During the day, Sandra, 30, is a senior executive in a finance company in the Paris region. In the evening, the young woman records videos of ASMR (note: acronym for "Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response" or "automatic response of sensory meridians") that she then posts for the 26 0000 subscribers of her YouTube channel.
ASMR Videos: Thousands of followers on YouTube
Sandra discovered the ASMR in the summer of 2015 - the concept, not scientifically demonstrated, appeared in the United States around 2008. "I was in a period of my life quite stressful , and I was looking for videos of relaxation on YouTube One night, I came across a video of ASMR , in English, and it made me feel right away, it helped me so much to relax that I woke up the next morning with headphones on your ears! ", she says. Amused, curious and endowed with a very soft voice, Sandra decides to try the production of these videos, to reproduce sounds she likes.
A year later, Sandra's YouTube channel had more than 4 million views and 25,000 subscribers. Every week, after a day's work, she records a 20- to 50-minute video, during which she recounts whispering her everyday life, or experiences new sounds she has spotted in other videos.
I woke up the next morning with headphones on my ears!
Pleasant chills and tingling: relaxing sensations
Jennifer, 28, is one of Sandra's fans. A housewife with a 6-month-old baby, the young woman who lives in the Haute-Saône countryside has to deal with a rather anxious nature: "I am the kind of person who worries about everything."
Since discovering the ASMR 18 months ago, Jennifer has the same little ritual every night: "I sit in my bed with a headset over my ears, and I play a video of ASMR. It's my little moment just for me, like an appointment, I like it a lot. "
When she watches, or rather listens to, Sandra's videos, Jennifer describes sensations often evoked by ASMR "fans": "I feel like little shivers, but pleasant chills, tingling, it calms me a lot. Even my husband tells me that I'm more relaxed since I've been listening to these videos, but to him they do not work! "
Whispers, crumpled paper, taping ... Everyone's favorite sounds
The young mother has her favorite sounds: "Whispers, the sounds of book pages, crumpled plastic bags". But the register of triggering sounds of the ASMR is very wide: next to the "classics" that are the whispered voices, of man or woman, there are recordings of "taping" (taps of fingers), but also crumpled or torn paper sounds, crackling, modeling sand, hair brush, makeup brushes slipping on the skin, ice cubes tingling in a glass of water ...
And even videos of haircuts, in which we find the sound so characteristic of the hairdresser's scissors. Like a kind of sound fetishism.
My husband tells me that I'm more relaxed since listening to these videos
The ASMR, a sound bubble that puts the brain on pause
But how do you explain the effect of these very particular videos on a lot of people who seem completely sane? First of all, the very good quality of the sound broadcast: the ASMR video authors mostly use binaural microphones, which allow to give a lot more realism, depth and relief to recorded sounds. Amplified sensation through the use of a helmet.
The simple fact of giving oneself time, by isolating oneself from the outside, probably also plays in the installation of the feeling of relaxation, as Aurélie Bernardi, a psychotherapist in Lourdes in the Hautes-Pyrenees explains: "The whisper may refer to childhood, sounds heard small.The very good quality of the sound accentuates the impression of being in a bubble Finally the idea of sharing, since these videos are free, participates in the climate of benevolence very present in the speech of the authors of these videos All this favors the setting on "pause" of the brain.
As a fan of ASMR videos, Aurélie uses them to fall asleep or to take thirty-minute breaks during the day, and goes so far as to recommend them to some of her patients: "To reduce stress or fight against 'Insomnia is a relaxation technique that is well worth it.'
ASMR, a form of benevolence on the Internet
French ASMR artist among the most listened, with more than 64,000 subscribers on its Paris ASMR channel, Florian claims this kindly approach described by Aurélie Bernardi: "We do not make these videos to become rich or known, my channel barely brings me 100 euros a month, but there is some pleasure in proposing something that is contrary to what is usually found on the internet, very poetic.The ASMR videos are rather long, in a single shot, without any editing. "
German teacher in a college in the Paris region, and also singer, Florian enjoys being part of a small discreet and confidential community: "It's a cocoon that stays warm and intimate despite the number of videos seen. On ASMR video channels, as soon as someone picks up or says something unpleasant, it is immediately put back in its place by other subscribers. It's still pretty rare on social networks. "
Among his fans, Florian has very varied profiles: "Stressed teens, anxious people, prisoners ... it makes me very happy to tell me that I can help them."
And you, will you be tempted? Take the test with this video of more than one hour that will allow you (perhaps) to identify the sounds that make you the most effect -or, on the contrary, that horrify you!
