If you have had an interaction in which you do not feel you came off well, or even that you did not behave like an adult, it can be hard to let that go when it comes time for sleep. The pillow may feel like it has been welded together from jagged metal. The mattress, as if it has been ebonised. The temperature in the room will be just that level of uncomfortable that means tossing and turning seems a much better choice than real shut-eye.
In such circumstances it can be best to distract the mind from any self-perceived lack of emotional control and, instead, to listen to a soothing voice. Especially if it is there to convince you that nobody died and tomorrow you get a fresh start. Perfect doesn’t exist, after all.
It is for such restless night-times that this blog has recently (and for some time) been exploring resources that may help to settle the runaway wagon that can be the thought processes when the bedroom is not as welcoming as perhaps it could be.
A little while ago I started listening to Calm, mostly because it does not have the advertising load of a YouTube track. The downside is that you are going to need a subscription. I realise for some people that buying the groceries is something of a struggle, and so an extra few pounds on such a luxury item is just not realistic. If you are one of those people, scroll past the next section and onto the stuff that is supported by advertising and therefore “free” (for a given value of free).
Today’s Calm track is taken from the Calm dailies rather than from tracks dedicated to sleep. This is because I cannot currently get on with the tracks on Calm dedicated to sleep. I am not finding them restful enough to make a difference on the days when I have acquainted myself with every patch of the ceiling that I should have repainted years ago and, somehow, have never got around to doing so.
The other benefit is that the Calm dailies are brief, typically hovering around ten minutes. The advantage being if the one selected is not for you, well, it is a matter of very little time before you can move onto another one.
So far, I have not found the functionality to create a playlist of such tracks (it may well not exist). So, I’m afraid that is a limitation of the interface. (At least via the web in any case).
The Calm track this week is this one:
https://www.calm.com/app/player/PTAKI4ZSz_
Daily Jay
Self-Stories
NARRATOR
Jay Shetty
This is about the stories that you tell yourself and how to weed out the less helpful ones. (Say, that message you’ve been feeding yourself about how childish you have been recently).
It is less than eight minutes and I do think worthy of review, assuming that you have a Calm subscription anyway.
If you have been reading this blog at all in 2025 you now realise that after the Calm suggestion, I move on to examine a single video on YouTube from a professional ASMR artist.
I am not as kind to the professional ASMR artists as I am to those participants in an inadvertent ASMR video. The latter are probably unaware their video is going to be used for ASMR purposes. I can hardly be damning about the incidence of unwelcoming noises therefore (although I often use such noises to exclude them from consideration).
Professional ASMR artists, meantime, are creating the video specifically to appeal to those who enjoy a calming experience. I wouldn’t expect, therefore, for such videos to contain unwelcome noises. You can be certain if the video does contain unwelcome noises that I am going to raise the fact in a very pointed fashion.
Today’s video is this one:
ASMR｜Blending herbal medicines at an old pharmacy🫚Teaching true healing｜roleplay｜sleep｜relax｜Japan
This commences with a very brief tune. Although I dislike startup music in such videos, I think this is forgivable and it is hardly intrusive. The comments are largely in Japanese which is a new experience, in that I cannot tell you if the participants are really rating the video or giving it a right going over for being terrible.
There are notes, which are somewhat extensive, for which reason I have hacked them to pieces (if you would like to see the (much) longer version they are available on YouTube: “270,858 views Premiered on 11 Aug 2025 #TwitterとInstagramのフォローもぜひよろしくお願いしますっ
This work was inspired by Uirō-uri, one of the “Kabuki Jūhachiban” (The Eighteen Great Kabuki Plays).＿🖋️
In the story, the protagonist Sukeroku disguises himself as a merchant selling a medicine called Uirō and comically delivers a rapid-fire speech about its effects.
…
ASMR is all about delicate sounds.
But since my ears haven’t been in great shape, I edited the video by watching the sound waves (dB meter) instead of relying only on listening—so the production was quite a struggle.
Also, maybe because of that, the pitch of my comfortable speaking voice keeps getting lower.
I never liked my voice to begin with, and now I like it even less, which makes me sad…
But I’d be happy if you keep watching as always!
(Even if my voice turns all raspy, you’ll still be here for me, right? 🙂←)”
The notes do not seem to bode well but we’ll bravely soldier on. The channel is dot okome._ch / maika ASMR which has 109K subscribers – wowee. This achieved with only ninety-three videos and eight playlists. My goodness, what kind of a wonder is this channel.
The video itself is somewhat more than forty-three minutes in length. Professional ASMR artists seemingly either go in for epic videos of the type requiring commitment to get all the way through, or ASMR “shorts” which whistle by and barely make an impression.
There are various additional noises, ceramic noises, items being moved around, rustling noises, crinkling noises, water pouring noises. None of these are particularly distracting.
I am here, of course, to review the voice, which, for me, is the main appeal. As expected, it is well-nigh perfect here.
The presentation (should you be watching rather than just listening) is rather beautiful. The interior and the objects within it obviously selected for their visual appeal.
The voice is quiet but rarely strays into true whispering.
Despite the concerns echoed in the notes I would say the tone of the voice is reasonably consistent (certainly to my elderly ears). Of course, the presentation is in Japanese which may put off some listeners. There is music at the tail end of the video but it is hardly alarming or nippy. I would say that this video is definitely worthy of a review.
Of course, a loud and obtrusive advert banged straight in afterwards and destroyed the atmosphere completely.
For the more usual material (for this blog), I have been looking at medical videos habitually. The aim is to find videos designed for medical tuition that are also relaxing.
This week we are back to a channel that has featured multiple times on this blog here, here, here, here and also here. It is Geeky Medics. The videos so far have featured Dr James Lower and Dr Andrew Pugh, and so in this week’s article.
The dedication to this channel has been because the videos here seem to be of a reasonably consistent quality (given that they are inadvertent ASMR videos in any case). They have a tendency to be quiet. However, there is the regrettable tendency for the odd distracting noise to crop up in them.
Of course, some readers will not have read the previous articles so I should mention that Dr Lewis Potter is the founder of Geeky Medics. The videos will all have notes that are similar (this has been established in those past blog articles). However, in order to cover the notes for new readers, I will give a precis version with the first video.
As for previous incidences of blog article featuring this channel, I am only going to feature a subset of the videos on offer. There are just too many to make a blog article of anything like a readable length. Plus, the review will have a tendency to be repetitive, and hence dull, I would think.
Abdominal Palpation – OSCE Guide | Clip
The notes associated with this video are very long, the edited highlights are as follows:
“178,182 views 31 Aug 2022 Gastroenterology OSCE Guides | CPSA | UKMLA | PLAB | MRCS
This video demonstrates how to palpate the abdomen including assessing the bowel, liver, spleen, kidneys and aorta. Abdominal palpation is commonly performed as part of a full abdominal examination in an OSCE station.
You can read our guide to abdominal examination here: https://geekymedics.com/abdominal-exa…
…
Always adhere to medical school/local hospital guidelines when performing examinations or clinical procedures. DO NOT perform any examination or procedure on patients based purely on the content of these videos. Geeky Medics accepts no liability for loss of any kind incurred as a result of reliance upon the information provided in this video.
Achieve success in your medical school OSCEs, UKMLA CPSA, and PLAB 2 exams with our free clinical skills videos. Subscribe to our channel to be informed of our latest releases. 🙂
….
CPSA OSCE Guides https://geekymedics.com/the-clinical-…
UKMLA AKT Notes https://geekymedics.com/ukmla/
PLAB 2 OSCE Stations https://geekymedics.com/plab-2-osce-s…
Revise for the Simulated Consultation Assessment (SCA) with our collection of high-quality SCA cases written by GPs and Training Program Directors. Check out our SCA revision cases and prepare for the MRCGP https://geekymedics.com/sca-cases-ban…”
All the notes associated with the videos are similar so I won’t repeat them for the other videos in this article. (Regular readers will be familiar with the style from previous blog articles about this channel).
This video is a little over three minutes long so barely enough to whet the appetite. It begins with startup music (which frankly it does not need). As usual, it is the voice here that is excellent. This one does feature equipment noises, but fortunately the background noise is muted to the extent that it is not noticeable.
In the examination phase there are, in fact, extended periods of silence which I actually found quite restful.
In common with previous OSCE videos there are on-screen medical notes for medical students. Of course, these are of no interest to us. There is funky tail end music which is loud, distracting, and unwelcome to ASMR listeners. Sadly, in my case, the end of the video heralded a loud pumping advert as well.
Axillary Lymph Node Palpation – OSCE Guide | Clip
This one is one- and three-quarter minutes so there isn’t going to be much time to note a great deal. I think in this case they have actually slowed the video right down. But they still found time for the startup music, sadly. This time there is excessive background hiss in the moments of interaction interspersed by absolute silence. Again, there are on screen medical notes, and, again, the tail-end music is unwelcome and loud.
Head & Neck Lymph Node Palpation – OSCE Guide | Clip
This one is less than one and a half minutes. It has startup music, limited interaction, during which time there is an extensive background hiss that sounds like something from a 1980s cassette recorder.
The music remains at each end and, of course, the shorter the video, the more of the time given to that video is proportionately taken up with that music.
Monofilament Assessment of the Foot – OSCE Guide | Clip
This is a little over one minute and twenty seconds. Music as before, background noise seems a little more muted but is most definitely there. I would say that these shorter videos are extracted from much longer videos that I have reviewed before. I suspect that you get more ASMR bang for your listening buck by sticking with the much longer ones. (It would not be such a problem if the top and tail music interludes did not exist.)
Schober’s Test – OSCE Guide | Clip
This is the same length as the previous one. The participants are the same, the music is the same. The background noise is the same. Again, there is silence between the periods of verbal interaction but I found these moments to be quite welcome. It’s a shame that the videos this week have been so short. I think it is a sign that we are running out of new Geeky Medics videos and very soon we will not be returning to this channel any longer.
That’s it on this occasion, more next time.
The Geeky Medics 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 DeepAI
The Procrastination Pen 