So how did Inka Magnaye's ASMR podcast ‘Sleeping Pill’ start?

Inka Magnaye’s powerful voice is well-known almost throughout the whole country, not only through her viral TikTok videos, but also through her hit ASMR podcast “Sleeping Pill."

In an exclusive interview on “The Howie Severino Podcast,” Inka shared it all started with a TikTok video.

“I call that ‘Sleeping Pill’ because it’s like a one-minute video that’ll help people relax. And the comments that I got, like ‘I don’t know why I cried watching this. I really needed this.’ And all the comments sounded like that, like they really needed it. And I thought, I need to do this more and for longer and for many more episodes because there is a need for this. And I’m happy to help,” Inka said.

ASMR, also known as autonomous sensory meridian response, is that sensation people get from hearing different, often mundane sounds like eating, chewing, or whispering. Also called triggers, these sounds often sooth and give people a relaxing feeling.  

It's become something of a sensation on the internet, with the eating/chewing triggers getting its own sub-genre: mukbang.

According to Inka, she’s always been interested in ASMR, having consumed that kind of content for nearly eight years already.

She was already planning to launch her own ASMR content on her YouTube Channel and had made 10 to 15-minute videos of her quietly reading a book and at the same time grinding eggshells when Cut Print Podcast approached her to make a podcast for them.

“So when Cut Print asked me ‘What do you wanna do?’ I said, ‘I want to read people to sleep.’ I was also going live on my Facebook page which at that time only had like 3,000 followers and I would go live around 8 to 9PM and I would read bedtime stories to help people go to sleep. Because it was a pandemic, I want to do something to help and I thought ‘I like to read. Why not hit two birds with one stone?’” she said.

With the podcast, Inka said that she wanted to create a “mental, psychological space” where her audience can just go back into, relax, and take a breath.

The podcast launched and became a huge success, surprising Inka.

“I didn’t think that it would be that successful," she said. "I honestly, really just wanted to help people to go to sleep and I like reading. So that was the only thing in my mind. So by the time the third or fourth or fifth episode was released, we shot up to number one and I was like ‘What’s happening?’ And we stayed there until the end of the year. So that was a lovely surprise.”

There are times, Inka said, that she had to write her lines down, but now she has a writer with her to help her with the process.

“And then I close my eyes and then I talk. So I’m there with them while they’re closing their eyes too. So as a listener, if you ever listen to Sleeping Pill, if you ever close your eyes and kind of relax and took a deep breath, I’m doing that exact same thing at the same time while I record,” Inka said. “Like whenever I say ‘Just take a deep breath and then exhale. If I was there with you, I’d be giving you one big hug.’ I say that as I’m closing my eyes and I’m visualizing myself giving listeners a big hug. So it’s a very personal experience for me recording ‘Sleeping Pill.’”

Launched last May 2020, the “Sleeping Pill” podcast now has more than 70 episodes and has listeners from 80 countries. — Kaela Malig/LA, GMA News