Meet the married couple who created SleepPhones, those comfy headphones popular for falling asleep to ASMR trigger sounds.

November 18, 2015 / Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

A common question I have seen on the ASMR subreddit and at other places is, “What are the best headphones for ASMR?”

There is no unanimous decision, but there is one brand of headphones which I see the most often recommended, they are called ‘SleepPhones’.

I know my wife would agree because she borrowed my SleepPhones a month ago and has refused to give them back.

These headphones are a plush headband with flat speakers hidden inside – quite ideal for falling asleep while listening to ASMR trigger sounds or any other type of audio.

I have noticed that the company which creates these headphones, AcousticSheep LLC, seems quite aware of the ASMR community.

So I reached out to them to find out more about the people behind SleepPhones, the development of their products, and their thoughts about ASMR.

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Undergraduate student researching ASMR, flow states, and highly sensitive person traits

November 13, 2015November 14, 2015 / Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

Anna Zajac is an undergraduate student at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland. She is in her final year as a Psychology Major and is working as a research assistant at her university.

In addition, she is an intern at Sensum Co., a marketing research company which specializes in neuromarketing.

Anna has teamed up with Dr. Jonathan Rolison to do her senior dissertation thesis on ASMR. She has decided to apply her research skills and computer software experience to investigate the relationship of ASMR with flow states and highly sensitive person traits.

In my interview with Anna she shares her inspiration for doing a research project on ASMR, the objectives of her project, advice to others considering doing research on ASMR, and more.

Below are my questions in bold, her replies in italics, and links to learn more about her and her thesis supervisor. Continue reading →

Has Dove Chocolate created the first ASMR-inspired commercial?

November 10, 2015 / Dr. Richard / 12 Comments

Dove Chocolate has recently released two videos in China which appear to purposely have ASMR triggers in them.

The following statement was posted on November 5, 2015 on the Facebook page for the marketing company, BBDO Worldwide,

“To modernize the Dove Chocolate ads typically used in China, BBDO Beijing created films to trigger ASMR, which it describes as “a physical sensation characterized by a pleasurable tingling that typically begins in the head and scape, and often moves down the spine and through the limbs.”

The Facebook post then linked to an article on the website creativity-online.com which included one of the videos and a link to the other video.

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Dr. Diego Garro provides a translated explanation of the first EEG study of ASMR

November 2, 2015 / Dr. Richard / 2 Comments

Alejandro Navarro Expósito recently finished his undergraduate thesis at the University of Almeria in Spain and made his dissertation publicly available.

His dissertation is titled, “Neuropsychological and neurophysiological characterization of a phenomenon called Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR)” and was completed under the mentorship of the faculty member, Dr. Inmaculada Cubero Talavera.

Alejandro focused his research on measuring the electrical brain activity of a woman experiencing ASMR. He measured her brain activity using an electroencephalogram (EEG).

The abstract of his dissertation is in English, but the remainder is in Spanish.

Fortunately for non-Spanish speakers, Dr. Diego Garro wrote a summary of Alejandro’s dissertation in English.

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History of ASMR: the early ASMR-type videos (podcast episode #3)

October 30, 2015March 20, 2017 / Dr. Richard / 3 Comments

Many people initially discover their ability to have ASMR through real world experiences.

These experiences may include having their hair being played with by a friend, hearing someone whisper, being examined by a clinician, listening to someone nearby turn the pages of a magazine, or watching someone perform a dedicated task like painting or origami.

Surprisingly, it has turned out that just hearing and/or watching these experiences in a recorded format can also stimulate ASMR.

In 2009, several individuals on the internet began intentionally simulating some of these popular ASMR triggers in videos – giving rise to intentional ASMR videos and ASMR video channels.

But these were not the first videos that people were watching to purposely trigger their deep relaxation and tingles.

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Update #2 about “Murmurs”, a cinematic ASMR movie currently in production

October 27, 2015October 27, 2015 / Dr. Richard / 1 Comment

This is update #2 about the first full-length feature movie about ASMR titled, ‘Murmurs’.

Graeme Cole is the filmmaker of Murmurs – which can be tantalizingly summarized as, “A reclusive ASMR superstar invites an online date to her studio. A paranoid romance with tingles.”

Murmurs is currently in the editing phase, but Graeme has just posted an update on the progress of the movie, an expansion of the production team, and an early response to an initial cut.

Spoiler: the first review of the initial cut is quite positive.

Below you will find a link to the full details of the production update and information on how you can help to support the continued progress of the movie.

I’ve also included links to video clips from Murmurs, video clips of Graeme, a link to the Murmurs Facebook page, and I’ve pasted in the full text of my prior posts.

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Can ASMR help to boost the effectiveness of your flu vaccine?

October 23, 2015 / Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

Getting an appropriate amount and quality of sleep has long been known to be important to good health.

In particular, scientists have shown that white blood cells, the cells which defend your body against germs, are strongest in people who get appropriate sleep.

In the latest issue of the journal, Trends in Neurosciences, scientists have gathered together lots of evidence to support that appropriate sleep not only helps your cells to fight germs but it also helps your cells to remember which germs to fight.

And remembering which germs to fight is the key to vaccination.

Let me highlight how this all works.

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Some spas are now offering ASMR sessions

October 13, 2015 / Dr. Richard / 8 Comments

Many ASMR videos on YouTube include spa role-plays because the attention and services provided in spas are some of the strongest ASMR triggers.

And traditional spa services are great at triggering ASMR because some of the core biology of ASMR may be rooted in feeling safe, being relaxed, and being cared for.

So there is something deliciously meta about a spa offering ASMR sessions.

In 2013, Michelle Joni wrote a blog post for spaweekly.com on this very topic. She began with an explanation of ASMR and concluded with this question, “Is an ASMR massage experience something spas should consider incorporating into their menus?”

I recently came across a spa which actually has incorporated ASMR experiences into their menu.

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History of ASMR: Music Remix of episode #2 (podcast episode #2a)

October 1, 2015November 23, 2023 / Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

In this podcast episode, you will hear a remix that combines music with excerpts from episode #2. Listen with headphones to enjoy the ear-to-ear experience.

Subscribe (free) to the ASMR University Podcast to hear all of the past and future episodes or listen to this one episode right here.

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Two longtime friends launch the ‘ASMR Newscast’

September 30, 2015 / Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

Lee 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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