How ASMR training works, why people listen to ASMR

You can find quite a few videos on YouTube that may seem strange: girls brushing their hair, whispering something inaudible, banging on objects and crunching food. This phenomenon has been dubbed ASMR massage, or coaching. How the autonomous sensory meridional reaction works on people and what is its essence, we understand together with psychologist Oksana Yankovskaya.

psychologist

The popularity of ASMR videos can be explained by the effect a person gets after eavesdropping.

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What is ASMR-blogging?

If we do not delve into neuropsychology, then ASMR is a sensation of head massage and goosebumps from watching or listening to a video that contains tactile, visual or sound triggers. Two types of stimuli are most often spoken of:

Auditory – sounds, tapping, tone of voice, specific manner of speech;
visual – smooth movements, gestures, interactions with objects.

It is worth specifying that ASMR reactions occur in people who are cared for. Otherwise, such triggers cause irritation and negative emotions.

AFMR reactions can appear due to touch, rain noise, bursting of bubbles on the film. Highly sensitive microphones are used for recording, so noises that in normal life pass our attention, in this case we are relaxed. Videos with combs, glass glasses, pencils gain millions of views because the sounds they make give you goosebumps and help you get zen. That’s why you want to watch them several times.

The majority of ASMR bloggers are women. This is explained by the fact that a woman’s voice sounds softer and more tender, and evokes associations with the image of a mother who takes care of her child. ASMR-artists like to call themselves psychologists without education.

Oksana Yankovskaya

psychologist

What is ASMR? It is a reaction of the body that manifests itself in the form of pleasant sensations: tingling in the back of the neck and goosebumps spreading all over the body. The most common ASMR stimuli are auditory and visual. The popularity of ASMR videos can be attributed to the effect a person gets after watching or listening to them.

Nowadays, the bulk of the population lives in a state of stress, and some of them even permanently. The race of achievements does not allow one to relax. ASMR is a positive response of the sensory system. A person receives a long-awaited signal: you can rest, it is safe here.

Who are the misophones?

In the comments under the ASMR-video, you can meet statements that it is nonsense, which only annoys. Part of such comments refers to those who do not experience the ASMR reaction or have not heard of it at all, so they do not understand what the video is for. However, from among these people there are those who are disgusted at the level of physiology. They are called misophones (“misophonia” is a form of intolerance to certain sounds).

Most often misophones are irritated by sounds made by another person. For example, slurping, snoring, mouthing, clucking, and many others. Misophonia is not considered a mental disorder, but people who suffer from it have most often experienced social misunderstanding, family problems, and lack of support from friends and loved ones.

How do ASMR training and massages work?

ASMR training is a format in which physical exercises are performed and an audio recording describing them is overlaid on top. Of course, the creators of such videos speak in whispers, helping listeners to relax and causing a chill sensation through the body. This is a very effective method, because often you want to quit training because of fatigue and slight pain in the muscles. ASMR reactions help to fulfill the training complex completely without feeling out of resource.

Thanks to ASMR massages it is possible to establish contact between body and mind, to understand one’s emotional state, and sometimes to induce self-care. Some psychologists recommend that patients with depressive disorders watch ASMR massage videos during the last stages of recovery. Often it helps to find harmony with the inner world and calmly make plans for the future.

Oksana Yankovskaya

psychologist

The purpose of ASMR videos is to relax the user as much as possible and achieve a state of mild euphoria. In fact, it is similar to listening to quiet melodic music with certain tones that promote relaxation, meditative music or meditation itself.

Regularly watching videos has a similar effect to meditative practice: anxiety decreases, psycho-emotional stability appears, irritability decreases. Birdsong, water noise, white noise, sounds of cars and trains calming – this fact has been known for a long time. It’s just that this knowledge has been popularized with the help of videos, and bloggers use all kinds of ways of presenting content to increase views.