College is stressful. Between classes, work, and maintaining a social life, the idea of taking care of yourself can fall through the cracks. The pressure of responsibilities can become too much, but don’t fret: there’s a way to cope with the strain of day-to-day life. Its name?
ASMR videos.
ASMR stands for “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response” which is more simply put: a calming tingling sensation caused by auditory and/or visual triggers. It’s a form of synesthesia and is similar to when people see colors when they hear certain names or associate shapes with tastes.
ASMR videos are dedicated to creating these calming sensations, often referred to in video titles as “tingles.” ASMR artists (ASMRtists) are dedicated to their craft, often shooting whole videos of certain triggers or creating one to two hour long compilations of different triggers, all aimed to calm and relax the viewer.
There are different types of triggers, ranging from the stereotypical acrylic nail-tapping sounds to intricate videos, where ASMRtists create a background and act out a role-playing scenario.
My favorite triggers include:
• Reverse whispers: when an ASMRtist whispers, with breathing and sound similar to that which happens to audio when it is being reversed.
• Nail-tapping: the tapping or sliding of nails on a hard surface.
• Keyboard clicking: the sound you hear when you’re finishing that essay at 11:57 p.m. that you have to turn in by 12 a.m. but sans the stress.
• Hair brushing sounds: the sound of a brush either running across a covered microphone, cloth of some sort, or wig.
• Hand movements: the visual of hands moving relatively close to the lens of the camera.
There are many great ASMRtists on YouTube with their own different styles. While I watch many of them, I definitely have a handful that calm me the most. These include:
• Latte ASMR: a thorough ASMRtist who posts about once every three weeks, with intricately designed roleplaying videos that excellently showcase her skill and dedication to giving her viewers tingles.
• Batala’s ASMR: Batala is one of my favorite ASMRtist. She does a variety of different videos, including normal and reverse whispering, rapid hand motions, and other triggers that calm instantly. She often does her videos without thoroughly following a script, and her videos are often entertaining and calming at the same time.
• Karuna Satori ASMR: I recently found Karuna’s channel, and I subscribed in the first few minutes of first watching her videos. She has a calming presence, her videos often revolving around giving her viewers personal attention and care. Karuna even created a video dedicated to calming her viewers down during a panic attack.
• ASMRMagic: ASMRMagic mostly produces videos including tapping sounds and other non-talking sounds, which I often listen to not to just calm me down, but to help me when I’m writing or studying for a test. She sometimes creates videos mixing tapping/moving sounds and whispers.
• Albinwhisperland: The first video I saw of Albinwhisperland was a roleplaying video where she acted as Morticia Addams and did your makeup. The lighting, acting, and care she put into the video made me subscribe instantly. Her content is pretty varied, so if you’re looking for tapping sounds, role playing, or whispering, you can find all of it on her channel.
While there are many different forms of stress-relief, ASMR is a great option to calm you down. It might feel weird when you first begin watching, but you’ll never know if it will help you until you give it a try.