moment. * I am here in this moment. * I can be gentle with myself while I find my balance. * I am allowed to feel calm again. 💡 3 Daily Caring Tips 1. Catch the first flicker. When you notice the first flickers of irritation today, don't try to argue with it. Take one slow breath all the way out and give yourself three seconds to respond. 2. Ask what's underneath. Ask yourself, "What am I actually feeling underneath this? Am I overwhelmed, hungry, unnerved?" Sometimes irritation is simply the messenger. 3. Check in before the day runs away. Tomorrow, use Anchored daily to check in before the day gets away from you. Thirty seconds, just enough time to ask yourself, "How am I actually doing right now?" You don't have to wait until you're overwhelmed. 📱 Take Calming Anxiety With You Anywhere If you'd like this feeling again, come back tomorrow — and download Anchored on iOS. Access over 3,000 searchable, offline-ready audio sessions, sleep stories with Books at Bedtime, and built-in nightlight features for the small hours. 👉 Download Anchored on the App Store Today: https://apps.apple.com And if someone you love has been feeling unusually tense, irritable or simply not quite themselves, please share this episode with them. They may not need fixing — they just may need somewhere safe to put the weight down. If the show helps you, a 30-second rating and review on Apple Podcasts helps someone else find it. Be gentle today with who you are. You don't have to carry everything. Breathe, soften, come back to yourself. I'm Martin, I'll be here again tomorrow. Be kind. 👉 Click to subscribe and unlock ad-free episodes now! Support the Show: Ad-Free Listening: Enjoy Calming Anxiety without ads at https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/calming-anxiety--4110266/support Buy Me a Coffee: Support hosting costs at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/calminganxiety Newsletter: Subscribe on Substack at https://calminganxietypodcast.substack.com/?r=6zm0sc&utm_campaign=pub-share-checklist Rate & Review: Leave a 5-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to help us reach more listeners! YouTube: Watch all episodes at https://www.youtube.com/c/calmingReady for More Calm?Thank you for listening to the Calming Anxiety Podcast, featuring guided meditation, mindfulness, and sleep hypnosis sessions with Martin Hewlett. Our mission is to provide you with proven tools for anxiety relief, stress reduction, and a path toward deep relaxation. Use this episode anytime you need to calm your mind and feel more at ease.

   August 26, 2026·11min
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   Number 4: I Feel So Anxious Before Sleep - Night Time Meditation

   Can't Sleep Because It's Too Hot — Coherent Breathing for Hot Night Insomnia & Anxiety | Guided Sleep Meditation Anchored - The bespoke app from Calming Anxiety - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/anchored-panic-anxiety/id6785035669Can't sleep because it's too hot? You have turned the pillow over three times, the cool side lasted about forty seconds, and now your mind has decided the restlessness means something is wrong. It doesn't. This ten-minute guided sleep meditation is built for warm, balmy August nights when the body can't settle and anxiety fills the gap. Tonight's breath is coherent breathing — also known as resonant breathing or HRV breathing. Five seconds in, five seconds out, no holding and nothing forced. Martin calls it the still breath, because on a night like this everything else is moving and this is the one thing that isn't. Cool air arrives at the tip of the nose and leaves a little warmer, which means every out breath is quietly letting heat go. From there we settle the body the way it actually cools itself — feet out from under the covers, palms up, jaw unclenched — and move into a soft visualisation of silver-blue moonlight, the light of a night that has already begun to cool. Hosted by clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic Martin Hewlett. If you drift off before the end, good. That is success, not failure. ⏱️ Time Chapters * 00:00 – The cool side of the pillow: why hot nights feel like anxiety* 00:38 – Sponsored by Anchored* 01:10 – Welcome from Martin* 01:30 – Settling the body: feet out, palms up, jaw unclenched* 02:01 – Tonight's breath: coherent breathing, five in and five out* 05:08 – Visualisation: cool silver-blue moonlight* 05:56 – Today's gentle affirmations* 08:16 – Your three daily caring tips* 09:19 – Coming back gently* 10:26 – Share the show and sign-off 🌿 Today's Gentle Affirmations Repeat these wonderful words silently after me: I am safe, I am here, there is nothing to fear right now.My body knows how to cool itself, I do not have to manage it.Rest is enough and rest is already happening.I am heavy, I am cool and I am calm.Nothing needs to be decided before morning. 💡 3 Daily Caring Tips 1. Cool your wrists, not the whole room. Run cool water over the insides of your wrists for 30 seconds before bed. The blood vessels sit close to the surface there, and it lowers your core temperature faster than a cold shower will. 2. Turn the clock away from the bed. Do not look at it again tonight, so that your mind cannot keep recalculating how many hours are left. 3. Damp pillowcase and a fan. Lightly damp a cotton pillowcase, lay it over the pillow, and point the fan across it. The evaporation cools the air reaching your face all night without chilling the room. 📱 Take Calming Anxiety With You Anywhere If you wake in the night, Anchored is right there on your phone and it will pick up exactly where you left off — no searching, no bright screen, just my voice again from wherever you drifted away. Download Anchored on iOS. Access over 3,000 searchable, offline-ready audio sessions, sleep stories with Books at Bedtime, and built-in nightlight features for the small hours. 👉 Download Anchored on the App Store today: https://apps.apple.com If these ten minutes gave you relief tonight, please share the show with someone lying awake in the same heat, and leave a 30-second rating or review on Apple Podcasts. Sleep well when sleep comes. Rest well if it doesn't. Both are enough. I'll be right here with you again tomorrow, so in everything …be kind. 👉 Click to subscribe and unlock ad-free episodes now! Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee: Support hosting costs at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/calminganxiety Newsletter: Subscribe on Substack at https://calminganxietypodcast.substack.com/?r=6zm0sc&utm_campaign=pub-share-checklist Rate & Review: Leave a 5-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to help us reach more listeners! YouTube: Watch all episodes at https://www.youtube.com/c/calminganxiety?sub_confirmation=1 Social Media Support: For younger listeners struggling with social media stress, visit https://www.icanhelp.net/ Music: All music by Chris CollinsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/calming-anxiety-guided-meditation-sleep-hypnosis-panic-attack-relief--4110266/support.Ready for More Calm?Thank you for listening to the Calming Anxiety Podcast, featuring guided meditation, mindfulness, and sleep hypnosis sessions with Martin Hewlett. Our mission is to provide you with proven tools for anxiety relief, stress reduction, and a path toward deep relaxation. Use this episode anytime you need to calm your mind and feel more at ease.

   August 14, 2026·11min
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   Number 5: Books at Bedtime by Calming Anxiety - The Hound of the Baskervilles - Chapter 11

   Sleep Story for Insomnia — The Hound of the Baskervilles, Chapter 11: The Man on the Tor | Arthur Conan Doyle | Books at Bedtime A long, slow bedtime story for sleep and insomnia. Tonight, Chapter 11 of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, read aloud by Martin Hewlett — clinical hypnotherapist, former paramedic, and host of the Calming Anxiety podcast. It is the 18th of October, and Dr Watson finally has two threads to pull. A name behind the initials L. L. And a stranger living somewhere among the stone huts on the hillside. He drives to Coombe Tracey to sit across from Laura Lyons and ask her, gently at first and then not gently at all, about a letter that was burned but not quite burned enough. On the road home he is waylaid by old Frankland, flushed with victory and wine, who takes Watson up to his roof, sets his eye to a telescope, and shows him a small figure carrying a bundle across the empty moor. And so the sun goes down over the great Grimpen Mire, gold on one slope and grey shadow on the other, while Watson sits waiting in the dark of a stone hut for its tenant to come home. When the footsteps finally arrive, the voice that speaks is one he knows better than any voice in the world. This is unhurried, low-stimulation listening built for a mind that will not switch off. No sudden music, no startle, no urgency in the telling. Just a steady voice, a Victorian moor, and thirty minutes of somewhere else to be. If sleep comes before Watson lights his cigarette, that is exactly as it should be. You are not expected to reach the end. Best listened to lying down, with the lights out and the volume set a shade lower than feels right. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was first published in 1902 and is in the public domain. Books at Bedtime is part of the Calming Anxiety family of shows, alongside the daily 10-minute guided meditation and Coffee Break for the Soul. New sleep stories, guided meditations and clinical hypnotherapy sessions arrive every week. Anchored, the companion app to Calming Anxiety, arrives on iOS on the 13th of August 2026 — with a dedicated Books at Bedtime section, offline listening for the nights the signal drops, and a built-in nightlight for the small hours. If this reading helped you sleep, please pass it to someone who lies awake, and leave a 30-second rating or review on Apple Podcasts. It is the single kindest thing you can do to help another tired person find us. Sleep well… and be kind. 👉 Click to subscribe and unlock ad-free episodes now! Support the Show: Ad-Free Listening: Enjoy Calming Anxiety without ads at https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/calming-anxiety--4110266/support Buy Me a Coffee: Support hosting costs at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/calminganxiety Newsletter: Subscribe on Substack at https://calminganxietypodcast.substack.com/?r=6zm0sc&utm_campaign=pub-share-checklist Rate & Review: Leave a 5-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to help us reach more listeners! YouTube: Watch all episodes at https://www.youtube.com/c/calminganxiety?sub_confirmation=1 Social Media Support: For younger listeners struggling with social media stress, visit https://www.icanhelp.net/ Music: All music by Chris CollinsReady for More Calm?Thank you for listening to the Calming Anxiety Podcast, featuring guided meditation, mindfulness, and sleep hypnosis sessions with Martin Hewlett. Our mission is to provide you with proven tools for anxiety relief, stress reduction, and a path toward deep relaxation. Use this episode anytime you need to calm your mind and feel more at ease.

   August 10, 2026·31min
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