Hearing people whisper calms you down? Does the sound of someone munching chips give you chills? Does the sound of rain relax you? Look no further, you are sensitive to ASMR. Behind this acronym hides the Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, or the pleasant sensation felt by the brain following a visual, audio, olfactory or cognitive stimulus. In fact, ASMR was popularized in the 2010s via videos where the senses are stimulated by sounds considered relaxing. The phenomenon is now huge on YouTube, where millions of videos are labeled ASMR. Some YouTubers have thus specialized in the field and regularly offer videos where they are heard whispering and/or making noises of all kinds (tapping on a bottle, running their fingers over a piece of fabric, scratching a surface, eating something, stroking the microphone with a make-up brush…).
At first glance, these videos are surprising to say the least:facing the camera, the person whispers to invite the viewer to relax (even to sleep) and makes different noises. The thing ? In people who are sensitive to it, ASMR videos provide a feeling of well-being and relaxation, with in particular a tingling in the skull which is then transmitted to the spine. It is no coincidence that the method is sometimes called “cerebral orgasm” (in China, some videos are censored because they are considered too explicit). However, some people feel absolutely nothing (and are downright bored watching the videos). In 2018, a study showed that the well-being felt is largely linked to the fact that we expect to be relaxed when watching an ASMR video. So, placebo or real remedy for stress? We let you judge…
