The new trend on social media is getting abruptly awakened
Nielsen is a streamer who is dedicated to the so-called "interactive sleep", a category of content that is growing on Twitch and TikTok. In 2020, sportsgaming.win US covered the rise of "sleep streamers", who, however, limited themselves to filming themselves sleeping undisturbed, a trend that is inevitably overcome once a man is seen screaming and taking a punches his own mattress as a high-pitched whistle blows from his speakers. This new array of sleep streamers don't really sleep, but equip their room so that every online donation is matched by an action, most of the time loud and annoying.
The bizarre new trend The creator of the moment in this particular sub-genre is an Australian TikToker named Jakey Boehm: in May alone he earned 34 thousand dollars with his streams. Other users, like "Asian Andy" on YouTube, one of the pioneers of the format, brag about how much they earn on videos with titles like I Earned $ 16,000 from Sleeping 7 Hours, which of course inspired imitators. Recently my page For you on TikTok fed me a series of videos of streamers trying their hand at the practice, from the man with a balloon full of flour suspended over his head to the woman willing to have a bucket of water thrown at her. just under $ 150. Currently, a man is desperately trying to get 1000 followers on TikTok in order to start directing while he sleeps (the platform doesn't allow users to live stream until this threshold is reached).
Apparently, for viewers, being able to deprive a streamer of sleep is a rather fun experience. To entertain their audiences, however, these creators are willing to go even further. If at first Boehm only offered followers the ability to control his printer, since then his videos have become more and more elaborate: donations now allow users who follow him live to operate a machine that shoots bubbles of soap or to swell a shape, such as those seen outside American car dealerships. This bizarre new trend raises several questions: How does it feel to earn money while losing sleep? What is life really like for streamers who manage to be successful with this type of content? And again, do we have to fear that they may inspire with their businesses less followed creators who try to follow in their footsteps?
The word to the streamers "Every time I do a live stream while I sleep, I always die laughing from deprivation of sleep, "says Nielsen, who is followed by nearly 1.4 million people by combining Twitch, TikTok and YouTube. Nielsen estimates that he was able to rest continuously for a maximum of about six minutes during his live shows, without falling asleep completely. He ends his streams at 4:20 am and works on his footage until about 5:30 am, then sleeps until noon.
Nielsen uses the Lumia Stream program to connect smart lights to his account on social networks, so that his audience can wake him up by dazzling him. The If This Then That platform also allows him to connect multiple devices, making a Twitch donation, for example, shake his bracelet or start a YouTube video. Once, a neighbor's boyfriend knocked on her door at 3 am to complain about the noise; Nielsen has been forgiven by buying 200 dollars worth of alcohol for each of his neighbors: he hasn't received any complaints since.
Nielsen doesn't want to reveal how much profits he can make from live streaming, but says he earn "enough": "If I stream twice a month, I earn enough to pay the rent and bills," he explains, adding that the traditional videos he uploads to YouTube are more profitable because of the advertising revenue.
< The Risks According to Brooke Erin Duffy, a Cornell University professor, this can be a problem. Duffy does research on the economics of social networks and is the author of a book on the difficulties of digital work. Streamers who are successful in directing while trying to sleep "get their income from donations rather than from advertising sponsorships. When there is only one source of revenue there is much less stability."
I pointed out to Duffy that the imitators could struggle to earn the figures heralded by the most popular streamers, sacrificing the quality of their lives for a few pennies. "Like many tiny niches of online content, these streams are likely to attract a lot of people, but only a few will make sizable gains," Duffy points out. "Most streamers who have managed to make an income have started with a legacy audience and have tapped into that. fashion ".
For Nielsen, making live shows in which he lets himself be abruptly awakened is both financially and emotionally rewarding: he is happy when viewers tell him that his streams have helped them get through difficult times . “A guy trying to fall asleep is enough to make another person happy, it's enough to make them forget their problems and make them laugh for twenty minutes,” she says. For this reason, he does not plan to quit any time soon.
"Currently my plan is to buy a house so I can do things better and bigger," he explains, adding that he wants to place a "giant subwoofer" under his bed. "Sooner or later, there may come a breaking point where I will say that I can no longer continue - he admits -. I will probably take a break and then I will go back to doing so."
This article originally appeared on sportsgaming. win UK.
