In summary, ASMR may have some application in the treatment of insomnia for some people, and research will be needed to see if, and for whom, it is actually effective.

ASMR is a complex emotional state that only some people experience

We are all watching each other, mining each other’s lives for “content” that we give for free

This is the Faustian alchemy of social media: we are all given the opportunity to become celebrities in an instant, sometimes for nonsensical reasons, with or without our input.

Meme creators and posters have been sued for using people’s images without permission, especially those who were not already public figures.

Memes are the units that transmit ideas, behaviors, styles and usage within a culture through a variety of media

The study found that, compared to non-ASMR participants, those who experience ASMR reported more frequent tingling, increased levels of excitement and calmness, and decreased levels of stress and sadness. There were no significant differences between ASMR and on-ASMR participants in their affective responses to the control videos.

Think of ASMR as your favorite white noise with benefits.

And despite the insistence of the president, Steve King and every guest on Fox News that there are bad people on “both sides,” including Black Lives Matter terrorists

Scan the stories. If you want to be hypervigilant, scan for sources you recognize, and consider sharing one of the stories featuring original reporting instead of the tweet.

described as a warm, tingling and pleasant sensation starting at the crown of the head and spreading down the body.

computer scientist Jennifer Allen coined the initialism ASMR for “autonomous sensory meridian response" in a Facebook post.

Hence, if you experience ASMR, you probably tend to be more creative, have a broad range of interests, and are more likely to experience sadness, anxiety, and mood swings.

ASMR is also associated with specific personality traits.

Although exactly how much of the general population experiences ASMR is unclear, a quick search for ASMR on YouTube now turns up more than 1.5 million videos. ASMR is a term used for an experience characterized by a variety of tingling physical sensations triggered by different acoustic, visual, and digital stimuli, from chopping to whispering, from washing to bubbling, etc. The most popular source of stimuli is video.

In short: “People who are more highly sensitive to their environment are also more likely to experience ASMR with a greater intensity.”

This feeling of calmness has been backed up by studies she conducted while working at the University of Sheffield, where she found people watching ASMR videos had a reduced heart rate, which is a physiological response associated with feeling more calm. “In most situations where you are anxious your heart rate will increase, and when you're calm, it will reduce. Physiology is the root of emotion, essentially, at least according to a lot of emotion theorists.”

If you like these kinds of videos, and have absolutely no idea why, we might be able to help explain. These videos, to varying degrees, all have the ability to produce autonomous sensory meridian response, better known as ASMR. In a nutshell, this refers to a bodily response to visual or auditory stimuli (things you can see and hear) that produces a tingling sensation, which often starts from the scalp.