ASMR and the pathway to regular brain orgasms

So what is ASMR? It stands for Autonomous Sensory Meriden Response. Autonomous, as in something you listen to or watch on your own. Sensory because it can elicit a physiological and biological response. Meriden, meaning a point where those sensations can climax. Response, referring to the outcome.

It all sounds very complex, but it’s essentially sounds and actions made by humans that stimulate a sense of comfort or pleasure in our brains. This is mostly accompanied with visual stimulation.

In a study carried out in 2015 (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR): a flow-like mental state by EL Barratt EL and NJ Davis), they found certain “trigger responses”.

“Analysis of responses found four prominent categories of triggers, each experienced by over 50% of participants. These triggers are whispering (75%), personal attention (69%), crisp sounds (64%) and slow movements (53%). 34% of participants also reported that their ASMR was triggered by watching repetitive tasks.” 

The ASMR videos hosted on YouTube are nearly 50 percent self-care-themed. For instance, you could have someone talk gently to you while washing your hair, or you might have someone doing a dental check-up (this is my personal nightmare at 42 years of age I’m still afraid of the dentist) while talking to you in a whispered tone. They are shot in Point of View (POV) style and use certain sounds to create an aural ambient dimension.

YouTube is the constant content tide that floats all binaural boats with over 13 million (yes not a misprint) ASMR videos. The mind-boggling sub-sections and niches that are uploaded daily mean that YouTube has fixed that old adage of “you can’t please all of the people all of the time”. From people eating grapes to taking Christmas decorations out of boxes, whatever unusual niche you want to scratch, there’s an ASMR video for you.

So why are people watching ASMR videos? “When it comes to the motivation for watching ASMR inducing videos, 85.5% of ASMR-Responders reported watching ASMR videos to relax or to experience ASMR, 41% reported that ASMR videos help them fall asleep and 10.8% stated that ASMR videos help reduce their anxiety.” 

This is according to research carried out by a team from The Department of Psychology in James Cook University in Singapore that examined 83 individuals using ASMR.

But would I feel the same way? What was going to get my aural curiosity going? Certainly not people eating. A massive percentage of the videos are of people masticating on various vittles. I remember getting ready for school in the morning and having to eat my cornflakes in the kitchenette as I couldn’t watch or listen to my sisters crunching and slurping on their first meal of the day and that was when we had only two TV channels long before YouTube.

I’m also terrified of getting any kind of examination for any purpose, whether in cyberspace or in a real-life clinic. That one had me completely bamboozled, why would anyone want a nurse or doctor poke away at you even from a virtual distance?

In fact, I learned something about myself. I hate whispering and whispering plays an enormous part of ASMR.

I tried watching one of the whispering rock stars of the ASMR world, Gibi ASMR. She has amassed 3.59 million subscribers to her channel and is one of the biggest producers of content. Unfortunately, I found it difficult to get through only a few minutes of her videos. It’s not that she isn’t an expert at her chosen profession, the New York Times even called her the “LeBron James of touching stuff”.

It’s just that tapping, touching and whispering isn’t my thing especially when they emanate in 4k stereo through my headphones and specifically when it comes from my fellow humans. That’s my biggest ASMR problem – humans making sounds.

But don’t fret if you’re like me and feel like you’re going to implode every time you see someone chewing greedily on the top of a bic pen, we can go back to the fact that YouTube has solved the “can’t please all of the people all of the time” problem.

One of the niches of ASMR is nature. Think of the following sentence as if I’m writing for a holiday website: “Place yourself beside binaural seascapes, Scandinavian forests or Alpine meadows all from the comfort of your office chair.” Ok this is a bit exaggerated but with advances in technology I found nature-based ASMR extremely relaxing.

My personal favourite are the binaural ocean wave sounds at the world-famous Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach in South Coast Iceland. It is produced by the Nomadic Ambience Channel who also have amazing POV videos of walking through New York, London, and other cities in the rain if you’re missing bustling city life.

On stressful days, 20 minutes of listening to the cold Atlantic Sea bash the Icelandic Coast into smithereens can really relax you. It has most definitely given me the ‘trigger responses’ associated with ASMR and occasionally I use it to help me fall asleep. It’s now my virtual getaway of choice. However, I think I’ll still leave the dental examinations to an actual dentist.