Sleep story · travel, cozy
The night train — a slow story for the end of the day, if you are fitting this around other people — for a night when you do not want to think
Somewhere between two cities, in the dark, where nobody needs anything from you.
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
Every so often the wheels change their note as they cross a join in the rail. A station passes without stopping — a platform, a lamp, three empty benches, then dark again. The window is cool against the side of your face.
Your bag is wedged under the seat in front, out of the way of your feet. The train left a quarter of an hour ago, and the carriage has already settled into its own quiet. The heating is on low, and the air smells faintly of clean metal and old upholstery.
Let your palms open if they were closed. Let your shoulder blades spread out and drop.
Feel the back of your knees soften into the bed. Let your upper arms fall wherever gravity puts them.
The rhythm underneath you is steady enough to lean on. Somewhere ahead of you, a door opens and closes with a soft, deliberate sound.
Let your hands be completely still. Let the mattress take all of it.
Feel your heels sink a little into the mattress. Your elbows can stop being hinges for now.
There is one other person in this carriage, four rows up, asleep with a coat over their knees. The seat reclines one notch further than you expected it to.
Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill. Notice how you're sitting. Adjust if you need to. Then settle again.
Let the space between your eyebrows smooth out. Let your forearms get heavy and warm.
Sleep. You do not have to count them.
Let the thoughts come and go without you getting up to answer. Softer. Let your breathing do the rest.
It is designed to fit around other people’s schedules.
Let the words go now, and take the quiet with you.
14 paragraphs, roughly 2 minutes read slowly aloud. Written for travel, cozy.
If this story does not settle you, try An attic room — a slow story for the end of the day, when you are not in the mood — for jet lag, Sleep story: a hotel room somewhere, when you have just finished work — for a night when you do not want to think or A field under snow, when you have tried everything else — for jet lag.