Research

ASMR and plant-based products to help with sleep

/ Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityPeople often stumble across ASMR when searching for natural methods and products to help them sleep.

And on the flip side, some people who have temporarily lost their ability to experience ASMR or do not experience ASMR may seek out other natural methods and products to help them sleep.

One popular category of natural sleep products is ‘plant-based products’, which also may be referred to as ‘nutraceutical sleep therapeutics’, or ‘herbal sleep supplements’.

I recently came across a very well written review article on nutraceutical sleep therapeutics and I wanted to share it (a link to the article is provided below).

The products covered in the article include L-tryptophan, chamomile, cherries, kava kava, valerian, and marijuana.

Continue reading →

Go to Tingle Town to record your ASMR sensations

/ Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityMatthew White is a freelance web developer residing in the United Kingdom.  He has received his BSc degree in Web Systems & Technology and his MSc degree in Smart Systems & Technology from the University of Bournemouth, UK.

Matthew has also created his own town, called Tingle Town.

Well, actually Tingle Town is an interactive website which allows visitors to watch ASMR videos and record the precise moments when their ASMR is triggered.

It is dead simple to use; viewers just press and hold an on-screen button whenever they feel tingles.  The data is shown as a line graph directly under each video and the data set for each video can also be downloaded.

Matthew’s idea and execution are brilliant – and the data being collected is going to be very helpful to understanding the specific relationship between triggers and tingles.

In my interview with Matthew he shares his inspiration to create Tingle Town, his challenges with the creation of Tingle Town, the potential value of Tingle Town for scientists and seekers of tingles alike, and more.

Continue reading →

Creative researcher merges ASMR with Opera

/ Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityLee Scott fulfills three roles at Bath Spa University in the UK as an educator, digital technologist and graduate student.

He is a creative researcher in digital media, the subject leader of Creative Computing, and a Ph.D. candidate in interactive experiences for web and mobile devices in the School of Humanities and Cultural Industries.

Lee also has a deep interest in opera.  And this is not your grandmother’s opera – this is “new opera”.

New opera is technically-mastered, digitally-optimized, emotionally-charged, story-driven, and carefully coded for internet delivery, smart device consumption, and headphone immersion.

New opera may remind you of another type of sensorial and emotional experience, and Lee would agree.

Lee’s other deep interest is ASMR, and so he collaborated with the ASMR artist adreambeam to produce the digital-based web opera, “The Village.”

Another advantage of delivering and experiencing opera through electronic media is that Lee was able to research and analyze viewer behaviors associated with the ASMR aspects of his digital opera.

In my interview with Lee he shares how the collaboration with the ASMR artist adreambeam developed, the relationship between ASMR and opera, his insights on frisson vs ASMR, his development of an ASMR and opera-themed game, research data from his web opera, and more.

Continue reading →

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

/ Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityAnna 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 →

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

/ Dr. Richard / 2 Comments

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityAlejandro 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.

Continue reading →

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

/ Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityGetting 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.

Continue reading →

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

/ Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

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?

Continue reading →

The potential biology of ASMR stimulated by light touch

/ Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

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.

Continue reading →

How do the speech patterns of ASMR artists compare to Bob Ross, Bill O’Reilly, and Geraldo Rivera?

/ Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityGordon McGladdery is a professional composer and sound designer living in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada.

He has his Bachelor of Arts in English literature from University of Victoria in Canada and an additional diploma in Sound Design for Visual Media from the Vancouver Film School.

Gordon first learned about ASMR in 2012 and immediately created his own research project.

He analyzed the speech patterns of several ASMR artists (GentleWhispering, VeniVidiVulpes, AppreciateASMR, and others) and compared them to the speech patterns of others (Bob Ross, Bill O’Reilly, Geraldo Rivera, and others).

He initially shared his findings with the ASMR community in an ASMR subreddit thread.

In my interview with Gordon he shares how he first learned about ASMR, the objectives of his study, his ideas about further analysis that could be done on ASMR-related audio, his favorite ASMR artist, and more.

Below are my questions in bold and his replies in italics.

Immediately following the interview is Gordon’s detailed description of how he did his analysis and his data findings.

The post concludes with a podcast Gordon created about his study, as well as, links to his initial ASMR subreddit post, to his spreadsheet of the speech pattern data, to his website, to his musical compositions, and more.

Continue reading →