Sleep story · quiet, books
A library at closing time (a sleep story), before you go back to something hard — for a night when you do not want to think
The last hour, when the lights go down row by row.
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 reading room you are in has one lamp left on, and it is the one above your table. The air smells of paper, dust and floor polish. The library closed twenty minutes ago, and the staff are working along the far shelves, switching off sections.
Someone is pushing a trolley two rows away, and you can hear each wheel separately. There is a trolley of returned books beside the desk, waiting to be put back. Your own book is heavy in your hands, and you have stopped reading it.
Feel one shoulder go heavy, then the other. Let your shoulder blades spread out and drop.
Your ankles can go loose now. Let the space between your eyebrows smooth out.
The carpet has flattened every sound in the building down to nothing. The last of the day's light is going out of the high windows.
Let your thumbs rest where they landed. Notice the places where your body touches the bed, and let them be heavy.
Your eyelids can be too heavy to open, and that is fine. Notice your hips, wide and settled.
The clock above the door is the old kind, with a second hand that moves in small jumps. A book lies open on the next table, face down, which is technically not allowed.
If you're judging your performance, that's the same habit as judging everything else. If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure.
Let your tongue sit heavy in your mouth. Feel your wrists loosen.
They will find their own way out. Let your breathing do the rest.
Let the next part go past without you. Just the breath. Let the quiet be boring.
Five minutes here is cheaper than an hour of grinding.
I will stop here. The quiet will carry on without the words.
14 paragraphs, roughly 2 minutes read slowly aloud. Written for quiet, books.
If this story does not settle you, try A lighthouse at the end of a long day — a slow story for the end of the day, when you need something unremarkable — for a racing mind, A garden in the rain (a sleep story), when you are too tired to try hard — for jet lag or A field under snow (a sleep story), before something difficult — for winding down.