Gen Z struggles to catch some Zs

Nodding-off videos

Sun is among the many young people who've turned to ASMR(autonomous sensory meridian response) recordings to help them fall asleep. These videos, like white noise, trigger a response in the body and help people to relax and fall asleep.

On Xiaohongshu there are more than 40,000 search results for high-quality ASMR videos designed for sleep. Over on Bilibili, a popular video platform, the most-watched ASMR video has garnered over 6 million views and 184,000 favorites.

Users find these videos incredibly helpful for drifting off to sleep.

"It's quite soothing. I don't even realize when I fall asleep. Time just flies by as soon as I close my eyes," commented one Bilibili user from Guangdong province.

Zhou Xiaoxiao, an ASMR blogger with 452,000 followers on social media platforms Douyin and Xiaohongshu, has accumulated 2.52 million likes on her ASMR videos. In her content, Zhou softly whispers, chews food, rubs objects and creates various soothing sounds like brushing, tapping, clicking, crunching and crinkling into a microphone.

"Unlike other bloggers who aim to keep viewers engaged, the feedback I value most is 'Every one of your videos makes me drowsy'," said Zhou. The audience's recognition is what drives her to continue producing ASMR content after nearly five years.

In October 2020, Zhou began creating ASMR videos to help people who struggle to fall asleep. "At that time, freshly graduated from university and dissatisfied with my job, feeling lost about my future, I struggled with insomnia," said the blogger.

After stumbling upon ASMR videos online, she was captivated and started listening to them every night to aid her sleep. When the few bloggers she followed began updating infrequently, Zhou decided to create her own.

What distinguishes Zhou's sleep aid videos is her incorporation of imaginative role play, where she acts out scenarios using sound and visuals to transport the audience into experiences like applying makeup, receiving acupuncture, visiting a hair salon, or even listening to aliens converse.

In one of her most whimsical ASMR videos, Zhou portrays a doctor assisting patients in clearing their tear ducts, producing sounds with various surgical tools to mimic the cleaning process. Audiences described the video as both peculiar and amusing, making them feel as if they were present, shivering with fear.

As a full-time blogger, Zhou livestreams ASMR content from midnight until around 3 am every night, sleeps until past 1 pm the following day, and then begins her day's work. Despite having a slight "jet lag" compared to the typical office worker, Zhou considers her sleep schedule fairly consistent, only experiencing insomnia sporadically due to fluctuating income, unsatisfactory video metrics, or minor life concerns.

When faced with sleep difficulties, she turns to ASMR videos from other creators or reads a book. "The moment I pick up a book, I get sleepy," she said.