ASMR, the acronym for autonomous sensory meridian response, describes a tingling sensation. We have all felt it at least once in our lives – shivers down the spine, pins and needles, hairs standing on ends.

However, this prickly sensation feeling is used to describe euphoria, not fear. 

And the euphoric feeling is a relatively new phenomenon – stemming from watching, or listening to, pleasant videos or sounds. 

Individuals who are able to experience this have reported a positively overwhelming sensation upon engaging in ASMR, and this can be experienced through specific audio or visual stimuli.

And yes, only some people can feel the effects of ASMR. Not everyone can feel it, but we’ll share how you can work towards feeling the effects of ASMR. 

First, you’ll need to know how ASMR works.  

Typically, the sensations begin from the top of their head, scalp, down to their neck, and in some cases, to their extremities as well. 

What are some of these stimuli that are able to trigger such specific feelings in people?

Here are some examples:

  • Someone breathing or whispering
  • Folding clothes
  • Flipping pages on books or magazines
  • Rain falling

As you can see (or imagine), a lot of what these ASMR stimuli have in common are that they are in fact, relaxing for the mind. 

These are fairly common and hardly a fresh concept to the world of therapy, where calming sounds such as the soft, rhythmic ticking of hypnosis clocks or the sounds of the tidal waves at night have been proven to calm a tense mind. 

There are also studies that prove ASMR’s positive impact on people with anxiety or depression.

What about ASMR being a lovely sight for (sore) eyes, then?

Doing a quick search on Google reveals the following popular ASMR visual stimuli:

  • Hand movements

Famous ASMRtists (ASMR artists) on YouTube share videos of themselves on camera performing a bunch of hand signals or movements almost repetitively in a pattern, and these videos are dedicated to helping viewers sleep, or achieve a sense of calmness. 

Some ASMRtists also go above and beyond to include props in their video to boost the tingling sensation.

  • Mouth (lip) sounds

Essentially an audio stimuli, the ASMRtist whispers in the videos and makes sounds with their lips or tongues. Typical sounds you can hear in these videos are soft tongue clicking, tsk sounds, or lip smacking.

  • Personal attention

Not physical. Imagine virtual reality, but without the goggles.

First-person ASMR videos, also known as “personal attention” or “close attention” videos involve the person on camera giving you undivided attention in routine tasks, such as the act of applying makeup on the viewer, or for the niche audience, “being the subject of a physician’s clinical examination” (Lloyd, Ashdown and Jawad, 2017).

The origin of ASMR

When Jennifer Allen first coined the term “autonomous sensory meridian response” in 2010 to describe a considerably popular encounter among other individuals, little did she know it would become a huge emergence among researchers and scientists. 

It all started with a thread in a forum sharing their accounts and having the same “weird tingly sensations”.

She then chose her words carefully – like “autonomous”, derived from our autonomic nervous system which governs our involuntary body functions like keeping your heart pumping.

  • “Sensory” because it’s self-explanatory. 
  • “Meridian” refers to the flow in your body through which vital energy travels, like in acupuncture or yoga. 
  • Due to the lack of information on the Internet, Allen took it upon herself to find some answers behind her own experience – and countless others. 

Over the span of 3 years, she had not only created the term “autonomous sensory meridian response” to describe this funny feeling, but also started a Facebook group for others to share their own accounts (later started a Facebook Page), built a website dedicated to research as well as entered the first WIkipedia entry on ASMR. 

When asked about her own experience with ASMR today, Allen said, “I use it during the day to reduce stress, improve my mood, and at night to relax when I am going to sleep. I am better equipped to deal with difficult, emotional, or stressful moments because of it, and that means I’m able to do more with each day, which is deeply satisfying to me.”

How does ASMR work?

Most people experimented with ASMR the same way – log on to YouTube and search for ASMR videos. Click the first one, sit back, relax, and observe your emotions as you watch (or listen to) the video.

If that first video did nothing for you, don’t fret. 

It could probably be because you feel it only to a certain extent. According to an article by CNN, the different experiences boil down to the level of sensitivity to sound (or visual stimuli) that each person feels.

Another reason may be because it’s not the right trigger – and there are many, the most common ones being whispering and tapping, and other uncommon triggers like light display, eating and flipping pages of a book. 

There are more studies done now than there ever were pre-2009 – before Allen took the concept to the Internet. One study was done to determine the effects of different ASMR triggers on two groups of participants.

The conclusion was that for those who felt ASMR, the benefits they achieved were similar to the physiological effects of more commonly-known de-stressing techniques. 

And these psychological effects include slowed heart rates, heightened positive emotions and a greater flow-like state. 

Deemed a “previously unstudied sensory phenomenon” by another study (Barat and Davis, 2015), it was concluded that the audio or visual triggers, as listed above, are associated with having a heightened flow-like mental state. 

This basically means that ASMR helps to keep you in an intense focus, unaware of the passage of time. 

This can be likened to the saying, “Time flies when you’re having fun,” because that’s exactly what experiencing flow is. When you’re fully engaged in an activity or a task and you’re losing track of time – you’ve entered a flow-like state. 

And the more susceptible you are to entering this state, the easier it’ll be for you to experience ASMR.

Benefits of ASMR

From decreased heart rates, to feeling a deep social connectedness (or social connection), listening to ASMR videos or watching specific triggers have been reported to induce positive emotions like these in individuals who are able to experience them.

The ASMR website built by Allen, “ASMR University”, also indicated some of the benefits to include alleviating stress, anxiety and depression as well as to enhance focus and concentration in work and study.

ASMR has also either proven to provide other benefits as well, including the following.

  • Help regulate biological changes

Biological changes in the body also includes your heart rate. Typically, the lower the heart rate, the more efficient your heart is at functioning (and keeping the body functioning as well).

Surveys conducted on the effects of ASMR on certain individuals have shown more regulated heart rates – on an average of 3.14 beats per minute slower than those who did not experience ASMR.

  • Treat sleeplessness and insomnia

For what Medical News Today calls “ASMR experiencers”, watching visual or auditory stimuli like these helps put them in a more relaxed state, thus inducing sleep. 

There’s a reason all those videos on YouTube are more than 30 minutes long – some even lasting up to an hour.

You can watch them until you drift off!

Usually it takes a person about 20 minutes to fall asleep, from the moment their heads hit the pillow. But for some people who suffer from sleeplessness or insomnia, the process of falling asleep takes them longer, causing them to toss and turn on their beds and creating a sense of frustration.

  • Aid in addiction, trauma, or muscle recovery

Although not a lot of research has been done on this last bit, the ASMR University website included testimonials from individuals who believe that ASMR has helped in their recovery. 

You can almost spot a similarity among the benefits of ASMR above. It can help with recovery by bringing you into a flow-like mental state, allowing your body to relax and focus on its ability to heal.

There have been many studies centering around the use of mindful therapy, or having an enhanced awareness of your surroundings, and its connection to physical healing. The health benefits of ASMR is not that far behind.

Why do some people feel ASMR?

The cause, frankly, is still a mystery. 

But there are some interesting theories that may explain why some people can feel the effects of ASMR, and why others can’t. 

For one thing, it could depend on your personality – are you a Type A or a Type B? 

The usual traits of each personality type is outlined in the table below – for your reference, not because I’m a Type A. 

Type A Type B
  • Have an intense focus on work and experience stress when behind on deadlines
  • Dislike feeling rushed to complete tasks and experiences less stress when behind on deadlines
  • Have a tendency to multitask
  • Prefers to focus on one thing at a time
  • Dislikes wasting time 
  • Spends time pursuing creativity or philosophical thoughts

The logic here hypothesizes that the link between the ability to feel ASMR to each personality type depends on the source of stress-relief. 

Type A is mostly associated with their being; they are able to put themselves in a calm state of mind with their own thoughts, such as meditation.  Whereas for the laid-back Type B personalities, they reach out to external stimuli to achieve calmness.

Not sure if you’re a Type A or B? Pull up any ASMR video and see if your body or mind reacts positively to it. 

Another theory stipulates that with the modern world creating a subculture of people suffering from insomnia and anxiety issues, there is a growing need for mediums that drive euphoria. 

In other words, more people are looking to find calmness in a world where stress has become a part of our everyday lives. 

ASMR videos do just that – they offer relief from stress or loneliness, anxiety, and sometimes, even depression. 

The reason why these people are able to feel the effects of ASMR is because they need the relief. If you’re not very bothered by stress or are someone who can manage stress really well, ASMR triggers probably won’t do much for you.

ASMR at home

Ready to give ASMR a try?

Just type in “ASMR” into your search engine to show the top ASMR triggers for sure-feel “brain tingles”:

  • Whispering
  • Scratching, tapping
  • Blowing
  • Physical touch
  • Personal attention

You’ll most probably be directed to a YouTube channel, where more than 5 million ASMR videos can be found for your inner ASMR to watch to its heart’s content. Popular ASMRtists boast a range of triggers, with some videos including all of the above!

The most important thing to note is that you don’t expect to feel the tingles straight away.

For some, they don’t know they were experiencing it until their fifteenth or twentieth video. 

But to ensure that you get the best out of your experience, here are some tips for newbie ASMR enthusiasts:

  1. Try looking up some of the popular ASMRtists on YouTube, they have the widest range of ASMR triggers that you can try: SAS-ASMR (8.5 million subscribers), ASMR Darling (2.4 million subscribers), and Gibi ASMR (2.5 million subscribers) hits the top lists each time.
  2. Put on good quality headphones or earphones for the best “surround sound” experience: You don’t really need Dolby Digital-quality speakers to achieve ASMR tingles, but some say that the ASMR videos deliver better sound quality through headphones or earphones.
  3. Close your eyes when you’ve come across a trigger that you find most pleasant: Best time to try to experience ASMR is when you’re feeling tired. Some of the ASMR triggers may help gear your mind and body towards sleep – which is what you need at that precise moment! 

Bottomline is, the concept around ASMR is still fresh to the world, and people are still rediscovering sights and sounds that engage a part of the brain that was previously disengaged. Remember to just have fun with it!