YouTube has helped transform autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos into a hugely popular content vertical and an internationally ubiquitous sleeping aid. These videos feature creators talking about various subjects or completing mundane, repetitive tasks in soft-spoken voices, which are intended to trigger ASMR — a relaxed, euphoric sensation that often yields a tingle down one’s scalp, neck, and back.
The most popular ASMR creator on YouTube right now is GentleWhispering (which you can get a taste of in the embed above), who boasts 800,000 subscribers and 258 million lifetime views — though there are many ASMR channels with hundreds of thousands of subscribers apiece. But according to a new study, the popularity of ASMR videos are resulting in many viewers becoming desensitized to the sensations that they are intended to trigger, the Daily Mail reports. In a survey being led by researcher Craig Richard of ASMR University, a news and resource center, 40% of respondents have initially reported a so-called ‘ASMR immunity’. Thus far, researchers have received responses from roughly 19,000 ASMR viewers from 100 countries across the globe.
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However, all is not lost forever, according to the Daily Mail. Researchers have found that taking a one- or two-week break from ASMR videos can help restore the sensations. In this way, building up a tolerance to ASMR videos is similar to the way in which people can build up a tolerance to drugs, researchers say.
Other findings from the survey include where, exactly, respondents are reporting that the ASMR sensations are occurring on their bodies. While 95% of respondents felt a tingle in the head and brain area, 71% said it was happening on or around their spinal cords. And though those uninitiated to the phenomenon mistakenly believe that ASMR can be somehow sexual in nature, only 10% of respondents said they find the videos arousing.
