Hear us out: You’re horny so you put on your headphones and lie back in bed, listening to the wet sounds of kissing and deep breaths between moans.
The noises alone send the blood rushing to your nether regions.
If that turns you on, you’re actually engaging in the sexual practice of auralism.
This is an umbrella term that encompasses everything audible which has the potential to turn you on and bring you some good ol’ orgasms.
‘It could be the sounds you’re making during sex, it could be audio erotica, it could be different words or phrases that people are saying that you’re particularly turned on by the sounds of them out loud,’ sex educator Gigi Engle explains.
‘If you engage in auralism, you’re very much someone who experiences arousal from sound.’
So, here are some of the subsets that fall under this orgasmic umbrella…
Dirty talk
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The art of dirty talk is a subset of auralism that can really up the anti when it comes to sexy time.
Think moaning, praising each other with how well you’re doing, consensually degrading each other (if that’s your thing) or having sweet nothings whispered in your ear as you get it on.
All this is classic dirty talk stuff and there’s a scientific reason for it getting you going, according to sex expert Ness Cooper.
It turns out dirty words during sex stimulate the brain in multiple areas — particularly the ones responsible for how we feel and respond to pleasure.
She says: ‘Dirty talk can make the body release feel-good hormones, such as dopamine and oxytocin, which can not only turn us on but help us bond further with our sexual partners.
‘Testosterone is also released which can help with arousal and orgasm.’
When it comes to practicing this subset of auralism, you can play with tone and volume to increase your pleasure even more.
‘For example, words and phrases that are whispered – or added in with erotic sighs and moans – may have a higher chance of turning someone on, rather than louder dirty talk that can be a turn off for some,’ Ness adds.
There’s a strong chance you’ll be able to talk each other over the edge if this is your thing!
Ness explains: ‘Due to the release of various hormones, dirty talk can help reduce stress, make the experience feel more connected and safer, and even help activate areas of the brain needed for orgasm.’
PSA: obviously make sure you and your partner are on the same page when it comes to the type of dirty talk you’re using — we don’t want anyone feeling upset or uncomfortable.
Audio porn
Largely popular with women, there are now dedicated sites for it. One of them is Quinn, founded in 2019 by Caroline Spiegel, who struggled with sexual dysfunction while recovering from an eating disorder.
It’s also found a niche on Reddit. Smaller subreddits such as Gone Wild Audio have been catering to auralism for years, but since Quinn burst onto the scene countless sexual audio apps have emerged.
Think Dipsea, Bloom and Emjoy, to name a few. Quinn alone has north of 740,000 user sessions a month. But what is it about the subset of audio erotica that arouses us so?
The lack of visuals mean all you can do is listen to the dirty talk, the moans, the kissing and the unmistakable sounds we all associate with sex.
Author and sexual mentor Amanda King previously told Metro.co.uk that these noises help us reach a ‘higher climactic state’.
Users are able to focus on ‘that moaning, that breathing, that dirty talk that adhered specifically to everything that they want’.
You’re able to chose the type of sounds you’ll hear based on the type of audio you select. There are countless kinks and categories to choose from including praise kinks, degradation, choking and polyamory.
There’s even a porn dosing trend emerging, where largely women are listening to audio porn in public for a pleasure boost.
About 98% of those who use the audio erotica platform Bloom Stories said that audio porn is good for their wellbeing and pleasure.
Porn dosing
Sex and relationship Gemma Nice says: ‘By listening to porn, its allowing the dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin, your love hormones, to flood your body through relaxed blood vessels, which helps with your libido and heightens your sex drive.’
People are even using it now to heal themselves or release pain, according to Gemma, because it brings the body out of fight or flight, switching you from your sympathetic nervous system, which puts your body’s systems on alert, to your parasympathetic which relaxes those systems.
ASMR
‘People do get really turned on by it,’ sex educator Gigi for Sextoys.co.uk explains. ‘It really activates that arousal when you hear the whispering and the saliva, so it’s definitely a part of auralism.’
‘Some people simply find it relaxing and not necessarily a turn on but it’s okay if you do find it arousing – everyone responds to different things.’
But Gigi does explain that while ASMR, dirty talk and audio porn all have similar reasons for being considered a turn on to people, there are a couple more niche noises that get certain people horny.
‘People do have fart fetishes where they literally find the sound of farts something that’s attractive to them,’ she explains.
‘The sounds of people clicking on keyboards can also be a turn on for people too.’
We don’t know about you but we’ll never look at typing at work the same way again.
Why is this? ‘A lot of the noises that people find arousing will come from conditioning when they’ve heard something early in childhood or adolescence and it might have been unusual which they had an arousing response to,’ Gigi says.
Trying auralism for the first time
She suggests listening to something while cutting off your other senses to heighten the experience and focus on the sounds.
For example, you could wear an eyemask or blindfold without touching yourself as you listen to the sounds, to see if you’re aroused.
If you’re listening to audio erotica, then it’ll be helpful to select a scenario based on your pre-existing kinks or your sexual orientation.
For example, if you enjoy being dominated and submissive, there will be tailored audio porn for this, which is likely to heighten your pleasure, or if you prefer sensual and loving sex then there will be audio for that too.
Gigi explains: ‘Hone in on what it is about these different experiences that do or don’t turn you on and this will help you broaden your erotic template to have more authentic and erotic experiences which can amplify your arousal.’
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