By Denise Fernandez
You’ve probably seen the term “ASMR” at least once on the Internet and maybe you already have a vague idea of what it is. Straight to the point: ASMR stands for “autonomous sensory meridian response,” which is essentially the sensation you get when you get tingles from someone combing your hair, watching a really good performance, or certain pleasant sounds from random objects. Others would call it “hair-raising” or “spine-tingling,” except instead of being frightening, ASMR is actually as relaxing as getting a massage.
Think of it as an orgasm but for your brain—totally non-sexual and tingly feelings all around, from your head, to your spine, and all the way down to the tips of your toes.
Believe it or not, there’s an actual ASMR community on Youtube that’s been steadily growing since 2010 and now it’s bigger than ever, with content creators making videos that aren’t just calming, but actually also pretty darn entertaining. Even celebrities have caught onto it.
The benefits of listening to ASMR audio or watching ASMR videos frequently include being able to sleep more easily and deeply, as well as stress relief and overall relaxation. Don’t have time and money to go to a spa or have a vacation away from work? Easy. Just pop on some headphones, turn on your computer, and click on the first ASMR video you see on Youtube. It’s convenient and totally free.
Admittedly, it’s a bit weird and rather ticklish for people who aren’t used to it (especially if you hate it when people whisper in your ear), but the longer you listen, the more you find yourself dozing off into slumber, or at least calming down to a more relaxed state of mind.
That being said, here are some YouTubers whose goals are to help you catch up on those zzzs.
Heather Feather ASMR
The ASMR community has unofficially crowned her as the queen of ASMR. Not only are her videos top-quality, but she is also highly creative (without being weird) in her roleplays. Being one of the community’s pioneers on Youtube, she’s started a bunch of ASMR trends that became fan favorites. Heather’s voice is soft, high-pitched, but relaxing and easy to listen to.
Victoria Sponge ASMR
Most ASMR artists have structure in their videos. Victoria, on the other hand, relies on pure spontaneity and abstract sounds. She’s as random as it gets and plays around with a lot of tools to produce the ‘tingliest’ sounds you will ever hear. Her style of ASMR is very aggressive to the ears—which is a good thing, since the more aggressive the audio gets, the more real it feels. Victoria is also my personal favorite.
ASMattR
If Heather’s voice is extremely small and high-pitched, Matt’s is the exact opposite. His voice is quite unique out of most male ASMR artists—a deep bass that seems to reverberate into your headphones—which is relaxing as fuck, if you ask me. Matt’s videos mostly comprise of character impersonations (check out this Smaug ASMR roleplay) and Creepypasta narrations.
Ephemeral Rift
This guy is one of the most creative ASMR content creators out there. If you breeze through his channel real quick, you can already tell how much effort he puts into thinking of his videos, from roleplays, to costumes, and to script. His most popular series is his Arkham Asylum roleplays, highly influenced by the comics of Batman.
ASMRrequests
ASMRrequests is vastly similar to Heather Feather—soft-spoken and very innovative. The only difference is that she’s blonde. Expect calming and homey tingles everywhere!