Sleep story · quiet, home
Sleep story: the house after everyone is asleep, if you are doing this in the middle of the day — for the hours after a late shift
The hour when the house belongs to nobody and nothing needs doing.
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 nothing left on the list for today. There is a chair by the window that nobody sits in during the day. Outside, a car goes past and its headlights sweep across the ceiling, then are gone.
Everyone went to bed an hour ago, and the house has stopped making the sounds it makes during the day. Everything in the room is exactly where it was left. A glass of water sits on the table, half finished.
Your eyelids can be too heavy to open, and that is fine. Let the pillow take the whole weight of your head.
Let your breathing get slower without deciding to slow it. Let the space between your eyebrows smooth out.
The fridge hums on and off in the kitchen, and that is the loudest thing in the building. The floorboards have stopped creaking because nobody is walking on them.
Feel your heartbeat somewhere far away. Feel the weight of your head on the pillow.
Your mind will leave about a hundred times. Come back about a hundred times. If you're counting the minutes, that's fine. Count them and come back.
Feel the back of your knees soften into the bed. Let everything you were holding today stay on the floor beside the bed.
Nothing here needs following closely. Let each breath be a little smaller than the last.
Let the room get slightly further away. Let them. Slower.
Midday is an underrated time for this.
Let everything get quiet, including this.
12 paragraphs, roughly 2 minutes read slowly aloud. Written for quiet, home.
If this story does not settle you, try A garden in the rain — a slow story for the end of the day, when you have just finished work — for a night when you do not want to think, The night train (a sleep story), when you want to finish something — for waking too early or Sleep story: the house after everyone is asleep, when you want something simple — for winding down.