If you haven't yet heard of ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response), well, things are about to get weird. YouTuber ASMR Darling has over a million subscribers, as does Gentle Whispering ASMR. Over 100,000 users subscribe to the ASMR Reddit channel, and W Magazine even has a series of celebrity ASMR interviews featuring the likes of Margot Robbie and Kate Hudson. In terms of why people seek out ASMR, an overwhelming number (98 percent) of study participants said they used it as an opportunity for relaxation, while 82 percent agreed they used ASMR to help them go to sleep. Whether ASMR will continue to grow and develop as a trend remains to be seen, but authors of the aforementioned study did conclude their research with the suggestion that "ASMR warrants further investigation as a potential therapeutic measure."

Source: Huffington Post October 23, 2017 04:30 UTC