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It’s an unlikely formula for success: a low-budget movie devoid of plot and featuring a single, sometimes silent, actor performing everyday tasks such as folding laundry, brushing hair and opening boxes. Counterintuitive as it may be, hundreds of thousands of people are enjoying hours of video produced using these very ingredients. To them, these works are masterpieces.

So what is motivating viewers to seek out and endure content that most would classify as tedium? The phenomenon is called Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, or ASMR. Colloquially, the sensation felt in the head, neck and spine and the relaxation that follows is referred to as the tingles. Some use the videos to relax. Others find them effective sleep aids.

The majority of the ASMR capable date their first memories of the sensation to childhood. My first episode of tingling happened in my early twenties. I was watching someone sweep. As unextraordinary and forgettable as this should have been, I started to tingle. It started at the base of my skull and spread over my scalp and down my spine. A feeling of calm overcame me. I was mesmerized, immobilized and unable to avert my attention from the repetitive movements and the rhythmic swish of the broom.

Over the years the tingles have resurfaced at different times, but the precipitating events were not limited to sweeping. Being waited on by an especially attentive and soft-spoken salesperson or observing someone carefully perform a delicate task also might have evoked the sensation.

Oddly, it was only recently that I grew curious enough about my tingles to investigate. Because it was the least amorphous, most succinctly describable of my own, private tingle-inducers, I decided to search online for “relaxing sweeping.” My search resulted in pages of YouTube video results. Everywhere among them: the letters A-S-M-R.

I clicked on the first video and, like magic, the tingling started. I watched it over and over.

It was a revelation. I could get tingly on demand.

According to one of the few scientific studies on the topic, whispering is the most commonly reported ASMR trigger. Recordings of distinct sounds, like tapping and crinkling, slow movements and videos devoted to some aspect of personal care are also reliable triggers.

While whispering and crinkling videos are timeless and dependably bring on the tingles, so-called ASMRtists continue to experiment and respond to subscriber requests. Following is a broadly categorized primer of the ASMR video library.

Task Videos

Videos of people performing different tasks are perennially popular in the ASMR community and offer limitless possibilities. A competent ASMRtist can convert most household chores into a solid trigger video.

Maria of GentleWhispering is an ASMR master and the most viewed ASMRtist on YouTube. Her channel has 675,000 subscribers and over 210,000,000 total views (!). Feast your senses on this video of her towel folding.

There’s a subset of the task category that involves unboxing and opening. In these videos the artists unpack something treating the viewer to a sort of show and tell session. In this video one of my favorite ASMRtists, Ilse of the YouTube channel TheWaterWhisperers, empties and examines her grandmother’s jewelry box.

Binaural Videos

Binaural ASMR recordings are meant to be listened to on headphones and use a special microphone to simulate a three dimensional environment. Many ASMR trigger videos are recorded using a binaural microphone in addition to whatever other trigger might be showcased. Sometimes the microphone is placed just off screen. In this case, the artist faces the camera and moves from side to side pretending to whisper in the viewers’ ears. In other binaural videos the microphone is prominently featured as a prop. The microphones, mounted in foam ears on a mechanical looking dummy head, are brushed, massaged and tapped. Here is a recent example from the YouTube channel Duff The Psyche.

Sound & Movement Videos

These videos focus on specific sounds and emphasize movement. There is no larger task. The actors might tap, crinkle, scratch, chew, brush, turn pages or move their hands around in Tai Chi-like fashion as in this example from the artist at the Ephemeral Rift YouTube channel.

ASMRtists also play with ambient sounds like rain and fire crackling. Check out this production, complete with visual special effects, from the MassageASMR channel.

Personal Attention and Role-Play Videos

There are hundreds of role-play videos casting the ASMRtist as caregiver (doctor, masseuse, aesthetician, tailor, etc.) and the viewer as customer or patient. By asking questions and fully focusing on you, the viewer feels important and cared for. Here is a straightforward and effective rendition of a salon visit role-play from the AMSRtist, Bladewhisperpro23.

Role-play videos allow a lot of room for innovation. As part of her SciFi series, the owner of the popular ASMRrequests YouTube channel created a video in which she plays a futuristic travel agent booking your space travel.

Bob Ross Videos

In any discussion of ASMR triggers, Bob Ross deserves special recognition. Many credit the star of PBS’ The Joy of Painting with introducing them to the tingles. His performances incorporate the major characteristics of classic triggers. In a soft voice, he explains his technique as he mixes paint on his palette and gently brushes his canvas. Throughout the process he reinforces your aptitude as a painter and conveys a genuine happiness to be painting “with” you. He shepherds you through the process and makes you feel like everything is all right.

Even for the ASMR capable, not all triggers spark the tingles. When you find one that resonates, however, something real happens. You forget whatever is weighing on your mind and feel instantly calmer. Sample some of these videos with the warning that if you find yourself susceptible, it will be difficult to stop watching.

Kristin Jordan currently lives in Nagoya, Japan where she also lived 12 years ago before smart phones, streaming and kids. She loved Japan the first time and finds it even better with all the extras.