The Way to Dreamland: Fall-Asleep-In-The-Middle Bedtime Readings

By Aaron Brown

The Way to Dreamland: Fall-Asleep-In-The-Middle Bedtime Readings is a series of 10-minute visualizations designed to be read by caring grown-ups to restless kids who may not admit they're tired but definitely are. C

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hopewell Valley Media
• Release date: Oct 1, 2025
• ISBN: 9798992990812

Aaron Brown

Aaron Brown is a screenwriter, author, advertising copywriter and performer. He's a devoted side-sleeper - two pillows, two duvets, no top sheet. He lives in New Jersey with the loves of his life - Emily, Jake, Devin and Ziggy.

Book preview

Cover of The Way to Dreamland by Aaron Brown

The Way to Dreamland: Fall-Asleep-In-The-Middle Bedtime Readings

First print edition

Text copyright © 2025 by Aaron Philson Brown

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Published by Hopewell Valley Media LLC

hopewellvalleymedia.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2025907594

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data

provided by Five Rainbows Cataloging Services

Names: Brown, Aaron, author.

Title: The way to dreamland : fall-asleep-in-the-middle bedtime readings / Aaron Brown.

Description: Hopewell, NJ : Hopewell Valley Media LLC, 2025. | Summary: Read-aloud visualizations designed to soothe the listener all the way to sleep. | Also available in audiobook format.

Identifiers: LCCN 2025907594 (print) | ISBN 979-8-9929908-0-5 (paperback) | ISBN 979-8-9929908-1-2 (ebook)

Subjects: CYAC: Bedtime—Fiction. | Sleep—Fiction. | Meditation—Fiction. | Anxiety—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Bedtime & Dreams. | JUVENILE FICTION / Health & Daily Living / Mindfulness & Meditation. | JUVENILE FICTION / Readers / Intermediate.

Classification: LCC PZ7.1.B76 Wa 2025 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.B76 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23.

Cover design by David Wardle

Book design by Neil Swaab

For Jacob and Devin

Contents

Introduction

Tree

Cabin

Bubble Bath

Farm

Airplane

Whale

Tree House

Apartment

Train

Rainstorm

Index

A caring voice is music.

The words are just notes.

Introduction

There’s not much to this book; essentially, it’s a lot of words, and a voice reading them. Your voice. Which may seem like an unfair match-up against a restless, wriggling, curious, excitable, wonderful adversary — the one who is (or should be) listening and needs to go to sleep.

To this battle, I have a few suggestions. You may want to explain that this is a different kind of bedtime story book. One where there aren’t a lot of pictures to look at, but instead you get to close your eyes and make up the pictures in your head. For the particularly twitchy, you can suggest that they focus on something in the room until they’re ready to close their eyes — an object, a piece of art on the wall, a favorite toy. You may want to encourage them to think about their other senses — the soft covers pulled up around them, the feeling and temperature of the air around them, even the scent in the air. I strongly suggest letting them know that it’s fine (more than fine) if they don’t make it to the end of any of these readings, but instead fall asleep in the middle.

But my biggest suggestion is to think a little differently about your voice. I submit that it is not a weak instrument, or a poor substitute for flashier entertainment. It is not lacking, and it doesn’t struggle to match the task set out in these pages. Not at all. I argue that your voice — the voice itself, and its human presence right there in the room — filled with care, as it is, and love, may very well be the single most powerful, wonderful thing in the world to the person who is listening. That is why it is the hero of this book.

— A.B.

Note on text

What follows is intended to be read aloud in a slow, calm voice.

Tree

When you’re getting ready to go to sleep, it’s all about finding the right spot. The place where things are calm enough and comfortable enough … to let go of the day. You’re finding that spot where you can just let everything drift away.

That’s what dreamland is — that place.

Tonight, it’s a tree — just a cool, calm, shady tree with cool, calm grass underneath it. But, to appreciate why this tree is so special, you have to understand where it is. You have to look at the whole space around it.

This tree is the only tree standing in the middle of a huge, wide-open field. And it’s a very, very hot day. Most of the field isn’t in the shade. Most of the field is baking under the sun. Scorching. It’s like if you went to the pizza place and opened up the oven door and just stood there in the heat, thinking, Wow, this is really hot.

That’s how you feel, because you’re standing out in the middle of this field.

The sun is beating down, and when you look up, there are no clouds to help you. Like all the clouds just said, Uh, I’m on vacation. I’m going somewhere else. And just left — gone. And you’re walking … through this massive field, and all that’s there is heat and brown grass. Brown, sad, crunchy grass.

You can feel the sweat droplets on your forehead, and you never knew that your body could be so heavy. Each step is like, Whoah, do I have ankle weights on? Am I walking in cement? Am I turning into a robot?

Your