ASMR triggers are certain sounds or stimuli that give you the tingles. Everyone's personal ASMR trigger will vary a lot, what works for others won't necessarily work for you. If you are trying to discover how to get more tingles you are in the right place. In this article we will be listing the most common ASMR triggers as well as some uncommon ones. We will define ASMR and after this article you'll have a clear understanding what is ASMR. You might want to listen to all the example videos and see what ASMR sounds set you off or get you to sleep.

What is ASMR? – ASMR definition

ASMR is a pleasant tingling feeling that you experience when you hear unique, soft voices, or hear
certain soothing sounds such as scratching and tapping, whispering and brushing. This tingling sensation is euphoric. It starts at the back of your head, travels down through your spine into your limbs relaxing you, giving you a feeling of well being.

Almost all of us can experience it and it’s just the matter of finding your personal ASMR trigger.

ASMR is an acronym for “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response”.

ASMR triggers

The short definition of an ASMR trigger: a sound or a stimuli that triggers an Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response in you.

An average human being has lots of ways to trigger ASMR. Thus a lot of these videos will probably spark your tingles! Nevertheless, some triggers will definitely produce more stronger ASMR than others. I have also noticed that I, for one, get bored listening to the same ASMR triggers over and over again. It’s very nice to find something new.

In addition to audio triggers, ASMR triggers can also be physical or visual. You will encounter these triggers in real life, in movies and sometimes in the most absurd places. ASMR in everywhere!

How to experience ASMR?

There are a lot of searches on google on “how to get ASMR”, “how to ASMR”, “how to trigger ASMR” and “how to experience ASMR”. That is exactly what we are teaching in this article. Below is a sort of an ASMR test, lots of different triggering ASMR videos that have similar sounds. The idea is that you listen to them and you can pin point which of them trigger you. Go ahead and watch them.

ASMR sounds – Most common ASMR triggers

To get the best effect, please wear headphones. If you’re interested, check out our article about Sleep headphones that are great for ASMR.

There are lots of different ASMR sounds. Here are the most common ones:

ASMR trigger list

Whispering

Whispering is where all of this started. This is the most common ASMR sound and hearing a whispering trigger in the right situation is usually the way we first discover what is ASMR. Whispering sounds can also be binaural and it means that the sounds are recorded in separate channels which allows you to hear voices spoken to the left side from your left side speaker. This will create a more “real” experience. Whispering can also be inaudible or unintelligible which means that you are not supposed to clearly hear the words so you can better concentrate on the sounds itself.

Soft talking / soft voices

Soft voices is the ultimate trigger for sleep. It’s been argued to be the most popular of the triggers.

Scratching and tapping

Microphone scratching and fast tapping on the table are the most common uses of this trigger. You will hear many content creators tapping on objects they are holding just to create the extra sounds. Nail sounds are also associated with tapping. Many women content creators have grown long nails just to produce tingles for you! I think that’s amazing. Usually scratching is one of the most powerful triggers.

In this video ASMR sounds Alena uses very strong scratching sounds.

Physical touch

A gentle touch also acts as an ASMR trigger. This cannot be demonstrated by video. The best way to test this is to use a a head massaging tool called the scalp massager. For many people, it produces tingles that are much more intense than any audio ASMR trigger. It’s best used when someone else massages you with it, but you can do it yourself also. for example.

Personal attention

Personal attention trigger creates an intense moment between you and the video creator. Many of us experienced ASMR as a child and for the longest time didn’t know what it was. From these childhood memories: visiting the dentist and being in a classroom with a teacher guiding you personally, were the most triggering situations. This is what the personal attention videos are trying to recreate. Some other common personal attention scenarios are makeup tutorials or makeup roleplays, having your hair played with or ears brushed.

Ear brushing

Ear brushing cannot really be done without personal attention. It is intense and soothing.

Hair play

Hair plays will usually involve soft spoken voices and personal attention. This is very familiar to any girl readers and listeners. One of the absolute favorite aspects of childhoods are hair plays!

Visual ASMR

Visual ASMR is most often hand movements. They are not one of the most common ASMR triggers but I included it in the list because it is so different from the others. If you tried everything and just cannot induce the tingles, maybe this will produce them.

Pages turning

A very common trigger. Related with crinkling sounds. These are popular ASMR sounds.

Concentration on a task

Watching someone who’s “in the zone” is a great trigger for many. The task can be anything from painting to folding towels. I had a friend in high school who has a super talented drawer. I remember just watching him draw was very relaxing. The anticipation of what was coming along with the absolute preciseness of the process.

Mouth sounds

These ASMR sounds are disgusting to some – a heaven for others. Mouth sounds can include eating sounds, kissing sounds and all kinds of wet sounds.

Ambient sounds

By now, ambient sounds and white noise has become a synonym for relaxing sound.

AMSR trigger words

Some people get strong tingles from hearing certain words. This is an example video of saying ASMR trigger words out loud.

Other ASMR triggers

In this section I am not going to match every trigger with a video. There are too many different ones. To help define ASMR, Heather Feather has done a video with the top 120 triggers. It’s 4 hours and 30 minutes (!) long.

For some, best triggers are just sounds. If you can hear no talking, you can concentrate on the sounds.

To five yourself a better ASMR test, you can search these ASMR sounds individually. Listening to all different sounds one by one will give you more of an idea to what your personal trigger is.

• Air can duster and other chemical induced sounds
• Leather sounds, latex gloves and fabric sounds
• Trigger words (triggered by certain words), ticking clock and thinking sounds
• Motor humming, Helicopter flying, turbine starting
• Paintbrush on canvas, spray painting
• Writing sounds, Typing sounds, Alphabet Sounds
• Hands Cupped Over Ears, Hearing Test
• Cat Purring and other relaxing animal sounds
• Eye Examination, Follow the light and Cranial nerve examination
• Fizzing In Your Ears (soda, beer), Anticipatory Triggers and Humming
• Pop Rocks, Echo, Water Drops On Glass and Scalp Massage
• Chalk on a chalk board, lather sounds (washing/shampooing)
• Sk sounds

As you can see, there are endless ASMR triggers to be found. To define ASMR, go explore YouTube.

Breakdown of ASMR sounds

What kind of audio gives the best possible experience for most people:

Isolated sounds – A big trigger for many people is crystal clearly heard sounds without other interfering sounds. Because ASMR videos are done by good equipment in complete silence, you can hear some unique sounds that normally drown in the surrounding noises. One example is the sound that results from people parting their lips and separating their tongue from it’s resting position against their palate before they are about to speak.

Slow paced sounds – Some videos overdo the triggers and stack them together. Just like in a good speech, some silence is usually required between the trigger sounds.

Consistent volume – Nothing ruins an ASMR experience quicker than a sharp volume spike in the middle of a video (or a super loud commercial when the next ASMR video starts playing! YouTube do something!)

ASMR sleep triggers

At night, people tend to feel alone. Personal attention videos are great for removing this unpleasant feeling. Ideally, soft speaking videos that gradually reduce in volume. It also helps if the content is interesting enough at the beginning so you can start focusing on the video and not on the other stuff that runs through your mind – and enough relaxing and soothing that you can’t just listen to it the whole night. We have listed the best sleeping videos on our ASMR sleep article.

Many people use ASMR as a sleep remedy. The video above is Heather Feather’s ASMR Binaural Guided and Progressive Relaxation/Meditation for Tingles, Anxiety Relief, and Sleep. It contains many of triggers that are designed to get you to fall asleep.

ASMR immunity – What to do when ASMR don’t work?

There are people who don’t experience ASMR (it’s called ASMR trigger immunity). It could be that you belong to this group or alternatively your trigger is just far more uncommon. I suggest you explore some of the more uncommon triggers that I listed on the previous section or use the head massaging tool, orgasmatron, about which I talked earlier. I got one of these back when I was like 15 and have been using it ever since.

If you take a lot of prescription drugs it might be that aswell. Prescription drugs are often common anesthetics which reduces ones sensitivity. The best thing which increases your sensitivity with the tingles is brain health. Omega 3’s are a very popular fish oil extract, which may also be found in some foods such as eggs. It is a leading vitamin which my be taken as a supplement, which in turn, promotes brain health and sensitivity.

Concepts that are close to ASMR

Since we are digging semi-deeply into ASMR trigger I want to bring some related terms to your attention. Just described superficially before we conclude this article. What is ASMR is a tough question and understanding all the related terms will give you a more focused idea.

Frission

You might sometimes hear the phrase “Frission” in similar contexts as ASMR and these are no to be confused.

Frission, which originates from a french word that means “shiver”, is usually (99.9%+) triggered by music. It is a pleasurable and shortly (usually no longer than 5 seconds) felt sense of overwhelming emotion that is sometimes combined with piloerection (goosebumps).

People who are trying to trigger frission, often search the internet for ASMR music triggers. If you are one of those people, check out the subreddit for Frission.

Misophonia

Misophonia is the hatred of sound. While some people have ASMR triggers, others have also audio stimuli that triggers a very negative response in them. This might be the feeling of anger, disgust or hatred.

Conclusion on triggers and what is ASMR

Hopefully after this article you have found out what is ASMR and found a trigger that works for you. The next step is to explore more content of your liking. We have a list of the best ASMR videos. I suggest you start there.