It's something that is a bit out of the ordinary for me to look into or talk about, but some things make more sense now that I know about it and it is a powerful sleep aid for me.
For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed certain sounds: the crinkling of paper (specifically when someone has written on it and it becomes debossed), shoes clicking on the floor or crunching on gravel, tapping noises, certain sounds made by different accents, typing so a keyboard, the sound of a pencil or pen tapping on the table as someone writes, the sound of someone cutting hair and the shears and comb clicking together, chewing gum sounds (sometimes), etc.
They're all sounds I tried to replicate, but it's just not the same as when some else makes the sounds.
I have a physical reaction to these sounds as well as sometimes when someone does something for me (like when my team leader at work came up to drop off my pend report on my desk). I can't describe it. I get a funny sensation in the back of my head and neck and sometimes it radiates into my throat and jaw. I also tend to feel it in my hands and sometimes in my back. It almost tickles. It feels pretty good and I can't predict when it's going to happen. I never knew what it was and didn't pay much attention to it.
Then about a year ago, I saw a link to an article in the sidebar of f@c3b00k that had a description that caught my eye. I clicked it, thinking it was weird and I couldn't believe people experienced something like that. As I read on, the description fit me to a T and other people experienced the same "tingles" as I do.
Come to find out, there are thousands of videos on the Internet that are made just to make people feel those sensations.
At first I felt like it was wrong. Maybe because someone likened it to a "brain orgasm". I was so fascinated by it, though, that I kept watching the videos. Actually, I would start the videos, then lock the screen on my phone so I could just listen to the audio.
It relaxes me so much that I fall asleep within minutes. During nights when I feel wide awake when I go to bed or can't fall asleep because I can't shut my brain off, I will pop my headphones in, start listening to a video, and be asleep in no time. As a bonus, I almost always make it through the night without waking up.
I used it this morning when I was about to walk out the door to go to work, then found out that I could telework and as a result has almost 2 more hours to sleep. I was wide awake and decided to turn on one of my go-to videos for sleep. The video is 40 minutes long and up until this morning I never stayed awake for even 5 minutes of it. I think this morning I listened to 15-20 minutes.
I wish I had known about this years ago. I have had sleeping problems for so long up until now.
I talked to my therapist about it and she said she had never heard of it, but thought it sounded like a good thing for me. Then she told me it sounds like I'm a synesthete.
I guess that's my ASMR story. My next update should be about Dudelydoo.
