Sleep story · travel, anonymous
A hotel room somewhere (a sleep story), when you have tried everything else — for jet lag
A room you did not choose, in a city you do not have to know.
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
The carpet is the colour of weak coffee and absorbs every sound. There is a bottle of water on the bedside table with the cap already loosened. The curtains are heavy and close properly, which is rarer than it should be.
The pillow is slightly too soft, and you fold it in half, which fixes it. There is a small card on the desk with the breakfast times on it, which do not matter tonight. The room is on the fourth floor, and the window looks out onto a street with one lit shop.
Feel the top of your head relax into the pillow. Your fingers can stop doing anything at all.
Let the mattress take all of it. Let your thumbs rest where they landed.
The bathroom light is off, and the fan has finally stopped. Your case is open on the luggage rack, half unpacked.
Feel the weight of your head on the pillow. Feel your cheeks let go.
Let your feet get heavy first. Heavier than they need to be. Let your breathing get slower without deciding to slow it.
The air conditioning makes a low sound that you will stop noticing within a minute. Nobody in this city knows where you are, and that is restful.
Notice any tension that arrived while you weren't looking. Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill.
Feel your heartbeat somewhere far away. Notice how much of you has already stopped moving.
Let it all get further away. Let the breath be the only thing you are doing.
Slower now. Nothing needs deciding tonight. Just the dark.
This assumes you have already tried the obvious things.
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 travel, anonymous.
If this story does not settle you, try Sleep story: a garden in the rain, when you are doing this for the first time — for waking too early, Sleep story: a bus at night, on a low-energy afternoon — for an overtired night or Sleep story: a lighthouse at the end of a long day, when you are somewhere unfamiliar — for a racing mind.