ASMR

Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) can best be described as a tingling sensation that one feels emanating from the base of your skull and down your spine. I have experienced this sensation throughout my life, but it is only fairly recently that I have been actively trying to cause this sensation. This sensation helps me relax and just plain feel good. Some have even described the sensation as "low-grade euphoria" - a sentiment I agree with.

Interestingly, very little is known about this sensation. Aside from my own personal account, there really isn't much from the scientific community about this phenomenon. The first peer-reviewed article about ASMR is from 2013 indicating just how groundbreaking this is. Science has yet to explain what biologically causes the sensation nor can it even confirm that it's real although I promise you that it is very real. There's also no consensus if ASMR is harmful or beneficial. While I will argue that it is beneficial, I can understand the concerns although I certainly am not dependent on ASMR to fall asleep. The concerns are more for those suffering from chronic insomnia. Regardless, this is something I have felt throughout my years, and I was really fascinated when I came to realize that I have been experiencing this phenomenon all my life.

 

I first noticed this feeling when I was very young (younger than 10) commonly while I urinated. I remember it best soothing headaches and amplifying that "relief" feeling. Later in my life, I fell in love with the movie, Hook. While it is certainly one of my favorite movies from my childhood, I recall looking forward to a particular scene in the movie which never failed to cause the tingles.

It was the scene where Robin Williams as an adult Pan is first accepted by the Lost Boys as being their lost leader. Between the music and the little kid moving Robin William's face around, an ASMR response was practically guaranteed. Of course finding this clip was fairly easy by simply searching for "Hook ASMR" in YouTube.

Over two decades later, while I have experienced the feeling from a variety of sources, my intrigue into ASMR began when I watched a YouTube video titled, "Top 10 Weird Parts of YouTube". Despite the negative tone of the video, I embarked down the rabbit hole of ASMR. I must say that there are quite a variety of them. Keep in mind that I was still in the military at this time, and finding any source of relieving stress (preferably not through alcohol) was very valuable to me. I found watching videos of ASMR massages to be very relaxing and helped me sleep. This expanded into the ridiculously out-of-context videos such as a person tapping on a microphone beanie to the use of Buddhist singing bowls. When I learned that listening to these videos through headphones enhanced the experience immensely, I became truly addicted to these videos. Anymore if I have a headache or trouble sleeping, I will put on some headphones and listen to one of my favorite ASMRtists. I have also found these videos to be able to elevate my mood whenever I feel depressed because the ASMR sensation can help clear my mind.

As mentioned before, videos exhibiting Buddhist singing bowls got me very intrigued into Eastern philosophy and practices although prayer and going to church have created the ASMR sensation as well. Obviously, ASMR isn't going to change my religious beliefs, but it taught me the importance of meditation. I started treating prayer as meditation and controlled my breath to help clear my mind. I believe that doing this helps me be closer with God. I haven't really explored the implications of this association, but I do find it interesting. I can't promise that you'll have a religious experience with this, but I do think that being able to clear one's mind is very healthy. ASMR has the capability of doing this and has been a very positive force in my life.

Recommendations

I will caution that I think a lot of ASMR videos are potentially really dumb. Granted a lot of these videos seem very ridiculous unless you have the context that these videos are trying to merely create the sensation. I don't think people just enjoy watching a cute young woman brushing a pillow or tapping on a box. While researching this topic for this blog, I was intrigued to learn that some people think this may have some sort of sexual arousal element involved because a lot of ASMRtists are very pretty young women talking softly to you. For the record, I have not had that experience. In fact, my favorite ASMRtist currently is this young man named Jojo.

And I found a video using the Buddhist (Tibetan) singing bowls I mentioned earlier. Of course the idea that someone seeking enlightenment through this technique decided to make an ASMR video of it makes me laugh a little.

You may notice that many of these ASMR videos can be very long (sometimes hours long!). The obvious intent is to make that sweet Google ad revenue, and more importantly people will "watch" these really long videos when in actuality they've fallen asleep. Because of this, it is fairly easy for ASMRtists to become very successful YouTube. I have no intention of pursuing this, but it serves as a warning that because these videos are relatively easy to make, finding the good videos may be harder to discover.

Other Resources:

ASMR Subverse
ASMR Subreddit