Great Frolics | Nothing Works, Everything Happens Ep 7

**Drew Ackerman** (0:02)
From PRX.
Friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it's time for episode Sleep With Me, the podcast that's here to put you to sleep, but in the most indirect way possible, to be your friend in the deep dark night and hang out with you.
So whether you can't sleep at all or it takes a little while, you just need a distraction and something nice to listen to before you get in bed.
I just realized, normally just to say what I'm thinking on these intros. So it doesn't always make a whole lot of sense, but this show doesn't make a whole lot of sense either, because it's a sleep podcast and I'm not here to put you to sleep. I'm here to be your boar friend in the deep dark night. Maybe even bring you sleepy joy and delight, but we'll see. We'll see what's possible. If you're new, welcome. This show is a bit different. Takes two or three tries to get used to. But for the people, it helped when nothing else did. They said, I had no idea something like this could exist, and I'm glad it does. So if you're new, just see how it goes. What we got coming up is support, because paying for the show is optional, particularly for new listeners. Doesn't make any sense at all, right? Then after the support, we have a long meandering intro meant to ease into bedtime. And then later on, we'll be doing a little bedtime story, reading and reinterpretation.
Be a bedtime story. So I'll be here about an hour. Whether you're new, you're coming back, you return to the show when you need it, or you're one of those super listeners who listens almost every night or all night long. I'm glad you're here. It's important for me to try to help if I can, to offer you any kind of relief I can in the night.
And we do it together. So if you're one of those people that does benefit from the podcast night after night after night, this show is a valuable part of your life. Please consider supporting one of these sponsors or supporting the show directly. Thanks.
Hey, are you up all night tossing, turning, mind racing, trouble, getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep? Well, welcome. This is Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep. We do the bedtime story.
What I'm going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you could set aside whatever is keeping you awake. There could be thoughts on your mind, thoughts about the past, the present, the future, thoughts you're thinking about.
Is it inevitable? It isn't, actually, it isn't inevitable, but it certainly feels that way that they make an appearance right at bedtime, right when my head hits the pillow, actually right after that. So usually my head hits the pillow. Then I do do some initial tossing and turning. Then even though I like, sometimes I like to put the pillow on my head, one of my pillows, over my head. And normally at that point it'll either, my thoughts will either start going or they'll say, huh, is this like, maybe we should change it. Like they'll say, I don't know about this. Either I'll be somehow instinctually comfortable, like this is the position or my thoughts are like, huh, is this the position? And then so thoughts could be thoughts about anything. Could be feelings, anything coming up for you emotionally at bedtime or around bedtime.
Could be physical sensations, changes in time, temperature, routine. You could be going through something, getting over something in the middle of something, maybe work a different schedule. Maybe you're traveling, maybe you have guests, whatever it is. The only reason I run through a few of those things is so you get to sense you might be in the right place, a place where you could feel or have a sense that you're understood, that there's other people listening right now around the world who have experienced a relationship with bedtime and sleep similar to yours. And maybe some of the strong feelings we share, those non-positive feelings. But I don't know when I know other people share that with me and relate and they say, well, I know what that feels like. That's why you call it non-positive feeling, huh? That's when we can make a positive out of it, to think that there's other people across the world, and we're gathered together a little bit right now indirectly. But actually, right now as you're listening, there's other people listening too. Some of whom are regular listeners and they're rooting for those other listeners out there. Some of those listeners have been through something very similar to whatever it is that brought you here. And they're really rooting for you. They say, I know exactly what that's like. I'm pretty close. I had something similar in my life. Whether it's something that you're just going through right now, or it's been a part of your life for a long time, or both, as it is for a lot of us, that they're glad you're here too, and they're sending you comfort and relief, and they're just, it's a very, it's like one of the more rebellious things you can do. But they're thinking fondly of you.