With You Until Sleep — 13 : Bees and Dragonflies | Peaceful Sleep Story To Calm the Mind

Drift into deep rest with this somatic sleep podcast designed to help settle the nervous system, quiet racing thoughts, and support natural sleep. With a calming ASMR-style female voice, this episode offers gentle bedtime storytelling and a soft, soothing presence to help you disengage from overthinking and ease into sleep.

This sleep podcast is ideal for anyone who struggles with insomnia, nighttime anxiety, restlessness, or waking up in the middle of the night. The episode creates a peaceful, pressure-free space where you can simply listen, relax, and let go. Whether you need help falling asleep fast or returning to sleep after waking, this calming sleep audio is here to support you.

Featuring a tranquil story about observing bees and dragonflies in nature, this episode is meant to gently occupy the mind without stimulation, giving your body and nervous system permission to unwind. There’s nothing to do, nothing to fix, and nothing to get right tonight — just rest.

Perfect for:

1. Sleep meditation
2. ASMR for sleep
3. Nervous system regulation
4. Insomnia relief
5. Anxiety at night
6. Relaxing bedtime storytelling
7. Falling back asleep

Let the sound of a gentle female voice guide you toward peace, ease, and deep sleep.

To get the most out of this episode:

1. Listen somewhere you feel safe and comfortable
2. You can use headphones or play it softly in the room
3. Let yourself drift in and out of awareness
4. If you fall asleep, that’s perfect
5. If you don’t, that’s okay too

There’s no right way for this to work.

With You Until Sleep is written and read by me, Sky — a real human, a Focusing practitioner, and somatic guide. These recordings are shaped by years of working with emotional safety and the nervous system.

New episodes are released regularly.

If you’d like an ad-free listening experience and access to longer companion episodes and members-only recordings, there’s an optional membership — or buy me a cup of tea Support With You Until Sleep

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Thank you for being here.

I’ll be with you until sleep.

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[0:00] Hello, this is Sky. I'll be here with you until sleep. You don't need to listen closely. You can drift off whenever you like. There's nothing to get right tonight. For now, just let yourself be held by the sound of my voice. Let's begin. If this podcast has been keeping you company at night and you'd like to support me directly, Membership is a beautiful way to do that. It includes ad-free listening and exclusive sleep stories. And it helps me continue sharing these calm little spaces with you. The link is in the description.

[1:18] Before we begin tonight, you might notice how quickly things have been moving. The day has its own pace, and often it doesn't leave much room to slow down.

[1:48] But here, things can move differently. There's no urgency here. You don't need to catch up. You don't need to keep going. You can let the pace drop. up little by little. Even noticing that you're lying down can be enough to begin. The body often understands before the mind does.

[2:45] And if your thoughts are still moving quickly, that's all right. They don't need to slow down immediately. They can gradually find their own rhythm. And you can let my voice be something slower for your system to rest along with, and from here we'll move gently into the story Thank you.

[3:39] Settling into this moment, this peaceful moment that stretches out before you with an invitation to settle. The invitation to let the movement stretch out before you.

[4:12] There's nothing to do and nowhere to go. Nowhere to be except here. Now, in this moment, with yourself, with all the potentials of this moment, the vastness, the peace stretching out before you a quiet invitation, just for you, right here, right now.

[5:13] And I want to tell you a story about bees and dragonflies.

[5:28] I was walking along on a hot day in the beautiful marshes, which is home, to so much life.

[5:52] There was many, many, many, many bees and dragonflies. The bees were the first things I noticed. Because they were on the plants. And there are certain plants, flowers, which they really, really, really love. The brambles, now have flowers which will become berries sometime by late August or September. There will be loads of blackberries Please.

[7:10] Everywhere in the hedges. But just now, there's beautiful white flowers. With about five large petals. And the bees love them.

[7:41] As I walked along, I saw many bees flitting from flower to flower. Many different bees. All happily buzzing along. I can hear the lovely sound of their buzz, there's something so alive about it like life moving, and the life of the bees partaking in the nectar, the sweetness of the flowers.

[8:51] Enjoying themselves doing what bees do gathering nectar, gathering pollen, so they can make honey.

[9:16] But what I'm struck by is their pureness, the pureness of the bees.

[9:35] Now I'm not sure if they think, and I doubt if they think that they think as people do.

[9:53] But there does seem to be a joy about them And a busyness. And maybe I think that because I know how nice the honey is. And I'm so grateful, for all the things that the bees do, and I carry on walking, I walk, a bit farther along the path and come to a herbaceous plant which is quite large. I think it might be a type of dogwood, And this plant was like a hive.

[11:20] Even before I walked level with the plant, I could hear the buzz of the bees. It was so loud. Because there were so many on this plant, on the tiny white flowers that grow in clusters. The bees love this plant and I noticed several different types of bees on the flowers there was honeybees and bumblebees.

[12:25] And the bees with the yellow on their bum, and the bees with the fuzzy black on their bum, the bumblebees had big big balls of pollen on their legs and.

[12:55] And I stood and I watched. I watched them coming and going, flitting from one tiny flower to the next.

[13:21] The flowers on this plant, grow in clusters of small tiny white flowers perhaps 20 to 30 little flowers, and the bees, could spend time on each cluster, going from one little flower to the next, which I wonder if that helps them conserve energy, instead of having to fly from one big flower to the next one. Here they could stay on one cluster, and crawl over the flowers.

[14:45] And I wish I could be, bee, and climb over flowers. It's so lovely to watch the life, the aliveness of the bees, living their bee lives. And I watch them closely.

[15:24] And I hear their sound. And I smell the flowers. A gentle breeze. Flowing by. And even though it was so hot. They were still. Very busy. I moved along. a little way on the path, and I notice a bee on the ground, and this path, has tiny little pebbles and dust and dirt, and it's been dry lately, so the path is also a bit dusty, and the bee I saw on the ground looked like it was struggling and.

[16:52] It looked like it might be in trouble.

[17:00] It was on its side, and it seemed to be covered in dust. And because it was covered in dust, it wasn't able to fly away. Because the wings were dusty. So I picked it up, and gently set it on a bigger leaf near the ground, not too high up. The sort of leaf that it could rust in, and get some of the dust off. I didn't want the little bee to get squished, by somebody accidentally stepping on it. on the path.

[18:22] So I was glad, that I was able to help and move the bee, so that it could get back to the nectar of the flowers. I've tasted the nectar of honeysuckle.

[18:55] And the way to do that is find a flower, bite off the very end, and suck on it. There's a little, small, tiny bit of sweet nectar in there, and it's so delicious. And I wonder if the bees think that the nectar tastes nice.

[19:42] Now the bees live off the honey in the winter. And I wonder if they perceive it as being sweet, like humans do.

[20:06] I don't know the answer to that. but perhaps in another episode, I will be able to tell you, about the magic of the bees. But just now, I'm observing them. And getting to know them. Just watching.

[20:51] It's lovely to be with them. And after a while of watching, I move on to see what else I can find, after a while I come to a small bridge off of the main path, this bridge looks over a channel of water.

[21:43] The water is not very deep, but I could see fish, and plants, and life. What I also noticed was the dragonflies and the damselflies skimming around over the top of the water. There was many more damselflies than dragonflies. The damselflies are much smaller, and they are an electric blue color. They're so bright against all the green.

[23:07] And there's so many of them flitting around the leaves of the plants, that are all around the water.

[23:28] Some also skim over the top of the water. The dragonflies are quite a bit bigger. They are the color of a rusty nail, with the bigger double wings, flitting around, and there's lots of dried rushes from last year, which are quite tall, over six feet tall, And sometimes I see one little dragonfly sitting on the very top of one of these stems.

[24:50] I'm just watching, just being there.

[25:01] I notice an interesting thing, as the dragonflies and the damsel flies, fly over the water. If they get particularly close to the water, a fish will jump up and try to get it. And these fish are about three to four inches long, with chunky little bodies. I could see them propelling their cells out of the water. To hopefully get a nice little snack.

[26:22] I did not see a fish catch a dragonfly today. Day as I stood and watched and observed.

[26:51] Another thing I noticed about the dragonflies is that they like to land on a perch that It does not have any leaves on him. I see them land on the top or the sides of the dried rush stems. I saw one, on a branch that had no leaves, and the more I looked for these.

[27:55] Little places of stem or branch with no leaf, I could see more dragonflies. Now the damselflies, they land on the leaves, or on any green part of the plants, and the dragonflies like the dried parts, and I just love how I'm able to sit and observe this small little detail, and get a glimpse into their lives, I'm just observing the magnificence of life going on around me.

[29:24] I notice a ladybug fly by. I know it's a ladybug because they have a very distinct way that they fly. With the open wings, and the tiniest flash of red, as it floats by, and it lands on another plant, in the distance I can hear a cuckoo bird. Cuckoo. Cuckoo. Cuckoo. Cuckoo. It's a nice sound.

[30:35] And there's the sound of the lap wings. Which almost sounds a bit mechanical. And then there's the thrushes singing a melodious song.

[31:04] And life flourishes around me. The grass grows, Next to the brambles, Next to the nettles.

[31:28] Next to the cleavers. Next to the dock. Next to the willows. Next to the rushes. Next to the plantain. Next to the dandelions. Next to the ivy, next to the self-heal, and next to the fern, and on, and on, and on, until all the plants In all the world is mentioned. All growing next to each other.

[32:45] Growing on this earth. On this planet. growing together in companionship cooperating allowing each other space to be as they are.

[33:25] All touching and growing together. All reaching for the sunshine and the fresh air and the water. Growing by the magic of the birds. And in this place, it seems that there is complete harmony, complete harmony and peace.

[34:17] And then under that and around that, and over that, and through that is the love, the love that binds it all together, and that is what I observe, as I see it by the channel, by the marshes.

[35:06] By the path on a bench, A different bench than the one I've mentioned before. All this existing together, and the ease and the peace.

[35:42] And the wind gently, ever so gently on this hot day, floating through the leaves on the trees. And the rushes and the reeds, and all the plants, making a soft rustling sound, and the bees on the flowers, Gently swaying in the breeze. And I know that this is peace. This is ease.

[36:55] And I soak up this moment. And I share this bit of peace with you, dear one. And that was my rambling, musing observations about the bees and the dragonflies. The story can begin to fade now. And with it, any need to keep moving.

[37:57] You can stay here. In this slower rhythm. Nothing to catch. Nothing to reach. Just rest. A time for rest, and peace. And now, if you're already asleep, keep resting. If you're still awake, that's okay too. You can let this episode play again or move on to, the next one, I'll be right here, good night.