Art & Culture

WTF is ASMR? Introducing the internet’s latest relaxation craze

Published on 21 January 2016

words Max Grobe

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ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response. It’s fucking weird but it feels nice. Weird + nice = good? So, ASMR is a pleasant tingly feeling felt in the brain when exposed to certain stimuli, typically tapping, scratching, stroking, brushing, whispering – all those soft, ambient noises. There are over three million YouTube videos dedicated to eliciting this kind of response, people can use it to help them sleep, relax or reduce anxiety. The combination of audio and visual stimulation are called triggers. Here are some examples:

You need headphones. ASMR channels (or ASMR-tists) record their videos with 3D microphones, the ones that differentiate between the left and right earbuds, creating an effect that feels like the sound is all around you.

In spite of the personal, gratifying and role-play aspects of ASMR, it is distinctly non-sexual. You’ll notice how all the  videos are invariably made by pretty girls (and an increasing number of boys) who look directly into the lens as they whisper to you. It can be very intense, and it would be easy for somebody walking past your screen to assume there’s an erotic thrill involved, but it’s pleasure as in a gentle back rub, not pleasure as in quick hand job.

Some people just don’t get it, which seems really unfair – “what fresh hell is this”, said one Youtube commenter. If you’ve ever felt soothed by the sound of flicking through the pages of a book, or the sounds a pencil makes against some rough paper then lucky you! You are probably compatible and can experience totally free, unmitigated pleasure whenever you like.

Being wildly difficult to quantify, there’s very limited scientific research into the effects of ASMR or how it actually works in the brain. ASMR has no doubt been around for a very long time, and the online spaces created by the internet for people to share and discuss these kind of inexplicable sensations gave rise to a whole community.