Sleep story · rain, green
Sleep story: a garden in the rain, when you cannot concentrate on anything else — for the hours after a late shift
Steady rain on leaves, and a chair under an awning that stays dry.
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 rain on the roof of the awning is a lower sound than the rain on the leaves. Somewhere in the hedge, a bird is sitting it out. There is nothing to do about any of it, which is the good part.
The earth smells the way it does after a long dry spell. Under the awning it is dry, and the sound is a steady, unhurried patter. There is a wooden bench that nobody has sat on for an hour.
Notice the places where your body touches the bed, and let them be heavy. Notice how much of you has already stopped moving.
Let your calves spread out and flatten. Now feel your whole body at once, lying here, being held up.
The leaves in the border are dark and glossy and moving slightly. Water runs off the gutter in a thin, continuous line.
Let the space between your eyebrows smooth out. Your chest can be still now.
Let your toes stop holding on to anything. Your ankles can go loose now.
The watering can by the tap is full and nobody needs it. The rain has settled into the kind that will last all afternoon without getting heavier.
Notice the difference between a thought and the space around it. Notice any part of you that wants this to be over.
Feel one shoulder go heavy, then the other. Your fingers can stop doing anything at all.
You can stop listening properly. Follow the breath out, and let the next one arrive by itself.
They will find their own way out. Nothing here needs following closely. Let it all get further away.
When concentration is gone, work with what is left.
That is the end of the story. Sleep is the next part, and it does not need instructions.
14 paragraphs, roughly 2 minutes read slowly aloud. Written for rain, green.
If this story does not settle you, try A lake before dawn, when you are at home and cannot settle — for the hours after a late shift, Sleep story: a field under snow, when you want to finish something — for winding down or The night train, after a difficult conversation — for a night when you do not want to think.