ASMR or Autonomous sensory meridian response is an experience that provides its listeners and viewers physical sensations such as tingling feelings from the top of the head onto the upper spine, the ASMR community has been growing steadily over the past few years bringing artists that dedicate their work entirely to ASMR such as Gibi, Frivolous Fox, Heather Feather and more.
The famous videos consist of usually one or two microphones recording the artist performing tasks such as reading at a very slow and whispery way, tapping and soft scratching sounds using the nails, brushing things against the microphone and other smooth type of sounds. It really doesn't seem like a hard or complex job to make this type of videos, but the ASMR community have a short list of their favorite artists to listen to. This maybe because certain artists are able to found the most powerful and original triggers, some of this videos last more than 3 hours.
It seems like a big chunk of the ASRM audience uses it to cope with feelings such as anxiety, stress and insomnia, they say the physical feelings they are able to experience makes them automatically more relax and gives them pleasure related feelings as it basically its ¨a massage for the brain¨.
Claudia D. ¨ For mi its a huge aid when I´m experiencing insomnia due to high stress, I just put on an asmr video and I quickly start feeling a very relaxing effect.¨
Because there is not a lot of scientific research since its a new topic, we cannot be certain of the long term and quality related impact that ASMR can have on people with mental health issues. At least for now, artists in the field strongly advise in their videos to please not try and replace any kind of therapy with ASRM, since it seems like its a good aid but not a complete solution to stress related mental health problems.
There are some of this videos in which the artists focus their words and speeches into ¨Positive affirmations¨, which a lot of people that experience depression and loneliness problems said they found very helpful to feel better and more connected to others.
There is still a lot to discover about ASMR but it was slowly been receiving more attention from researchers, specially those focusing on physiological studies so hopefully we'll have a more steady ground to lean on when it comes to this new resource.
Watch an example of ASMR: