I use the Headspace app and the annual fee (you can do it monthly as well) is worth every penny and then some.

For years I turned my nose up when anyone suggested meditation. And then finally when I was in a very sad place after my husband passed, out of desperation really, I tried meditation. I can't tell you how much this has helped. I find that even doing a 3 minute meditation helps. And like you, the few times I've used it for sleep, I feel asleep before it was over :-)

Give insighttimer a try. There are lots of free meditations available (as well as paid courses). I like the calming voice of Andrew Johnson. He's a Scot . I've listened to his 30 minute Deep Sleep Meditation multiple times but have never heard it to the end as somewhere along the line I fall asleep.. There are other presenters too. When you find a voice/meditation you like, you can bookmark it. Initially I tried lots of them, mainly pursuing the content only if the voice appealed to me. I now have several bookmarked and that's enough for me.

I also really like Jennifer Piercy. She has some sessions on Insighttimer but I really like the one below from youtube. I downloaded it onto my phone and alternate it with the Andrew Johnson one I mentioned above.

I'm not a serious meditator but I do find them relaxing. - June

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH7dVCXo5Ro

@User, you might like listening to this episode of the How I Built This podcast. Guy Raz interviews the two guys who developed Headspace. I thought it was very interesting!

Thank you, bbstx!!!!

Headspace is offering a few free meditations and sleep sounds right now. It was meant to be for New Yorkers but it seems anyone can use them. Maybe some of these will be helpful for you. I haven't tried the meditations yet but have used a few of the sleep sounds.

https://www.headspace.com/ny

I signed up with Calm about a year ago when they were doing a free subscription. I think they offer the app for free every few months. I initially found the free deal on slickdeals.net. I just took a peek over there and found that the app was also offered for free two months ago. They also had 60% off a lifetime membership in December. My guess is if you hold out just a bit, you might be able to find a deal on it.

I really love Sarah Blondin's voice and cadence. She does, or did, the introductory course (free) on Insight Timer. Not sure if that's still the case. But you can also find some of her meditations online for free. Just Google her name. Something about her makes me feel completely at peace.

Here are a couple of sources for free guided meditations. The styles are quite different from each other.

UCLA Health

Chopra Center

Also, if you happen to have Spotify, there are plenty of guided meditations to be found there.

I also use Buddify. But not often enough!

I've enjoyed and have recommended meditation oasis podcasts frequently.

https://www.meditationoasis.com/podcast

Also Jon Kabat-Zinn, the guy who founded mindfulness based stress reduction or mbsr out of UMass is now offering a daily meditation which is then made available through youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jon+kabat-zinn+live+stream

Also headspace is included with weight watchers ...

Also youtube is full of free online meditations which you can parse by time.

Another thing I didn't know is that with an iphone, you can set the timer to ring after a certain amount of time or you can set it to turn off your phone after a certain amount of time. I find the latter helpful for when I want to listen to something that I know will put me to sleep and don't want to leave the phone playing all night long.

@bbstx, thank you for the Amex info. I've wanted to try Calm, but I never wanted to spend the money. With your info, I was able to sign up for the free year! That's a worthy trial period to see if I will actual use it.

Fun2B, I used it last night to go to sleep and fell sound asleep before I heard the end of the story. Then I woke up in the middle of the night and flipped over to the app. On the screen was “woke up in the middle of the night?”

$70/yr would not make me CALM when I can watch a babbling brook on YouTube for free.