ASMR: tingles and sleepiness

Heyhey lovelieees!

Today I wanted to write about something that's been helping me out a lot for the last months. A lot of you probably wont have heard of it yet so I hope to make you discover something new! :)

So a few months ago, I was looking up some massage techniques on youtube and I stumbled upon a channel called PsycheTruth where a lovely lady (Athena Jezik) demonstrated on a model how to massage someone's back. As I was watching the video I felt that her voice and the sounds of her hands on the back of the model were very relaxing and i almost fell asleep to it. I also felt some tingles on my head of which I couldn't quite explain where they came from but that I got addicted to instantly. Little did I know that I then discovered a phenomenon that I would not be able to live without a few months later: ASMR.

ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response and is a neologism for a perceptual phenomenon characterized as a distinct, pleasurable tingling sensation in the head, scalp, back or peripheral regions of the body in response to visual, auditory, tactile olfactory and/or cognitive stimuli (source: Wikipedia). Basically, what ASMR does is relax you purely with sounds. There are a lot of youtubechannels out there created just for ASMR, with lovely people putting a lot of effort into their videos to make them as relaxing as possible. There has been created a whole ASMR community where everyone is loving and caring and anyone is welcome.

During these last months I've been 'investigating' this phenomenon for myself and I've learned that my best triggers are scalp massage sounds, hairbrushing sounds and ear cleaning sounds. However, a lot of people have different triggers such as scratching sounds, tapping sounds or whatever sounds there are! I personally use ASRM for relaxation after a busy day, when I feel stressed out and to clear my mind. And I must say, it is really addictive.. when I watch an ASMR video I can let go of everything, all my worries just dissapear and I almost always fall asleep.

So if you want to try out something new, I recommend you go and discover ASMR. My favourite ASMR youtube channels are ThatASMRchick, VeniVidiVulpes, WhispersUnicorn and Heather Feather.

Please note that not everyone can experience ASMR. There is also no scientific evidence as to where this 'phenomenon' comes from but the fact that a whoooole lot of people can experience it and even are helped by it is something that's worth supporting in my opinion. 

Let me know if you know ASMR or if you're gonna try it out and most of all, share your experiences with us!

Lots of love,
LFR