I can tell that Melodie is beyond exhausted. She’s been weirdly overanimated, and at the same time in between sentences she gets that vacant look. Sleep is calling her. She and I go into her bedroom, leaving Antonio in the main room. While she’s in the bathroom, I message O to let her know I’m staying here tonight. There’s a small sofa in the bedroom, and in the closet I find a pillow and blanket for myself. Mel comes out dressed for bed and props herself up on about four hundred hotel pillows. She pulls a silken sleeping mask down over her eyes. I sit with one hip on the foot of her bed and hoist my trusty bag onto the bedspread, where it looks cheap and nasty. But it sounds delicious.

‘This is going to be really easy,’ I tell her in a soft voice as I start rummaging very deliberately in my bag. ‘All you have to do is move the first finger on your left hand when you hear a trigger you like, and move the first finger on your right hand when you hear one you don’t like. If you get any misophonia, just kick me.’

She smiles, with dimples. ‘I’m not going to kick you.’

I tell her that I’ll be talking to her, that she’ll be able to hear my voice the whole time, and once she’s dreaming, she’ll be able to see and hear me in the dream environment. But first we’re going to find out what kinds of sounds she finds relaxing.

Then I get out my props, carefully and with my full attention on the sounds they make. One reason I keep using my ancient bag is that it makes lovely noises when you rummage in it. It has various snaps and chains that jingle softly, and there are rumbles and scratchy sounds when I pull things out of it. Mel is a musician, so naturally she’s sensitive to sound. But the thing about ASMR is that what may trigger one person’s tingles can be irritating to another person. I plan to run through many different triggers: the sound of pouring water. The sound of tissue paper crinkling. The sound of my nails tapping on different objects. My voice whispering. The tinkling of little beads on my bracelet. I have dozens of them that I can cycle through until I find something the client likes. I don’t personally get actual tingles when I’m performing ASMR, but because I have to be so calm and calming for the listener, I can’t help but get trancey. Paradoxically, I’m in more danger of a narcolepsy attack when I’m stressed than when I’m relaxed. That’s how I’m able to avoid falling asleep before my clients.

On this occasion, I don’t have to do much at all. Mel must be completely exhausted, because I scratch my nails on some cardboard and crinkle a few dried rosebuds in a little bowl and she goes down like timber falling.