The Magical Crystal Cave: Long Bedtime Sleep Story

This long bedtime story (the story is about 49 minutes long) is about you taking a trip to the magical crystal cave, finding your way through a forest to a cave, setting up a tent near the cave, before descending into and exploring that cave the next day, then heading back out into the forest, resting in your tent and drifting peacefully asleep. This sleep story includes two relaxation processes integrated into the narrative - a body scan relaxation process and a staircase relaxation process.

Transcript

Welcome to this slumberland sleep story.

I'll be your guide as you take a trip to the magical crystal cave,

Finding your way through a forest to a cave,

Setting up a tent near that cave before descending into and exploring that cave the next day,

Then heading back out of the cave and back into the forest and resting in your tent,

Drifting peacefully asleep.

I'd like to take this moment to wish you the most peaceful nights sleep and pleasant dreams as you fall asleep to this sleep 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 in the evening walking through a forest and occasionally as you walk through this forest it's easygoing,

There's plenty of room between the trees and at other times you need to hack your way through a little bit and climb over fallen down trees and other obstacles in your path but you're aware that all of this is just part of the journey that you're going on to find that crystal cave and here in this forest every direction looks the same and so you're following satellite navigation,

Constantly checking that you're still on track towards that cave and even at the height of daytime this forest is often quite dark due to the density of the canopy overhead and as you continue through this forest you have a torch attached to your top which is illuminating the way in front of you.

You also have a torch on your head that illuminates the direction that you're looking and so you can continue as the Sun sets and the forest becomes darker and darker to find your way.

You can look around you left and right in front of you,

You can look up,

You can look behind you while at the same time as you look around your peripheral vision is able to help you to see where you're going because of the body torch which is lighting the way so you don't have to keep stopping every time you point the torch in a different direction and while you walk through this forest occasionally hearing the cracking of the branches beneath your feet especially as you climb over fallen down trunks of trees and sometimes cracking branches that you grab hold of while navigating through the forest.

You can feel what each footstep feels like and how the footsteps can feel different when you're walking through vegetation on the ground compared to the areas of the forest that are quite sparse of vegetation on the ground and it's almost like you're walking just on mud on a harder surface and sometimes you find yourself following a natural animal track that's well trodden and easier to follow and so you make good ground following the animal track and then when the animal track ends and you have to push through the forest yourself again creating your own track it slows you down some more and it's hard work to be pushing through a forest in this way and yet you know that it's rewarding and that the chance to get to see that crystal cave is a huge reward for this effort that you're putting in that you've got this idea of the crystal cave in your mind you've seen images of it but you know that nothing could compare to seeing that cave in person and so you continue to push through this dark forest you can hear various forest sounds of animals of insects and something about those sounds is so calming so peaceful almost like background noise almost like the static of a TV something that could just so easily send you to sleep and the interesting thing about those background sounds is that unlike if you go to an ocean where all the sound comes from one direction those background sounds envelop you they seem to come from all directions around you almost like there's no fixed location for anything that you can hear other than occasionally hearing some of your footsteps and while you continue to trek through this forest there are areas where the canopy is slightly thinner perhaps due to a tree falling down and you can see the shards of silvery light penetrating that canopy and dancing before you as the wind above blows a gentle breeze over the top of the canopy just gently moving those branches high overhead you notice some of the dust particles seeming to almost glow and pop into existence and then out of existence again within the beams of light and as you continue to walk through the forest sometimes you have to lean on the trees you can feel that bark beneath your hands your fingertips how some bark is rough and highly textured and other bark is smooth some bark is flaky and crumbly and some is very solid and there are some trees which have bark almost like they're wrapped in paper and other times you have to push branches and leaves out of your way and you feel those branches with that hand and the different textures of different leaves some leaves being broader than others and waxier than others and from time to time you pull out the GPS device from your pocket press the button to turn the screen on see the glow of that screen the line on the device to follow and a flashing dot for your location in relation to that line with a faded cone on one side of that dot that shows the direction the GPS device is pointing and so being able to see by the direction of that cone which direction you're traveling and whether you're heading in the correct direction and sometimes you need to make subtle adjustments to get back on course especially after pushing through more dense forest or trying to work your way around an area we need to perhaps get back on track and although you feel like you've got yourself back on track and you're pointing back in the right direction when every direction looks the same it's easy to be subtly off course and you're aware that if you're off course by a little bit then over a short distance it doesn't make a lot of difference but as minutes tick into hours it can reach a point where being a little bit off course can be a long way off course hours later and occasionally in the forest you hear the sound of an owl and that sound can stand out directionally compared to the other sounds which just seem to be all around and sometimes that sound of an owl can be there but because your attention isn't focused on it a part of you questions whether you heard it or not because you're too busy paying attention to the path that you're taking and making your journey and as you see that you're approaching your coordinates you're aware that the nighttime is quite somewhere long the Sun had set many hours ago and so you're really ready to stop and rest but you didn't want to stop and rest until you arrived at your destination and so as you arrive at your destination you can see the signs of the entrance to the cave in the ground and you go to some nearby trees and you make a tent in those trees making the tent off of the ground connected between three trees and then a ladder up to this tent and you ascend that ladder and sit in this tent that's almost like a hammock just in the form of a tent between those three trees and the base of this tent is ever so slightly springy from the way that it's held up and how taut it is from you've connected the base to those trees and as you rest in this tent you take a few moments to think a little bit about tomorrow about that journey you'll be making down into the cave making sure that all your preparations are in order you check your bag that you've got all your equipment still and that it's all in good working order you then have something to eat and drink and zip up the tent before so easily and effortlessly finding yourself resting back comfortably ready to sleep and as you begin to drift comfortably asleep you have a sense of relaxing your mind and body you find yourself focusing on the top of your head noticing what your head is resting on how your head is supported so gently in place the comfort in and around your head as it rests 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 around your ears and your cheeks having the muscles in these areas gently 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 can begin to deeply relax relaxing deeper and deeper noticing how you can pay attention to fading tension or perhaps find that tension dissolves without paying it any attention at all as 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 to the back of your neck and around your throat 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 or you find that that relaxation progresses so peacefully so comfortably 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 just gently relax at the same rate and speed as each other and as that relaxation continues through those arms it can flow down through your stomach sides and 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 into the most pleasant sleep so your mind begins to relax you begin to have a sense of a healing light touching your forehead enveloping your face and head with healing deep 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 the tips of the fingers 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 the 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 and restorative light and as you allow that light to flow with each breath you can find your mind drifting deeper and deeper into the most pleasant dream and as you drift deeper and deeper into that pleasant dream you find yourself almost having that subtle sense of awareness of the gentle rocking movement of your tent in those trees as the winds blowing a breeze across the tops of those trees gently rocking and swaying those trees almost like being in a cot gently rocked or being in a hammock gently swaying side to side in the most pleasurable deep relaxing way and as that's happening and your mind drifts deeper into a dream you find it dreaming about that cave and what you might expect to find dreaming about what the experience might be while also dreaming about thoughts and ideas from the day that you've had that you haven't had a chance to work through yet and so in the dream as you dream your mind works through the day's issues resolving those issues helping to find solutions helping to find lasting solutions that you can honestly keep in mind and use and you drift deeper into that dream state drifting dreaming floating in your mind until you pass beyond the dream falling into deep comfortable recuperative sleep healing your body from the day's journey relieving the body of its tension almost like the most incredible mental massage through the body preparing you for the day ahead and then as the next day dawns so you awaken in that tent you open the entrance to the tent and breathe in some of that fresh air from the forest almost tasting some of those smells from the forest as you take that breath you have something to eat and drink you get yourself all prepared for the day ahead you find the equipment that you'll be needing you make sure that there are fresh full batteries in the torch on your body in the torch on your head you head over to that hole in the ground you attach a thick long rope to a nearby tree head back to that hole drop that rope down the hole and descend down through that hole descending on that rope and after a little while you reach a ledge you look around you at this ledge you see this is a perfectly safe location to be you're following the same guides that you knew existed for this place so you know you're in the right place to safely descend into this cave you place a long-lasting flare into the ground it glows red it marks the entrance to this cave where that rope is for you to climb back up and out and if there's even a hint of daylight or if the moon is in the correct angle in the darkness of the cave you would see the light in the ceiling of the cave but you just want to be doubly sure and make sure you can see the exit and easily find your way back to that exit and in the cave you notice that you can hear that gentle dripping sound of water you know that once upon a time thousands of years earlier this cave was created by gently flowing water that's gradually eroded this cave away and at times the water would fill most of the cave and it was while the cave was full of water that the crystals had formed and they formed under water getting larger and larger until they were an incredible size which doesn't easily translate to photos of this cave it's hard to get an idea of the perspective of the size of those crystals which is why which is why you know that the experience of seeing this through your own eyes for real will be such an incredible experience rather than just seeing a photograph and you continue to follow the path through this cave seeing signs of those that have gone here before noticing random handles in the walls to hold at some of the slightly more slippery locations noticing some rope fences to keep you on track as you walk through this location as you follow the cave deeper and deeper underground and you can continue to hear that dripping while also noticing a certain stillness to the air here and a certain dullness to the sounds of footsteps and after quite a while of walking deeper and deeper into this cave you come to a ledge to descend and you attach a rope to a hook which has been kindly placed at the top of the ledge you throw the other end of that rope down over the ledge and you can't see to the bottom and so you drop a red flare down to the ground below you watch as that red flare falls past the face you're about to descend and lands on the ground below illuminating the base of this ground and you can see from how long it took that flare to fall past the face and what you observed about the distance that to abseil down this face will be about 20 steps and you'll have your back to the ground and so you decide you'll count your way down as you descend and so you take hold of that rope you make it taut place your feet on the edge of that cliff face gently backing yourself back until your bottom and your legs are in line with the ground and you then begin to descend again descending from 20 to step 19 taking step 18 and 17 having that rope sliding gently through those hands feeling the texture of that rope as it slides becoming deeper and deeper absorbed in the experience with each step that you take 16 15 14 slowly slowly carefully softly descending backwards down this cliff face 13 12 11 all the way deeper and deeper perhaps noticing how you feel deeper absorbed and more relaxed with each step that you take down towards the ground step 10 9 8 slowly deeper and deeper absorbed in the experience backing down that cliff 7 6 5 relaxing so peacefully and comfortably noticing the stillness of the air around you 4 3 2 1 and then stepping onto the ground near to that flare detaching yourself from the rope and heading away from that cliff face continuing to follow the path deeper and more relaxed into this cave just the faint dripping sound of the water in this cave and after walking for a while in this cave you come out into a vast chamber and in this vast chamber you notice how your torch on your head and the torch on your body barely light the space and so you light a bigger light that really illuminates the area you stand that light on the ground turn it on and notice these pillars of crystal jutting up at different angles from the ground jutting down at different angles from the ceiling some plain colored crystals almost a creamy white others colorful almost like colored glass each crystal as long as a bus jutting up from the ground at different angles and down from the ceiling each crystal half as wide as a car some perhaps even as wide as a car and you look in awe at this view you walk around those crystals you touch some of those crystals feeling the smoothness of them and seeing the trickle of water passing along the ground between the crystals that obviously heads deeper into the cave and way beyond this area of crystals that water flows down deeper and deeper to a lake deep inside this cave continuing its erosion on another level and you take some photographs of these crystals knowing that in the photographs they won't do justice to the scale of this you set a camera up on a tripod and take a photo of yourself in front of some of the crystals to try to give a sense of perspective and after exploring this crystal cave for a while feeling in awe of its scale of this almost cathedral like chamber full of crystals only bigger than any cathedral you could ever imagine you start to work your way back out of this crystal cave following that path ascending on that rope unhooking your rope curling that up placing that away and finding your way all the way back to the entrance and on arriving back at the entrance you climb up the rope exiting into the forest unattach your rope from the tree and head back to your tent ready to settle down for the night because the journey just to that crystal cave underground took you many hours of exploration and although it's still a number of hours until the sun sets the climbing up and down and the trekking is very tiring makes you want to just rest and relax and make your journey out of this forest in the morning when you've got a whole day ahead of you and for now you settle down into your tent and you listen to those first signs for the night time forest starting just as the early evening begins to set in and while the early evening sets in you have something to eat and drink you read a book for a little while and as you read so from time to time you notice your eyes beginning to get heavy and sleepy and your body wanting to relax and so you place your book down close up the tent and to the sounds of the forest you settle down you drift and float deeper and deeper asleep drifting and relaxing deeply asleep into slumberland

Reviews

Awesome story fell asleep before the end thank you x