Anxiety

Undergraduate student completes research dissertation about ASMR and mood

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Georgina Susan Pamela Terzza has recently completed her  BSc in Psychology at the University of Lincoln, England.  She is now pursuing her MSc in Clinical Psychology at the Royal Holloway University of London, England.

For her Bachelor’s Dissertation,  supervised by Dr. Andy Benn, she completed a research project titled, “The effects and benefits of ASMR stimuli on mood.”

For her project, 37 participants (with and without experience watching ASMR videos) watched ASMR videos and completed a survey about their mood.   She found that ASMR videos had a positive effect on mood, and this was independent of prior experience with ASMR videos.

In my interview with Georgina, she provides helpful explanations of her inspiration, goals, methods, findings, interesting moments, and very useful tips for other students researching ASMR.

Below are my questions in bold, her replies in italics, and a link so you can learn more about her.

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Undergraduate student completes research thesis about ASMR and progressive muscle relaxation

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Denisa Vondruskova recently received her Bachelor’s Degree from Palacky University in the Czech Republic.

For her Bachelor’s Thesis she completed a research project titled, “ASMR and Jacobson progressive muscle relaxation.”

Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is a technique developed by Dr Edmund Jacobson, hence it is also called, “Jacobson progressive muscle relaxation.”  PMR involves tensing and un-tensing muscle groups, progressing from the upper torso to the lower torso.

Both ASMR and PMR can help someone to reduce their stress and fall asleep more easily.  However, ASMR involves a passive process (passive exposure to gentle stimuli) and PMR involves an active process (active tensing and untensing of muscles).

Denisa may be the first researcher to compare the relaxation techniques and effects of ASMR and PMR.

Below is a summary of her methods  and findings, followed by a link to an English summary of her thesis.

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Published research study demonstrates physiological benefits of ASMR

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityA peer-reviewed research study is the first to report physiological changes while individuals experience ASMR.

The publication is titled, “More than a feeling: ASMR is characterized by reliable changes in affect and physiology” and is authored by Giulia Lara Poerio, Emma Blakey, and Theresa Veltri from the University of Sheffield (UK) and Thomas Hostler from the Manchester Metropolitan University (UK).  The research was published June 20, 2018 in the journal PLOS ONE.

The publication reported the results of two studies.  The first study involved about 1000 participants watching videos and reporting how they felt.  The second study involved about 100 participants watching videos, reporting how they felt, and having some physiological responses measured.

I will first summarize the methods and results of the first study, then summarize the methods and results of the second study.

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High school student investigating the effect of ASMR videos on teen anxiety and depression

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityChristian S. is a junior high school student in New York.  He is enrolled in an Advanced Placement course and has decided to do a research project about ASMR.

His research question is: “To what extent does Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) impact the levels of anxiety and depression in teens?”

He has created a survey for teenagers to investigate the relationship between watching ASMR videos and mental health.

Christian created questions about ASMR and also incorporated standardized questions from the Becks Depression Inventory and the Becks Anxiety Inventory to help him compare his results to other published results.

His survey is anonymous, specific for teenagers, and will remain open for about the next week.

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Health benefits of ASMR for anxiety, insomnia, depression, and more.

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityI’ve created a new page for the website titled, “Health Benefits of ASMR.”

The page has a list of conditions which may be improved by experiencing ASMR.  Each condition includes supporting resources such as; published research, ongoing research, testimonials, and supportive articles.

Unfortunately, it will take a lot more research, especially clinical studies, before the potential clinical application of ASMR will be understood.  This new page just highlights some of the initial support that will hopefully assist and inspire other researchers and clinicians to do more studies.

If ASMR has helped you somehow, you can share your experience at the Voices of ASMR project and it will automatically be included to this new page.

If you know of a resource which highlights how ASMR has helped someone, then please send a link to asmruniversity@gmail.com and I’ll add it the page.

A current list of the potential health benefits of ASMR (with links to supporting resources) is below.

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Undergraduate student shares results of research project about ASMR and anxiety

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityStacey Watkins is a senior Clinical Psychology major at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA.

I wrote an earlier article about her when she began collecting data for her research project titled, “ASMR and the Reduction of Anxiety”.

Good news, Stacey has completed the research project and has some interesting data about ASMR and anxiety to share.

In my interview with Stacey she explains the goal and methods of her project, her findings related to her 5 hypotheses, an unexpected finding in her data set, challenges she encountered in her project, and tips for other ASMR researchers.

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Marywood University undergraduate doing research project on ASMR and anxiety

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityStacey Watkins is a senior Clinical Psychology major at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA.

As part of her degree requirement, she has decided to do a research project about ASMR and anxiety. She has already received approval from her school’s Review Committee and has started to collect her data.

In my interview with Stacey she talks about the book which helped to inspire this project, her goals and hypotheses, her research methods, challenges with the project, and tips to other students who may be considering an ASMR research project.

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Is experiencing ASMR related to being a Highly Sensitive Person?

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityMichelle Woodall is a Counselor and Psychotherapist in Edinburgh, United Kingdom.

She has her B.Sc. in Mathematics and Economics with a Certificate of Counseling from the University of Birmingham, along with a Diploma in Person Centred Counseling from the University of Warwick.

Michelle’s areas of focus include depression and/or anxiety in the Highly Sensitive Person.

She recently wrote a series of articles about the Highly Sensitive Person which included ASMR.  I reached out to Michelle to learn more about the term Highly Sensitive Person and how it may relate to ASMR.

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Could ASMR be used at work to decrease stress?

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The workplace can be a stressful environment for most professions.  Work-related stress can result in poor performance, job dissatisfaction, and missed workdays.

One field that struggles constantly with job-related stress is health care, especially for those who work in surgical Intensive Care Units (ICU).

The word “intensive” is practically a synonym for the word “stress”.

Here is a crazy experiment: give these ICU workers one hour off in the middle of their workday to meditate, perform yoga, enjoy relaxing music, and watch soothing ASMR videos – then see if that helps their stress.

Well, one team of researchers almost did that exact experiment and just published the results in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

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