Sleep story · travel, anonymous
Sleep story: a bus at night, when you have woken up too early — for an overtired night
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
The lights inside are the dim blue kind that buses use at night. You do not have to get off for another twenty minutes. A streetlight passes across the ceiling every few seconds.
Outside, someone is walking a dog that does not want to be out. You are on the top deck of the last bus, in the front seat, with the whole window to yourself. The heating comes through the floor and makes your feet warm.
Let your palms open if they were closed. Your ankles can go loose now.
Feel the top of your head relax into the pillow. Feel your heels sink a little into the mattress.
Your ticket is on the seat beside you, already used. There is a long stretch of road ahead with nothing on it.
Your eyelids can be too heavy to open, and that is fine. Let the mattress take all of it.
If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure. If you're judging your performance, that's the same habit as judging everything else.
Feel the back of your knees soften into the bed. Feel the weight of your head on the pillow.
Just the dark. Let the room get slightly further away.
You can stop listening properly. You do not have to count them. Let the breath be the only thing you are doing.
Waking too early is a specific kind of frustrating. This helps with the frustration.
The end. Sleep well.
12 paragraphs, roughly 2 minutes read slowly aloud. Written for travel, anonymous.
If this story does not settle you, try The night train, A hotel room somewhere, when you are too tired to try hard — for the hours after a late shift or The night train — a slow story for the end of the day, if you are fitting this around other people — for a night when you do not want to think.