If you’ve ever been in a seemingly mundane situation and felt a strange, mildly euphoric tingling sensation run from the back of your head to other parts of your body, chances are you’ve experienced ASMR. ASMR is a difficult-to-describe sensation with countless triggers and a growing, devoted community.
Not everyone “gets” ASMR, and chances are if you don’t know what feeling I’m describing it doesn’t happen to you. ASMR is different from frisson, which is a static, tingling feeling that makes your hair stand on end and is often triggered by intense emotions and music.
ASMR can be caused by many different auditory and visual triggers, and different people respond to different triggers. For example, I get ASMR from whispering, personal attention, brushing sounds (especially hair brushing), tapping sounds (like on a book cover or plastic), and specific hand movements.
These are very common triggers. Luckily, if you respond to other, less-common triggers, there’s still an ASMR video on YouTube just for you.
ASMR has gained quite the following on YouTube. “Gentle Whispering ASMR,” a popular ASMR channel, recently became the first of its kind to achieve 1 million subscribers.
A simple YouTube search for “asmr” produces thousands of videos from thousands of budding “ASMRtists,” all showcasing triggers from stretching rubber to striking matches. ASMR media ranges from amateur videos (such as this personal favorite) to high-budget movies with fancy special effects like Departure. As with most things, ASMR also has a dedicated community on reddit.
People suffering from anxiety, depression, and insomnia have reported that watching ASMR videos helps ease their symptoms. While some clinicians suggest that ASMR helps your brain “shut down” to induce sleep, others suggest that it can become a dependency like that of a white noise machine.
From personal experience, ASMR videos have been a godsend. Yesterday was my last night at home before moving to college, and I was anxious and upset. After listening a bit of ASMR I felt relaxed enough to sleep. And fear not: if you don’t experience ASMR, the videos are still incredibly relaxing.
From the outside, ASMR seems very strange. People watch other people whisper and tap on household objects, often while talking to the viewer as if they were a child. Some are turned away by the intimacy of ASMR videos; and, in fact, sexual arousal is a perfectly normal symptom of watching ASMR, which contributes to ASMR videos being unfairly demonetized on YouTube.
But as the community grows, more and more people give ASMR a chance and discover its therapeutic properties. Who knows? Maybe soon we will enter a glorious golden age of tingles!
