ASMR?! What is that?
Autonomous sensory meridian response is both a psychological and physical experience. It includes feeling calm, happy, and sleepy, as well as experiencing a tingling sensation on the scalp and down the back of the neck and spine. People tend to experience ASMR when they feel a light touch, see a smiling face and gentle hand movements, or hear trigger sounds like gentle whispering, the soft crinkling of paper, rubbing of fingers, or the quiet smacking of lips. Some experience ASMR from things they see, like slime videos on the internet.
Have you ever heard a song for the first time in years and it gives you goosebumps all over? Or did you ever go on a date and have your first kiss and it made you feel tingly all over? That relaxed state of utopia which can’t really be described as one physical location on your body that feels good, but it’s kind of all over? That’s ASMR.
The research on ASMR is relatively new. Still, between reports and beginning research, it’s starting to be clear ASMR has some benefits:
Immediate pleasure. For people who experience the ASMR shivers and tingles, it can be a very pleasurable and relaxing feeling that happens almost immediately with exposure to the stimuli.
Improved mood. An early study revealed that 80 percent of participants had improved mood after exposure to ASMR. The benefits declined faster in people with higher levels of depression.
Pain relief. The same study showed that a portion of people who deal with chronic pain found relief that lasted for up to 3 hours after exposure.
Deeper concentration. A “flow state” refers to when you lose yourself or your sense of time because you’re so deeply concentrated on something. Researchers have found similarities between ASMR and the type of focus you’d experience in flow.
Better sleep. Early research has shown that ASMR may help get you and your brain into the right state for deep, healthy sleep by promoting relaxation and theta brainwaves.
Other benefits. People who enjoy ASMR often report reduced anxiety, fewer headaches, lower blood pressure, and more. While these are in line with what has been proven, more research is needed to back up these claims.
While there’s still a lot of research to be done, we can at least be confident that ASMR is a real phenomenon reflected in physiological and brain activation. If you’ve never had an ASMR experience before, see if you respond to any of the many triggers available online or come visit me for a custom experience. Let me know what you think!