If you asked me what ASMR was a year ago, I would’ve said something like, “I think it’s that gentle whispering thing some people watch on YouTube to get the tingles,” but beyond that, I would have been BS-ing you. Now, a year into working on and being one of the people responsible for bringing these content ideas to life, I can tell you it’s much more than that.
is a relatively new thing, and something I didn’t know much about before I began researching and producing it. ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. It’s a phenomenon of the senses in which the nervous system produces a warm, tingling sensation in your scalp and down your spine in response to certain stimuli, sometimes called “brain tingles.”
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? Or you know that feeling after a long day on your feet when you take your shoes off and just let the bear breathe? 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.
For some, it’s triggered by sounds. For others, it’s things that they touch or that touch them. Some experience ASMR from things they see, like slime videos on the internet, and some even experience it from pure imagination and recollection, or sounds like gentle whispering, fingernails tapping, or paper crinkling.
, including one at Dartmouth University, have established that to bring about physiological effects associated with pleasure and relaxation. The state of deep relaxation it puts you in is perfect for , which is why I began looking into it. It used to be considered something esoteric, but is now a pop culture phenomenon.
One of the first big stars of ASMR was Gibi, an ASMRtist and cosplayer who created the in 2008 and now has almost three million followers. Since then, there’ve been think pieces in the about how ASMR videos took over YouTube, to calm football fans during commercial breaks, and countless YouTube videos including .
Not everyone is triggered by the same things, but they tend to have the same reaction... complete and total relaxation. How do you know if you’re triggered, you ask? I was wondering the same thing the first day I walked into the studio to record our Audible Sleep ASMR tracks. Let me tell you a little story about what I saw with our engineer when we were halfway through recording with the amazingly talented and creative team from , one of the biggest names in live ASMR, who worked with us to bring the first-person ASMR experience from the stage to your ears.
It was the second or third day in the studio. The engineer and I were standing in one of the Audible studios. About four hours into recording “trigger” sounds, I looked over to my right and saw that he was in a trance-like state, jaw dropped like a cartoon bulldog looking at a steak, eyes closed, and head back. I had to nudge him to make sure we were capturing the sounds we needed.
