One of the best compliments someone can give to a new discovery is, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
I just read about a new research tool which deserves that compliment.
A group of scientists have recently published a paper in the journal PLOS ONE which describes a simple way to measure sleep quality.
Their simple idea could make research studies on the influence of ASMR on sleep quality much easier than current research methods.
This new method is so simple that I can describe it in two words:
Julie Young and Ilse Blansert have finished writing “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to ASMR” which should be available in May. You will be able to buy it everywhere books and e-books are sold.
Julie is a freelance writer and author, and has previously published The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Catholicism, Historic Irvington, and the young adult novel Fifteen Minutes of Fame.
Below are my questions to Julie in bold, followed by her replies in italics.
Sue Dorrens, founder of the “I Love ASMR” facebook page asked me a question related to ASMR videos.
She wondered why our brains perceive a fake stimulus as a real stimulus.
In particular, she wondered why someone can watch a video of someone pretending to touch their head (e.g., hair salon role-play or facial massage role-play) and then have a relaxing response as if someone actually had touched their head.
This is a great question and I have three possible explanations.
Helping people to fall asleep is one of the most widely reported uses for ASMR videos and ASMR triggers.
This is bad news because it highlights the fact that many people are having difficulty getting the right quantity and/or quality of sleep.
And yet, it is also good news because sleep is so important and ASMR could someday be widely supported by clinicians as a sleep aid.
This post will cover several recent research studies about the recommendations, challenges, and problems related to getting a proper quantity and quality of sleep.
And it will conclude with an example of how someone might construct a research study to demonstrate if ASMR can help improve sleep quality.
Lets begin with this question: Do you know how much sleep you should be getting each night?
Giulia Poerio, Theresa Veltri, Emma Blakey, and Tom Hostler are graduate students in the Department of Psychology at The University of Sheffield in the U.K.
They have combined their expertise in psychology, physiology, and emotion to investigate the idiosyncratic characteristics of ASMR.
The research group shares their motivations and several unanticipated challenges and reactions that have occurred thus far with their project.
Below are my questions in bold, followed by their replies in italics.
It is always a challenge trying to explain ASMR to others.
Especially when there does not seem to be another bodily sensation that can be helpful to compare ASMR to.
But perhaps there is.
And similar to ASMR, many people have never heard of it.
The sensation is called “mittelschmerz”.
The term “creepy” is often used by individuals to describe ASMR videos which they find disturbing.
This is curious to me.
Why is it that two individuals can watch the same video and one person feels relaxed by it and the other person feels creeped out by it?
And why is the word “creepy” so often used but never the word “frightening”?
There must be something common to a relaxing situation and to a creepy situation that is not common to a frightening situation.
And there is.
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Amy Huffenberger is an undergraduate student in the Neuroscience department at Wooster College in Wooster, Ohio.
She is doing her senior thesis project on ASMR, under the guidance of Professor Grit Herzmann Ph.D.
Amy shares her motivations, research objectives and challenges, and also offers insightful suggestions to future ASMR researchers.
Below are my questions in bold, followed by her replies in italics.
There are many ways to define and describe love.
So I will put forth one possible description just for the sake of this post:
Love is comfort and safety, it is a warm feeling that spreads throughout your body, it is happiness always and euphoria sometimes, it is trust, it is focus, and ultimately it is a state of bliss and relaxation.
That sure sounds a lot like ASMR.
Trying to scientifically define and explain ASMR is a big challenge today. Trying to scientifically define and explain love has been a big challenge throughout the ages.
But there is at least one dedicated scientist that tried to understand love through experiments, and he was ridiculed for attempting it.
Yet his research findings are considered some of the most important studies ever done, and may help to understand ASMR.
His name was Harry Harlow.
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