Sleep story · quiet, home
The house after everyone is asleep, on a low-energy afternoon — for the hours after a late shift
The hour when the house belongs to nobody and nothing needs doing.
Reading it yourself. Back to the audio version.
Everyone went to bed an hour ago, and the house has stopped making the sounds it makes during the day. There is a chair by the window that nobody sits in during the day. The curtains are not quite closed, and there is a thin line of streetlight along the wall.
There is nothing left on the list for today. Outside, a car goes past and its headlights sweep across the ceiling, then are gone. The fridge hums on and off in the kitchen, and that is the loudest thing in the building.
Notice the places where your body touches the bed, and let them be heavy. Let the pillow take the whole weight of your head.
Let the mattress take all of it. Let your ribs stop working so hard.
The lamp beside you is the only light left on in the whole house. The clock in the hallway ticks slightly behind the one in the kitchen.
Feel one shoulder go heavy, then the other. Feel the top of your head relax into the pillow.
Let the space between your eyebrows smooth out. Let your lower back sink down into the mattress.
The floorboards have stopped creaking because nobody is walking on them. Everything in the room is exactly where it was left.
Let your shoulder blades spread out and drop. Notice your hips, wide and settled.
A glass of water sits on the table, half finished. The radiator clicks once as it cools down.
Feel your heartbeat somewhere far away. Let your toes stop holding on to anything.
If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure. If you're counting the minutes, that's fine. Count them and come back.
Let the back of your neck lengthen out. Now feel your whole body at once, lying here, being held up.
Stay with the weight of your body. You can stop listening properly.
Just the breath. You do not have to count them. Nothing here needs following closely.
Stay. Let each breath be a little smaller than the last. Let the thoughts come and go without you getting up to answer.
Low-energy afternoons are what this was written for.
Let everything get quiet, including this.