New Video Genre, ASMR, Helps Lull People To Sleep

By Deb Amlen of Yahoo! Tech:

Stressed out? Can’t sleep? Perhaps it’s that “Candy Crush” addiction, or even surfing the Net on your smartphone until the wee hours that’s keeping you awake. But what technology has stolen from you, it might be able to give back. For free, and with no pharmacological side effects.

If you’ve been dreaming of a good night’s sleep, give ASMR videos a try. All you really need is access to YouTube. A pair of headphones that plug into your computer or smartphone and an open mind will also help. Then, find a comfortable place to relax (lying down is best, but a comfy chair will do), put on your headphones, go to YouTube and type “ASMR” in the search bar.

Now you’re ready to experience the soft-spoken sensory experience that is taking YouTube by storm. A soft and soothing storm.

While YouTube is currently the easiest place to find thousands of ASMR videos in one place, there is also an ASMR sub-reddit with more than 68,000 members. In both places you’ll find communities of people seeking the same thing you are seeking: comfort, relaxation, and a good night’s sleep.

These highly specialized videos are, according to Olivia Kissper, a U.K.-based “ASMRtist,” or creator of ASMR videos, a way to “merge technology with personal attention [to create the] warmth that we all crave.”

What is ASMR? 

ASMR is short for autonomous sensory meridian response, a fancy name for those pleasurable shivers and scalp tingles you sometimes get when someone whispers in your ear, brushes your hair, taps on an object with his fingernails, gives you a makeover, shaves your face, or performs other personal attention activities.

These scalp tingles have been dubbed “brain orgasms” by ASMR devotees, but while viewing an ASMR video can be an intimate experience, it’s not meant to provoke a sexual response in any way. In fact, some people don’t even get the tingles, but instead just feel soothed and cared for enough to relax and drift off to sleep.

Your mileage may vary, of course; everyone responds to these “triggers” differently. I, personally, respond best to whispering voices and the personal attention of a makeover. Other triggers can include crinkling paper, visual stimuli like painting or drawing, or softly spoken educational or story-telling videos.

Perhaps you remember how relaxing it was to listen to the mellow voice of television’s art instructor Bob Ross as you watched him gently cover a canvas with “happy little clouds” and “happy little trees.” Even today, videos of Ross painting and speaking softly can lull me to sleep, and the fact that nearly 6 million people have watched the “happy little clouds” video is proof that I’m not alone. I’m betting that they didn’t all click on that video just to learn how to paint clouds.

If you were one of those people who reacted to Ross’ television show and videos the way I did, you’ve already experienced ASMR.

Scientists are not quite sure yet how ASMR videos work to provoke a relaxation response. One theory speculates that dopamine and serotonin — the “feel-good” neurotransmitters — might be released in the brain when a response is triggered, but no scientific studies have been completed that would confirm that. Even so, Kissper reports having received hundreds of letters from viewers saying that her videos have helped them with anxiety, insomnia, stress, bereavement, trauma, and depression.

Honestly, it’s not as weird as it sounds 

Once you find an “ASMRtist” you like, she (the majority are women, but men are making videos as well) won’t seem like a stranger for long. While it may seem oddly disturbing at first to sit and watch a young woman unwrap a hard candy and eat it while showing you the contents of her makeup bag, the ASMRtists are nonthreatening and start to feel like trusted friends after a few viewings.

The behavior you’ll see in the videos may look odd at first (why is this total stranger offering to cut my hair and tapping on a hairbrush while chatting me up?), but they are very carefully scripted to include a variety of triggers that have been shown to be soothing. And if one video is just not triggering the response for you, you can always move on and find one that does.

So why is this community of ASMR video devotees growing so quickly? We rush through our days barely connecting with the people around us. In this busy world we live in, or perhaps even for those who can’t get out to connect with others, indulging in an ASMR video before bedtime may be the next logical step in combining technology with human interaction.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an appointment for a makeover. And a nap.