What is ASMR?
Have you ever felt tingles when hearing whispers or soft sounds? Or have you stumbled across widely viewed “ASMR videos” on YouTube and felt pleasantly relaxed afterwards? You just might have experienced ASMR.
ASMR is an acronym for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. It is characterized by feelings of tingles and euphoria after being stimulated by ASMR triggers.
Wikipedia describes ASMR as “a tingling sensation that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine”. It is a pleasant euphoric feeling that originates from the back of the head down to the spine and limbs, and can last for several minutes at a time. This sensation is said to be akin to orgasms (although nonsexual) and has been described as “braingasms” by some.
Not everyone experiences ASMR though. It is said to be relaxing and helpful in alleviating stress, pain and depression for some and just plain annoying or weird to others.
How did ASMR start?
There was some knowledge about ASMR, but there wasn’t an objective term for the sensation until Jennifer Allen, a woman working in cybersecurity, created it in 2010. She had experienced the tingling euphoric sensation and was looking for confirmation or people who had experienced it. She later stumbled on a forum thread by user okaywhatever on studyhealth.com titled “Weird sensation feels good”.
This forum was created in 2007 and in it, okaywhatever talked about this sensation as one similar to that gotten from having fingers traced down your skin, but from random events. The post got a lot of replies from other people who had experienced such or similar sensations from the seemingly unremarkable events.
Jennifer Allen came across this forum in 2009 and shared her own experiences on it. She also founded a Facebook group dedicated to ASMR in a bid to organize the community to promote sharing and research.
In 2010, she created the acronym to sound clinical and scientific so that the experiences of the community would be taken seriously. She also created an ASMR research website to continue research on this phenomenon and help spread information.
The first ASMR channel, Whispering Life was created in March 2009.
The ASMR community has grown consistently with millions of ASMR-related videos on YouTube and communities popping up everywhere on the internet.
What can trigger ASMR?
ASMR occurs in response to audio or visual triggers or stimuli. They can also be a mixture of both. People who create ASMR media or art are called ASMRtists.
There are different types of ASMR triggers. They include:
1. Audio triggers
This involves the use of sounds like gentle whispering, crisp sounds, tearing, tapping, scratching, scraping, and blowing to provoke the euphoric sensation and sometimes, put people to sleep. Other triggers include page turning, crushing of materials, typing, writing, and humming.
These sounds are made in close proximity to the microphone and are most times, recorded with binaural microphones to create the immersive 3D or 8D illusion of the sounds moving you.
2. Visual triggers
Some seemingly mundane activities provoke ASMR in people. These could include, painting, brushing hair, soft hand movements, nail polish application, baking and watching massage videos. These videos usually incorporate audio triggers for a more improved effect on their watchers.
3. Personal attention
Personal attention triggers make use of long-lasting eye contact with the ASMRtists. They simulate touching and petting by moving really close to the camera lens and speaking into the microphone.
4. Roleplay
The ASMRtists simulate a typically calming and relaxing environment like a makeup salon or spa. Other roleplay ASMR videos include hospital examination, pirate roleplay, tattoo artistry, makeup roleplay and even clingy girlfriends.
5. Tactile triggers
ASMR can also be provoked through physical touch like running fingers down a person’s arm.
Benefits of ASMR
People who experience ASMR claim that it helps them:
- alleviate stress
- relieve anxiety and depression
- fall asleep
- calm down and feel less upset
ASMR can prove very useful to people struggling with insomnia or depression but is in no way an alternative to medicine or therapy.
ASMR has also been used to teach school subjects to students. The tutorials quite like normal tutorials but with ASMR triggers. You could check out this Algebra tutorial for example.
Conclusion
The ASMR community is actively growing, especially on YouTube, and is producing more and more tingly, euphoric content for its consumers.
