By Treena Orchard and Bronwen McVeigh

Auto-Sensory Meridian Response is everywhere right now: SNL skits, Grammy-nominated indie albums, and celebrity performances. ASMR is a phenomenon in which audio or visual triggers, like delicate tapping sounds or soft whispers, create a pleasurable tingling feeling called paresthesia. Medical role-play videos are among the most popular ASMR content, with “doctors” staring into the camera and leaving spaces in the dialogue to “listen” to the viewer’s imagined responses.

These practitioners don’t tap frantically onto computer keyboards; they slowly scrawl words on a notepad. Relaxing soundscapes replace blaring medical machines and gentle illumination replaces harsh hospital lighting.

Watching these videos can produce therapeutic benefits akin to mindfulness, and they might alleviate insomnia better than melatonin. Beyond soothing anxious viewers, we contend that ASMR medical roleplay videos may help reduce the anxiety associated with medical encounters and enhance peoples’ sense of agency over their well-being. Adopting this content as part of medical practice might also be a promising, cost-effective way to meet patient needs without stressing over-stretched healthcare systems.

Although a YouTuber wielding a stethoscope can’t offer medical advice, they’re not the only ones creating ASMR videos. Content that features actual medical interactions by........

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