Sleep story · quiet, books
A library at closing time, when you have been on screens all day — for jet lag
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. Someone is pushing a trolley two rows away, and you can hear each wheel separately. The clock above the door is the old kind, with a second hand that moves in small jumps.
The windows are dark enough now to reflect the room back at you. The air smells of paper, dust and floor polish. The carpet has flattened every sound in the building down to nothing.
Your ankles can go loose now. Let your shoulder blades spread out and drop.
Let your tongue sit heavy in your mouth. Notice how much of you has already stopped moving.
Your own book is heavy in your hands, and you have stopped reading it. Everything here will still be here tomorrow.
Let your forehead go cool and smooth. Feel the weight of your head on the pillow.
Let everything you were holding today stay on the floor beside the bed. Let your toes stop holding on to anything.
There is a trolley of returned books beside the desk, waiting to be put back. The last of the day's light is going out of the high windows.
If your body wants to move, let it move, then come back. If your mind is quiet, don't grab at it. Quiet comes and goes too.
Let your thumbs rest where they landed. Let your feet get heavy first. Heavier than they need to be.
Leave it there. Slower now.
You do not have to count them. Softer. Let your breathing do the rest.
After a day of screens, the eyes and the shoulders need this first.
Let the words go now, and take the quiet with you.
14 paragraphs, roughly 2 minutes read slowly aloud. Written for quiet, books.
If this story does not settle you, try A kitchen late at night — a slow story for the end of the day, if you have done this a hundred times — for jet lag, The house after everyone is asleep — a slow story for the end of the day, when you are waiting for something — for a night when you do not want to think or A lake before dawn (a sleep story), after a long day — for an overtired night.