The Sleeping World: Poolside Naps with an Asian Elephant

By: Mumble Media, Audible Sleep

Narrated by: Cynthia Kimola

Wind down by escaping into nature. Part soundscape and part bedtime story, The Sleeping World is an intimate journey through ecologies around the world.

Elephants are the largest land animals in the world. They are also intensely social and have advanced long-term memories. In this episode, a parade of Asian elephants makes its way through the Sri Lankan forest to a lake for drinks and mud baths, stopping periodically for group naps. The female leading the parade uses infrasonic rumbles—inaudible to humans, but traveling as far as two miles along the surface of the Earth as seismic waves—to invite friends and family around the forest to join her at the reservoir.

This is the world in its natural state, defined by seasons, routines, and cycles. By the time the elephants are done socializing, covered in fresh mud, and ready to doze again, you’ll be ready to doze too.

Produced by Audible and Mumble Media
Written by Sarah Craig
Narrated by Cynthia Kimola
Executive Producers for Mumble Media: Cara Ehlenfeldt and Jake Young
Executive Producer for Audible: Anna Stitt
Sound Design and Mix: Mumble Media
The Mumble Media team is Jaymeson Catsouphes, Cara Ehlenfeldt, Chester Gwazda, Liz Mak, Lee Mengistu, Renée Vargas, and Jake Young
Asian Elephant Consultant: Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando
Fact-Checker: Andrea López-Cruzado
Head of Creative Development at Audible: Kate Navin
Chief Content Officer at Audible: Rachel Ghiazza

Available in Dolby Atmos on Audible.

©2025 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2025 Audible Originals, LLC

Her voice is impeccable

9/10 I fall asleep within minutes; when I didn’t sleep right away I learned so much about elephants!

Soft and soothing. It’s having a friendly informative story read to you at bedtime.

I look forward a peaceful end of the day and listening to the story of my choice.

very well done

I love all the sleep stories and the narration! I wish they would produce more, I'd buy them.

I'm sound asleep in 10 minutes.

The narrator has a soothing voice. I drift off in 10 minutes and never learn how the story ends. Each book is a short description of natural history. It makes for very nice dreams when your mind tries to replay the day's events. It also makes nice white noise. In this story, nine elephants in shirlanka take a bath with some water buffalo. You will learn about the animals and geography of shrilanka.

very interesting

I love this whole series. it's very interesting. But , although the narrator's voice is very soothing, I find that her accent is sometimes difficult to understand.