Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - Floating in a Bioluminescent Bay (Premium)

Episode Date: September 14, 2020

This is a preview episode. Get the full episode, and many more, ad free, on our supporter's feed: https://getsleepy.com/support. Floating in a Bioluminescent BayTonight, we have the winner of our most recent social media poll. Tom will take us to a bay in Puerto Rico that glows at night. 😴  Sound design: waves in the bay.    About Get Sleepy Premium: Help support the podcast, and get: Monday and Wednesday night episodes (with zero ads) The exclusive Thursday night bonus episode Access to the entire back catalog (also ad-free) Premium sleep meditations, extra-long episodes and more! We'll love you forever. ❤️ Get a 7 day free trial, and join the Get Sleepy community here https://getsleepy.com/support. And thank you so, so much.  Tom, and the team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, Thomas here. You're listening to a preview episode. You can enjoy the entire story tonight by subscribing to our supporters' feed. There you'll get access to the entire back catalogue, bonus episodes, and more, and it's all completely ad-free. Click the link below to learn more and thank you so so much. Me and the team really appreciate your support. Puerto Rico is tropical, mostly warm and mostly wet. But the southwest corner is a little drier and more desert-like than the rest. Cacti and other succulents grow on the sandy dunes leading down to the crystalline sea. Many of the visitors who come here arrive in town by car.

They explore the waterfront and its plaza and take in its bustling restaurants, and take in its bustling restaurants, loud noises and bright lights. But you've come here for a different reason. You're here to experience the natural wonder of this place. It's bioluminescent bay. Bioluminescence is when a living organism produces light. Here on the coast of Puerto Rico is one of the world's best examples of this phenomenon. And that is what you've come to see. On a typical day, tour boats depart the busy docks every evening, taking people to see

the bay. If you'd come here any other day, that's how you might have visited it too. But tonight is special. There are no boats leaving as the sun begins to set. Their engines are quiet, and the coast a little, walk to the beach and swim our way out into the distance. You hear the rumble of your tyres on the road and fill the warm air blowing past your face through the open window. The road curls away from the last few homes and you let off the gas.

A salt flat abuts the road. You glide to a stop, shut off the motor and pours. In the glow of the fading sun, the greenish white salt flats reflect light into your eyes. You squint adjusting to the brightness. After a moment, you let your gaze wander to the darker background. A stand of trees follows the sand to the sea. That looks like a good path. You take a large fluffy towel from the car and drape it over your shoulder. You set off on foot in the shelter of the forest, which is drier than you might expect around here.

The sun is lower now, though the air still feels heavy with the heat of the day. You can hear rustling higher up in the trees as a breeze filters through their leaves. You walk with long, steps. Each feels a little slower and more relaxed than the last one. The ground is almost flat here except for a gentle downward slope. It feels as if the sea is drawing you toward it. You don't have a clear view of the water from where you stand, because of the dense line of mangrove trees growing before you. Mangroves cover many of these small islands, lending a depth to the coastal space. Even with a clear view, the exact border between sea and land is hard to make out, as these mangroves hold onto both with their leg-like roots. As the tide rises and falls, the trees look to be swimming or wading in the shallow water.

Soon you'll be doing the same thing.