Sleep story · travel, anonymous
Sleep story: a bus at night, when you are on your own — for the hours after a late shift
Upper deck, front seat, a city going past that you do not have to join.
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
Your ticket is on the seat beside you, already used. There are four other people downstairs and nobody up here. The bus stops and starts with a slow, heavy movement.
You are on the top deck of the last bus, in the front seat, with the whole window to yourself. Outside, someone is walking a dog that does not want to be out. The heating comes through the floor and makes your feet warm.
Notice how much of you has already stopped moving. Your chest can be still now.
Feel the weight of the blanket on your legs. Let the mattress take all of it.
The lights inside are the dim blue kind that buses use at night. A streetlight passes across the ceiling every few seconds.
Your elbows can stop being hinges for now. Let your hands be completely still.
Your mind will leave about a hundred times. Come back about a hundred times. If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure.
Feel your heels sink a little into the mattress. Feel the weight of your head on the pillow.
Stay with the weight of your body. Follow the breath out, and let the next one arrive by itself.
Just the weight. Let it all get further away. Let the room get slightly further away.
Being on your own is not required, but it does make this simpler.
I will stop here. The quiet will carry on without the words.
12 paragraphs, roughly 2 minutes read slowly aloud. Written for travel, anonymous.