Seen At 11: 'The Tingles' Helping Millions Relax, Get Better Sleep

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A new Internet trend has millions of followers watching videos of strangers that leads to relaxation and even better sleep.

But as CBS2's Weijia Jiang reports, there's much more surrounding the craze known as "the tingles."

Listening carefully to tapping, crinkling, whispering can actually help you relax, de-stress and give you the tingles.

The technical term for that tingly feeling is ASMR -- autonomous sensory meridian response — more commonly known as tingle response. It is sights and sounds that trigger a physical reaction and help people relax.

"It's calming sensation that kind of starts from your head, and moves down your body to your back and sometimes to your legs," Tracy Diaz said.

Diaz, a busy Long Island mother, said like millions of others, she gets a tingle response from watching ASMR videos.

Diaz said "whispering, page-turning, any kind of plastic sound" work the best for her.

Simple tapping on a plastic container is just one of the triggers for the tingles that Diaz uses to help her de-stress and deal with insomnia. She said she turned to the videos instead of traditional medicine.

"I put my headphones in and I'm kind of asleep at like 10 minutes in," she said.

As Jiang reported, there is an endless supply of YouTube videos for the so-called "tingle heads," and they offer everything from whispering to specific sounds.

Clinical psychologist Barbara Greenberg said this is all a non-invasive method to help people relax and unwind.

"At the very worst, these YouTube videos are innocuous and at the very best, they may help people fall asleep or feel relaxed," she said.

New Jersey paralegal April Lanzet also has a YouTube playlist she relies upon.

"What they say isn't particularly important. They could be saying nonsense; gibberish words," she said.

But she said it's the sound of whispering that gives her the tingle response and helps her relax.

"It can start in the middle of the head. It radiates, and it sometimes goes all the way down your back," she said.

"As far as it being weird, don't knock it until you tried it," Diaz added.

As Jiang reported, people from around the world already have.