The Magical Train Journey: Sleep Meditation Bedtime Story

In this sleep story with sound effects (the story is about 40 minutes long), take a magical train journey, leaving a station, traveling through open countryside, into a forest towards a mountain range, through the mountain tunnel, and along the far side of the mountain through a snowy wonderland, before settling down in a sleeper cabin and drifting peacefully asleep. This bedtime story incorporates two relaxation processes, a body scan process and a staircase process.

Transcript

Welcome to this slumberland sleep story.

I'll be your guide as you take a magical train journey,

Leaving a station,

Traveling through open countryside into a forest towards a mountain range,

Through the mountain tunnel and along the far side of the mountain through a snowy wonderland before settling down in a sleeper cabin and drifting peacefully and relaxed asleep.

And I would like to just take this moment to wish you the most peaceful night's sleep and pleasant dreams as you fall asleep to this sleep story.

Before we begin the story you can just 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 just let your eyes gently close and as this 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 climbing the few steps from the platform up into a train.

And this train is spacious with each carriage consisting of separate compartments for passengers.

You look at the number of the carriage that you're on and you realize your compartment is in the carriage in front of this one.

So you walk along a corridor heading to the front of this carriage.

On the left hand side of you are the compartments.

On the right hand side are large windows separated from each other by thin glossy beams of silver metal stretching up to the curved ceiling of the carriage.

Each compartment has a narrow window and a door facing into the corridor.

The window starts about the same height up as the windows to the outside and they reach almost all of the way to the ceiling.

While walking along the corridor you can notice that most of the compartment windows have a blind pulled down so you can't see into those compartments.

Each compartment door has a number written on it.

You walk the length of this carriage.

At the end of the carriage the corridor curves slightly left to a door in the center of the end of the carriage through to the next carriage.

You walk through that door just as the train begins to leave the station.

You can see the movement of the carriage that you're stepping into as you walk through that door and follow the corridor round to the right and continue along the corridor seeing the station moving back past your right hand side and then noticing the open countryside landscape appearing beyond the train station.

After walking past three compartments you read your compartment number on a door.

You open the door and step into your compartment closing the door behind you.

The compartment has brown wood effect walls ceiling and door.

A dark velvety material blind currently lowered over the narrow window facing the corridor.

There are seats on either side of the compartment.

A wide seat on the left hand side stretching from the wall to the outside of the carriage over to the wall with the narrow window looking out to the corridor.

On the right hand side the seat stretches about two-thirds of the way to the inside wall reaching to a narrow storage space,

Sink and worktop.

The narrow storage space has a cupboard at the top,

A mirror and sink indented into the space with a shelf which can be lowered across the sink if the space is required as a work surface.

Below the sink is a small fridge in a cupboard.

Above the seats is further storage space.

Between the two seats is a table attached to the wall under the large window at the far side of the compartment and on either side of the window are curtains which are currently ruffled at both sides of the window held back by large well-polished metal hooks big enough to make Captain Hook envious.

In the corners of the compartment and above the seats are small lights embedded spotlights above the seats and small lights like metal tulips in the corners of the compartment which can have their beam directed to the desired location.

The compartment is designed to be comfortable to sit in,

To enjoy the journey and then when you want to go to sleep you can unclip the table,

Fold up the long leg,

Lower the table down to a clip placing the table in line with the base of the seats,

Fold out two small legs and then the seats fold out across the table making the base of a bed with the perfect firmness and comfort.

For now you place belongings you have with you into the storage spaces,

Familiarize yourself with this compartment and settle down onto the seat to the left.

Facing in the direction the train is traveling you can feel the clickety-clack of the train as it travels on the track.

You look out of the window over the wide open countryside watching as nearby trees and bushes pass in a green blur.

Occasionally you find your eyes holding focus and tracking a tree or bush for a second or so making it stand out momentarily in focus before it passes across your view and your eyes jump to the next object.

Beyond the nearby trees and bushes which pepper the edge of the railway line are lush green meadows textured with patches of colour from wildflowers with this flat landscape stretching off into the distance,

Almost looking like it is tinged with faint pale blue layers off to the horizon.

You can see the blue sky and perhaps the occasional wispy cloud hanging overhead and notice how the layers of countryside pass at different speeds,

With the foreground flashing past,

Mid-ground passing slower and the distant background seeming to barely move.

While gazing out of the window over the meadows you can notice about a dozen deer grazing,

All huddled close together while they eat.

You can see a large bird of prey circling high above the meadow.

As you continue to gaze out of the window you pass a meadow with a small bird of prey rapidly flapping its wings,

Hovering in place,

Transfixed,

Staring down into the undergrowth about to dive towards some unsuspecting creature.

After looking out of the window for a while you decide to rest back comfortably into your seat,

Relax and read a book.

You get a book out of your bag,

The Lord of the Rings,

You find your bookmarked page,

Open the book and continue to read.

You're reading from just as Frodo and the gang are leaving the Shire,

Looking back at the Shire and its inhabitants in the distance before heading into the forest,

Uncertain at this point what their journey will bring.

As you read,

So you find your mind occasionally wandering and drifting inside to different thoughts and ideas.

You wonder what this land would be like to traverse.

You make a loose parallel of the landscape they travel through with the landscape you are traveling through.

From beautiful countryside into a forest,

Towards mountains,

But instead of climbing over the mountains,

You'll be passing through the mountains,

Finding yourself traveling through a beautiful snowy landscape.

While your mind wanders,

So you notice your eyelids seem to be getting heavier and heavier.

With this,

You place the bookmark back into the book,

Place the closed book on the table in front of you and to the gentle rocking of the train and the clickety-clack on the tracks,

You close your eyes,

Take a deep breath,

Comfortable breaths and allow yourself to drift deeper into that pleasant reverie about the hobbits journey.

And as you drift 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 it's 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 dissolves 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,

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 that relaxation progresses 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 to the tips of your fingers,

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 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 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,

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 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,

Restorative,

Light,

And as you allow that light to flow,

With each breath,

You can find your mind drifting deeper,

Pan deeper into a reverie,

Imagining yourself,

Waking as a hobbit in the forest,

Looking around in awe at the scale of the trees,

The sounds of the birds and rustling leaves,

As the wind blows a breeze,

The dancing rays of light breaking through the canopy overhead,

The sounds of each footstep as you walk along a muddy path,

Eventually,

Finding yourself at a wide river where you work together with the others to create a raft before all boarding that raft to cross the river.

Crossing the river,

You can feel the movement of the raft on the water,

And somewhere deep in your subconscious,

You wonder whether this is your brain incorporating the movement of the train into your inner reverie.

While crossing the river,

You can feel the occasional spray of water up into your face as waves slap the raft.

On the far side of the river,

You navigate the raft up onto the shore,

Disembark,

And continue your journey back into the darkness of the forest.

After trekking through the forest all day,

You finally come to a clearing overlooking a valley,

You decide that this is a great place to settle down for the night.

You pitch tents,

Light campfires,

Enjoy some food before going to bed in the tent and drifting comfortably and deeply asleep,

While you drift deeply asleep in your reverie.

A slight jolt on the train gives you a sensation,

Almost like a hypnagogic jerk,

That sudden jolt or feeling of falling which often precedes the moment you fully and deeply fall asleep.

You find yourself waking so gently and relaxed on the train,

Gazing out of the window and seeing that the countryside is still passing by,

But you can now see hints of a pine forest off in the distance.

As the train approaches the pine forest,

You can see the mountains towering in the distance beyond the forest.

The train followed the curve of the track towards and into the forest,

Entering the forest,

The light dims comfortably,

The trees are well spaced so you can see deep into the forest,

Yet the branches let little direct light penetrate.

You can see shafts of light dotted through the scene and some areas where trees have fallen,

Making the ground in those locations so much brighter than the surrounding forest that it seems to almost glow with brightness.

You catch the occasional glimpse of deer in the forest and wonder what other animals are out there which you can't see from the train.

Lining the track are dense clumps of grasses and bushes and dappled light and shadows dancing on the train windows and the small clearing near the track.

Although beautiful,

The passing view of the forest quickly becomes repetitive.

Everything is passing so fast that although the background moves past slowly,

It is obscured by the repeating rows of trees in the foreground.

Unlike when travelling through the countryside,

There is little to scan with interest.

In the countryside,

You are able to see animals and could sometimes spend 30 seconds or so watching the animals before they passed out of view.

Or you could see a small village in the distance,

The spire of a small church in that village,

Standing out against the backdrop of nature.

You could watch that village in the distance for a minute or two before it would pass by.

You could see the clouds gently moving across the sky,

Gradually changing shapes,

Sometimes taking on shapes and patterns of familiar objects.

Yet,

Here in the forest,

Most of the time,

All you can see is passing tree trunks,

The occasional patch of light and sometimes deer nestled among the trees.

You imagine that this forest would be so calming and peaceful to be walking through,

Where you can really take your time to be absorbed in the experience.

Rather than having the experience flash by,

Where you could stop and quietly watch the deer,

Or perhaps notice an owl in a tree to silently observe,

Where you could hear the rustling of the branches overhead.

You could walk between the shade of the forest and the bright clearings and feel the warmth of the sun on your skin as you make that transition.

As the train continues to travel through the forest,

So it begins to approach the foot of the mountains,

Where it will pass through a tunnel.

The tunnel is long and quickly becomes almost pitch black.

As the train enters the tunnel,

You notice the sound change slightly,

And within seconds,

The compartment is plunged into darkness,

With just the soft glow of one of the corner lights illuminating where you sit.

You know that you'll be passing through this tunnel for a while,

Looking out of the window,

You can only see black.

You can't see any shapes or light,

Just the faint reflection of yourself and the compartment in the window.

So you take a moment to rest back,

Close your eyes and relax.

You imagine yourself standing at the top of 20 steps.

You look around you and decide to descend those steps,

Stepping onto step 20,

Then 19,

Down to 18 and 17,

Becoming deeper and deeper absorbed in the experience with each step,

Stepping onto step 16 and 15,

Then lowering down to step 14,

Slowly,

Carefully,

Softly,

Descending,

Stepping onto step 13,

12,

11,

Going all the way deeper and deeper,

Noticing the way you feel deeper absorbed and more relaxed with each step that you take,

Stepping onto step 10,

9,

8,

Slowly,

Deeper and deeper absorbed in the experience,

7,

5,

Relaxing so peacefully and comfortably,

Stepping onto step 4,

3,

And then stepping off of the bottom step,

1,

Where you find yourself walking into a room of nothingness,

A dark room which brings deep comfort,

Relaxation and stillness to your mind and body.

You relax quietly and deeply for a while in this room of nothingness,

Enjoying the peace and calm and the gentle movement of the train on the track,

Drifting,

Floating,

Relaxing,

Deeper and deeper,

Deeper and deeper,

Into this room of nothingness,

And in this room of nothingness,

Time seems to stand still,

Still,

You lose awareness of how much time is passing,

Unaware whether a long time is passing but feeling like a short amount of time or whether maybe just a moment is passing but feeling like a long time,

You have no awareness of up or down,

Back or forth,

Left or right,

Just here,

Now,

And after some time,

You notice a glow through your closed eyelids,

Intruding on your room of nothingness,

And realise the train must now be exiting the tunnel.

As you open your eyes,

You notice how different the scenery is outside the train,

Here on the other side of the mountain range,

With a winter wonderland look to it,

The train begins to curve right,

Pulling along the side of the mountains and revealing a beautiful,

Snowy,

Glistening vista,

The train is travelling on a track part way up the mountain,

Giving a great view over the scenery,

As the train moves,

So the sun's light makes the snowy landscape sparkle,

Like it's coated with a million diamonds,

Most of the trees and bushes look bulbous,

Caked in snow,

With just the occasional tree with visible brown branches piercing the otherwise perfect white,

Even the blue sky seems whiter and lighter hanging over the snow covered land,

Most of the landscape seems so smooth,

You imagine what it would be like to be walking through all of this untouched virgin snow,

The cracking and compacting sound each footstep would make,

What it would feel like to be breathing in that cool air,

The feeling of the cool air on your cheeks and comparing that thought with being warm and comfortable here in this compartment on this train,

As you continue to look out of the window,

You occasionally notice animals and their tracks in the snow,

It's been many hours since you set off on this journey,

And the sun is creeping down to the horizon,

As it does,

You can see the way this white landscape is becoming tinged with oranges,

You can see a wide river cutting through the snowy landscape,

Beginning to almost glow like a river of lava as light from the setting sun radiates across the water,

You can see the approaching dark blue of the night sky and the first hints of starlight,

You take this moment to set up your bed for the night,

You clear everything out of the way of the seats and table,

Place the table into its lower position between the two seats,

Fold out the seats across the table to make the mattress,

Get sheets from one of the cupboards and make the bed,

Add the pillows to the bed,

Make yourself a drink and then settle down on the bed with your book,

You read the book a little longer and drink your relaxing drink,

While the sun continues to dip comfortably below the horizon,

Becoming so absorbed in the book that you don't realise how much time has passed,

And when you look up from your book,

Everything outside is dark,

You can just see the glow of the lights from windows on the train dancing along the faint snow along the edge of the track,

Beyond this,

The scene is too dark to see,

So you turn off the light in your compartment to reduce the reflection in the window and within a few seconds your eyes begin to adapt to the dark and you can see the most incredible carpet of stars splashed across the night sky,

More impressive than any night sky you've seen with your own eyes before,

You find yourself almost mesmerised by the view before feeling increasingly tired,

So you turn the small light on again,

Draw the curtains and read some more of your book,

To the point where your eyes are blinking for longer than a blink,

Sometimes without you realising they had only half blinked and you are sat there in bed with your eyes closed,

At this point,

You decide to place your bookmark back into the book,

Settle down and drift comfortably asleep,

As you begin to easily and effortlessly honestly and fully drift comfortably asleep,

You find yourself drifting deeper and deeper asleep,

Drifting and floating deeply relaxed asleep into slumberland.