Month: September 2015

Two longtime friends launch the ‘ASMR Newscast’

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityLee Terrill received her BA degree in Early Childhood Education, has taught 2nd grade and been a professional cake decorator, and now enjoys working an office job with a small, local business.

Logan Jenkins has his BA degree in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Graphic Design, has worked as a Graphic Designer and Flash Developer, and currently works as a Frontend Web Developer.

Both live in South Carolina, USA, are avid board game players, and decided to team up to co-host the podcast titled, ASMR Newscast.

The ASMR Newscast launched on September 7, 2015 and they have been releasing weekly episodes with content quite fitting to their podcast’s description;

“we will bring you news from around the ASMR community along with a few relaxing sounds to give you the best tingles.”

In my interview with Lee and Logan they share how they met, how ASMR is helpful to each of them, their motivation to create a podcast, details about their podcast, challenges they have encountered so far, and more.

Below are my questions in bold, their replies in italics, and links to their podcast and other resources.

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Could watching lots of ASMR videos be a symptom of sleep apnea?

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityTwo reasons some people watch lots of ASMR videos is to help them with sleep problems and/or depression.

And although this may be helpful to some who have these problems, the cause of their sleep problems and depression may still need to be diagnosed so the underlying disorder can be best treated.

Recent research in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine demonstrated that sleep problems and depression are both common symptoms in people with sleep apnea.

So what is sleep apnea?

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History of ASMR: Birth of the ASMR Community (podcast episode #2)

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityOctober 29, 2007 could be viewed as the birth date of the ASMR community.

On this day, an individual by the username of “okaywhatever” started a forum thread at the website http://www.steadyhealth.com.

The title of the thread was, “Weird sensation feels good” and attracted over 300 replies.  The content of these initial replies quickly created a clear and consistent description of ASMR which still accurately describes ASMR today.

Some of the participants in the thread, such as Jennifer Allen and Andrew MacMuiris, spawned out and developed resources which were monumental to the growth and understanding of ASMR.

Overall, this forum thread lead directly to the following ASMR milestones:

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Meet Dana ASMR, a Korean ASMR artist with almost 100,000 followers

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityDaham “Dana” Park is an undergraduate university student majoring in Journalism and Advertising in Seoul, South Korea.

Dana also creates Korean-language and English-language ASMR videos on YouTube as “Dana ASMR”.

She started her video channel in 2013, at the start of the rise of ASMR in South Korea.  She has currently been seeing a strong surge of interest in ASMR in South Korea as her YouTube channel is nearing 100,000 followers.

In my interview with Dana she shares how ASMR videos made in South Korea differ from ASMR videos from other countries, if the understanding of ASMR is different in South Korea compared to other countries, how her blog is helping others in her country to understand ASMR better, and more.

Below are my questions in bold, her replies in italics, and links to her YouTube channel, Facebook page, blog, and Instagram account.

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The potential biology of ASMR stimulated by light touch

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityPopular triggers for ASMR include someone playing with your hair, cutting your hair, stroking your arm, drawing words on your back with their finger (back writing game), and/or examining you for health concerns (clinical exams).

What do all these strong triggers for ASMR have in common?

Light touch.

Being touched lightly has been perceived as pleasurable for a while.  In contrast, the biological understanding of these pleasant sensations has only recently begun to be understood – and may help to understand ASMR.

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Update: Support “Murmurs”, a cinematic ASMR movie currently in production

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityUpdate to the August 5, 2015 post (prior post included at end of this update).

Congratulations to Graeme Cole, the filmmaker producing the cinematic movie, “Murmurs”, about an ASMR artist.  His fundraising campaign achieved its goal.  The raised funds will assist him in the final steps to complete and market the movie.

The campaign site remains open to allow visitors to see his fundraising journey so far, to view video clips from the movie, and to provide post-goal contributions which will further assist him to bring his movie to life.

Graeme also has a Facebook page to keep everyone updated about the progress of the movie.

Below is my congratulations to Graeme in bold, his reply in italics, a link to his campaign site, a link to his Facebook page, and the prior post which includes a full interview with Graeme and information about the movie.

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