ASMR

ASMR, tingling sensation typically felt on the scalp and throughout the head, neck, spine, and limbs, triggered by certain visual, auditory, or touch stimuli. The length of the sensation varies from person to person but may last 30 minutes or longer. Researchers estimate that approximately 20 percent of persons experience the autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR).

Characteristics

Individuals who experience ASMR often describe it as chills or tingles or as a sparkly or fuzzy feeling, with the sensation moving in waves and becoming more intense over time. The sensation is commonly perceived as pleasant, the person feeling happy, peaceful, calm, grateful, relaxed, comfortable, and even sleepy during an ASMR response. Individuals also often have a reduced heart rate.

ASMR is a form of paresthesia, a group of sensations experienced in the skin. Examples of paresthesia include burning, prickling, itching, and numbness, as well as the pins-and-needles sensation felt when a limb “falls asleep” from pressure compressing a nerve, such as occurs when leaning on the hands or laying on an arm. ASMR is similar to auditory-tactile synesthesia, a phenomenon in which a person may experience a particular sound as a tactile sensation. Research has found that individuals who experience ASMR are more likely to experience synesthesia.

ASMR may be placed into one of two categories: unintentional and intentional. Unintentional ASMR occurs when individuals have the response after randomly and serendipitously experiencing a trigger in their everyday lives. Intentional ASMR occurs when individuals view videos of ASMR triggers or seek out in-person experiences, expecting a given trigger to produce the sensation.

Triggers of ASMR

Auditory triggers of ASMR include whispering; a gentle voice talking softly; brushing hair; the tapping of fingernails on a hard surface; and the crinkling of paper, plastic, or foil. Common visual triggers of ASMR include smiling faces; slow or repetitive movements, such as waving hands; and the movements of a person completing a task in an efficient and diligent manner. Touch can also trigger ASMR, especially light touches on the head, neck, back, and arms.

The television show The Joy of Painting (1983–94), created by American painter and television personality Bob Ross, is popular among persons who experience ASMR. Ross’s gentle voice, the repetitive movements of his hands, and the sounds of paintbrushes tapping and brushing invoke ASMR. Videos of his painting sessions are considered unintentional ASMR, because he did not create them for ASMR purposes.

The ASMR response seems to occur when a person is paying close attention to a trigger, such as a sound. The response also occurs when a person is receiving the close positive attention of another person, such as a teacher, a beauty technician, a hair stylist, a doctor, a friend, or a partner. The common thread between the different types of triggers is that they are gentle and nonthreatening. The person who has the ASMR response trusts the other person and feels safe.

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Awareness and study of ASMR

Awareness of ASMR grew in the 2010s, with the establishment of online communities by individuals who had experienced but did not yet have a name for the phenomenon. In many instances, individuals captured videos of ASMR triggers and posted the videos online. Many persons thought that they were the only ones who had experienced the phenomenon, until they connected with others in online communities.

Today there is a large collection of videos on YouTube that were created specifically to trigger ASMR and produce feelings of relaxation in viewers. Many individuals watch the videos—some of which have garnered millions of views—to help them sleep or to relieve stress. Some videos feature sounds produced using different materials or are close-ups of a person making slow or repetitive motions, such as unboxing a product, turning the pages of books or magazines, or creating origami. Other videos are role-play scenarios, during which a person with a kind, gentle disposition pretends to be performing a service for the viewer, such as a spa treatment or an eye exam.

In the scientific study of ASMR, researchers utilize imaging technology to explore differences in brain activity between those who experience ASMR and those who do not. Researchers are investigating whether ASMR could be useful for treating and providing temporary relief to persons who suffer from stress or from conditions such as sleep disorders, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and chronic pain.

Similar sensations

ASMR is sometimes confused with frisson, a reaction to music (and certain other domains of aesthetic experience, such as film scenes and recited poetry) that produces an effect similar to ASMR. A person listening to music and experiencing frisson feels a tingling sensation on the scalp that travels through the head, down the neck and spine, and sometimes into the limbs. Unlike ASMR, feelings of excitement and euphoria and an increased heart rate often accompany the pleasant tingling of frission, which lasts only a moment or two. Some types of musical sounds can be considered a trigger for ASMR, but frisson appears to be a separate phenomenon.

Some researchers have found a connection between ASMR and misophonia, an aversion to certain sounds, especially chewing, lip-smacking, breathing, coughing, and other “mouth sounds.” Both phenomena fall into the category of “sensitivity to sound.” In one study persons who experienced ASMR were more likely to also experience misophonia. The stimuli that trigger ASMR vary among individuals, and sounds that trigger ASMR in some persons trigger misophonia in others.