Sleep story: a hotel room somewhere, when you feel restless rather than tired — for waking too early

The story, in full

The bathroom light is off, and the fan has finally stopped. There is a bottle of water on the bedside table with the cap already loosened. The air conditioning makes a low sound that you will stop noticing within a minute.

Nobody in this city knows where you are, and that is restful. The bed has been turned down, and the sheets are cool on the side you have not been lying on. The room is on the fourth floor, and the window looks out onto a street with one lit shop.

Your jaw can drop slightly. Let your teeth part. Let your forehead go cool and smooth.

Feel the top of your head relax into the pillow. Feel the back of your knees soften into the bed.

There is a small card on the desk with the breakfast times on it, which do not matter tonight. The pillow is slightly too soft, and you fold it in half, which fixes it.

Let your hands be completely still. Notice the places where your body touches the bed, and let them be heavy.

Let everything you were holding today stay on the floor beside the bed. Let the space between your eyebrows smooth out.

Your case is open on the luggage rack, half unpacked. The curtains are heavy and close properly, which is rarer than it should be.

Feel the weight of your head on the pillow. Feel the weight of the blanket on your legs.

A tram goes past below, and you hear it before you see it. The carpet is the colour of weak coffee and absorbs every sound.

Your eyelids can be too heavy to open, and that is fine. Let your forearms get heavy and warm.

There is a bottle of water on the bedside table with the cap already loosened. The bathroom light is off, and the fan has finally stopped.

Let the pillow take the whole weight of your head. Notice your hips, wide and settled.

The carpet is the colour of weak coffee and absorbs every sound. Your case is open on the luggage rack, half unpacked.

If you're irritated, that's allowed. Irritation is just weather. If you're sleepy, sit up a little. Or let the sleepiness be there.

Feel your belly rise and fall without any help from you. Now feel your whole body at once, lying here, being held up.

Let each breath be a little smaller than the last. Just the weight.

You do not have to count them. Almost nothing to do now. Nothing needs deciding tonight.

Let the next part go past without you. Leave it there. You can stop listening properly.

Restless is different from tired, and it needs a different approach.

Let the words go now, and take the quiet with you.

21 paragraphs, roughly 4 minutes read slowly aloud. Written for travel, anonymous.