Sleep story · rain, green
A garden in the rain, when you want to finish something — for the hours after a late shift
Steady rain on leaves, and a chair under an awning that stays dry.
Lights off. Press begin and let the story read itself to you, at the pace of sleep.
Screen on or off — we suggest dimming it, or simply closing your eyes after the first paragraph.
The story, in full
Under the awning it is dry, and the sound is a steady, unhurried patter. There is nothing to do about any of it, which is the good part. The path has gone darker where it is wet, and there are two small puddles near the step.
The rain has settled into the kind that will last all afternoon without getting heavier. There is a wooden bench that nobody has sat on for an hour. Somewhere in the hedge, a bird is sitting it out.
Let your toes stop holding on to anything. Let your upper arms fall wherever gravity puts them.
Notice your hips, wide and settled. Feel your heartbeat somewhere far away.
The rain on the roof of the awning is a lower sound than the rain on the leaves. Water runs off the gutter in a thin, continuous line.
Let the back of your neck lengthen out. Let your forearms get heavy and warm.
Notice how much of you has already stopped moving. Now feel your whole body at once, lying here, being held up.
A snail is making its way along the bottom of the wall, going nowhere in particular. The leaves in the border are dark and glossy and moving slightly.
Notice any urge to check something. You can wait two more minutes. Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill.
Let your feet get heavy first. Heavier than they need to be. Your eyelids can be too heavy to open, and that is fine.
You can stop listening properly. Almost nothing to do now.
Slower. The words can start to blur now. Just the breath.
Wanting to finish something is a better motivation than wanting to relax.
That is the end of the story. Sleep is the next part, and it does not need instructions.
14 paragraphs, roughly 2 minutes read slowly aloud. Written for rain, green.
If this story does not settle you, try The house after everyone is asleep, if you are tired of apps — for a night when you do not want to think, A lake before dawn, when the weather has kept you inside — for the hours after a late shift or A kitchen late at night (a sleep story), when you have been on screens all day — for a racing mind.