ASMR Me To Sleep

By Tamra Stroud

If you’ve been on YouTube recently I’m sure you have seen the uptick in ASMR videos. My first introduction to them was actually on TikTok via my niece. She was over last summer and I heard her watching a video but it was all whispers and noises. I went into the spare room to see just what she was watching and she tried to explain it to me, although not very scientifically. She did her best but let me see if I can break it down a little more for my readers.

ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response which is a term used to describe tingling, static-like sensation in response to a specific triggering audio or even visual stimuli. For me, it was more of a goosebump feel mixed with a little light shock that you might get from rubbing your feet on the carpet and then touching metal, but not in a bad or painful way. The sensation can be felt in the head or down the back of the neck, and for some people even down their spine, arms and legs. Personally, I’ve only felt it on the left side of my neck and up my left shoulder into my head but it’s quite something once you feel it and once you find the right sound or visual to trigger it. You will know it when you feel it. I have also experienced a sense of calm and sleepiness with some stimuli and others wake me up.

As of April of 2022, there were more than 13 million ASMR videos across social media. A lot of them use everyday situations to trigger you such as hair brushing and makeup application, and others are strictly focused on specific sounds like tapping, mouth sounds (sort of like beat boxing) scratching or squishing sounds and even crunching noises. Every person seems to react just slightly differently to the sounds and for some, it takes more than just the sounds and for them the visual seems to add to the body reacting to it. You can gain an ASMR response because ASMR can occur without the sensation of physical touch and instead through visual and auditory (sound) trigger that stimulate palpable sensation.

There was a peer-review study published in 2015 and another in 2018 which showed that people who participated in watching and listening to ASMR had a reduced heart rate while watching and the reduction was similar to other relaxation methods such as focused breathing and meditation. People are noticing and it’s been a great hope that participating in the watching and listening to ASMR could help to relieve symptoms like stress or chronic pain. I can attest to this as it has definitely helped me when I was experiencing a migraine and when I had trouble falling asleep as my mind was going a million miles a minute.

According to David E. Warren, PhD, University of Nebraska Medical Center neuroscience researcher, based on his reading of the publications and the peer-reviewed studies mentioned above, ASMR stimuli provokes a physiological response in brain activity and in the body and there is some empirical evidence that it does that. However, as of the time of this article there has not yet been a large-scare clinical trial demonstrating the efficacy of ASMR stimuli for changes in mood or specific mental health attributes. However, this author has definitely felt better after every time I have participated in watching and listening to ASMR videos. Not all give me the “tingles”, but a lot do and I always feel just a bit better after watching them.

For me, ASMR is especially helpful when I can’t sleep. There is something about the whispering and sounds that seem to both keep my attention so as not to drift off into a bunch of things that I need to do the next day, yet lull me to sleep with the repetitive nature of the sounds and the tingling sensation I get on the back of my neck. I notice my breathing slows and I can’t keep my eyes open and once closed I can almost hear and focus better on the sounds in the video. If you have ever suffered from Insomnia I’m sure you can relate to the feeling of never being able to fall asleep and the increased stress you feel when you know you need to get your sleep for work or school the next day. This is exactly the time I turn on an ASMR video. My favorites just happen to be the haircutting or brushing and the make-up applications. Not sure what it is about those, but they work for me. Allow me to drop this paragraph from the study in 2018:

“Hundreds of thousands of people watch ASMR videos and anecdotally report that these videos help them to sleep, relax, and combat stress and anxiety [12]. Our results are consistent with the idea that ASMR videos regulate emotion and may have therapeutic benefits for those who experience ASMR–by, for example reducing heart rate and promoting feelings of positive affect and interpersonal connection. It is notable that the reductions in heart rate observed here (-3.41 bpm) are comparable to those observed in clinical trials using music-based stress reduction in cardiovascular disease (see [56]), and greater than those observed in a mindfulness/acceptance-based intervention for anxiety [57], suggesting that the cardiac effects of ASMR may have practical significance. Taken together, the current evidence should help to dispel skepticism over whether ASMR is a ‘real’ phenomenon and provide the foundation upon which future research can build. Having established the reliability and validity of ASMR, future research can start to explore exciting questions about the proximal and distal causes of ASMR, what its concomitants and consequences are, and its potential therapeutic applications.”

There are a multitude of combinations of ASMR videos that can be found on TikTok and YouTube. My best advice if you want to see if they work for you is to play around with as many as you can and once you find one that gives you tingles, save it to a playlist for ease of reference. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t feel the tingles right away. Not everyone gets them, but many people do. Some just need to find the right sound and visual combination. Others just need to find the right time to listen and watch. I wish you all the best in your exploration of ASMR and happy sleeping.

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