The Bizarre Economics of Sleep Streaming as a Side Hustle

As the name suggests, sleep streams are an often interactive live-streaming phenomenon where creators broadcast themselves sleeping.

Unlike traditional video, which is recorded and edited, streaming is a live, continuous broadcast over the internet. On platforms like Twitch, TikTok, and YouTube, this allows creators to broadcast themselves sleeping for hours at a time while viewers watch and interact in the moment.

Although some streams just let you watch creators sleep, there are also more niche types of sleep streaming:

Troll or interactive streams

This is probably the most popular form, where viewers pay to make things happen in the room to disturb or wake the streamer. This can include triggering loud noises, alerts, playing music, or turning on lights.

For example, in one June 2025 stream, content creator StanleyMOV, who has 634,000 subscribers on his main YouTube channel, offered viewers the option to pay $1 to play a video of their choice and $500 to trigger a mechanism that would cut a hole in his air mattress.

One chose a $3 donation to play Michael Bublé’s “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”—and to send a message jokingly asking when he would show his armpits.

VTuber sleep streams

A VTuber (virtual YouTuber) is a content creator who uses an animated or 3D avatar to represent them on screen instead of showing their real face in their YouTube or Twitch content. VTubers normally use motion capture to help their avatars mirror their movements and facial expressions in real-time.

During these streams, VTubers sometimes use special animations or poses to make the avatar lie down, snore, close its eyes, or pull up a blanket on screen while the streamer is usually still physically in bed.

Popular TikTok or Twitch sleep streams often involve paying to disrupt the streamer’s rest. On the other hand, VTuber sleep streams usually function as low-energy “cozy” experiences designed for their viewers’ comfort or as filler content during a “subathon,” which is a live streaming event where viewers’ subscriptions and donations add time to a countdown timer, to extend the stream’s duration.

As one Redditor explained, “it acts just like a ‘Be Right Back’ screen.”

Relaxation or ASMR sleep streams

ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) content usually refers to videos or audios designed to trigger relaxation or a pleasurable response, sometimes a static-like tingling sensation. This is commonly induced through whispering, soft tapping, crinkling materials, or personal attention roleplays (e.g., haircuts, makeup sessions, or spa treatment roleplays).

Some ASMR streams focus on creating a calming atmosphere by featuring soft sounds (like rain) or gentle visuals designed to help viewers fall asleep alongside the streamer.

While not what most people think of when referring to “sleep streams,” it often pops up when you search this category. Many creators hold long-form streams specifically intended for viewers to watch as they go to bed, or they play soothing sounds for hours.

While entertaining for many, this kind of content is usually only profitable for a select few creators.

Sleep streaming has its early roots in 2015, when teenagers began broadcasting their sleep on the platform YouNow using the hashtag #sleepingsquad. Since then, sleep streaming has flourished on TikTok and Twitch and has become a monetized, interactive experience where viewers pay to watch a streamer sleep or wake them up.

However, streaming in general is a steep pyramid, where a small minority of top earners take home most of the earnings. Data from a massive 2021 Twitch leak—which was later analyzed by The Washington Post—revealed that the top 10,000 earners accounted for only 0.1% of all streamers on the platform.

Even more sobering was that 25% of those in that elite top tier didn’t even make the US minimum wage from their payouts, while the few who broke through that 0.1% ceiling made millions.

Sleep streaming is similar. For a small group of creators, it can generate significant income.

How much do the top earners make from streaming?

Sleep streaming can be profitable for those with established platforms. In 2022, Australian “sleepfluencer” Jake Boehm, who has 1.1 million TikTok followers, made $34,000 in one month from TikTok Live, according to Business Insider.

Early in 2023, the comprehensive analytics platform Streamer Charts estimated that streamer Kai Cenat (the first and only to reach 20 million Twitch followers) had amassed more than 5.6 million Hours Watched from his sleep streams, for which he reportedly earned over $23,000 a month.

Later that year, Amouranth, another Twitch streamer with over 6 million followers on Twitch, revealed on “The Iced Coffee Hour” podcast that she generated between $10,000 and $15,000 in earnings during a sleep stream.

YouTubers have also joined the trend. With support from some of his 3.9 million subscribers, YouTuber Crispy Concords also raised nearly $8,000 for charity during a single sleep stream in August 2024.

Not everyone makes money sleep streaming

To reiterate, not every sleep streamer will see these kinds of earnings. The aforementioned influencers have millions of subscribers or followers on their respective platforms, which more easily translates into an audience that’s willing to watch them sleep.

On the other side of that spectrum, it’s not uncommon to find streams with low views when scrolling through these platforms at any given point, so having an established audience or catering to specific niches might be the way to go when trying to make these streams profitable.

There are entire websites dedicated to pointing viewers towards streams with 0 views, such as Nobody.Live and LonelyStreams, which was one of the earliest and most well-known websites to aggregate Twitch streams with zero viewers and which features this note in its footer:

“At any given point in time there are about 3000 livestreams on Twitch alone with 0 viewers. Most of the creators are making great efforts of setting everything up and making sure their stream runs properly. It’s a shame that nobody is watching. So feel free to browse around and appreciate their hard work.”

There’s no shortage of social media videos of people mocking the kind of viewer who tunes into sleep streams. However, the trend proves that many people would in fact pay $3 to blast their favorite content creator with loud noises while they’re sleeping.

The chaos builds a sense of community, though even when there are no antics involved, people still watch streams for a variety of reasons. In some cases, the appeal is practical.

Sleep streams could help those with insomnia fall asleep

Sleep streams can help some individuals with insomnia fall asleep. While these streams may not be a long-term solution, watching others sleep can create a calming, communal atmosphere that makes sleep more possible.

Dr. David Spiegal, the Associate Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University Medical Center, told Business Insider that “watching someone else sleep could give you cues to get into a similar frame of mind.”

Sleep streams could help viewers find companionship

Sometimes, tuning into a sleep stream may be less about the streamer themselves and more about finding a group of like-minded people to hang out with.

“I have seen quite a few streams where the presence or absence of the streamer was almost immaterial. Chat was just chatting, like any old-fashioned chat room,” said one Redditor.

This was especially true of those ASMR sleep streams we joined where people just chatted about their day, lives, or interests, like this one:

“People watch it for comfort,” streamer StanleyMOV told the BBC. “They feel like they’re not alone.”

In this regard, sleep streams could function as a virtual sleepover to help some combat isolation, find comfort, and feel a sense of companionship.

Sleep streams can appeal to those with niche interests

Streamer Amouranth (who reported making up to $15,000 per sleep stream) said that generally, there is more of a sexual appeal in sleep streams featuring women, rather than the playful interactive dynamic with male streamers.

In her 2023 interview on “The Iced Coffee Hour” podcast, she said that for her viewers, the fascination lies in hoping to see something explicit. “They’ll be like, ‘What if she just starts taking off her top right now and forgets she’s streaming?'”

According to Amouranth, the numbers drop once there’s no longer the possibility of seeing something scandalous. In one 2022 interview, she admitted that she could get up to 20,000 viewers during her sleep, but that the figure would be cut in half once she woke up.

Some sleep streams also attract viewers who are fascinated by the intimate experience of watching someone rest, with some having a specific interest in certain positions or bodily functions during sleep.

On this 11-hour YouTube sleep stream, one user asked the sleep streamer Violet Lottie to try sleeping on her stomach during her next stream, “just for a little part of the video,” to which she agreed. Another user in the comment section asked for specific timestamps where she passed gas, a comment which she hearted.

There are specific playlists dedicated to this niche of conventionally attractive women sleeping, like this one featuring almost 400 videos:

Beyond the pressure of appealing to certain niche interests, content creators also have to consider a few trade-offs.

While lucrative, the rise of sleep streaming as a professional pursuit raises a few questions about the mental, physical, and financial health of these creators, as well as the ethical transparency of the digital advertising market.

Excessive sleep streaming can negatively impact streamers’ health

People doing low-effort sleep streams may not have to worry about losing any actual sleep, but the same can’t be said for the more interactive streamers who get woken up by their audiences—and who then have to make time off-camera for actual rest.

Regular sleep deprivation can have a range of negative effects on your body. It can affect your mental health, immune system, blood pressure, digestive system and more.

Luckily, according to experts, doing sleep streams occasionally may not be a big deal.

On the topic of sleep streaming, sleep expert Dr. Lindsay Browning told the BBC, “I would say if you put that in the category of ‘doing it once every two, three weeks to earn loads of money’, then why not?”

Some sleep stream setups can be expensive and time-consuming

Streamers running the troll or interactive streams may have to spend a substantial amount of time and money setting up their streams. As mentioned, these setups often require specialized technology and coding to allow viewers to influence the environment, such as triggering lights, sounds, or other physical actions in the room.

In one interview on the Shadow Banned podcast, TikToker Jake Boehm revealed he spent $30,000 AUD on his setup (roughly $21,000 USD, according to Yahoo’s currency converter). “I’ve got lights, I’ve got a shock bracelet, bubble machine, smoke machine…”

Not all streamers have this elaborate a setup, and it’s more feasible for most to start simpler.

However, as Boehm notes in a comment under one of his TikTok videos, a lot of effort can go a long way in establishing yourself as a standout creator, even when the work on the surface appears as if you’re earning by “doing nothing.”

Some viewers may issue chargebacks

Despite donations being voluntary, streamers frequently encounter chargebacks, which is a forced reversal of a credit or debit card transaction. Chargebacks are a known issue among those in the streaming space, and the streamer often has to pay a fee to the bank on top of losing the money.

Back in 2020, Forbes published an article detailing this issue and how platforms struggle with finding a solution, noting that, “More and more streamers are finding that, to a degree, chargebacks are an unavoidable part of contemporary e-commerce.”

In the sleep streaming sphere, a viewer could potentially issue a chargeback if the streamer doesn’t react to the trolling as they’d hoped.

As seen in one clip of a 2023 stream, another streamer who donated a TikTok “Universe” (equivalent to $550 at the time, according to Yahoo! News), told Boehm, “You better dance!”

While mostly played up for laughs, it represents the sort of informal contract that can exist between the viewer and the streamer, where the viewer pays for a worthwhile reaction, and the lack of one could be perceived as a “breach” of this contract.

Are advertisers being misled by passive view counts?

Like Lacy, some streamers often encourage fans to “leave the tab open” (i.e., keeping a streamer’s channel page loaded in their web browser, even when they are not actively watching) with minimum volume while they sleep or do other activities in order to boost view counts and ad impressions.

“Someone send this to the brands who are paying for those ads,” one Redditor said on a thread discussing Lacy’s request for support, which may represent a growing concern for advertisers being potentially misled by viewership numbers when many of those viewers may in fact be asleep or away from their keyboard (AFK).

Currently, advertisers have little say in the placement of their ads on platforms like YouTube. However, it’s generally thought that advertisers on Twitch have more control over the placement of their Stream Display Ads (SDAs), which are banner or video ads that appear usually at the bottom or side of the screen during a live stream.

This management can be done mostly through contextual targeting (i.e., targeting specific audiences and content genres), brand safety controls, and direct partnerships.

Ultimately, sleep streaming seems to be less about the actual sleep and more about the community—or the chaos—built around it. If you have an established audience and the technical savvy to build an interactive “troll” setup, it can be a lucrative way to monetize your downtime. However, if you’re starting from zero, this kind of streaming may be an overcrowded market.

If you plan to pursue it regardless, note that it requires a thick skin for internet trolls, a willingness to sacrifice your privacy, and the technical ability to keep a stream running smoothly for 8–12 hours at a time (or however long you plan to sleep).

Choosing the right platform is also important. For example, Twitch provides robust tools for technical interactivity, and YouTube has an established user base for viewers interested in ASMR content.

To turn your bedroom into a broadcast studio, you’ll also need a:

• Stable high-speed connection: A “reconnecting” screen might kill the flow of your stream, so ensure there’s no lag. You can also load up your stream in an incognito tab to see how it looks from your viewers’ perspective.
• Unique hook: Figure out your appeal (i.e., why someone would tune into your stream specifically over another creator’s), whether it’s for high-tech interactivity or a specific ASMR aesthetic.
• Moderation plan: If your chat is active, you’ll need trusted moderators (“mods”) or bots to filter out inappropriate messages or content while you’re asleep. This also helps protect you from accidentally violating any terms of service on your chosen platform.

It’s important to set boundaries early on so that streaming doesn’t disrupt your personal life. Consider your responsibilities, and decide whether you can manage loud noises at 3:00 AM or only “cozy” interactions.