The woman who puts America to sleep

Nov. 14, 2025 | Katherine Laidlaw

Kathryn Nicolai has built an empire telling bedtime stories to grown-ups

Kathryn Nicolai has gotten really, really good at putting people to sleep. Getting a good night’s sleep has always been something of a superpower for her, so it’s only natural that she built a business around helping other people do it too.

“I always say, I sleep like it’s my job,” she says, laughing.

Nicolai describes herself as an architect of coziness. Her office, with its enormous lounge chair and dangling mobiles and strings of fairy lights, is practically a temple to the feeling.

“If I can make any part of my life feel softer or cuter, I’m going to do it,” she says.

Once a yoga teacher, Nicolai is now the founder of the Nothing Much Happens empire, a podcast, book, and general storytelling machine that helps put millions of Americans to sleep as quickly as possible.

But how did a business based on telling bedtime stories to adults take off?