The Underground River (Bedtime Story)

In this sleep story, you relax in the entrance of a cave, with a flickering fire, as the sun sets. You drift asleep. The next day you leave the cave, going on a journey, traveling on a river through a valley. After a while, you head back on to land where you find a tree with a staircase in it. You find yourself in a room under the tree. You find your way through this space to an underground river. You follow this river to a vast landscape.

You can see the sky, the land, animals, and the river meandering through this landscape. You find your way back the next day to the river. You then walk to the waterfall and look at the landscape from here, before parachuting into the valley. You then continue to nomadically explore this landscape, heading into a forest, before discovering a village where you stop, find a place to stay, and enjoy a pleasant night's sleep.

Transcript

So as you listen to me with your eyes closed and you comfortably begin to drift off asleep,

I don't know whether you'll fall asleep faster with the sound of my voice,

With the spaces between my words,

Or perhaps you'll fall asleep faster with the words that I use.

And as you listen to me and drift comfortably asleep,

I'm just going to tell a story in the background,

And you can have a sense of relaxing in a cave,

Just a small cave.

You can see outside the cave.

You can see that the sun is setting over a valley,

Over a wide river,

And yet you're just comfortably relaxing in the cave.

You've got a little fire going for warmth and for something,

To make something to eat.

And you can see the way the light's dancing on the cave walls,

And you can relax down in this cave to drift off to sleep for the night.

And as you relax down and drift off asleep,

So your attention can just be drawn to the way the light and shadows dance on the walls,

Drawing you into a comfortable,

Relaxing sleep.

And then in the morning,

Waking up,

Feeling so comfortable,

So relaxed and rested and refreshed,

And stretching and then leaving that cave,

About to go on a journey,

And you walk down the hillside,

You walk down into the valley,

Down towards that river,

And you get down to the river and you get into your boat,

And start paddling down the river,

And the river starts off smooth and calm,

And you follow that river,

You hear the sounds around you,

The sounds of paddling along the river,

The sounds of the water against the bottom of the boat,

The sounds of birds and animals.

You can see the way certain clouds pass across the sky,

Notice the colour of the sky,

The texture of the clouds,

The feeling of the breeze on your face,

As you continue along this river.

And then somewhere along the river,

You notice how it splits into two,

And as you approach that divide,

You know you have to make a decision,

Do you go left or right,

And as you get closer,

You decide to take one of those choices,

And you turn down that path,

You follow that route,

And the river continues on,

Calmly,

Relaxed,

As you continue rowing.

Then after some time,

You start noticing it's approaching the middle of the day,

You need to take a moment to stop and have a break,

So you guide your boat to the shore,

Pull your boat onto the shore,

And sit down and have a lunch,

And you sit and relax,

Listening to the sound of the water flowing by,

Listening to the rustling of the trees behind you as the wind blows a breeze,

Feeling that breeze on your face,

Feeling the sun on your face,

As you relax,

Taking a break before you continue your journey,

And after a little while,

You get back into your boat,

Back onto the river,

And continue your journey down the river,

And as the sun continues to pass across the sky,

So you travel further and further,

And then after some time,

You decide that it's starting to get a bit later,

And that you need to set up a camp,

And you'll continue your journey in the morning,

And so you set up a tent,

You set up your camp,

And then go off into the forest to find some suitable wood to make a fire,

And while you walk around in the forest,

So you find something unusual,

You find a tree that's wider than usual,

And taller than usual,

And inside the tree is a door,

And you decide your curiosity gets the better of you,

You open the door and walk into that tree,

And inside the tree is a spiral staircase,

And so you take some time to slowly and carefully walk down that spiral staircase,

Walking down that staircase deeper and deeper under the tree,

And you notice how a certain silence sets in the further away from the surface you go,

And you walk down deeper and deeper under the tree,

And after some time walking down that spiral staircase,

You find yourself at the bottom of the staircase,

Faced with a door,

And so you open the door and you walk into the room,

And you start exploring in this room,

And you notice that somehow there's light shining down into this room,

And you explore in the room,

And then you find a door at the back of that room,

Leading to another room,

And off the back of that room is a door to some more stairs,

And you follow those stairs down,

Even deeper underground,

And you come out in a cavern,

With a river running through it,

And you start walking along the edge of that river,

Curious where it'll lead,

And you can smell the fresh water air,

And you can feel a cool breeze that's flowing up off the river,

And you can notice that somehow light is reflecting into this area,

That the ceiling of this cavern seems to be reflective,

Almost like there's crystals embedded in it,

And somehow the light reflects through the crystals,

Bounces around and scatters,

And lights up this cavern,

And you follow that river,

And you can hear the sound of the river flowing,

And as you follow that river,

So you notice it starts getting rougher and more chaotic,

And the further you walk,

The rougher and more chaotic that river gets,

You notice there are boulders in the water,

Rocks in the water,

And the water's flowing fast around those boulders and rocks,

Adding to the chaos,

And the water goes from smoother and clear,

To frothy and white,

As it becomes more chaotic and faster flowing,

And you keep following that river,

Curious where it's leading,

And after some time following the river,

You see a bridge,

And it's a very narrow bridge,

And it crosses the river,

And so you very carefully walk to that bridge,

And very carefully hold on,

And pay your attention to crossing that bridge safely,

And you carefully and safely cross over the river,

On that bridge to the other side,

And then you carry on walking further down,

Walking even further down,

Until eventually you can see in the distance,

That the river you're following suddenly plummets down a waterfall,

And it looks like there's a hole or a gap at the end,

That's covered with water,

And so you walk all the way to the end,

And you can feel the spray on your face,

As you walk to the end and see,

That the river that you were in above,

Leads to a waterfall,

And the river you are now in,

Leads to a waterfall in the same location,

Where this river's waterfall joins the waterfall above,

And you just see a wall of water in front of you,

And you walk out on the ledge,

You walk along the ledge to the edge of the waterfall,

So that you can see around the water,

And you gaze out over this vast open plain,

With mountains in the distance,

Trees way off in the distance,

You see a river,

Curling and weaving its way through the plain,

From this waterfall,

Way off into the distance,

You see some animals drinking from the water,

You see some herds of animals off in the distance,

You see the way the sun's setting,

And you sit here for a little while,

As you watch that sun set over this vast plain,

Just listening to the sound of the waterfall beside you,

And as the sun sets,

So you notice the moon rising in the sky,

And the water,

That's weaving its way across the plain,

Starts taking on a silvery,

Shimmery effect,

As the moonlight catches on the waves on the water,

You see the way the stars in the sky shimmer and twinkle,

The odd shooting star,

And you can see the way that the Milky Way arcs straight across overhead,

And in this pitch black area where there's no light pollution,

You notice how the Milky Way has a dusty look to it,

And you watch,

As you admire the beauty of nature,

As you admire the beauty of the sky,

As you look down and admire the beauty of the land beneath you,

Just seeing that weaving,

Shimmering,

Silver river stretching out into the distance,

You decide that it would be too dark to easily walk back right now,

So you find a safe spot to settle down and just sleep here for the night,

And then in the morning,

You awaken to the sun rising,

You notice how that river is now taking on an orangey red look,

You notice a mist rising up from the ground,

You hear the constant sound of the waterfall,

As you then start making your way back,

And you walk back into the cavern,

You walk your way back to that bridge,

You cross over that bridge,

And carry on walking back along the edge of this underground river,

And then you walk your way back,

Up the steps,

Through one room,

Through another room,

All the way back to that spiral staircase,

And you walk up that spiral staircase,

Finding yourself back,

Exiting that tree,

And you walk back through the trees,

Back to the river,

And you find your way back to your boat,

But you now know,

It's not sensible to keep following this river on this boat,

Because you now know,

This river is going to end with a waterfall,

And that if it gets too rough near the end,

You may not be able to tack across to the shore,

You may not be able to get yourself to the shore before the waterfall,

And you don't know how you can get down,

So you decide to leave the boat,

And for now,

Just walk along the edge,

Walk all the way to the waterfall,

And have a look,

And then make a decision for the next step,

And so you spend the morning,

Walking your way,

All the way to the waterfall,

And when you reach the waterfall,

You gaze out over that vast plain,

And you look for a way of climbing down,

And you can't see an easy way down,

But you know that with you,

For safety,

You had a parachute,

And so you put the parachute on your back,

You run to the edge,

You leap off the edge and pull the cord immediately,

Releasing your parachute,

You fall,

You catch the wind,

You catch an updraft,

And your descent slows,

And you feel yourself floating,

Above this vast plain,

And you steer and direct yourself down into the plain,

Floating slowly through the sky,

Directing yourself all the way down to the ground,

And landing on your feet,

With the parachute landing a little way behind you,

And you take a little while to gather that parachute up,

Pack it all back away,

And then you continue your journey,

Exploring,

Nomadically through this landscape,

And as evening sets in,

And you travel further along the edge of the river,

So you decide to cut into the woodland,

Cut into the forest,

So you head off in the direction of the forest,

You cut into the forest,

You set up a camp,

And settle down for the night,

And then the next day,

You continue your journey again,

And you walk back to that river,

And you carry on following that river,

And you follow that river,

All the way to a really small village,

And you cross a bridge over to the village,

And you meet some people from this village,

And before you make your journey continuing this nomadic lifestyle,

You decide to spend a night in comfort,

In this village,

And you find somewhere to stay,

And you settle down in a real bed,

Feeling the comfort of that real bed,

The first real bed you've laid down in for a while,

And so you comfortably relax down in that bed,

Close your eyes,

And drift off asleep,