Overview

Have you ever felt tingles in your head and deeply relaxed while getting a haircut, listening to someone turn magazine pages, listening to a specific person talk in a gentle manner, or while watching Bob Ross create a painting?

If so, then you have probably experienced the soothing and comforting feeling of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR).

ASMR is becoming increasingly popular around the world and with celebrities.  A driving reason is that it seems to be very helpful for reducing stress and falling asleep.

You can experience ASMR in real life (IRL), AKA in-person ASMR.  Learn about 4 types of in-person ASMR HERE.

A popular way to experience ASMR is to watch ASMR videos or listen to ASMR podcasts.  These recordings are either direct recordings of real-life situations that trigger ASMR, or are simulations of the voices, sounds, behaviors, and moments in real life that tend to trigger ASMR.

What does ASMR feel like?

The ASMR sensations can be categorized into:

• Physical sensations (what you feel):  light and pleasurable tingles, sparkles, fuzziness, or waves of relaxation in the head, neck, spine, and throughout the rest of the body.
• Psychological sensations (how you feel): deep and soothing feelings of relaxation, calmness, comfort, peacefulness, restfulness, or sleepiness.

What stimulates ASMR?

In short, ASMR is stimulated during moments of positive, personal attention (the Context) coupled with a gentle voice, touch, sound, and/or movement (the Triggers).

Context sets the stage for experiencing ASMR.  You are most likely to experience ASMR when a helpful and kind person is giving you calm, focused attention.  This kind person may be a clinician, teacher, hairdresser, parent, best friend, partner, or even someone you just met.  The key aspects of this interaction are that you trust this person, feel safe, and they are doing something helpful or interesting.

Triggers are the specific stimuli that occur during this interaction.  These triggers can be the other person’s voice, the sounds they create, their touch, or the way they move their hands.  The most important aspect of these triggers is that they are gentle and non-threatening, in other words, they are speaking softly, creating low volume sounds, touching you lightly and appropriately, and moving their hands smoothly, slowly, and predictably.

Want an analogy to highlight the importance of having ASMR triggers within an ASMR context?

Imagine a slice of delicious cake.  The key stimuli/triggers to your taste buds when you enjoy that cake are the sugar, butter, and salt – but the important foundation/context is the flour.  Take away the flour and use lose the foundation of the cake.  Similarly, the key stimuli/triggers for ASMR are things like gentle whispers, tapping sounds, and light touch – but the important foundation/context is the moment of positive, personal attention from a kind or caring person.  Take away the positive, personal attention and you lose the foundation for ASMR.

ASMR vs Mindfulness & Meditation

ASMR, Mindfulness, & Meditation are all helpful ways to relax.  A key difference is that ASMR results from someone else paying attention to you, but Mindfulness & Meditation result from you paying attention to yourself.  In other words, ASMR results from someone else being kind to you, but Mindfulness & Meditation result from you being kind to yourself (see this research study).

Why do some people find the relaxation during ASMR more soothing and enjoyable than the relaxation they may feel during Mindfulness or Meditation?  Perhaps the answer is in this analogy: Mindfulness & Meditation is like you using a backscratcher on yourself, but ASMR is like someone else scratching your back.  Both are enjoyable, but the latter can be more enjoyable for many individuals.  We may just release more positive brain chemicals when someone else takes the time and effort to help us compared to when we help ourselves.

What are the major ASMR Trigger categories (& examples)?

There are 3 major categories for triggers:

• Visual/Observed: Seeing someone’s gentle movements and kind facial expressions.  Examples include someone gazing at you in a caring way, as well as, watching someone’s hands unbox an item, poke at slime, cut soap, play with kinetic sand, solve a Rubik’s cube, draw a picture, or create a painting (Hello Bob Ross).
  • Sources: in-person, videos
• Auditory/Heard: The low volume sounds of someone’s voice, their fingers touching something, or the sounds of the item they are touching.  Popular sounds include whispering, gentle speech, tapping, crinkling, scratching, and brushing.
  • Sources:  in-person, videos, podcasts
• Tactile/Felt: Lightly touching someone’s hair, hand, arm, or back.  This can occur unintentionally with a hairdresser or clinician, or intentionally with a friend, family member, or partner.
  • Sources: in-person (read about the potential biology)
  • Can you feel touch during a typical ASMR video?
  • Can ASMR videos incorporate “virtual touch”?

What is the most popular ASMR trigger?

Although tapping sounds and crinkling sounds are very popular, whispers have been determined by three different research studies to be the most popular ASMR trigger.  This may be because whispers are not just gentle sounds like tapping and crinkling, but whispers also convey the gentle personality of the individual whispering and therefore feel more personal to the listener.

The first video channel of whispered videos for the purpose of relaxation was “WhisperingLife”, created in 2009.  Many other dedicated whisperers soon started YouTube channels soon after.  These early ASMR videos existed before the term “ASMR” was created and they were usually referred to as “Whisper Videos.”  Learn more about the History of ASMR videos HERE.

If you want to try relaxing or falling asleep to whispers, you can try the podcast, Sleep Whispers.  The Sleep Whispers podcast was created by the founder of ASMR University in 2016.  Listen to the Sleep Whispers podcast, the Calm History podcast, and other relaxing podcasts HERE.

ASMR audio vs White Noise

White noise (AKA continuous noise) is the hiss you hear when many frequencies of sound are played at a similar volume.  This noise can help you to fall asleep because it can help to block or mask background sounds that keep you awake (eg, dog barking, wind howling, people outside, etc.).  Curiously though, a review of research studies about white noise stated, “evidence for continuous noise improving sleep was very low.”  In other words, white noise was not great at helping study participants to fall asleep.  This surprising finding may be because people were expecting white noise to help to relax them, rather than simply help them by masking external sounds.

ASMR audio has a similar benefit to white noise; the sound will also help to mask external sounds.  But ASMR audio has the added benefit of stimulating relaxation, which can make it a better choice than white noise for those having trouble falling asleep due to ‘internal noise’ (i.e. overactive or stressed brains).

Why is ASMR relaxing?

When the Context and Triggers are appropriate (see details above), you feel deeply relaxed because your brain is saying to you, “This person isn’t making any threatening sounds or movements and they are doing something helpful or interesting.  I think I’ll chill out with them rather than run away, and this may even be a safe time to fall asleep.”

You can read more about some biological and evolutionary theories about ASMR HERE (includes the potential brain chemicals involved and the benefit of ASMR for survival and relationships).

Intentional vs Unintentional ASMR

The individuals who purposely want to stimulate ASMR in others are called ASMR artists (AKA ASMRtists, ASMR practitioners, or ASMR content creators) and their productions are called “intentional ASMR”.  The most common examples are YouTube video artists, but ASMR artists can also include composers, poets, dancers, and more.

Stimuli/triggers created accidentally by individuals are called “unintentional ASMR”.   Examples include Bob Ross, teachers, hairdressers, clinicians, unboxing videos, and expert demonstrations.

Individuals who intentionally or unintentionally elicit ASMR in others tend to have the following dispositions: kind, caring, empathic, attentive, focused, trustworthy, dedicated, expert, and a calm vocal tone.

ASMR scenarios and role-plays

Some of the strongest triggers for ASMR are “scenarios” which include a mix of stimuli/trigger types and involve someone with an ASMR disposition.  For example, watching Bob Ross paint includes a mix of audio triggers (gentle tapping sounds), visual triggers (methodical and expert hand movements), and Bob Ross’s gentle disposition.

If the scenarios are created on purpose to stimulate ASMR then they are called “ASMR role-plays”.  These are commonly performed by ASMR artists on YouTube.

General ASMR scenarios include: instructional demonstrations, methodical task completion, personal attention, focused activities, and consultations.  These scenarios may involve the person as a participant or as an observer.

Specific ASMR scenarios include: spa treatments, cranial nerve exams, hair salon visits, origami paper folding, unboxings, magazine page-turning, and soft spoken men painting methodically on canvas.

The benefits of ASMR

Internet videos of individuals purposely simulating real-life ASMR triggers have grown widely popular in the last few years.  Viewers find many of these videos as relaxing as real-life ASMR triggers and quite helpful for falling asleep, de-stressing, and providing comfort during a sad time.

Some individuals with clinical diagnoses of medical disorders report that these videos are helpful to their insomnia, anxiety, panic disorders and/or depression.

The evidence for the potential benefit of ASMR for stress disorders, sleep disorders, mood disorders and more is slowly growing – read more HERE.

Unfortunately, there is still a lot to learn about the physiology of ASMR and the true effectiveness of ASMR for medical disorders.  That is why the mission of this website is to promote the awareness, understanding, and research of ASMR.

The Rising Popularity of ASMR

A common curiosity is “Why did ASMR become so popular only in the recent past 10-15 years?” Although ASMR has probably existed for the span of human existence, experiencing it through intentional videos on YouTube made is easily accessible, always available, and expertly performed.    No need to rely on a friend or partner to be willing, available, and proficient at stimulating your ASMR.

In other words, modern technology and the rise of online videos allowed a safe and easy way to experience ASMR.  Furthermore, the early ASMR artists used their own intuition along with feedback from viewers to discover the optimal ASMR triggers.

Doesn’t the advance of modern technology, the internet, and YouTube over the past 10 years also get the blame for creating an epidemic of loneliness to result in an increased need for ASMR?  This is unlikely and has been well addressed by episode 407 of the Freakonomics podcast titled, “Is There Really a “Loneliness Epidemic”?”    Instead, it just seems that technology and YouTube videos simply provided an easier way to experience ASMR.

Is ASMR helping people during the social distancing of the current COVID-19 pandemic?  Yes, and you can read some reports by going to the ‘Health Benefits of ASMR‘ page and viewing the information at the top of the page.

Differences between Oddly Satisfying Videos, ASMR Videos, & Mukbang Videos

Oddly satisfying videos are any videos that you enjoy watching, but the reason you enjoy them may seem unclear or peculiar.  These include destruction-type videos (e.g., glass containers on stairs, demolition videos, car tires rolling over uncooked pasta, domino toppling, hydraulic presses compressing objects, item shredding, or watermelon smashing), construction or cleaning-type videos (e.g., pressure washing a dirty surface, pool cleaning, factory assembly lines, landscape painting, or watch repair), ASMR videos, and mukbang videos.

ASMR videos are a type of oddly satisfying video that usually involves a kind or caring person giving the viewer positive, personal attention while also making gentle and non-threatening sounds or movements.  See full details in the above descriptions about ASMR.

Mukbang videos are another type of oddly satisfying video that tends to involve a person eating a large quantity of food for the viewer to observe.  Mukbang videos are different from ASMR eating videos in the style of eating.  Mukbang videos usually have loud chewing and loud mouth smacks, with a focus on eating a large quantity of food.  ASMR videos can also show someone eating, but the chewing and mouth sounds tend to be quieter and subtler, and the focus is less about eating a large quantity.  Mukbang videos arose in popularity at about the same time as ASMR videos, but the origin of the mukbang phenomenon is more specific to South Korea.  You can learn more about mukbang videos HERE and HERE.

Learn more about ASMR:

• History: when and how did the world discover ASMR?
• Origin Theory: why and how do people experience ASMR?
• Science: what has research discovered about ASMR?
• Art: how do artists express ASMR?
• Testimonials: how do others describe their ASMR?
• ASMR University Podcast: listen to the history, science, and more.

Contribute to the Understanding of ASMR:

• Participate in the ASMR Research Survey
• Participate in the Voices of ASMR Project
• Participate in the Website Polls

For the complete list of ASMR topics on this website:

• Visit the Homepage

Prefer to snuggle up with a book or ebook to learn about ASMR?

“Brain Tingles” the How-To Guide by Dr. Craig Richard

Learn all about ASMR and how to stimulate that blissful feeling in those around you – with your gentle voice, light touch, hypnotic actions, and caring behaviors.

Lull a child to sleep, soothe a stressed family member, relax a friend or romantic partner, create ASMR videos, or add it as a relaxation technique to your spa, health studio, wellness center, or counseling sessions.

This book will help you to understand and apply the techniques, tools, and secrets for every ASMR trigger type, along with hundreds of examples.

Available on Amazon, or learn more HERE.

Website mission: to increase the awareness, understanding, and research of the Art and Science of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. (How to cite)

Website founder: Dr. Richard (About, Contact)

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