Sleep story · quiet, home
Sleep story: the house after everyone is asleep, when you want to be left alone — for an overtired night
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 a chair by the window that nobody sits in during the day. The lamp beside you is the only light left on in the whole house. A glass of water sits on the table, half finished.
The clock in the hallway ticks slightly behind the one in the kitchen. There is nothing left on the list for today. Outside, a car goes past and its headlights sweep across the ceiling, then are gone.
Let everything you were holding today stay on the floor beside the bed. Let your forehead go cool and smooth.
Let your forearms get heavy and warm. Let the space between your eyebrows smooth out.
Everything in the room is exactly where it was left. The radiator clicks once as it cools down.
Feel the top of your head relax into the pillow. Let your thighs be as heavy as they want to be.
Your eyelids can be too heavy to open, and that is fine. Your fingers can stop doing anything at all.
The fridge hums on and off in the kitchen, and that is the loudest thing in the building. The curtains are not quite closed, and there is a thin line of streetlight along the wall.
If you feel numb, that's a valid thing to feel. Nothing to fix. Notice how you're sitting. Adjust if you need to. Then settle again.
Notice the places where your body touches the bed, and let them be heavy. Let your lower back sink down into the mattress.
Slower now. Softer.
Let them. They will find their own way out. Just the breath.
Nothing here asks anything of you socially.
Let this be the last thing you listen to.
14 paragraphs, roughly 2 minutes read slowly aloud. Written for quiet, home.
If this story does not settle you, try A bus at night (a sleep story), when you need to stop thinking about work — for a night when you do not want to think, The night train, if you are new to this — for the hours after a late shift or A hotel room somewhere — a slow story for the end of the day, when you have just finished work — for a racing mind.