ASMR and its benefits for stress and anxiety and general wellbeing
Over the past few months, I’ve seen a lot of articles in the media about people’s difficulties with sleeping, stress and anxiety. A lot of these have arisen because of what’s happened over the past 18 months with Covid and all the disruptions to our usual routines and uncertainties with what’s going to happen.
One of the items I’ve seen which revolves around all this is ASMR.
ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. It is the idea that through visual or audio triggers, some people are able to experience a ‘tingling sensation’. These triggers include things such as; whispering, fingernail tapping, small movements or maybe writing something on a piece of paper. There are thousands of videos using these visual and audio triggers on YouTube and it’s become so popular that it is the 3rd most searched for term on the site.
There is research to suggest that ASMR can actually be helpful in coping with anxiety.
In a study carried out in 2015, participants who experienced ASMR found that they were able to relieve negative feelings including depression and stress and some even said it helped to ease chronic pain. https://peerj.com/articles/851/
Another research study carried out at Ohio State University in 2018 also found that some participants found ASMR to be helpful in;
- Unwinding and relaxing
- Getting to sleep
- Feeling comforted
- Helping to feel better when going through illness
https://emusicology.org/article/view/6012/5178
Although ASMR triggers don’t always work for everybody in creating a ‘tingling sensation’, it can still be a helpful tool to aid with relieving stress and anxiety. Whilst this can be a good thing for those with mild symptoms of stress and anxiety, it is not seen as a replacement for therapy or other treatments such as medication.
On reflection then, ASMR is seen as a low-risk alternative approach to coping with anxiety and other related issues but isn’t seen to be as effective in more serious cases of issues or illnesses.
For a more general approach to sleep and relaxation there’s a lot of aids and remedies and we have just a few. You can see our calming Lavender Bath Salts Lavender Bath Salts and our Calming Roll-On Calming Roll On.
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