Do you enjoy ASMR?

Chimpzy_v1legacy

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I've seen ASMR mentioned around here once or twice, so I was wondering how many of you experience ASMR or enjoy watching ASMR videos for other reasons.

As for me, I don't get 'tingles', but I still like watching ASMR videos, although it's actually more listening. I'm the type that finds quiet, repetitive sounds as background noise very calming. For example, I always sleep well on nights with light rainfall. So I like ASMRtists that are slow, gentle and methodical, and do as little talking as possible. If there is any talking, I prefer a soft male whisper. It's more pleasant to me for passive listening (but female for active listening). Favorite sounds include fabrics, paper/cardboard and wood noises.

Basically, I put on headphones, put the volume low and can then listen to a guy running his fingers across a piece of felt or softly tapping wooden blocks together for an hour. Tho I usually nod off before the hour's over.

For those who don't know what I'm talking about, here's a pretty good description I pilfered:
ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. It's a non-scientific word that an everyday person came up with to describe the feeling characterized as a pleasurable tingling sensation felt in the head, scalp, back and other regions of the body in response to visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and/or cognitive stimuli, such as crinkling bags, hand movements, whispering, personal attention or watching someone perform a task. It's like goosebumps but much more pleasant and without the uncomfortable chills.

ASMR videos are meant to intentionally induce this sensation in the viewer, often referred to as "tingles", but the videos also serve to provide a relaxing, calming and soothing experience for the viewer. Many people who do not experience ASMR still enjoy the videos for their calming and sleepy effect.
 

Kyrian007

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Yes. It turns out I'm pretty sensitive to "the tingles" and the first ASMR vid I watched out of curiosity very nearly melted my brain. It started as a "dude, there's some wired stuff on YouTube" recommendation from a co-worker, but after watching a few vids and doing some background research I realized there was now a name for something I have felt from time to time all my life. And a group trying to actively trigger the sensation through videos. Fingernail tapping and binaural (left right 3d audio) sounds seem to get me the most, and to describe the feeling... it isn't easy. Imagine that brain shattering awful scratch of fingernails on a chalkboard that you almost feel in your bones. Now imagine something that feels as good as that feels bad, and almost down to your bones as well. And as someone who works 3rd shift overnights, I don't sleep well. The left/right whisper videos have a decent soporific effect on me, as long as I can't understand what's being said. I concentrate a little to easily on what's being said but if it is gibberish or in a language I don't know... it really helps me sleep.

Another one that triggers ASMR for me is one commonly called a cranial nerve exam. Its a series of sensory tests and there's something about the pupillary response to light and follow the movement eye tests that have a real effect on me. I'm half afraid that if I ever had to have a real cranial nerve exam at a doctors office, the doctor might think I'm some sort of weirdo.
 

Xprimentyl

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I don?t experience the ?clinical? effects of ASMR media, but being a very aural person, I do find it fascinating. It might be too strong a word, but I?ve certainly got a degree of envy for those who can appreciate sound on a level I never will. It?s like being an painter and finding out that there are people out there who, by virtue of sheer ?luck of the draw? biology, can see more colors than you can. I?ve tried watching some of the videos and tried to ?get? it, but alas, nuttin? tingled. I think one of them might have given me gas, but that could easily have been the burrito I?d eaten earlier.

@Chimpzy, do you ever listen to ambient music? I think you?d really enjoy an artist like Eluvium; repetitive, ominous and void-filling sounds, haunting, oft achingly beautiful melodies without being that formless and random stuff that sometimes comes off as pretentious. I listen to him often to fall asleep or just to open my head space when it gets crowded up there. The track below is one of my favorites, but he?s got a pretty extensive catalog; he?s on Spotify (read: ?free?) if that?s a thing you use. Check out the albums ?Nightmare Ending,? ?Copia? and ?Talk Amongst The Trees? and sleep tight.

New Animals From The Air
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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I find it creepy. Just the whispering and trying to get a response from me. Gives me shivers, and not in a good way. I feel like the person speaking is one step away from slashing my throat and they're about to dislodge their jaw and eat my face. Some people gasp with pleasure, I flinch with uncomfortableness and back away.
 

Chimpzy_v1legacy

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Xprimentyl said:
@Chimpzy, do you ever listen to ambient music? I think you?d really enjoy an artist like Eluvium; repetitive, ominous and void-filling sounds, haunting, oft achingly beautiful melodies without being that formless and random stuff that sometimes comes off as pretentious. I listen to him often to fall asleep or just to open my head space when it gets crowded up there. The track below is one of my favorites, but he?s got a pretty extensive catalog; he?s on Spotify (read: ?free?) if that?s a thing you use. Check out the albums ?Nightmare Ending,? ?Copia? and ?Talk Amongst The Trees? and sleep tight.

New Animals From The Air
Can't say I have. I've tried other stuff like soft smooth jazz or lofi chillhop. Unfortunately, I can't sleep to any music with percussion in it. Well, I can, but I don't sleep well and wake up because of it. So most of that is still too 'harsh' for my tastes (cough, snare drum, cough). Would be totally fine as soft background music to sleep to if it didn't have drums.

Gave some of that Eluvium stuff a quick listen. Didn't hear any drums, so that's already good. Will give that a shot tonight.
 

Xprimentyl

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Chimpzy said:
Xprimentyl said:
@Chimpzy, do you ever listen to ambient music? I think you?d really enjoy an artist like Eluvium; repetitive, ominous and void-filling sounds, haunting, oft achingly beautiful melodies without being that formless and random stuff that sometimes comes off as pretentious. I listen to him often to fall asleep or just to open my head space when it gets crowded up there. The track below is one of my favorites, but he?s got a pretty extensive catalog; he?s on Spotify (read: ?free?) if that?s a thing you use. Check out the albums ?Nightmare Ending,? ?Copia? and ?Talk Amongst The Trees? and sleep tight.

New Animals From The Air
Can't say I have. I've tried other stuff like soft smooth jazz or lofi chillhop. Unfortunately, I can't sleep to any music with percussion in it. Well, I can, but I don't sleep well and wake up because of it. So most of that is still too 'harsh' for my tastes (cough, snare drum, cough). Would be totally fine as soft background music to sleep to if it didn't have drums.

Gave some of that Eluvium stuff a quick listen. Didn't hear any drums, so that's already good. Will give that a shot tonight.
He has a few tracks that incorporate piano, but nothing jarring, and they?re relatively simple/repetitive lines in the omnipresent, alien soundscapes. Hope you enjoy it.
 

The Rogue Wolf

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It doesn't have the "tingles" effect on me, but I typically find it relaxing, especially binaural stuff and nature sounds like rain.

Kyrian007 said:
Another one that triggers ASMR for me is one commonly called a cranial nerve exam. Its a series of sensory tests and there's something about the pupillary response to light and follow the movement eye tests that have a real effect on me. I'm half afraid that if I ever had to have a real cranial nerve exam at a doctors office, the doctor might think I'm some sort of weirdo.
I'm oddly relaxed by medical-exam videos like that as well. I think it's the calm, rather monotone voice of the medical professionals that tend to be in them, and the slow and methodical movements.
 
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Yeah, I get ASMR from microphone brushing/scratching. It's like the opposite of nails on a chalk board.

Otherwise I do find a lot of them relaxing and help me fall asleep, especially the low volume soft talking. It think it's probably some sort of security thing. It's not loud or obtrusive enough to keep you awake but it's enough to let you subconsciously know that your tribe are about and will hopefully stop you getting eaten by a sabre tooth tiger in your sleep.
 
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I enjoy it, and have even experienced the "tingles".

I have discovered, however, that getting the tingles from ASMR is like trying to nurse along a creative idea. The more you "try" to make it happen, the less effective it becomes. You just have to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. Perhaps the effect will kick in, perhaps not, but definitely less likely the more you try to force it.
 

Gordon_4_v1legacy

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Silentpony said:
I find it creepy. Just the whispering and trying to get a response from me. Gives me shivers, and not in a good way. I feel like the person speaking is one step away from slashing my throat and they're about to dislodge their jaw and eat my face. Some people gasp with pleasure, I flinch with uncomfortableness and back away.
The whispering ones tend to live or die on the speaker's voice. Some of them do indeed sound like amateur hour jump scare recordings but some of the voices are quite soothing. But that's the beauty of the whole thing: there's a little something for everyone.
 

Kyrian007

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For me, ASMR may have even saved my life long before anyone had even started looking into the phenomena. Sort of. I have a faulty heart valve that very occasionally causes my heart rate to begin to race... anywhere from 2 to 3 times a rate considered dangerous to human beings. These "episodes" aren't particularly dangerous... as long as they don't last very long. Usually, a few calming deep breaths, closing my eyes, and relaxing is enough to bring my heartrate back down to a normal, safe rhythm. However; excessive stress, exertion, panic, worry, or depression can seriously hamper my ability to stop one of these episodes. Making it even more difficult, after about 10 minutes in these episodes... I start to go blind. That increases stress, panic, and worry... so it is really important I don't let things go that far. These days its not really a problem, but when I was a teenager. Hormones and emotions... it was a real problem. But I had a trump card that could always calm me down in time... provided I could (or someone else) could get back to my home in time. A record (vinyl... an lp... you may have to look it up) a Disney released children's story record. I'm not sure of the exact title, but it was a retelling of 1001 Arabian Nights. The woman that performed the part of Scheherazade... the most soothing voice I have ever heard. More than enough to trigger what is now described as ASMR, but also calm me enough to bring me out of one of my heart valve prolapse episodes. After a particularly painful fight with a girl I was dating at the time, followed by couple mile long walk/jog and being in a standing room only crowd for a while (a concert, and that is panic inducing as I am fairly agoraphobic about crowds, but am enough of an adrenaline junkie that I occasionally enjoy subjecting myself to panic inducing situations) I had an episode. My friends were able to help me back to the car before I lost my sight and got me to the recording... and it stopped the episode within minutes. It may or may not have saved my life.

While I don't need it anymore, I wish I could find audio from that recording. Or at least find out who that performer was.
 

Kae

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I've never tried it, probably should give it a go since I do suffer from Insomnia and refuse to take sleeping pills, but I just prefer to skip sleep one day and sleep early the next or at least to listen to music while I'm supposed to be asleep, which granted a lot of times I do manage to fall asleep after around 3 hours of music.
 

Bob_McMillan

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I hate it when its the kind where its people talking, it annoys me to no end that I can't really tell what they're saying, but ones such as soap cutting can be pretty relaxing.
 

Wintermute_v1legacy

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I remember listening to some haircut ASMR ages ago. Other than that, I already get my daily dose of random sounds from traffic, construction sites, crackheads, etc.
 

Chimpzy_v1legacy

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Saelune said:
ASMR has been taken over by fetishists.
Do you mean all those people who do kissing, licking and other mouth noises and/or various kinds of massages into a binaural mic? Yeah, quite a lot of those.

Not fond of them either. Not for being fetishy, but because they're so damn uncreative. They do the same 3 or 4 triggers over and over, video after video.
 

Saelune

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Chimpzy said:
Saelune said:
ASMR has been taken over by fetishists.
Do you mean all those people who do kissing, licking and other mouth noises and/or various kinds of massages into a binaural mic? Yeah, quite a lot of those.

Not fond of them either. Not for being fetishy, but because they're so damn uncreative. They do the same 3 or 4 triggers over and over, video after video.
That, people who dress up as characters and do things. A lot of it is not blatantly sexual, but then that is usually what makes a fetish a fetish. But I bet the number of people who are into any specific ASMR thing beyond rain sounds for sleep/comfort aids are in the minority compared to those who are getting off to it, and those who want to gawk at the things people are getting off to.

To pre-empt, people can be into whatever they want, but lets not pretend it is something different than what it really is.