Sleep story · quiet, home
The house after everyone is asleep, when you have woken up too early — 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
The floorboards have stopped creaking because nobody is walking on them. There is nothing left on the list for today. Everything in the room is exactly where it was left.
Everyone went to bed an hour ago, and the house has stopped making the sounds it makes during the day. 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.
Let your thighs be as heavy as they want to be. Let everything you were holding today stay on the floor beside the bed.
Let your ribs stop working so hard. Your elbows can stop being hinges for now.
A glass of water sits on the table, half finished. The radiator clicks once as it cools down.
Feel your belly rise and fall without any help from you. Feel the back of your knees soften into the bed.
Let your calves spread out and flatten. Let your hands be completely still.
The lamp beside you is the only light left on in the whole house. There is a chair by the window that nobody sits in during the day.
If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure. Notice if you're being hard on yourself about any of this.
Let your tongue sit heavy in your mouth. Your fingers can stop doing anything at all.
Let them. Nothing here needs following closely.
Just the breath. Let it all get further away. They will find their own way out.
Waking too early is a specific kind of frustrating. This helps with the frustration.
The end. Sleep well.
14 paragraphs, roughly 2 minutes read slowly aloud. Written for quiet, home.
If this story does not settle you, try A kitchen late at night, after a long day — for a restless night, A garden in the rain (a sleep story), when the house is busy — for an overtired night or A caravan by the sea — a slow story for the end of the day, before you go back to something hard — for waking too early.