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What is ASMR? Meaning, tingles, and why it can make you sleepy

ASMR is a calm, tingling feeling some people get from whispers, tapping or slow, careful sounds. What the letters mean, who feels it, and what research says about ASMR and sleep.

ASMR is the name for a pleasant, tingling feeling that some people get from quiet, careful sounds: a whisper close to the ear, fingertips tapping on wood, the slow turn of a page. For many people it also brings a heavy, comfortable sleepiness, which is why so many listen to ASMR in bed.

This guide explains what the letters mean, what the tingles feel like, who feels them, and what scientists have found so far.

What ASMR stands for

ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response. The name was coined online in 2010 by someone who felt the sensation and wanted a word for it. It sounds scientific, but it is not a medical term:

Researchers began to study it a few years later. The first large survey, of 475 people, described ASMR as "a flow-like mental state" (Barratt & Davis, 2015).

What the tingles feel like

People describe a soft, static-like tingle that starts on the scalp and the back of the neck. Sometimes it spreads down the spine and into the shoulders or arms. It tends to come in waves, and it often fades the moment you try hard to catch it.

The tingle is only part of the experience. Most people who feel ASMR also describe:

The sounds and situations that set it off are called triggers. Whispering, personal attention, crisp sounds and slow movements were the most common ones in the 2015 survey. Our list of ASMR triggers describes 13 of them.

Who feels ASMR

Not everyone does, and that is completely normal. In a survey of 648 working adults and students, about one person in five felt ASMR (Poerio, Ueda & Kondo, 2022).

Broadly, listeners fall into three groups:

  1. Tingle responders feel the classic tingles.
  2. Relaxation responders feel no tingles but still get calm or sleepy.
  3. Neutral or put-off listeners feel nothing, or find the sounds irritating.

If you are in the second group, ASMR can still be a good part of your evening. If you are in the third, steady sounds such as rain or brown noise may suit you better.

People who feel ASMR also tend to be more sensitive to sensory input in general, both pleasant and unpleasant. One study sums it up in its title: "the awesome as well as the awful" (Poerio, Mank & Hostler, 2022).

What happens in the body

In a 2018 study, people who feel ASMR watched ASMR videos while researchers measured their bodies. Their heart rate slowed, while their skin conductance, a sign of emotional arousal, rose (Poerio et al., 2018). So ASMR is not simply drowsiness: it seems to combine calm with a pleasant, focused feeling.

A small brain-imaging study of 10 people found that the tingles came with activity in areas linked to reward and to sensing the body's inner state (Lochte et al., 2018). Other studies point in different directions, and there is no single "ASMR brain" yet. The research is young, and most studies are small.

Why ASMR can make you sleepy

Many people use ASMR to relax before sleep. In the 2015 survey, 98% of participants said they used it to relax, and 82% said they used it to help them sleep (Barratt & Davis, 2015).

Nobody knows exactly why it works this way for so many people, but a few things probably play a part:

These are reasonable explanations, not settled facts. There are no large trials yet that test ASMR at bedtime, so the honest summary is this: research is early, and many people find ASMR a pleasant way to wind down.

If ASMR does nothing for you

It is common to feel nothing at all, and some people find certain sounds unpleasant. Mouth and eating sounds are a well-known example: some listeners love them, others cannot stand them. People who feel ASMR also report more misophonia, a strong dislike of particular everyday sounds such as chewing (Janik McErlean & Banissy, 2018).

If a trigger bothers you, skip it. There is no right way to do ASMR: the right sound is the one that feels comfortable to you.

How to try ASMR at bedtime

Try it in Murmoon

Murmoon is an Android app for ASMR and sleep sounds. It has 159 sessions, 129 of them made for bedtime, with whispering, soft voices, tapping, brushing, rain and more. In the app you can:

The free plan includes 22 sessions, the sound mixer and the sleep timer, with up to 10 minutes of listening a night. Premium opens all 159 sessions, offline listening and timers of any length.

When to talk to a doctor. ASMR is a way to relax, not medical care. If trouble sleeping goes on for weeks, leaves you tired during the day, or comes with loud snoring or waking up gasping, talk to a doctor. Good places to start are the NHS page on insomnia, the CDC's About Sleep page and Sleep Education from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

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