A bus at night (a sleep story), when you want to finish something — for winding down

Your ticket is on the seat beside you, already used. The bus stops and starts with a slow, heavy movement. A streetlight passes across the ceiling every few seconds.

You do not have to get off for another twenty minutes. There is a long stretch of road ahead with nothing on it. There are four other people downstairs and nobody up here.

Feel the weight of your head on the pillow. Your ankles can go loose now.

Feel your wrists loosen. Let the mattress take all of it.

You are on the top deck of the last bus, in the front seat, with the whole window to yourself. The city goes past below you, shopfronts and bus stops and people waiting for other buses.

Let your lower back sink down into the mattress. Let your tongue sit heavy in your mouth.

Your chest can be still now. Your jaw can drop slightly. Let your teeth part.

The heating comes through the floor and makes your feet warm. Outside, someone is walking a dog that does not want to be out.

Let your palms open if they were closed. Feel your cheeks let go.

The driver takes the corners slowly, as if the bus were full. The lights inside are the dim blue kind that buses use at night.

Let your ribs stop working so hard. Let your thighs be as heavy as they want to be.

There is a long stretch of road ahead with nothing on it. You do not have to get off for another twenty minutes.

Let everything you were holding today stay on the floor beside the bed. Your eyelids can be too heavy to open, and that is fine.

You are on the top deck of the last bus, in the front seat, with the whole window to yourself. The driver takes the corners slowly, as if the bus were full.

Your mind will leave about a hundred times. Come back about a hundred times. If you're irritated, that's allowed. Irritation is just weather.

Let your hands be completely still. Let your breathing get slower without deciding to slow it.

Nothing here needs following closely. Slower now.

Let the room get slightly further away. Let your breathing do the rest. Slower.

Sleep. Just the dark. Let it all get further away.

Wanting to finish something is a better motivation than wanting to relax.

There is nothing more to follow. Let the rest happen on its own.