For many of us, the Highway Code is something we haven’t opened since the week before our driving theory test and even then, we probably skim-read half of it, with one eye on the hazard-perception clips. In fact, a 2024 study found that more than half of drivers haven’t read the Highway Code since passing their test. Despite it being the essential guide for anyone who uses the road, it’s rarely dusted off, read, or even glanced at by most drivers.
And honestly? We can’t blame anyone. Important, yes, but it’s not exactly a page-turner. Arguably, reading about motorway merging or the correct classification of a pelican crossing has roughly the same stimulating effect as counting sheep in a dimly lit room – it’s sleep-inducingly boring!
This sparked a thought – if the Highway Code is boring enough to send us to sleep… why not make that the point?
Introducing: The Highway Code: Bedtime Story
Most of us will have heard tales of people learning languages or revising for exams while dozing off with headphones on.
And while nobody is promising that a full night’s sleep will turn you into the perfect parallel parker, there is science behind the idea that your brain takes on simple information as you drift off (scroll down for more science to back this).
That’s why we’re proud to launch the Highway Code: Bedtime Story audiobook – the first-ever bedtime story designed especially for drivers!
Read by iconic Top Gear and Fifth Gear motoring presenter Vicki Butler-Henderson, the audiobook transforms the famously dry rules of the road into a soothing, sleep-inducing nighttime narration.
Vicki’s soft, slow, bedtime-story reading gently guides listeners through every yawn-inducing rule of the book – from motorway lane discipline to how zebra crossings differ from pelican crossings. It’s the same Highway Code you know… just now it’s the perfect nighttime companion.
You can listen to the Highway Code: Bedtime Story right now on the following platforms:
It’s free, calming, and might just be the most productive sleep of your life!
Vicki Butler-Henderson, who is renowned for her genuine passion for getting people excited about driving (in addition to her race driving, car testing and no-nonsense commentary), relished at the quirky approach to presenting The Highway Code.
“In addition to my adrenalin-fuelled career testing cars and racing them, I also have the utmost appreciation for the rules of the road,” Vicki explains. “It is paramount that we all know what they are, in order to keep us as safe as possible. Turning the Highway Code into something calming, and oddly soothing, appealed to my inner geek.”
“And whilst the code may not be the most page-turning of thrillers, this bedtime-story format will (hopefully!) remove any potential boredom to learning it. Even if listeners take in just a few snippets as they nod off, that will be a very good thing.”
And it seems the UK could do with this unlikely sleep aid. Recent YouGov data reveals that as many as 58% of British drivers struggle to get a restful night’s sleep. We also found that 1 in 10 already listen to podcasts as they fall asleep and a further 36% regularly play sounds at bedtime, making Brits a ripe audience for an audio bedtime story.
Hypnagogic Learning: How Do We Learn as We Fall Asleep?
The concept of hypnagogic learning, which leverages the fuzzy state between wakefulness and sleep to help consolidate learning, is widely studied. For instance, this study published in the Journal of Neuroscience found how the brain practices new tasks while we sleep through a phenomenon known as “replay” that occurs during sleep. Scientists believe that this replay of neuronal firing during sleep is how the brain practices newly learned information, which allows a memory to be consolidated, or in more layman’s terms, converted from a short-term memory to a long-term one.
To understand more about our abilities to learn while nodding off, we spoke to a sleep expert. Dr Deborah Lee from Dr Fox Online Pharmacy, explains that although you won’t be able to learn a new language or assimilate new facts purely from listening to a podcast or audiobook while asleep, there may be some subconscious information acquired just before you drift off: “Sleep studies show that some types of learning can be achieved in the hypnagogic state. Results have demonstrated that the brain is not in the correct state of functional connectivity to create new long term memory during sleep. However, during slow wave sleep, specific ‘up’ and ‘down’ brain wave phases have been identified. The ‘up’ phases are periods of intense neuronal activity, and these could be compatible with learning.”
“We know that information gathered by the brain when we are awake, is stored in the brain overnight while we sleep, strengthening memory,” Dr Lee adds. “The hippocampus – which plays a major role in memory – is even more active when asleep than awake. We also know that if you play sounds to the brain during REM sleep, EEG brain waves show recognition of these sounds when they are played to the person when awake the next morning.”
Dr Lee emphasises how audiobooks are still beneficial for learning, in that they can help you relax, switch off worrying thoughts and lower your stress levels, ultimately helping you drift off to sleep. “Studies show that listening to white noise can lower night-time arousals,” she says. “Rather than go out and buy a noise machine, you might as well use your phone and listen to a background noise that’s interesting. The key is to choose a topic that’s not going to upset you.”
Could this mean The Highway Code: Bedtime Story is the perfect sleep aid? Dr Lee seem to think so: “As we become engaged in a story, it helps switch off our negative thoughts and worries, and allows us to use our imagination,” she says. “This directly lowers stress by lowering the sympathetic nervous system (the ‘fight, fright and flight’ system), and activating the parasympathetic nervous system which is vital for relaxation and sleep.”
She adds: “As a medical student and a doctor always taking medical exams, I found learning in the evening, and just before bedtime, gave me the best results. I would take a crib sheet into bed, go through it just before turning the lights off, and look at it again first thing on waking up. I felt that if I ‘slept on it,’ it would help my memory. I literally put my crib sheet under my pillow! I followed that pattern throughout my medical career, believing sleep helped me to learn.”
Sweet Dreams, Safe Driving – Listen Now on Spotify & YouTube
Whether it’s collaborating with fashion designers to create clothing accessories from old seatbelts to discovering which podcasts and radio shows are the most distracting, our aim is to encourage safer driving across Britain. And this time, we’ve swapped scrapping cars for creating bedtime stories.
Whether you’re a new driver or someone who can’t remember the last time you checked what the colours on a Smart Motorway sign mean, The Highway Code: Bedtime Story is a gentle nudge to revisit the basics, with just the right amount of boredom.
Vicki Butler-Henderson agrees: “If there’s one thing I’d love people to take away, it’s that road safety isn’t something we should learn once and forget – it’s something we need to keep topping up. And if you can do that while relaxing at the end of the day, even better.”
So, fluff your pillows, dim the lights, and get ready for the sleep aid you never knew you needed: none other than the Highway Code.
Listen now on the following platforms:
Behind the Scenes: Inside Vicki’s ‘Bedroom’ at the University Arms Cambridge
To bring our bedtime story to life, we headed to the beautiful University Arms hotel in Cambridge, whose elegant décor and cosy, characterful rooms offered the perfect backdrop for transforming the Highway Code into a bedtime story.
The hotel’s relaxed, luxurious atmosphere set exactly the right tone for a campaign built around winding down, switching off and drifting gently to sleep – making it the ideal setting for Vicki’s dreamy ‘bedroom’ for the day.
Copyright notice and sources:
We accessed The Highway Code through the Open Government Licence, which allows anyone to use, share, and adapt the content of The Highway Code freely. The Highway Code is provided by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and is protected under the Crown Copyright. We also sought official approval for the use of The Highway Code for this project from The Department of Transport, which they granted, but they stressed how the project does not include any official status, endorsement, or affiliation with the Department for Transport or its agencies.
YouGov survey (representative of respondents in Great Britain) – compiled using data from 30/11/2025
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