The Beach House: a sleep story

Reviewed by Dr. Nicholas Gehle, Psy.D., licensed clinical psychologist (FL PY8489) · Updated

Painting for The Beach House

Guided sleep imagery · 20 minutes · Free with a Strua account

Waves rolling against warm sand. A house at the shore with nobody else in it.

Free sample: the first minute

One minute, played right here. The whole story needs a Strua account. Lie back before you press play.

The place

A weathered wooden beach house at sunset, looking out over a calm sea. Warm planks under bare feet, salt in the air, golden light, and the tide coming in and going out.

How it goes

It starts by arriving: what you can see, hear and feel in the place. Then your attention moves slowly through your body, one area at a time. After that the sentences get fewer and the pauses get longer. Nothing happens in the story, on purpose. There's no plot to follow and nothing to remember, so there's nothing to stay awake for.

A story like this gives a busy mind one easy thing to rest on. This might help on a night when your thoughts keep starting up again. It isn't a treatment for insomnia, and some nights it won't be enough.

Hear the whole story, free

The Beach House is free with a Strua account. No card. Strua is a self-guided tools app by a licensed clinical psychologist, with no chatbot.

Listen to The Beach House →

If your mind is still going

A story suits a tired mind. If yours is busy with tomorrow, writing the thoughts down first often suits better: the step-by-step version is in can't sleep and your mind won't stop. If you woke in the middle of the night, see why do I wake up at 3am anxious.

If sleep trouble is frequent or your days are fraying, a clinician can help you look at what's underneath it. If you're in crisis in the US, you can call or text 988 anytime.

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