Sleep story · quiet, home
The house after everyone is asleep (a sleep story), when you have been meaning to start — for a night when you do not want to think
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
Everything in the room is exactly where it was left. There is nothing left on the list for today. There is a chair by the window that nobody sits in during the day.
Everyone went to bed an hour ago, and the house has stopped making the sounds it makes during the day. A glass of water sits on the table, half finished. The curtains are not quite closed, and there is a thin line of streetlight along the wall.
Let your tongue sit heavy in your mouth. Your jaw can drop slightly. Let your teeth part.
Feel the back of your knees soften into the bed. Let your thumbs rest where they landed.
The clock in the hallway ticks slightly behind the one in the kitchen. The lamp beside you is the only light left on in the whole house.
Let your ribs stop working so hard. Let the pillow take the whole weight of your head.
If you're distracted by a sound, let the sound be the object for a moment. If you're irritated, that's allowed. Irritation is just weather.
Feel the top of your head relax into the pillow. Your fingers can stop doing anything at all.
Let the thoughts come and go without you getting up to answer. Let the dark be ordinary.
Let the sound of this go soft at the edges. Nothing here needs following closely. The words can start to blur now.
You have been meaning to start. This is the least intimidating way in.
I will stop here. The quiet will carry on without the words.
12 paragraphs, roughly 2 minutes read slowly aloud. Written for quiet, home.
If this story does not settle you, try Sleep story: an attic room, if you are doing this in the middle of the day — for an overtired night, Sleep story: a lake before dawn, when nothing else has worked today — for jet lag or A bus at night, when you want something simple — for an overtired night.