What Is ASMR And Which Are The Best YouTube Videos To Watch?
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If you struggle to sleep, suffer from anxiety, or just like the idea of Harley Quinn whispering to you whilst menacingly wielding a bat, then ASMR may just be for you.
Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is effectively a way of triggering that tingling sensation in your body that relaxes you or creates an 'Attention Induced Head Orgasm' just by whispering or making quiet noises.
There are thousands of people on YouTube who dedicate themselves to the art of ASMR, with some 'ASMRtists' making £60,000 ($77,800) a year. Some are more dedicated to the art than others. Some take it step further by pretending they're your partner, or dress up as nurses, chiropractors and even comic book villains.
However, they all have the same aim and same benefits in that they use positive feelings, relaxation, specific acoustics and sounds, and visual aids to trigger a tingling sensation. Here are some of our favourite ASMR videos:
This is one of the most popular videos on YouTube with over 3 million views so far.
If that hasn't made you drowsy, then why not watch this video of someone playing with a girl's hair?
On the weirder end of the spectrum is a plague doctor who's trying to cure a watermelon, because why not?
There's even an ASMR video which features a fish man murdering a pineapple and eating its brains. You're welcome.
ASMR has become so big that even LADbible favourite, Lewis Capaldi has given it a go.
Laura Stone, an ASMRtist who started out watching the videos to cure anxiety and help her sleep, says that she makes the clips to help people in the same way she was helped.
"If I'm experiencing a panic attack, watching a video for five minutes I feel all my anxiety symptoms fading, and then within 10 minutes I'm calmer," she told BBC News.
"I wanted to help people like they helped me. People say I help them sleep. Lonely people who don't have many friends or don't go out, they feel I'm their friend."
Emma Barratt, a graduate student at Swansea University, and Dr Nick Davis found that the majority of people watch ASMR videos for relaxation, sleep or stress-related purposes, whereas five per cent use them for sexual stimulation.
In terms of content - whispering, personal attention, crisp sounds and slow movements were most popular.
"There are a lot of people who latch onto some ASMR videos involving attractive women and dismiss what we found to be a very nuanced activity as exclusively sexual," Emma explained. "Our findings will hopefully dispel that idea."
If you managed to get any sexual gratification from the fish man murdering a pineapple, you should probably go seek help immediately.
Featured Image Credit: Relaxing Stuff
Topics: Viral, World News, Interesting, Weird, Health
