Moments before falling asleep live on Twitch, streamer Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo thought about how pissed off his mom would be if he told her that he made money sleeping.
“She thinks I do nothing now,” Rinaudo joked to his live viewers. “Wait until she finds out I literally slept and made money.”
Rinaudo enabled a bot that let his viewers submit videos if they made a cash donation, and went to bed. On the top right of the screen, the clips played on, while most of the display was taken up by Rinaudo resting on his back or side. Many hours and many cringy videos later, he woke up $5,600 richer. To show he wasn’t blind to how the whole stunt came off, Rinaudo gave a Nintendo Switch away to one of his patrons.
The newest trend in Twitch streaming is literally sleeping. That’s it. Over the past few weeks, streamers have been training their cameras on their mattresses as they doze off. In the intervening hours, viewers use Twitch’s donation function to gift them small quantities of money—$2 dollars, $5 there. A couple of streamers cutely refer to them as “slumber parties.”
“I suppose it’s time to get ready for bed bed bed bed bed beddybye,” said Twitch streamer and model Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa. It was 6 in the morning and, for hours, she had been broadcasting herself softly scratching and whispering into her microphone for an ASMR stream with cozy piano music. In chat, there was an outpouring of “have a good night,” “sleep well,” and “g’night.” Siragusa encouraged her fans to donate and subscribe; every 20 subscriptions pushed her alarm back another hour. She then hit Play on some ambient rain noises and went to bed.
