Spotify reveals Brits are listening to podcasts later at night

We’ve all turned to podcasts over the last year as we looked to escape the inevitable boredom of the various lockdowns in the UK. But Spotify revealed on Monday that late-night podcast listening has increased by 22% compared to pre-pandemic levels.

People in the UK are using podcasts for what’s been dubbed ‘revenge bedtime procrastination’. It seems people are putting off their sleep with some late night podcast listening.

The late-night hours are classed as between mignight-6am. The biggest increase in late-night podcast streaming was by women aged 25-44 (a rise of 32% over the past few months).  Content about religion and spirituality has seen the biggest bump in that overnight period.

It seems listeners are keen to get their podcast fixes in, even if that means turning into night owls. But there has also been a reported rise in insomnia in the January to April lockdown. Perhaps people are tuning to podcasts to help them drop off to sleep, with bedtime podcasts for both children and adults, such as Your Floating Bed, Wake Up/Wind Down and Nothing Much Happens.

Spotify monitored listening from January 2021 to April 2021, taking into account the third lockdown period in the UK.