The Elephant Who Could Not Sleep
- 3 minute read
- Ages 4-8
- Bedtime Stories
There was a young elephant who could not get to sleep, and the more he thought about it the more awake he got.
Everybody else in the herd was asleep. He could hear all of them breathing slowly in the dark, which somehow made it worse.
He got up and went to find his grandmother, who was the oldest elephant there and always seemed to be awake whenever anybody needed her to be.
The advice
"I cannot sleep."
"No," she agreed. "You are standing up talking to me."
"What should I do?"
His grandmother thought about it.
"Do not try," she said. "Trying is the problem. Instead of trying to sleep, do something so slow and so dull that sleep gets bored of waiting and comes over on its own."
"Like what?"
"Go through the water hole," she said. "Not fast. Every part of it. The whole way round the edge, one thing at a time, and do not skip anything."
The water hole
So the young elephant lay down and started.
He began at the flat rock on the near side where the mud dries and cracks into plates, and he went slowly round.
Past the reeds. There were a great many reeds and he did them properly, in patches, the tall ones and then the shorter ones behind.
Then the shallow bit where the little birds walk about with their strange careful feet.
Then the fallen tree that has been in the water so long it has gone smooth and pale, with the branch that sticks up at an angle and always has a dragonfly on it in the afternoons.
Then the far bank, which is steeper, and the place where the ground is worn into a slope from everybody coming down to drink in the same spot for years and years.
Then the deep end, which is dark green, where you cannot see the bottom.
Then the mud on the corner, which is the good mud.
Then the—
The rest of it
His grandmother waited a while, listening.
Then she reached over with her trunk and rested the tip of it on his shoulder for a moment, the way she had done when he was very small.
And she went back to sleep herself, in the middle of the herd, with the whole of the rest of the water hole still to go.
Moral of the story
Sleep does not come when you chase it. Give your mind something slow and familiar to walk through and it arrives on its own.
Questions and answers
- Why could the young elephant not sleep?
The harder he tried, the more awake he became, and hearing everyone else asleep made it worse.
- What did his grandmother say the problem was?
Trying. She said trying to sleep is what keeps you awake.
- What did she suggest instead?
Going slowly round the water hole in his mind, one thing at a time, without skipping anything.
- What did he remember about the fallen tree?
That it had been in the water so long it had gone smooth and pale, with a branch that always had a dragonfly on it in the afternoons.
- How do we know he fell asleep?
The story stops mid-sentence, and his grandmother rests her trunk on his shoulder and goes back to sleep herself.
Word meanings
- herd
- A group of animals living together.
- reeds
- Tall thin plants growing at the edge of water.
- dragonfly
- A long thin insect with clear wings that lives near water.
- familiar
- Well known to you.
Questions about The Elephant Who Could Not Sleep
Is this story actually useful for a child who cannot sleep?
Yes. Slowly picturing a familiar place in detail is a real technique used for getting to sleep, and the story teaches it while demonstrating it.
Why does the story stop mid-sentence?
Because that is what falling asleep is like. It is also a signal to the person reading aloud to stop there and say nothing more.
What is the moral?
That sleep cannot be forced, and that a slow familiar thought is a better route to it than effort.
Can a child do this with their own place?
That is the best use of the story. Ask them to go slowly round their classroom, their street or their grandmother's house instead.