The cure for insomnia might just be Vicki Butler-Henderson reading the Highway Code

The nation’s most neglected rulebook has been reborn as a bedtime audiobook, with Vicki Butler-Henderson swapping supercars for snoozing alarms.

Simon Hancocks

13 Feb 2026

Vicky Butler Henderson reading the Highway Code = snoozefest

If there is one thing capable of lulling even the most stubborn insomniac into a peaceful slumber, it might just be Vicki Butler-Henderson softly reciting the finer points of The Highway Code.

Yes, really. The nation’s most famously thumbed-once-then-forgotten rulebook has been reborn as a bedtime audiobook, thanks to Scrap Car Comparison. The thinking behind the audiobook is that if drivers refuse to read it while they are awake, they may as well absorb it while unconscious.

Available now across the usual streaming haunts, including Spotify and YouTube, The Highway Code: Bedtime Story leans fully into the text’s reputation for being about as gripping as a tax return. Rather than attempting to jazz up stopping distances or lane discipline, the audiobook apparently embraces the monotony, turning it into a feature that is basically automotive white noise.

And while it may seem like a joke, there is some scientific logic behind the move. Research suggests that more than half of drivers have not opened the Code since scraping through their theory test, while many already rely on audio to help them drift off. The result is a curious mash-up of road safety and sleep hygiene, underpinned by the idea that the brain continues to process information even while we sleep. Whether you will wake up suddenly fluent in road markings and rights of way remains to be seen, but it has to be better for your road sense than an eight-hour-long audio file of an oscillating desk fan!

Butler-Henderson, better known as one of the longest-serving presenters of the TV show Fifth Gear, admitted the recording process required a complete change of pace. Reading in what she describes as the “softest, slowest voice” she could muster even left her feeling a little drowsy at times, which is, after all, the point of all this.