The "2022 White Paper on Healthy Sleep for Chinese Nationals" shows that nearly 3/4 of the respondents had sleep disturbances.
19 to 35 years old is the age group with a high incidence of sleep problems. When "sleeping poorly" has become a pain point for young people, some businesses have launched sleep-sleep services based on this, and sleep-sleepers have emerged as the times require.
The reporter recently interviewed a sleeping teacher and listened to the story behind this emerging profession.
Text/Guangzhou Daily all-media reporter Zhou Weiliang
Tell stories and "listen to stories"
There is a big income gap between part-time and full-time sleepers
"Hi, I'm Tao Zi, your sleeper, do you want to hear a story?" At 10 pm, a gentle voice came from the phone.
During the call, Taozi's voice sounded like a caring big sister, gentle and kind.
"If you don't want to hear the story, you can also chat."
Tao Zi told reporters that she is a part-time sleeper.
Mainly by telling stories and chatting to lull people to sleep.
In real life, Taozi has a stable job, but the salary is low.
Because she has a lot of free time, she thought of doing open source as a side job.
At the beginning, she posted a post on a certain platform to find a part-time job, and after getting a trial, she began to accept orders.
Because she is a novice, Taozi's current part-time income is not high, but she is also satisfied with it.
During the communication process, Taozi will also listen to the customer's story, and she finds that she has experienced similar emotions.
Tao Zi told reporters that before she became a sleeper, she was also one of the consumers of the sleep service.
In her hometown, classmates and friends around Taozi got married and had children one after another, and she developed psychological anxiety.
Afterwards, she bought a sleep-inducing service and "confided all her anxieties". After talking about it, Tao Zi felt her emotions were released and fell into a sweet dreamland.
This experience inspired her: poor sleep and insomnia are the pain points of young people like her.
She realized that there was a huge market demand for the profession of sleeper.
"Telling the practical troubles that are hard to tell in the face of acquaintances and friends to a stranger who has no intersection in the real world may be the best outlet for emotional garbage. After dumping emotional garbage, people will sleep more. "
After successfully applying for the job, Taozi joined a WeChat group where she could take orders whenever she had free time.
Taozi said that newcomers generally start from the ordinary level, providing text and voice services or voice-to-microphone services, and the service duration ranges from 15 minutes to one day.
Taozi introduced: "A day is actually not a whole day, with a cap of 5 hours. In order to attract new customers, the platform will provide free trial orders for new customers." She said that although she earns 70 yuan an hour according to her level, she completes it by herself. After the order, you have to share it with the store in half.
"The platform will divide the level of sleepers based on gold medals, town stores, and chiefs. The higher the level, the more expensive the fee. A chief sleeper can earn 260 yuan an hour." Taozi learned that these sleepers on her platform Teachers include college students, young people who are temporarily unemployed, and office workers with regular jobs like her.
The monthly salary of a full-time sleeper can reach 20,000 to 30,000 yuan. In addition to the normal fees, some consumers will give extra rewards.
Although responsible for "coaxing people to sleep", Taozi said with a smile that she often persuaded buyers to have a regular work and rest, but she failed to do so, because night is the peak time for sleepers to receive orders.
Want to be noticed more than "put to sleep"
"Post-90s" and "Post-00s" are the main customer groups
In Taozi’s view, for infants and young children to fall asleep in the true sense, the sleeping teacher is not an “expert”, and generally does not take such orders. “Infants still need relatives or nanny to do so Solve it." Taozi said that her sleeping clients are still mostly "post-90s" and "post-00s" young people.
Taozi said that these consumers come from all over the world.
Many people buy sleeping services either out of curiosity, or because they are bored, and simply want to find a stranger to chat with.
Although she has not been a sleeping teacher for a long time, Tao Zi also meets all kinds of clients.
"The people the sleeper meets are all random, you don't know what kind of story the next person you meet will bring you."
Taozi said that many people who buy sleeping services actually just need to be paid attention to and express their emotions.
"Some people have self-doubt because of exam failure, some people have no place to vent their emotions because of the pressure of work, and some people need comfort because of a broken relationship." Taozi said that the task of being a sleeper is to help clients Know yourself correctly and guide them to bravely face the negative emotions and pressure in life.
Taozi said that every customer has different needs. Some people like to listen to stories, and some like to listen to anecdotes. How to find the most suitable way to put them to sleep requires a period of contact to determine.
And sometimes the customer on the other end of the phone fell asleep and did not respond, and Tao Zi would not end the service immediately. She would ask softly: "Are you asleep?" After five minutes without a reply, Tao Zi silently hung up Drop the voice call.
Empathy, support and companionship
The sleeping teacher is more about emotional counseling
Taozi said that some clients’ insomnia is caused by staying up late watching videos or playing games, and in this case, she will read some healing essays to them.
Tao Zi said that a good voice can replace many expression skills and make customers listen comfortably, and if there are some technical blessings, there will be many repeat customers.
Taozi thinks that her voice is not a gifted type, so when communicating with clients, she pays more attention to making them feel comfortable through empathy.
During the process of being put to sleep, Taozi often encounters various practical problems, such as whether to repeat her studies, whether to take the postgraduate entrance examination, whether to get back together, whether to confess, which company to work for, etc.
At the beginning, she would give advice based on her own cognition, but slowly she discovered that the other party might already have an answer in her mind, and she just wanted a voice of confirmation.
So Taozi changed her strategy. She first asked the customer her own opinion, and after accompanying the other party to explain her journey, she silently supported the answer that the customer already had in mind.
Taozi understands this kind of psychology: if you tell your relatives and friends about your thoughts, they may encounter incomprehension, but if you tell your thoughts to a sleeper, the gentle response you get is as warm as lying in your mother's arms when you were a child.
Once, the client was a boy who had just lost love. Taozi had been listening silently and felt sorry for what happened to the boy. In the end, the boy was very grateful to Taozi.
"People who can't sleep at night often have mental depression. After being confided and comforted, the client stops the internal friction and will soon fall asleep." Tao Zi said, it is not so much about sleeping as it is about listening and companionship .
Taozi has accumulated some repeat customers since she worked part-time as a sleeper, and is familiar with their concerns, but Taozi said that she is only limited to being an online "confidant", keeping a suitable distance from customers, and will not become friends in real life.
Taozi also said that the sleeping teacher is not a professional psychologist. For those clients with mental illness, she suggested that they should go to a professional institution for consultation.