Welcome to this Slumberland sleep story.
Help your guide as you meander along the bank of a calm river one moonlit night,
Taking some time to rest on the river bank where you see a castle up on a hill.
You follow the river around to woodland at the base of the hill,
Ascend through the woodland up to the entrance to the castle.
You enter and explore the castle before hearing a storm approaching outside.
Finding a room you settle down and you relax and drift peacefully asleep to the sound of that storm outside.
I'd like to take this moment to wish you the most peaceful night's sleep and pleasant dreams as you fall asleep to this bedtime story.
Before we begin the story you can take a few moments to settle down comfortably.
You can shift about a little if you need to,
To make yourself more comfortable and when you're ready you can let your eyes gently close.
And as the story unfolds you can take a few deep relaxing breaths allowing the out breaths to be a little longer than the in breaths.
This triggers the body's natural relaxation response and as you relax you can find yourself walking along the edge of that river.
You can hear the sound of the water flowing by down that river beside you and you're up on a slight bank a little way up from the water's edge and yet you can still hear that water as waves gently lap at the shore and while you walk perhaps you can be aware of what each footstep feels like or perhaps even the feeling of the nighttime air against your cheeks and as you continue to walk along this riverbank you can see the moon glowing in the night sky the way the moonlight is twinkling and sparkling in the surface of that river as those waves travel down the river and out towards the shore.
You can perhaps notice the occasional splash or flutter in the water as perhaps an unseen duck is washing itself in that water at the edge of the river and so you continue to walk along this riverbank,
The environment around you illuminated and touched by the silvery glow of the moon,
The grass taking on a slight blue hue with a silver tinge waving in the breeze,
That slight rustling of distant trees continuing to walk,
Seeing the stars in the night sky and as you follow this riverbank so you have a sense of how it's gently curving and while it's gently curving you can see against the dark blue sky in the background the silhouette of woodland and you're aware that the riverbank is gradually curving around for you to be facing that woodland and so you continue to meander along this riverbank occasionally finding yourself lost in thought as your mind wanders and wanders while you wander and after a little while of walking around that riverbank you can see that in the distance above the woodland seems to be the silhouette of a castle and some of the lights in that castle and the windows are on,
The faintest glow from those windows while the rest of the castle remains dark and so you continue to follow this riverbank round towards that woodland,
Towards that castle and after some time of walking,
Hard to know exactly how long,
You decide to stop for a little while,
You sit down on that riverbank,
Your feet pointing down the bank towards the water's edge,
Your bottom resting on that grass,
Feeling the cool grass beneath your hands as you sit down,
Placing a bag that you have with you,
Behind you,
And with that bag behind you so you rest back,
Resting your head on the bag,
With your head rested on your bag you can see the stars like diamonds twinkling in the sky overhead,
The moon off to the side,
The silhouette of the trees in that castle,
The sound of the water flowing past and you find the whole experience deeply relaxing and peaceful and as you find the experience and peaceful,
You begin to drift into a pleasant reverie,
Finding your eyes occasionally blinking before they just want to remain closed and as you drift and float so peacefully and so comfortably into that reverie,
You can have a sense of relaxing your mind and body,
You focus on the top of your head,
Noticing what your head is resting on,
How your head is supported gently in place,
The comfort in and around your head resting there,
Having a sense of the muscles around your scalp and the back of your head softening and relaxing,
Drawing in peace and comfort with each breath that you take before moving your awareness around to your face,
Focusing on what it's like for that relaxation to spread around your face,
Your ears and your cheeks,
Having the muscles in these areas soften and relax,
Relaxing the muscles around your eyes and across your forehead,
While the muscles around the side of your head and over the top of your head begin to relax deeper and deeper,
Noticing how you can pay attention to fading tension or perhaps find that tension dissolved without paying it any attention at all,
And you continue to allow that relaxation to spread,
Down around your mouth,
Relaxing your lips and your jaw,
Relaxing the muscles around the side of your neck,
Around the back of your neck and around your throat,
And as your jaw relaxes and hangs slightly loose,
Limp and comfortable,
That relaxation can continue to move down to your shoulders and upper back,
And I don't know whether that relaxation happens fastest around your shoulders or in the upper back or perhaps down the tops or the front of your shoulders as they begin to comfortably relax deeper and deeper,
With that relaxation progressing around your back and your chest,
Softening and relaxing those muscles fully,
Deeply and comfortably,
And as those muscles soften and relax,
While you rest there,
That relaxation can begin to spread down the arms to the hands,
All the way down to the fingertips,
And I don't know which arm will relax fully fastest,
Whether it'll be the left arm or the right arm,
Or whether the arms will relax at the same rate and speed as each other,
And as that relaxation continues,
Flowing through those arms,
It can flow down through your stomach,
Your sides and your lower back,
All the way down to your bottom,
Before extending deeply down through your legs to the tips of your toes,
And as your body becomes deeper and deeper relaxed,
While you drift to the most pleasant sleep,
So your mind can begin to relax,
You begin to have a sense of a healing light touching your forehead,
Enveloping you,
Wrapping around your face and head with healing,
Deep,
Peace,
Calm and relaxation,
Absorbing comfortably and gently into you with each in-breath that you take,
Filling you with healing,
Peace and calm,
Spreading that healing,
Restorative,
Recuperative light down through your body,
Breathing in healing,
Calm relaxation and breathing out any stress or tension,
Aware of that healing light passing down your neck,
Softening and relaxing those muscles,
Spreading that healing light throughout the neck,
As it spreads down with the next breath to your shoulders,
Around the back of your neck and down into your arms,
Gradually continuing that flow of healing light all the way to your fingertips,
And with another in-breath,
The healing light can spread down through the body,
Softening and relaxing muscles,
Healing deep within the body,
Filling the body with pleasure and deep relaxation,
As that light journeys down,
Around your stomach,
Your lower back and sides,
Into your buttocks and all the way down your legs to the soles of your feet,
Filling your whole body with that healing,
Restorative light,
And as you allow that light to flow with each breath,
You can find your mind drifting deeper and deeper into the reverie,
And as you drift deeper and deeper into the reverie,
You have that sense of the world around you,
Almost imagining in your mind's eye,
The history of all the people who have travelled along this riverbank,
Towards that castle,
All the people who were just passing by,
And those,
Especially merchants,
Who perhaps stopped at the castle to sell locals here various wares,
Continuing to drift deeper and deeper into the reverie,
Being aware of the sound of the water in the background,
The feeling of the grass under your fingertips and the palms of your hands,
That cool night time breeze tickling your cheeks,
Sometimes perhaps tickling your nose a little,
And yet the air smelling so fresh and so calm,
That slight watery air smell,
With a mix of the smell of the flowers and the meadows around you,
And you find the experience of lying back here on the riverbank,
So deeply satisfying and relaxing,
With the blue glow of the night arching overhead,
And then after a little while,
You begin to have a sense of drifting back to more awareness of the here and now on that riverbank,
Drifting out of that reverie,
You stand up and pick up your bag,
Continuing your journey along that riverbank,
You head along the riverbank,
Until you come to the bottom of that hill,
And this hill is surrounded by woodland,
A lot of woodland and the base,
And woodland climbing that hill,
And so you head off road a little,
You head into that woodland to begin to ascend to the castle,
And while you head into the woodland,
You occasionally push branches out the way,
And touch the bark of trees,
Feeling the detailed texture of the bark beneath your fingertips,
And once round and heading into that woodland,
You notice the way that your footsteps sound different,
A slightly more muted sound,
And yet still just a faint background sound,
That perhaps,
Unless you really pay attention,
You're barely noticing,
And you push on through that woodland,
Ascending the hill,
And while pushing through the woodland and ascending,
Noticing that it's darker inside the woodland than it was out in the moonlight,
You can still see some of those silvery shards of light,
Breaking through the canopy overhead and dancing in front of you,
In slight clouds of dust,
And you find your way to that castle wall,
And when you arrive at the castle wall,
You reach out and touch that wall with your hand,
Feeling the texture of the stone underneath your fingertips,
The palm of your hand,
And with your fingertips just gently,
Almost imperceptibly touching that castle wall,
You begin to walk around the wall,
Trying to find the entrance,
And you follow this wall around,
There aren't too many trees or branches this close to the wall,
And so it's quite straightforward to walk around the wall,
With all the woodland on one side of you and the wall on the other,
And as you follow that wall and head around that castle,
You come to a slight clearing,
And realise that there's a track leading up to the entrance to this castle,
And you can look down that track,
See the way that track heads down the hill,
And curves around,
Presumably heading down further to the base of the hill and out of the woods,
You head to the castle entrance,
Knock on the entrance,
You don't get a reply,
So you just knock again,
And still not getting a reply,
You open the entrance and walk inside,
And inside you can hear the sound of a fire crackling away in a room,
You can see the light of the fire dancing,
And it seems that there's a fire lit in a room a little way down the corridor,
And that light is dancing out into the corridor,
And so you walk down this corridor,
You peer into that room,
And as you peer into that room,
So you see someone who looks very friendly just sitting there,
Reading a book in front of that fire,
With a drink beside them,
On a side table,
And this room looks so cosy and comfortable,
That orangey glow from the fire,
And you give a little cough to gain attention,
And the person turns around and apologises for not noticing you,
They say that they were lost in thought in their book,
And they frequently do this,
And they're smiling and friendly,
And they offer to make you a drink,
And ask if you want anything to eat,
And they gesture for you to then sit in a seat near the fire,
So you head over,
You sit down in that seat,
Feeling the warmth of that fire on your cheeks,
They ask you if you've come far,
And ask you to talk a little about your journey,
And after they do this,
They say do you want to take a look around,
And so the two of you walk from this room,
And explore the castle,
And as you explore the castle,
You look in different rooms,
You enjoy walking down the corridors,
Seeing the artwork on the walls,
The statues in the corridors,
They take you to a room a few floors up,
And the room is at the end of a long corridor,
With a long rug straight down the middle of that corridor,
They open the door to the room,
You walk in,
And they light the torches in this room,
And under the flicker of those torches,
You see that this is a library,
You can see that it's full of old books,
And in the middle of this library,
Is the strangest thing,
Is what looks like a stone,
And poking at a slight angle in the center of this stone,
Seems to be a sword,
And your host notices that you've noticed this stone,
And this sword,
They explain that this is the sword in the stone,
That contrary to myths,
Nobody has been able to remove it from the stone,
And so their relatives hundreds of years earlier,
Just decided to have the whole stone dug up,
And brought to the castle,
With that sword contained within it,
And when no one could remove the sword from the stone,
They tried to hack away at the stone,
Deciding if you can't remove the sword from the stone,
Perhaps you can remove the stone from the sword,
But no matter how hard they tried to hack and chisel away at the stone,
That stone remained in a single piece,
And so for hundreds of years,
That sword in the stone sat in this library,
Waiting,
Hoping one day someone will be able to come along,
And remove it from the stone,
And without any real thought,
You reach forward,
To touch that sword with your fingertips,
And you feel a slight tingle,
And a slight glow,
And a slight sense of empowerment,
And pleasure,
And excitement,
And so without giving any real thought,
You take hold of the handle of that sword,
And just easily,
And effortlessly,
Lift the sword from the stone,
And your host watches in awe and amazement at you doing this,
And they tell you that this means something,
They've been waiting a very long time for someone who can do this,
And you place that sword back in the stone,
And you become aware that being able to remove that sword from the stone,
Seemed to mean something to them,
And you found it so incredibly easy to do,
That you don't know if their entire story was just make-believe,
And that that sword is actually perfectly easy for anyone to just pick up out of the stone if they wanted to,
And that it's just a story,
And you begin to hear the sound of a storm beginning to roll in outside,
And so your host says they really look forward to talking with you more in the morning,
But perhaps right now,
It would be best for you to settle down for the night,
And they say there's a room that you can stay in,
They head from the library back out into the corridor,
Following the corridor in a different direction,
Heading down to a distant door,
The other side of the door,
Are some steps leading down,
And they tell you that this part of the castle is dark,
But there are 20 steps to descend to get to the floor below,
And at the floor below,
They can light another torch,
And take you to your room,
And so while the two of you begin to descend those steps,
You start to count down those steps in your mind's eye,
Stepping onto step 20,
Then 19,
Then 18,
Walking slowly,
Carefully,
And quietly down those steps,
Running your hand around the handrail as you go,
Feeling the coolness of the wood of the handrail beneath the palm of your hand,
Stepping onto step 17,
Almost finding yourself becoming deeper and deeper absorbed in the experience with each step that you take,
Onto step 16 and 15,
And 14,
Slowly,
Carefully,
Softly,
Descending onto step 13 and 12,
And step 11,
Heading all the way deeper and deeper,
Noticing the way that you feel deeper absorbed and more relaxed with each step that you take,
Stepping onto step 10 and 9 and 8,
Slowly,
Deeply,
Going deeper and deeper absorbed in the experience,
7,
6,
5,
Relaxing so peacefully and comfortably as you go,
Stepping onto step 4,
3,
2,
And 1,
Stepping off of that bottom step,
Where the host lights a torch,
And then walks carrying that torch,
In front of you,
Heading along a corridor,
The dullest of the dullest of sounds of the footsteps,
On the rug,
Along this corridor,
Such a thick,
Comfortable rug,
Almost like walking on damp sand,
And following that corridor,
Until they stop at a room,
And they open the door to that room,
And they show you into that room,
And tell you that you can sleep here for tonight,
You head into the room,
You sit on the bed and almost sink into the bed,
It's so soft and comfortable,
Just the perfect level of softness and comfort for you to have a great night's sleep,
And you can hear the storm,
Getting closer outside,
The sound of the rain beginning on the window to this room,
You prepare yourself for bed,
You rest back into that bed,
Into that bed,
Wrapping yourself so comfortably under the blankets,
Curious what tomorrow will bring,
Looking forward to tomorrow,
And as you rest there,
Looking forward to tomorrow,
You find your eyes getting heavier and heavier,
Increasingly wanting to close,
The more you try to keep your eyes open to focus on what you want to do and look forward to tomorrow,
The heavier and heavier those eyes get and the more asleep you begin to fall,
And so eventually you just let those eyes close,
Settling down in that bed,
Feeling the comfortable feeling of that pillow under your head,
The comfortable weight of the blankets across your body,
This bed being absolutely perfect for you to settle down into and relax and sleep,
Soundly all night long,
And finding yourself settling down,
Drifting asleep,
Easily and effortlessly,
Honestly and fully,
Relaxing,
Drifting,
Floating asleep,
Drifting deeper and deeper asleep,
With each breath that you take,
Just floating,
Deeply relaxed asleep,
Initially through some dreams perhaps,
Drifting into some pleasant place in your mind,
Before progressing on to a deep comfortable sleep,
Sleeping soundly all night long,
Drifting asleep into slumberland.
