Are you trying to sleep at night but you can’t because your parents are in the next room arguing over money, or are you an insomniac like me and you just can’t seem to get tired no matter what you do and the NyQuil just isn’t working anymore, then ASMR is for you! Possibly… 

Now I know what you are thinking: isn’t ASMR that weird thing people do where they chew into a microphone and whisper aggressively? Well, not exactly. Although that is a type of ASMR, there are many more ways people do ASMR, and believe it or not, they don’t always involve eating or those aggressive whispers. 

ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response and is an experience characterized by a static-like or tingling sensation on the skin that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. So basically, it makes you experience the feeling of when people play with your hair, which is one of the best feelings in the world. 

I discovered ASMR last summer when I was tired of having sleepless nights and wanted to sleep. Medicine wasn’t working anymore, and the amount of medicine I had to take each night was probably not healthy for my body, especially when it wasn’t even working. At 4am, I was searching through Google on how to fall asleep easily, and some websites recommended ASMR. 

Now, I was a little hesitant because I’ve heard a bunch of negative opinions online about ASMR and I thought I’d get a bad experience and I was just wasting my time, but people don’t know until they try. So I got on YouTube, searched ASMR, and came across a video that very quickly became the video I fell asleep to every night that entire summer.

When I woke up the next morning, I was in complete shock because somehow, a video of a woman whispering softly and running her fingers through a brown cheap-looking wig put me to sleep rather than medicine.  

I began exploring the world of ASMR ever since and have found different videos to help me sleep as soundly as if I’d cried for an hour or was very tired. 

I personally do not enjoy the ASMR videos where people are completely silent and just eat food while chewing loudly, but if that is what you are into, then hey, go ahead. 

My favorites are the ones where people whisper gently and play with a wig for hours. They do different things such as brush the “hair”, run their fingers through it, etc. For some reason that makes me knock out five minutes into the video.

So, if you are having trouble sleeping one night or if it’s a continuous battle to sleep, then go on YouTube and search up ASMR. Find the perfect video to watch, and you’ll knock out inno time I guarantee.