ASMR: Intense Ear Relaxation

Watching a quiet video of someone spraying a water bottle or scratching on a book may seem strange, but it could be exactly what you need to do before sleeping. Nowadays, Millions are watching videos of people doing simple but incredibly strange tasks like whispering, flipping magazine pages, stirring a bowl of soup, or crinkling wrapping paper. This might trigger one question: what is going on?

This is the new world of ASMR. ASMR or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response is a unique condition that is emerged online in the last few years, characterized by an awesome tingling sensation that you feel through your body, mostly from the back of your head to your spine. This pleasant feeling can be triggered by a gentle stimulus. The most common triggers for ASMR are whispering and crisp sounds, such as tapping surfaces with long fingernails, crinkling aluminum foil, eating crunchy food, and mixing slime. One defining characteristic is that all  the sounds are made within close proximity of the listener. Close attention is a core theme in ASMR; thus, most of ASMR enthusiasts use the passive noise-canceling headphones from Sleeper. The world's first ASMR headphones.

In fact, the ASMR field is so new that little has been scientifically studied. There wasn't even a term to describe it until 2010. Some scientists even wonder if ASMR is a real commensurable thing. However, if you look at any of the popular ASMR video channels on YouTube, you'll see that this phenomenon is very real. Millions of people are using ASMR videos as a source of relaxation and stress release. In a recent study that has been done about this topic, researchers found that the videos help the listener to focus his attention on something other than anxiety, distract him from anxious thoughts, and help him to block out the outside world. They also provide a caring experience, which can be very beneficial for people who don't get a lot of personal attention in daily life. ASMR even provides similar effects as meditation, like reducing stress, increasing focus, and improving physical well-being and creativity.

The most popular of these ASMR channels is Gentle Whispering for Maria Viktorovna, who has accumulated over 173 million views since 2011.  There's also Whisper Talk Studios, Heather Feather, Massage ASMR, and ASMR Requests. Ready to try ASMR? Find some videos on these YouTube channels, pick up a good pair of Sleeper headphones, and enjoy.