When you listen to these videos that are meant for relaxation, you’ll hear quiet whispering and breathing, fabric on fabric, all noises that will activate this neurological response and help you to find relaxation and and get you to drift off to sleep. It allows you to feel safe and warm and tucked into bed, which allows us to disengage our worry and fear.

It also might be the case that you need an in-person physical trigger to experience ASMR rather than being able to feel it after watching a Youtube clip, Richard adds. Have someone play with your hair, touch your arm lightly, draw letters on your back with their fingers or whisper to you. “ASMR is ultimately about that personal connection,” Richard says.
I have just found out about ASMR, and never knew there was an actual name for how I became so mesmerised by certain things. I don’t get tingles or anything physical, just get so entranced by the “thing” that nothing else matters, and I end up staring like a hypnotised fool at whatever the trigger has been! haha! Mostly it is aural, like accidental whispering (I don’t enjoy the deliberate whisper videos on Youtube), crinkling of packages (again, accidental, not deliberate), or sometimes it is visual, like someone quietly playing with their hair, or gently rummaging in their bag for something.