This is a bit of an experiment, with me whispering very closely to the microphone. I also brush the microphone and lightly caress it with my fingers. Let me know what you think!
To listen while using other apps, switch the player to Picture-in-Picture (PiP) during playback — it keeps playing in a small floating window (the screen stays on).
To listen with the screen fully off, in-browser playback stops by YouTube's design. Open the video in the YouTube app to keep listening where background playback is supported (e.g. with YouTube Premium).
Open in YouTube app