At its very essence, sleep ASMR videos work because of the sounds that are in them. I think what has made them popular over time is that vloggers are just really gosh darned nice people. A lot of fans of ASMR really are just fans of these vloggers and the nice sounds they make that help put them to sleep. It’s nice putting a face to a name.

But sometimes it’s just nice having nice sounds to listen to. You don’t always need the faces. Rain is a really popular source of sleep ASMR sound. It’s like the ultimate trigger and has been around forever.