Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
You're listening to TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hugh. We could all use a little enjoyment and relaxation, right? There's a way to feeling this, says today's speaker, researcher Craig Richard. In his 2019 talk at TEDxCharlottesville, he shares how ASMR, which is a deep, blissful relaxation, can be stimulated by others and how we can seek it out for ourselves. I'm a bald man.
But I don't miss my hair. What I do miss is going to the hairdresser. I found it to be such an enjoyable and relaxing experience. I loved it when they would rub their fingers through my hair while they washed my hair in the sink. I enjoyed it when they walked me over to the chair. And they would play with my hair some more and talk to me about different hairstyles and haircuts I could get.
and I even enjoyed the gentle sound of the scissors, snip, snip, snip, right next to my ears. I enjoyed it so much, and I was so deeply relaxed that I remember many times I would just sit there, and I'd think, I'd pay you even if you just pretended to cut my hair. There's another moment also that often stimulates this deep relaxation for me.
Chapter 2: What is ASMR and why is it becoming popular?
It's whenever I get an eye exam. And I'm not talking about those puffs of air they blow into your eyeballs. That just makes my eyelids flutter thinking about it. But instead, it's when they bring out the wheels of lenses. And they click through them all. And they want to know which lens helps you see better. One or two? One or two? And they say it in this very relaxing voice.
And there's something about that moment of personal attention and that soft voice that just deeply relaxes me. And it gives me these light, sparkly, pleasurable brain tingles. I enjoy it so much that as they click through each option, I want it to last a little bit longer. So when they ask me one or two, I say, oh, I'm not sure.
Another moment that often stimulates this deep form of relaxation is when I watch the TV show Bob Ross's Joy of Painting. I would come home from school, throw some pillows on the floor, lie down, and let that soft voice just sweep over me. And he had the nicest personality. He'd turn to the camera, he'd look right at me, and he'd say the kindest things like, "'There are no mistakes.'"
Just happy accidents. And then he'd turn back to his canvas, and he'd make these gentle, relaxing sounds with his paintbrush. Tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap. And I found it so relaxing that I often fell asleep and never saw him finish the painting. In 2013, I learned that this special response has a special name. autonomous sensory meridian response.
Chapter 3: How do personal experiences relate to ASMR?
Or much more simply, ASMR. That is a complicated word. So it's a good thing we've got it simplified. Now, I'm a physiologist. I'm a researcher. I'm a data nerd. I was so excited to read about the science of ASMR. In 2013, there wasn't a single peer-reviewed research study.
What I did find were plenty of forums, thousands and thousands of comments all across the internet discussing this blissful sensation. And they all reported the same response that I felt. They were deeply relaxed, they felt comforted, they felt calmed, and they had these light, sparkly brain tingles.
And I also noticed that every scenario they described that stimulated their ASMR had a simple theme to it. It was always when they were receiving positive personal attention from a kind and caring individual. And the examples they gave were very similar to my moments. It was moments with hairdressers. It was moments with healthcare professionals.
It was moments with teachers that tell stories of the teacher from their childhood with the soft voice who would kneel down next to them and help them solve a math problem. It was moments with parents. It was moments with their best friends when they would whisper to each other in childhood or they'd braid each other's hair.
Or they'd play that game where you just lightly with your finger draw letters on each other's backs and try to guess the letter. But the moment that stimulated ASMR that I saw the most often mentioned was watching the TV show Bob Ross' Joy of Painting. Now, we know Bob Ross was not trying to stimulate people's ASMR or cause them to relax. He was trying to teach you how to paint.
But there are individuals today who are creating ASMR videos just for the purpose of relaxing their viewers and helping them to fall asleep more easily. They're called ASMR artists. and they have millions of followers. Some of them have more followers to their YouTube channel than Kim Kardashian has to her YouTube channel. And what are they doing in these videos?
Well, very simply, they're sitting close to the camera, they're gazing into the lens, and they're speaking softly or they're whispering gently. They may even be pretending to be a hairdresser or pretending to be a healthcare professional or just speaking softly the way a close friend would to you.
I recently published a brain scan study with Bryson Lochte and other researchers from Dartmouth College. And we saw that the brain regions that are activated while people are watching ASMR videos are the same brain regions that are activated when people are receiving positive personal attention from a kind and caring person in the real world.
I've also collected data from over 30,000 participants as part of a research study with Carissa Burnett and Jennifer Allen. And Jennifer Allen is the woman who coined the term autonomous sensory meridian response in 2010. And what we see is that ASMR is experienced in over 130 different countries. And the people are reporting the same experience. They feel deeply relaxed.
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