ASMR Videos May Help Reduce Anxiety, Study Shows

It has been described as simply a YouTube trend and was banned in China for being “vulgar”.

But according to a new scientific study, ASMR — described as a pleasant tingling sensation caused by whispering and gentle touches — may help reduce anxiety.

Researchers at Northumbria University have found in experiments that a five-minute ASMR video with a series of relaxing “triggers” reduces anxiety in those who experience the phenomenon.

Many people now regularly watch YouTube’s wide selection of ASMR videos to relax and relieve symptoms of stress and insomnia, all of which indicate elevated levels of anxiety.

New Analysis Suggests Relaxing Phenomenon ASMR Reduces Anxiety In Those Who Experience It

ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) consists of relaxing ‘brain tingles’ that some people experience in response to specific sights, sounds, and textures.

The sensation usually starts on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine, helping people relax, relieve stress, or sleep.

During ASMR, a person experiences a tingling sensation that starts in the head and neck and can spread throughout the body.

Not everyone experiences ASMR, and those who do have different triggers for it — whether they’re getting a massage or listening to whispers.

In recent years, millions of videos have been created online with sounds and situations that can trigger ASMR.

The term ‘ASMR’ was not coined until 2010, but before that, stories of people experiencing the curious phenomenon had already been described.

In 2015, Austrian author Clemens J. Setz said that a passage from Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel “Mrs Dalloway” describes what sounds like ASMR.

In the passage, a nursemaid speaks to the man who is her patient “deep, softly, like a soft organ, but with a roughness in her voice like that of a grasshopper, which scraped delightfully at his spine and thundered in his brainwaves of sound. †

Examples of ASMR triggers include receiving or watching someone else receive personalized attention such as massages or brushing hair, as well as listening to soft sounds such as whispering or tapping

Previous research has suggested that people who are able to experience ASMR may have elevated levels of neuroticism, but the exact link between ASMR and personality traits has been unclear.

To find out more, the researchers at Northumbria University recruited 64 participants ages 18 to 58 to watch a YouTube video designed to kick-start the phenomenon.

Thirty-six of the participants were categorized as ‘ASMR experienced’ and 28 were categorized as ‘ASMR non-experienced’. This was based on whether or not they experienced ASMR before and their reactions to the YouTube video.

The video lasts five minutes and was posted to YouTube in 2020 by user ‘Cynthia Henry ASMR’. It consists of a wide range of ‘triggers’, such as tapping, scratching, applying make-up and cleaning the microphone, which are presented in rapid succession.

The participants completed several questionnaires to evaluate their levels of neuroticism and anxiety. They rated two types of anxiety: “state” anxiety, which describes the moment-to-moment anxiety experienced in certain situations; and ‘trait’ fear, when our personality is prone to fear.

Neuroticism and the two types of anxiety were assessed for the participants before and after watching the ASMR video.

Statistical analysis of the participants’ responses found that ASMR experiencers had higher levels of neuroticism, anxiety, and state anxiety before watching the video.

After watching the video, the fear of the state was reduced for the ASMR practitioners. In contrast, non-experienced individuals did not experience a reduction in state anxiety after the video.

“However, neuroticism and fear of traits are personality constructs and therefore relatively stable over time,” study author Joanna Greer told MailOnline.

“You wouldn’t expect these to change in response to the video, and that hasn’t been measured.”

ASMR experts also reported a greater benefit from the video.

Overall, the study found that watching an ASMR video reduced anxiety in those experiencing ASMR tingling.

‘Personality traits associated with high anxiety were also associated with these benefits, therefore ASMR may be an appropriate psychological intervention for anxious individuals in general,’ say the authors.

Overall, the findings suggest that ASMR-experienced individuals may be characterized by greater levels of neuroticism and anxiety disorders than non-experienced individuals.

They also suggest that ASMR could serve as an intervention for individuals with elevated levels of neuroticism and anxiety in general.

However, the authors note that further research is needed to address the limitations of this study and increase understanding.

One such limitation is the YouTube video that is played to the participants, with a quick selection of sounds that can only be described as annoying even by ASMR experiences.

“Due to the subjective nature of ASMR, there is substantial individual variability in which triggers elicit the sensation,” the authors say.

The full findings are published in the open-access journal PLOS One†