Month: February 2025

Sleeping With ASMR

The further we get into 2025 the more people are becoming obsessed with sleep. This is probably the rectifying of the complete disregard that has been shown to it in previous decades.

I can remember certain public figures boasting that they needed little sleep (as if that was a good thing) and subsequently it being discovered that they were making up that sleep through napping.

What is currently missing is the configuring of work practices to respect sleep. Putting health before GDP would send a very significant message here.

There also seems to be little requirement for taking noise into account when designing and building housing, which has its own consequences. As is usual in such circumstances recommendations are around purchasing noise cancelling technology rather than ensuring houses are not exposed to excessive noise. (For example, before building them in the first place). Putting health before profits would send a significant message here.

If you’re in the, no doubt large, group of people exposed to excessive noise when you’re trying to sleep, I have found that having a noise playing of your own choosing can help. It depends on the noise and when it is happening. For example, a one-off sound at 2am, from a loud car say, can disrupt the rest of your sleep. A consistent noise that you grow used to through exposure may be less disruptive.

In any case, I have found as one gets older sensitivity to noise, when sleeping, seems to increase. The only way to react seems to be to take action yourself. Noise cancelling headphones can help. Although I find frequent use of these really hurts the ears eventually. A back track such as white noise (several generators are available) or, my favourite, a nice relaxing video can also be positive.

Statements that older people need less sleep have not proven correct in my case. I get less sleep, I am more tired, so I wonder how universally such findings apply.

In the drive to provide more relaxing videos for you, here is another blog item on exactly that subject.

Today’s video is already part of a playlist; however, it comes from a channel that I have regularly exploited for material so I have to be careful to avoid duplication in this area. If you spot duplication, do let me know.

The Exam for Ankle & Foot Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

As we have previously established this channel produces videos of consistent quality and as we would expect each video comes with a descriptive set of notes:

“19 Jul 2018 Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam

This video is brought to you by the Stanford Medicine 25 to teach you the common causes of foot and ankle pain and how to diagnose them by the physical exam.

The Stanford Medicine 25 program for bedside medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine aims to promote the culture of bedside medicine to make current and future clinicians and other healthcare provides better at the art of physical diagnosis and more confident at the bedside of their patients.

Visit us:

Website: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/

Blog: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.ed…

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordMedi…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanfordMed25

Diagnoses covered in this video:

Lateral Ankle Sprain

Talar Dome Osteochondral Defect

5th Metatarsal Fracture

Achilles Tendinopathy

Interdigital (Morton’s) Neuroma

Stress Fracture of 2nd Metatarsal

Plantar Fasciitis

Hallux Valgus (Bunion)”

Comments are permitted and, as expected, ASMR fans have been here before me. This probably means it is a good choice of video (although some less high-quality ones sometimes pass this test).

It is just less than seven and a half minutes, so not huge in terms of videos we have covered previously.

Of course, there is that bugbear of any ASMR video fan – the musical startup. Someday I will come across the command to dictate the start time of the video and such music will be banished forever.

This one features Dr Brinda Christopher again with whom we are well familiar.

Dr Christopher as we have established before has an excellent voice for such videos. It is great that we are re-acquainting ourselves with her. Chad is the patient (again).

There is some background noise (air conditioning again perhaps).

There are so many medical terms in this one that I am not going to attempt to define them – I’m guessing that you are not here to learn how to perform an ankle examination. If you are what a pleasant surprise and welcome.

The video is part of the  Stanford Medicine 25 channel where there are eighty-five videos. I have no doubt that we will be sampling many more of these in the future.

The video we have just seen is part five of an eight-part playlist. In order to avoid covering areas that I will have covered before, I will limit myself to reviewing the remaining two videos in this playlist. Future blog items will catch up on any missing areas I am certain.

The Exam for Knee Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

There is startup music of course, comments and notes as before and the same two participants – so far, so consistent. At just less than eight minutes it is also of a similar length to the last one.

The great thing about a professional video is that if you liked it you may well like videos from the same provider. Many student videos we have seen can be great, only for the next video from the same source to be totally unsuitable.

The Exam for Shoulder Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

As before, comments indicate ASMR fans are all over this, and we have proven that they have good taste. The only way these could be improved would be to remove startup music and put a bomb in the air conditioning.

But in comparison to some noises we have heard in other videos, this is minor quibble area.

One great aspect is a complete absence of loud equipment clunks, and bangs, which other videos seem unable to avoid. We have the same two participants here and to ensure I do not overlap with material from the same channel covered previously I will make this the last video of this blog item.

This one is a little less than ten and a half minutes so quite a bit longer than the two previous ones. However you may find, like me, that you do not notice the extra time.

I wish you well in your drive to get more sleep.

The Stanford medicine playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:

I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.

I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.

If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by Laura Matthews on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Re-reading some sleep advice that I had knocking around, I notice that one is supposed to sleep the same number of hours every night and if you don’t, then there will be a reckoning to come.

Added to this is the requirement that you go to bed at the same time, every night and awaken at the same time, every morning.

That sounds a great discipline and I would love to recommend it. However, I find myself utterly jiggered by close of play on a Friday and I take to bed and sleep till the gods have made off to find another planet (or for a very long time anyway).

I always found that this was my little weekly restorative and I’m sure that for many years it was. However, it does not seem to be as effective any longer and I am moderately convinced that is to do with ageing.

In the absence of changing my sleep pattern completely (and for those of you who also feel unable to do so), I’ll stick to finding restful videos that may encourage you to make the most of whatever sleep you are able to get. If you do find yourself crashing on a Friday night, desperate to make up for any lost time during the week, you now know I will not be judging you.

Today’s video is, again, taken from that deep well of videos which seemingly has no end on YouTube; the student assessment video.

Head-to-Toe Physical Assessment

The medical professional is Vivian and from the start has a very good voice. Vivian has on a top which identifies the college where presumably this is filmed but, sadly, I cannot make out what it says.

There are no notes with the video; there is one unhelpful comment and only two subscribers. This is either a journey to something new or a warning that this is not going to be that useful.

In fact, the sound is quite muted. The air conditioning is ever present (as we are used to by now) the patient is Lindsey Preston (probably misspelled), D.o.B. 03/03/97, whichever date system you use. I make that March.

There are the usual questions officially designed to check the person vs their record, but of course no record exists so it is, as usual, acting.

Lindsey (I’m sticking with that spelling now) announces that she is at Valencia Memorial Hospital (well I’m pretty sure that is what she says – it is a bit quick). Lindsey has a top on with the same appearance as that worn by Vivian it appears to say Valencia College nursing which might confirm that.

The tops worn by the nurses on that website do appear similar if in a different colour.

The college of course has it’s own YouTube channel.

Apart from the air conditioning there are no nasty intrusive noises. Vivian even seems able to move equipment around without the loud clangs that have punctuated some videos now in the Procrastination Pen archive list.

Her approach is methodical and gentle.

The video is just a short one at a little over six minutes.

The channel is Vivian Tran it contains just this one video uploaded in 2018 which is about the same date that it was filmed.

So, I’m sorry people, but that is all for this time.

The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:

I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.

I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.

If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

A week in which I have had sympathy for those who are struggling to sleep and, in which, I have been quite dependent on the playlist for a restful breathing space. I’ve been active in weeding activity every time I happened across a more jarring moment.

I am researching the idea of trimming videos without actually hosting them. I haven’t made progress yet, but I live in hope that I may soon despatch funky startup music.

Today’s video another one properly designed for tuition of future medical professionals. Not the longest we’ve seen at a bit more than sixteen and a half minutes.

Neurological Assessment

There are moments of humour at the start including knocking on a surface to mimic entry. The patient is introduced as Mr Hoffman – which probably isn’t the correct spelling. The medical professional “Nancy” is from Harper College.

As we’d expect Harper College has its own channel the duty of which, I suspect, is to tell you that Harper College is fantastic, which no doubt it is.

Our purpose though, is the pursuit of restful videos. This one starts well by ignoring funky startup music. The Air conditioning noises are de rigueur for this sort of thing now, it would almost be rude to have a video without them.

Surprisingly for a professional video, there are no notes at all. There are plenty of comments, lots of strange comments as expected, but no obvious ASMR comments. Sometimes this does not bode well for the video.

Nancy does not have a classically restful voice; in fact, Mr Hoffman seems to have the better voice here. Thankfully, Mr Hoffman gets a fair amount of talk time in this one. The air conditioning is obviously a session musician paid by the volume, it is more intrusive even than we have come to expect.

The president at the time is Obama, so sometime between 2009 and 2017. The video was posted in 2015, so possibly shortly after it was filmed.

I think he refers to the medical professional as Nancy Haborector, that is so unlikely to be correct but it is what it sounds like. I think it is more likely Nancy Haberichter apologies Nancy if you are reading this.

Mr Hoffmann also talks to “Amy” who is behind the camera. That is a slightly off-putting event, in that I am used to dismissing the camera person from consciousness as if the filming was automatic and the interactions just between two. Amy, from that point onwards, makes a few contributions.

There are loud equipment noises in this as well.

Watch out around fifteen and a half minutes. Mr Hoffmann is obviously extremely ticklish and eventually the camera woman (Amy), Mr Hoffmann and Nancy are all taken up with laughter which fortunately brings the video to a conclusion.

The channel is Nursing Assessment and Skills, there are thirty-two videos and no playlists at all. So the normal mechanism of thinning out videos under review by using a convenient playlist is not available.

It turns out that Nancy is in the majority of such videos and Mr Hoffman is in a fair subset of them. So thinning by that mechanism isn’t looking too great either.

I notice that it appears that Mr Hoffmann is in thirteen of the videos and this is just too many for one post. So arbitrarily I am going to limit this post to three videos and we can come back again in a future blog post.

Basic Patient Assessment

This has the same two participants and is just over fifteen minutes. However, it is much more recent and it has notes “8 Jan 2019

This is the basic assessment that nursing students will perform at the bedside.  You will notice that the lights go out when upper extremity assessment is started.  So just keep watching.  Nurses must be able to adjust the plan when necessary.”

Again, there are a variable set of comments around the video, but no obvious ASMR comments.

Here the volume seems to be more appropriate, and the air conditioning is keeping it in reserve for the last music set. This time, Mr Hoffman introduces himself as Mr Reagan. I’m used to him as Hoffman and so he will stay Mr Hoffman for this article.

Nancy seems to be more muted as well, which actually works, and this instantaneously feels a better video for us than the last one.

Again, they are filming at the Harper Hospital, the president is Donald Trump who was president from 2017 to 2021. The video was posted in 2019 which could therefore have been shortly after it was filmed.

General Survey

This is a whole lot different. Firstly the setting – domestic not hospital, secondly length – the video is just two minutes long. No notes, no ASMR related comments. There is relatively little background noise but it starts a bit loud.

However, it is amazing how much influence that air conditioning noise has. It is easy to disregard how loud it is until it isn’t there and then I really want it to be absent all the time.

Although short, this video is the best in terms of restful of the three in this post. In the end it might be the only one to survive the regular weeding process. We shall see.

The Nursing Assessment playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:

I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.

I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.

If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by Jennifer Uppendahl on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

If you’ve woken from another Nytol-fuelled sleep and feel like a bear was sitting on your head all night, it might be that you will be better off trying to relax into sleep by yourself without the aid of chemicals.

For many of us this is far easier said than done. I have found that falling asleep with other people’s noises all around – cars on the road, breathing of my partner, mice in the loft overhead, or bird squabbles in the hedges nearby are sufficiently distracting to put off sleep for quite some hours.

In this atmosphere the masking of those noises with a level of background noise seems to be moderately effective. The Procrastination Pen playlist may be effective for you in that it provides a number of videos taken from YouTube selected for their calm talking, lack of extraneous noises, and potential ASMR effects (in those people lucky enough to get ASMR effects, in any case).

Today’s video comes from a perennially useful source for us which is the student medical exam video. This blog would probably run out of steam quite quickly if this kind of video did not exist. Sadly, the quality of such videos is often, at best, variable, such that many videos get evaluated and few are chosen.

Today’s video is this one:

Head to Toe Assessment

The medical professional is wearing a very large identity badge indicating that she is Julianna and that she is an undergraduate student.

There are no notes with this video. However, comments are permitted and, as expected, ASMR fans have been here long before me.

It is just over thirty-five- and three-quarter minutes, so moderately substantial in terms of videos that we have recently seen on this blog.

Julianna announces that she is Julianna Cook, a Family Nurse Practitioner. I think the institution mentioned is “Auburn University” (it’s spoken rather quickly).

Auburn has a college of nursing and so it sounds like it might be a good fit for a video of this type.

Its channel reveals that it has a brand very similar to the icon on the badge that Julianna is wearing, so it seems very probable this is where Julianna is presenting from.

Julianna appears to have left Auburn in 2020 the video was posted in 2019.

The class is 7116 Advanced Nursing Assessment.

The patient seems to be in tip-top shape (better numbers than I am able to deliver for example). The normal question and answer session must have occurred prior to this video so there is no clue as to who the patient is.

The camera angle is a little strange in this one. Probably so that it could be set out of the way of the participants. But the net result is that they are some distance from it. This is not important if you are simply listening, but sadly, it has some effect on the audio as well which is itself a bit flat and distant. Not as notably, as in some other videos that have featured in this blog.

There are some moments where progress is slowed by the medical professional failing to remember. However, overall, the assessment seems moderately efficient (if thirty-odd minutes can be thought of as efficient).

We are here for the sound which is not excessively loud, no loud bangs of moving equipment for example. There is of course the ever-present air conditioning noise which seems to be a feature of these videos.

There is a fair amount of humour in the video which is perhaps less restful than might otherwise be the case (laughter can be a bit loud). I don’t think this precludes it from membership of the Procrastination Pen playlist but it might cause it to be a victim of future weeding.

There are moments of actual gentleness in this but only a video editor would be able to make this a truly superior video, and of course, the video isn’t mine to do that to.

The channel is Julianna Cook. There are four videos, including the one above, and eight hundred and fifty-seven subscribers as at the date I am looking at it. There is no video posted more recently than three years ago.

Julianna’s Greatest Show

This is just less than five and a quarter minutes, and has some notes. It states it is “NURS 7246 Pharmacology Project”. 7246 appears to be another course at Auburn.

Unlike the previous video no ASMR fans have commented on this one.

This starts loud, and I think is designed to be a presentation. There is loud music in it, I think it is supposed to be entertaining but not restful. It does make interesting viewing. I think the chances of falling asleep to it are out there with winning the lottery.

Not a Procrastination Pen playlist candidate but I imagine a good fun video if this is your area of interest.

7226 NP Roles Video

This is a presentation, it is quite loud, it isn’t really restful. There are no notes. There are no comments from ASMR fans, which given the content is perhaps not surprising. The most interesting elements are interviews with people apparently from the public. Herman Cook for example has quite a good voice. However, the background noise is a tad off-putting. It is louder even than we are usually used to.

James Warren’s interview has so much extraneous noise associated with it that I’m surprised it is included. I’m guessing filters are not a thing.

Virginia Cook has a great voice but she is swamped by background noise.

Stephanie has a section with minimal extraneous noise but her voice is quite a lot louder and so not helpful from our perspective.

Linda Condon has a good voice but I think they videoed her footage beside the M25, boy it is loud.

All in all, this video isn’t going to work for us and it will not go into the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The last (and newest) video is this one:

Croup Presentation

This is just over five minutes and it starts loud. It continues loud. It is a presentation after all.

This one is just not for us.

Just the one video this time then.

More time for you to get on with your work. More next time.

The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:

I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.

I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.

If you liked this blog article why not follow this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash