Two childhood friends from Bradford are hoping Peppo and Frew will help wailing babies at bedtime become a thing of the past.

The young ducklings are the brainchild of Annie Heyes and Josie Wood, and feature on a CD to help children nod off at night-time.

The pair, who first met at Woodhouse Grove School 25 years ago, have given up their jobs and invested £3,000 each to establish Sounds Dreamy Ltd.

Mrs Heyes, a former child care worker, and Mrs Wood, a trained counsellor, have spent a year devising the characters for the CD.

As well as the ducklings, the two 41-year-olds have created The Hugwood Kangaroos, Bingo, Meadow and Flute, who feature on a separate CD.

The duo have written the stories for the two 40-minute tales, which are made up of narrative, poetry and nursery rhymes.

They provide all the narrative and voices and spent weeks in a studio putting the tales together.

Mrs Heyes, of Bolton Abbey, and Mrs Wood, of Addingham, have produced 2,000 copies of the stories, which were launched earlier this month.

Mrs Heyes said sales had started positively and the pair were hoping for real success over the festive season.

"We'd been talking about setting up our own business for a while and just felt with this idea there was a real niche in the market," she said.

"We think the format we have taken for this venture is unique as it actively encourages sleep.

"Josie has two children of her own and has often said how difficult it has been over the years getting them to drop off at night."

Mrs Heyes said the stories are set with the characters getting ready for bed to help youngsters relax for sleep.

"We feel the stories have got a great calming effect," she said.

"What we've done is started the narrative at a quick tempo to engage the children and progressively it gets slower and slower taking the tempo down and down until eventually the tale takes up a form of meditation.

"The tales are one complete story 40 minutes long but youngsters can skip them on to their favourite poem or song."

The business partners also enlisted the help of artist Simone Abel to illustrate the characters for the covers of the CDs.

The Ducklings CD is aimed at children aged one to four and the tale of The Hugwood Kangaroos is suitable for three to six-year-olds.

For further information and copies of the CDs, which cost £12.99, visit www.soundsdreamy.com or e-mail info@soundsdreamy.com.