Sleep story · warm, winter
Sleep story: a fire dying down, when you are not sure this will work — for winding down
The last hour of a fire, when it stops being a fire and becomes warmth.
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
There is a blanket over your legs that you did not consciously arrange. Somewhere in the house, a door closes and everything goes quiet again. The ash in the grate is deep and soft and grey at the edges.
The heat reaches about a metre from the fire and stops. The logs beside the fireplace are down to the last two. The room has gone darker than you noticed, and the light is all low and orange.
Let the pillow take the whole weight of your head. Let your thighs be as heavy as they want to be.
Feel your wrists loosen. Let the back of your neck lengthen out.
Every few minutes a piece of wood falls in on itself with a small collapse of sparks. The fire will be out in half an hour and nobody needs to watch it happen.
Notice your hips, wide and settled. Your jaw can drop slightly. Let your teeth part.
Let your calves spread out and flatten. Let your thumbs rest where they landed.
The dog is asleep on the rug, on the side nearest the heat. There is a smell of woodsmoke in the room that will still be there tomorrow.
If your mind is quiet, don't grab at it. Quiet comes and goes too. Notice if you're being hard on yourself about any of this.
Feel your heartbeat somewhere far away. Let everything you were holding today stay on the floor beside the bed.
Softer. Let the room get slightly further away.
Let the quiet be boring. Let each breath be a little smaller than the last. Let your breathing do the rest.
Not being sure it will work is a perfectly good reason to try it once.
No more sentences. Just the weight of you in the bed.
14 paragraphs, roughly 2 minutes read slowly aloud. Written for warm, winter.
If this story does not settle you, try A lighthouse at the end of a long day (a sleep story), when you have woken up too early — for waking too early, A bus at night, when the day has been loud — for a racing mind or Sleep story: a fire dying down, when you feel restless rather than tired — for jet lag.