Nothing much happens: bedtime stories to help you sleep - Wallpaper and Paint

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

Our story tonight is called Wallpaper and Paint, and it’s a story about a room in a cottage by the lake, that is ready for redoing. It’s also about a claw foot tub and an airy kitchen with beams crisscrossing the ceiling, the faded patches of wall behind pictures, ferns and seagrass, binoculars and stir sticks, and the wonderfully satisfying feeling of peeling away the old and laying out the new. Subscribe to our Premium channel. The first month is on us. � We give to a different charity each week and this week we are giving to Joys of Living Assistance Dogs, Providing skilled, devoted companions to support and assist veterans, first responders, and others with disabilities. Creating cohesive teams focused on building a life of greater freedom and independence. Jaspr Air Scrubber: Learn more at jaspr.co—and if you use the code SLEEP, you’ll get $300 off. BIOptimizers’ Sleep Breakthrough: ⁠Click here⁠ and use code NOTHINGMUCH for 10% off any order! NMH merch, autographed books and more! Listen to our Bedtime Story Show, Nothing Much Happens First This, Kathryn’s guided mediation podcast.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi friends. Want every episode ad free? Tap the link in our show notes to subscribe. If you're on Apple Podcasts, just hit subscribe on our show page. Easy and it helps keep the show going. Let's take a deep breath together. In through the nose. And out through the mouth. It feels good to breathe deeply. And the air we breathe, especially at night, matters more than we might think. While we sleep, our bodies are hard at work, restoring, repairing, and recharging. But that work can be quietly disrupted by what's floating in the air, things like dust, pollen, and

other allergens. I didn't used to think much about indoor air quality, but once I did, I realized if we care about what we eat and drink, why not care just as much about what we breathe? That's why I sleep with a Jasper air scrubber in my room. It has no annoying lights and doubles as a gentle white noise machine that's become essential to my bedtime rhythm. But more than anything, it's turned my bedroom into a sleep sanctuary. A space where the air helps me sleep, deeply and peacefully. I can't recommend Jasper enough.

You can learn more at Jasper.co. And if you use the code SLEEP, you'll get $300 off. That's JASPR.CO. Use code sleep for $300 off. Welcome to Bedtime Stories for Everyone, in which nothing much happens. You feel good, and then you fall asleep. I'm Katherine Nicholai. I create everything you hear, and nothing much happens. Audio Engineering is by Bob Wodersheim. We give to a different charity each week. And this week we are giving to joys of living assistance dogs, providing skilled, devoted companions

to support and assist veterans, first responders, and others with disabilities, creating cohesive teams focused on building a life of greater freedom and independence. You can learn more about them in our show notes. A very big and sincere thank you to our premium subscribers. You are making this program possible. Our June bonus episode, just published yesterday, has a sweet story called The Last Day of School. And if you can relate to the feeling of the excitement and play that came with the start of the summer, or you'd like to, subscribe for just ten cents a day. Bonuses, extra long episodes,

and our complete catalog, ad-free. We have a link in our show notes, and Apple and Spotify users will see a handy subscribe button right on our show page. and subscribe button right on our show page. Now here are the sciency words behind how and why this works. Listening to bedtime stories creates cognitive distraction, which helps to shut down rumination and anxiety. The steady audio input can engage the parasympathetic nervous system and has been shown to slow down heart rate and breathing,

all of which will ease you to sleep. And the good news is, all you need to do is listen. I'll tell the story twice, and I'll go a little slower the second time through. If you wake later in the night, don't hesitate to turn an episode right back on. It will tip the sleep dominoes in the right direction and you'll be back to sleep in a jiffy. Our story tonight is called Wallpaper and Paint.

And it's a story about a room in a cottage by the lake that is ready for redoing. It's also about a clawfoot tub and an airy kitchen with beams crisscrossing the ceiling, the faded patches of wall behind pictures, ferns and seagrass, binoculars and stir sticks, and the wonderfully satisfying feeling of peeling away the old and laying out the new. Hey, listener, I want to tell you about something that's changed my daily routine in the best possible way. You know those days when your gut just doesn't feel

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much. And if you subscribe, not only will you get amazing discounts and free gifts, you will make sure your monthly supply is guaranteed. Your gut and your whole day will thank you. Again, that's bioptimizers.com slash nothing much. We've got it linked in our show notes as well. Okay, you are exactly where you are supposed to be right now. There's nothing you need to keep track of. Nothing more is needed of you. Get as comfortable as you can. Unclench your jaw. Soften your shoulders and hands. And feel the touch of your sheets and pillow. You are about to fall asleep, and you will sleep deeply all night.

Draw a slow breath up and sigh. Good. Wallpaper and paint. Beside my chair, where my binoculars hang for bird watching through the big picture window, I noticed a small rip in the wallpaper. of paper, sticking out just a half inch and as wide as my pinky. I reached out to touch it, trying very hard not to pull on it. When I was a kid, my mom had papered the powder room near our front door. She'd been very careful about lining up the edges and matching the border to the dark blue of the stripe, and it had remained fairly pristine for several years. But we, her children, and I suspect even her husband, had begun to peel it away whenever we found ourselves alone in there. It was too much to resist the satisfying feeling of sliding a finger under a spot where the paper had puckered and pulled away,

until slowly and in as big a strip as possible remove it from the wall. Oh, my poor mother. Over the course of a summer, her pretty, elegant powder room had been denuded, and as our destructive mischief always happened behind closed doors, she could never even catch us in the act. I smiled, remembering how that summer had ended with my brother and I standing shoulder to shoulder in the small room with the steamer and scraper in our hands, and piles of gluey strips at our feet.

Mom had switched to paint after that. I must not have learned my lesson, though. As soon as my fingertip found the curl of paper beside my chair, a frisson of excitement went through me. This was my house. If I wanted to peel away the paper, I didn't have to hide it. I could change anything I wanted. And suddenly, I wanted to change this room. My house is more of a cottage, really. It sits on a bluff that slopes down to a lake. The rooms are a bit small, and there are only a few closets and cupboards in the whole place. place on butcher block counters well treated with mineral oil.

There is a claw foot bathtub in the single bathroom,, cool air from the lake washes in and makes me dream of lily pads as I sleep. The kitchen was airy and white, with wood beams in the ceiling that I hang copper pans from, and slight floors warmed up with woolly rugs. The loft is strung with fairy lights, and my bed made up with a giant sprigged cotton duvet. So soft and inviting. It's difficult to get out of on rainy days.

But this room with my chair and the fireplace, now that I looked at it. Yes, it was time for an update. The wallpaper had a dark green and gray background, with oversized stems of Queen Anne's lace and ferns unfurling from their fiddleheads. I'd always loved it. It made me feel like Alice, shrunk down in the garden. But it was in places where pictures had hung, leaving squares of brighter colors behind them, like better-tuned television screens among a sea of muted greenery. It also hadn't been pasted on very well. There were air bubbles in places, spots where the pattern didn't match with the strip beside it. And if you looked at it too long, you might begin to feel a bit cross-eyed. So I pushed the furniture to the center of

the room, tossed an old, flat sheet over it, and rolled up my sleeves. I'd done some reading on it and had a collection of tools to help me with my project. A scorer that would pop tiny holes into the paper to let water or solvent slip behind it and loosen the glue, a steamer and scraper, and a few spray bottles. But before I put any of those implements to work, I indulged myself in just reaching for that little tail of dried-out paper and slowly pulling it away from the wall. I had a sudden, visceral memory of peeling the paper in the powder room, how often it would split or rip immediately. I'd come away with a tiny scrap in my hand, decidedly unsatisfying.

unsatisfying. But every once in a while, you'd have just the right angle on it, and a huge sheet would come off. It reminded me of the feeling of trying to get the dregs of a finished candle from its jar. When it unsticks from the glass and pops out in one whole piece, ah. And much of my grown-up living room was like that for now. The paper must have been very old. It was asking to come down in many places. And I could just slide my finger or the corner of my scraper under it and feel a chain reaction of popping as it released along the sheet and fell to my feet. There were a few spots around the windows and mantle where I did use the score and the steam. I gave the stubborn pieces a few minutes to soak up and soften, and then scraped them away as well. When the walls were clear and paper-free, I opened all the windows and gave them a day or two to dry out.

them a day or two to dry out. I picked a beautiful pale green seafoam color that matched the lake on hazy days. And after I'd primed and taped, I opened up a fresh can of it and stirred it slowly. Even this part, prying open the lid, stirring the thick liquid with a long, clean stir stick and pouring it into my rolling tray was full of pleasing moments. I became mesmerized as I worked, rolling out the paint, watching it spread and soak into the wall. The white primer overtaken by the soft, minty green. Did I still have a favorite color?

I asked myself. This must be it, I answered. Outside, the seagrass bowed in the breeze, and from far off on the lake, I could hear the splash of swimmers, their voices and laughter jumbled and ringing like chimes in the distance. When the paint was dry and I peeled off the tape, re- I might send a picture of the finished room to my mother. A nod to all the hard work it took to pull a space together that I understood better how she'd felt and had learned not just to tear down, but to rebuild. Wallpaper and Paint where my binoculars hung for bird watching through the big picture window.

I noticed a small rip in the wallpaper, a curl sticking out just a half inch and as wide as my pinky. I reached out to touch it, trying very hard not to pull on it. When I was a kid, my mom had papered the powder room near our front door. She'd been very careful about lining up the edges and matching the border to the dark blue of the stripe. And it had remained fairly pristine for several years. But we, her children, and I suspect even her husband, had begun to peel it away whenever we found ourselves alone in there. It was too much to slowly, and in as big a strip as possible, remove it from the wall. Oh, my poor mother. Over the course of a summer, her pretty, elegant powder room had been

denuded. And as our destructive mischief always happened behind closed doors. She could never even catch us in the act. I smiled, remembering how that summer had ended. with my brother and I standing shoulder to shoulder in the small room with the steamer and scraper in our hands, and piles of gluey strips at our feet. of gluey strips at our feet. Mom had switched to paint after that. I must not have learned my chair, a frisson of excitement went through me. This was my house. If I wanted to peel away the wallpaper, I wanted to change this room.

My house is more of a cottage, really. It sits on a bluff that slopes down to a lake. The rooms are a bit small, and there are only a few closets and cupboards in the whole place. But I have a stone fireplace and butcher block counters, well treated with mineral oil. There is a claw foot bathtub in the single bathroom. And when you open the windows in the loft, even on the hottest summer days, cool air from the lake washes in and makes me dream of lily pads while I sleep. The kitchen was airy and white, with wood beams in the ceiling that I hang copper pans from

and slate floors warmed up with woolly rugs. The loft is strung with fairy lights The loft is strung with fairy lights, and my bed made up with a giant, sprigged cotton duvet. So soft and biting, it is difficult to get out of on rainy days. But this room, with my chair and fireplace, now that I looked at it, yes, it was time for an update. The wallpaper had a dark green and gray background, with place, and ferns unfurling from their fiddleheads. I'd always loved it. It made me feel like But it was faded in places where pictures had hung, leaving squares of brighter colors

behind them, like better-tuned television screens among a sea of muted greenery. It also hadn't been pasted on very well. There were air bubbles in places, spots where the pattern didn't match, with the strip beside it. And if you looked at it too long, you might begin to feel a bit cross-eyed. side. So I pushed the furniture to the center of the room, tossed an old flat sheet over I'd done some reading on it and had a collection of tools to help with my project. A scorer that would pop tiny holes into the paper to let water or solvent slip behind it and loosen the glue. A steamer and scraper and a few spray bottles. But before I put any of those implements to work, I indulged myself in just reaching for and slowly pulling it away from the wall. I had a sudden, visceral memory of peeling the paper in the powder room, how often it would split or rip immediately. And I'd come away with a tiny scrap in my hand, decidedly unsatisfying. But every once in a while, you'd have just the right angle

on it, and a huge sheet would come off. It reminded me of the feeling of trying to get the dregs of a finished candle from its jar when it unsticks from the glass and pops out in one whole piece. Ah. And much of my grown-up living room was like that for me now. The paper must have been very old. It was asking to come down in many places. And I could just slide my finger or the corner of my scraper under it, and feel a chain reaction of popping as it released along the sheet and fell to my feet. my feet. There were a few spots around the up and soften, and then scraped them away as well.

When the walls were clear and paper-free, I opened all the windows and gave them a day to dry out. I'd picked a beautiful that matched the lake on hazy days. And after I'd primed and taped, I opened up a fresh can of it and stirred it slowly. Even this, prying open the lid, stirring the thick liquid with a long, clean stir stick, and pouring it into my rolling tray was full of pleasing moments. I became mesmerized as I worked, rolling out the paint, watching it spread and soak into the wall. The white primer overtaken by the soft minty green. Did I still have a favorite color? I asked myself. This must be it, I answered. Outside the seagrass bowed in the breeze, and from far off on the lake, I could hear the splash of swimmers, their voices and laughter

jumbled and ringing like chimes in the distance. When the paint was dry and I peeled off the tape, rehung my pictures and arranged the furniture, I thought I might send a picture of the finished room to my mother. A nod to all the hard work it took to pull a space together. That I understood better how she'd felt and had learned not just to tear down, but to rebuild. Sweet dreams.