Which products are best for bedtime listening?According to a YouGov poll nearly half of us listen to music or podcasts to help us get to sleep and there are a range of products designed to do just that.Listener Nick has seen wearable sleep headbands with speakers woven in to the fabric which he hopes will stop him waking up in the middle of the night with headphones or earbuds digging into his ears.And listener David says his social media is promoting sleep bars that go under the pillow and claim to transmit sound via bone conduction.To find out more, Greg is joined by acoustic expert Professor Trevor Cox and Lecturer at the Surrey Sleep Research Centre, Ullrich Bartsch. They discuss the sound quality of these devices and whether it's a good idea to listen to music or podcasts at bedtime at all. Is there any evidence that it results in a good night's sleep?All our episodes start with YOUR suggestions. If you’ve seen an ad, trend or wonder product promising to make you happier, healthier or greener, email us at sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk OR send a voice note to our WhatsApp number, 07543 306807PRODUCERS: SIMON HOBAN AND GREG FOOTRESEARCHER: PHIL SANSOM

Which products are best for bedtime listening? According to a YouGov poll nearly half of us listen to music or podcasts to help us get to sleep and there are a range of products designed to do just that. Listener Nick has seen wearable sleep headbands with speakers woven in to the fabric which he hopes will stop him waking up in the middle of the night with headphones or earbuds digging into his ears. And listener David says his social media is promoting sleep bars that go under the pillow and claim to transmit sound via bone conduction. To find out more, Greg is joined by acoustic expert Professor Trevor Cox and Lecturer at the Surrey Sleep Research Centre, Ullrich Bartsch. They discuss the sound quality of these devices and whether it's a good idea to listen to music or podcasts at bedtime at all. Is there any evidence that it results in a good night's sleep? All our episodes start with YOUR suggestions. If you’ve seen an ad, trend or wonder product promising to make you happier, healthier or greener, email us at sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk OR send a voice note to our WhatsApp number, 07543 306807 PRODUCERS: SIMON HOBAN AND GREG FOOT RESEARCHER: PHIL SANSOM

Sleep Headbands and Sleep Bars

While Sliced Bread takes a break we serve up Toast. A study of the spectacular failures of brands which had promised so much to consumers. In each episode, the presenter and BBC business journalist Sean Farrington examines one big idea. What did it promise? Why did people back it? Why did they get burnt? Some of the world’s most successful businesses have also brought us some of the world’s most remarkable failures. So, what led them to be toast? And what can we learn from their stories today? Sean unpicks all the early optimism, hype and ambition. He learns about the tremendous success of a brand before hearing how it faltered, with help from expert commentators and people who were directly involved. How do they view things now and what, if anything, could have been done differently? The self-made millionaire and serial entrepreneur, Sam White, is alongside him, analysing the missteps that changed a brand’s fortunes and reaching her own, often instructive, conclusions. From big tech to high street retail and, of course, food, Toast tackles the business ideas that, one way or another, ended up cooked. Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in January, 2026. In the new series, Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Toast is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds. For this brand new series of Toast, episodes will be released weekly on Thursdays wherever you get your podcasts. But if you’re in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode on BBC Sounds first, a week earlier than anywhere else.Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4.

Health & Fitness

While Sliced Bread takes a break we serve up Toast. A study of the spectacular failures of brands which had promised so much to consumers. In each episode, the presenter and BBC business journalist Sean Farrington examines one big idea. What did it promise? Why did people back it? Why did they get burnt? Some of the world’s most successful businesses have also brought us some of the world’s most remarkable failures. So, what led them to be toast? And what can we learn from their stories today? Sean unpicks all the early optimism, hype and ambition. He learns about the tremendous success of a brand before hearing how it faltered, with help from expert commentators and people who were directly involved. How do they view things now and what, if anything, could have been done differently? The self-made millionaire and serial entrepreneur, Sam White, is alongside him, analysing the missteps that changed a brand’s fortunes and reaching her own, often instructive, conclusions. From big tech to high street retail and, of course, food, Toast tackles the business ideas that, one way or another, ended up cooked. Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in January, 2026. In the new series, Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Toast is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds. For this brand new series of Toast, episodes will be released weekly on Thursdays wherever you get your podcasts. But if you’re in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode on BBC Sounds first, a week earlier than anywhere else. Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4.

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Sleep Headbands and Sleep Bars

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