Here's why these videos are so popular... and so relaxing. Instagram/slimeycandy You may have heard at some point that kids across the country are obsessed with slime. Slime entrepreneurs have even popped up online, with some selling their wares on Etsy. Others simply post Instagram videos of themselves massaging different types of slime—videos that can nab more than 100,000 views in a week. It seems bizarre that people would spend any amount of time watching a person play with what amounts to DIY Play-Doh, but these videos are hugely popular—and it may have something to do with a phenomenon known as autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR). The condition usually causes a relaxing tingling in a person’s scalp and the back of their neck, and can extend into the rest of the body in response to particular sounds, smells, or visuals, according to the ASMR Lab. If YouTube videos are any indication, the most popular ASMR stimuli are whispering, tapping, watching someone have their hair brushed, and repetitive tasks like folding laundry. However, people can also experience ASMR from a bevvy of events like getting their hair cut or listening to music—there are a wide range of triggers and what works for one person may not work for you. ASMR slime videos may fit the bill—or not. There is little scientific research on the phenomenon—the first scientific paper on it was published on the open-access journal PeerJ in 2015. That study had nearly 500 people who subscribed to Facebook or Reddit ASMR groups fill out a questionnaire about their online ASMR habits and why they engaged in them. Most people said they watched the videos to help them relax, de-stress, and get to sleep. (Only five percent said they watch the videos for sexual reasons.) W. Christopher Winter, M.D., of Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine, and author of the upcoming book, The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep is Broken and How to Fix It, tells SELF that ASMR is similar to what people experience with white noise—there are no surprises in these videos, and it helps shift people into a zen-like state. ASMR seems to need an emotional component to it, and Winter says that’s not accidental. “Some things may remind you of your mother or being a kid,” he says. “I’d guess that it’s no accident that a lot of the videos of someone whispering feature an attractive woman, which make you think of your mom whispering to you when you went to sleep.” Those memories the videos evoke are likely comforting, and can shift people into a more relaxed state that then helps them fall asleep, he says. Gail Saltz, M.D., a psychiatrist and the author of The Power of Different, tells SELF that the slime popularity may simply be a mental association with being a kid. “Childhood memories are often intense, simplified, and have that magical quality to them,” she says. “You were nurtured at that time.” Repetitive behaviors that are connected to the sense of touch can also be very soothing for some people, Saltz says, which may be why people like to massage their own slime for ASMR or watch videos of someone doing the action to elicit the memory of doing it themselves. Children can be soothed by repetitive motions, like massaging slime or Play-Doh, and that doesn’t necessarily change over a person’s lifetime, Saltz says. ASMR can vary from person to person because it’s all about perception, licensed clinical psychologist John Mayer, Ph.D., author of Family Fit: Find Your Balance in Life, tells SELF. “We all perceive experience in a different way even though it is the same experience,” he explains. For example, while one person may find the sound of someone typing comforting (if, say, they had a parent who worked on a computer at home), others may associate the sound with office work and become more stressed when they hear it. If you watch ASMR slime videos (or just any old ASMR videos) to go to sleep, Winter says there's no reason why you should stop. “It’s the 2017 version of counting sheep,” he says. “If you feel like it’s enhancing your ability to fall asleep, that’s great.” However, if you find that you struggle to go to sleep without watching an ASMR video, he recommends taking a break from videos every now and then and mentally conjuring up the image of someone massaging slime or having their hair brushed. That, too, should help kick you into relaxation mode and help you catch some zzzs. Watch and listen for yourself: Source
