Month: November 2025

Sleeping With ASMR

This week nothing whatsoever is working. As such I have time to stop and have sympathy for people who struggle for sleep. I notice that the links between sleeplessness and dementia are being used as a fuel to stoke our fears.

I’m not sure that a terror about losing your mind is exactly the mindset you need for a long, restful snooze. Just in case you would prefer a restful track designed to be quiet and to distract those kind of thoughts, the Procrastination Pen exists as a site that reviews video tracks in the hope of finding the odd one that may do that. If it turns out that you get ASMR affects from the video, so much the better but you do not need to regard it as a pre-requisite for enjoying the videos.

There is a playlist of tracks that have been reviewed so far and it always occurs at the close of these articles. So if you want to give it a review, scroll right to the end and try it for yourself.

For a while now, I have been swaggering on about having a Calm subscription and how much quieter I am finding it all than the advert-infested YouTube experience. It is true that if you have a subscription to Calm, you probably already make more use of it than you do of YouTube for night-time relaxation. Not because YouTube videos are not restful. Many of the ones already covered by this blog are quite adequate in this respect (some of them are even great).

However, the insistence of ramming loud and distracting adverts into every interval does make the experience in the round a little more testing.

I am on the search for some other free resource with restful tracks of some kind that does not require commitment to receiving a ton of adverts. When I locate such a thing, I will flag it here.

Today’s Calm track is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/XYoEpl-gZW

It’s Like This

NARRATOR

Tamara Levitt

AUTHOR

Tamara Levitt

I like Tamara’s voice. Sometimes I think it might be my favourite voice on Calm, sometimes not. I enjoy the content that she delivers but I often listen to Jay Shetty or Jeff Warren, dependent on what the track seems to have in it.

Mel Mah is much more about activity and I have to say I have not yet bought into the activity aspect. It is probably one of those New Year’s resolution things. To Do but not yet To Done.

The track is a little over ten minutes so it probably will not quite be enough to doze off to unless you are properly tired already. (Perhaps if you’re more bought into activity than I am and, hence, have come in from a long run or similar).

This track is about acceptance which I suppose is not a bad skill to have if your life is heading towards Alzheimer’s.

Recently I have been considering a professional ASMR artist at this stage. So why buck the trend if it seems to have worked for us so far.

This week the video is this one:

【ASMR】Eye Exam for Bloodshot Eyes and Vision Loss🏥 | Ophthalmology Roleplay【Eyelid Injection💉】

It is from the channel Runa ASMR【るな氏】, this channel has 236K subscribers three hundred and nine videos eleven playlists. The longest playlist has nearly one hundred videos in it. This seems to be an ASMR artist that is doing something right.

There are notes of course “299,990 views Sep 10, 2025 #ロールプレイ #mouthsounds #asmr

#roleplayasmr #asmr

#お耳 #talkingasmr #asmrvideo  #makeyousleep     #mouthsounds 

#originalstory #ロールプレイ  #ロールプレイ #医療ASMR #doctor #clinic

💭視力良くなりたいヨォ、コンタクト毎日変えるの大変だヨオ

🎮セカンドチャンネル

   / @るなちの遊び場 

🌙メンバーシップの参加はこちらから

   / @runaasmr575 “

However, I cannot read them.

Google translate at least reassures me that there’s nothing untoward here: “299,990 views Sep 10, 2025 #roleplay #mouthsounds #asmr

#roleplayasmr #asmr

#ears #talkingasmr #asmrvideo #makeyousleep #mouthsounds

#originalstory #roleplay #medicalASMR #doctor #clinic

💭I want to improve my eyesight, but changing my contacts every day is such a pain.

🎮Second Channel

/ @Runa’s Playground

🌙Join Membership Here

/ @runaasmr575″

Comments are permitted but the feedback is predominantly using a character set I do not understand, so they could be instructions for building a space shuttle. More likely they are commenting about how marvellous the video is because that level of adulation commonly accompanies professional ASMR artists.

The video is a little under thirty-nine minutes and so is a little longer than anything we have listened to recently. It has no startup music for which I am very grateful. The voice, as you would expect, is excellent.

Fortunately, when playing, the subtitles were in English so I’m at least clear it didn’t consist of swearing. Sadly, the keyboard features rather loudly, at least initially. But given how good the voice is, I think it is worth persisting with.

At intervals it does not appear to be about the voice. There are tapping noises, liquid sloshing noises, container unscrewing noises, pouring noises, clicking noises, gloves-related noises, equipment noises, liquid noises, plastic crinkling noises, sounds of a pestle and mortar being used to grind stuff.

All of these are a waste of time for me, I’m only here to listen to the voice. But I am betting each one is a trigger for someone. It does mean that we get a lot less of the voice than we would do otherwise, which is a shame.

I still think the voice makes it worthy of a review, why not listen for yourself.

I also think I will be revisiting this channel in the future.

I’ve been spending a lengthy amount of time of late evaluating the sleep offerings through Calm and falling asleep to them. Some excellent voices involved but given Calm is not free it would not be of much service if I start evaluating the content of Calm.

As a result, I have not written much in a while regarding YouTube content and I have been bolstered by the fact that I had written a great deal of content in the past and it was simply a case of editing it sufficiently to bring it up to date before pushing the correct button to put it out there. Calm is certainly interesting and some of the content is worth listening to but whether it is worth the money I can only leave it up to you to decide.

For me it is good to have something else available after YouTube decided to take my channel down one time, and with it all the playlists I had spent time curating. Where anybody has the power to do that to you it is well worthwhile having some other strategy available.

This is probably the message of everything available via the Internet. It is at best transient and so it is not too sensible to base anything permanent around it.

Today’s video draws from previous work indeed it is from an old favourite channel Moran Core from the Moran Eye Center. (UK readers note that is apparently the correct spelling of centre).

The video is this one:

Learning the Ophthalmoscope

It is just five- and three-quarter minutes so don’t sneeze or you’ll miss it. It’s another professional video and as we have established by now, these videos tend to come with notes (not uncommonly because they also serve to promote a service of some kind).

This video has the following notes:

“194,819 views 11 Aug 2018

Title: How to Use the Direct Ophthalmoscope

Author:  Tania Padilla Conde, 4th Year Medical Student, University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine; Christopher Bair, MD and Michele Burrow, MD

Date: 08/10/2018”

Tania seems to have a good voice for us, although the volume for me was a little loud, sufficient to sound echoey in the space where it was recorded. The video starts without extraneous startup music which is so rare that sacrifices need to be offered up to the video-recording-god in supplication for the beneficence shown.

If you are listening to this one as part of the larger Procrastination Pen playlist, you might be rolling over to the tablet and giving the volume down button a couple of disgruntled presses. Tis a shame that I do not have control of the videos in the playlist or I would normalise the volume of them a bit. I too am sometimes awakened when the playlist changes from a quiet video to a louder one.

In this case the video is interrupted by a comment by Tania which is even louder. It is all a shame because otherwise she does have a good voice.

Tania does not appear on another video on the Moran Core website so if we are going to stick with her, then a search of YouTube is in order.

Tania Conde returns quite a number of channels and a brief perusal reveals that the majority are just not going to be helpful to us.

Using “Tania Padilla Conde” instead reveals a lot of content in Spanish.

This one:

Nancy Reynoza Entrevista a la doctora Tania Padilla Conde

Which is at the pace of Speedy Gonzalez and so not at all restful.

And a couple of playlists

The first one is:

COVID-19

Consisting of twelve videos. Ranging in length from two and a half minutes to in excess of twenty minutes. Not one of them seems to be a medical examination as such.

I am also hampered in that I have zero comprehension of Spanish, so I am trusting that nothing untoward is being relayed as part of the video.

The first video of the playlist is:

Cómo usar máscara correctamente

This video starts way-way too loud and it continues at a fast pace, this is really not a suitable video for us.

Como tratar los sintomas de COVID-19 en casa.

Double the length of the previous one it starts just as loud with fast paced music. This is just not conducive to sleep.

¿Qué es la hidroxicloroquina? Ensayo clínico aprobado por Kristi Noem en South Dakota.

Continues as for the previous two videos and as such I am convinced there is no purpose in reviewing the rest of this playlist. There is nothing here that we can make use of ASMR-wise.

The second playlist is this one:

Health/Salud

Somewhat more hopeful (given the title) that there might be restful content. It contains fifteen videos ranging between two and three quarter minutes and in excess of twenty minutes.

The first video is this:

Como tratar los sintomas de COVID-19 en casa.

And oh no just as before loud start up music. It strikes me that this is eerily similar to those that we’ve just looked at. So, unfortunately, I think that this playlist isn’t going to offer anything useful either.

On that basis just one, short, video on this visit.

Onwards till next week.

That’s it on this occasion, more next time.

The Moran Core 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

Sleeping With ASMR

I’ve been struggling a little with time of late, and so my attention to reviewing has not been what it was. However, this week I have come across a reasonable Calm track. Although I have to caution people that it contains music, and as you know I do not find music as actually being that effective in pushing me off to sleep.

The track is this:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/7JQNaQVDM

Afternoon Nap

Refresh your mind & recharge your body with a special nap story. After a brief intro and soothing music, you’ll wake up to gentle birdsong.

NARRATOR

Erik Braa

AUTHOR

Calm

As I say, it is not for me. However, given it is dedicated to sleep I thought I should at least give you the chance to try it. However, be aware that most advice is that when you are sleep deprived, try to stick to your normal sleep routine rather than topping up with additional naps as this track would seem to suggest.

Personally, if I get an opportunity for sleep (and I can make use of it) I fill my boots. Who knows when the next such opportunity will present itself.

This week I came across a post which shows that I am certainly not alone in having problems getting off to sleep. I certainly hope that some of the people who are responding to the person posting got the opportunity to read the Procrastination Pen.

This week the professional ASMR artist is PollyTingle ASMR the channel has sixty two videos, seven playlists, 86.2K subscribers so not quite as popular as some we’ve heard of late. The video is this one:

ASMR Cranial Nerve Examination by a Neurologist 🌙 Quiet Voice / ASMR Cranial Nerve Examination

It is a little over twenty-four and a half minutes in length. Of course, it has notes (I’ve truncated them a bit) “1,773,407 views 7 Feb 2022 #asmr #asmrneurologist

This video features pleasant, relaxing music, a quiet voice, and a variety of neurological manipulations.

Unfortunately, I was ill while filming this video, so my voice is a bit sore and I have a slight fever (because of this, I cut out almost half the video 😰). But everything is fine now, and I plan to gradually return to the channel. The next video will be a continuation of the Hobbit book reading, and then I’d like to film some light but interesting trigger video (if you have any ideas, please write in the comments, I’d be very happy!)

Have a good rest, see you soon ❤”

The video is in Russian, and you need to turn off the English US option or you will have a lot of very loud interjections (presumably made by some automated process). The first “so” on the track made me jump off my chair, for example. These will really mess up any restful feelings that you might otherwise have had. Once I discovered that, I realised that the voice is actually very good.

I am not sure why the voice on the English US option is so loud but it really ruins the video in terms of ASMR. I notice that (rather uniquely for a professional ASMR artist), the comments are turned off. It is potentially possible there were any number of negative comments from English-speaking listeners that encountered this problem.

With the Russian speaking version, I have zero idea what is being said (I speak no Russian). However, it sounds very restful. There are, as expected, other noises; paper turning, brushing noises, clicking noises, rustling noises, liquid noises, writing noises. There is also a quiet musical back track (if this was an inadvertent ASMR video this would discount it from the Procrastination Pen playlist).

As you know I would prefer it was just the voice, which, assuming you only listen to the Russian version, is calming without straying into whispery. Quite a feat, given that most professional ASMR videos seem to very much focus on the whispery end of the spectrum.

The drive for the perfect playlist for ASMR sensations (or alternatively just to cause you to drift off to sleep) means that I am concerned that sometimes I have not been sufficiently critical of videos and that some “dead wood” still hangs around in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

I think that as the list continues to grow in size some of the older videos might get a severe pruning. I am thinking particularly of those with perky music at some point during the video, those with air conditioning noises or those which incorporate the odd clang or thud from the movement of medical equipment. Regular readers might be a bit surprised at the videos that get removed in this purge.

If you are not a regular reader, well hey, welcome. This is the Procrastination Pen which for over a year now has been reviewing medical videos (and occasionally videos on other subjects too) with a view to finding any that might produce ASMR effects. Sometimes we have a great day and sometimes it is more “challenging”.

Today I have a URL, and on that URL a whole gamut of videos on medical subjects. It’s odd for me to stray far from YouTube but given someone else has gone to all the effort of collating these videos into one place let’s give it a try at least.

The URL is this one:

Medical Training Videos

It has thirty-two videos (discounting the introductory one) so this might be a very long day in review terms. I suspect if the history of reviewing videos is accurate, we will be fortunate to find one in all of those thirty-two that is of much value but I’m game if anyone else is.

The first video is this one:

Advanced Life Support / Code Blue – How to lead a cardiac arrest (ALS/ACLS simulation)

On the face of it, not the most inspiring ASMR title. Comments are permitted but there are not obviously any ASMR-related ones.

It is a professionally produced video and therefore as we have come to expect there are notes, which are these:

“368,741 views 3 Feb 2017 Most Popular

How to lead a cardiac arrest /code blue using the advanced cardiac life support (ALS/ACLS) algorithms. This 360-degree medical simulation video shows a well-led ALS scenario, unscripted and in real time.

Produced with Rewind VR studio and filmed in the Education Centre at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

For further information visit ww.oxfordmedicaleducation.com or comment below.”

The video is just shy of eight minutes and it begins in a bit of a hurry, and it is quite loud. Thankfully no startup music but sadly for us that is really all there is going for it ASMR-wise. It has shouting, loud equipment noises and the kind of frenetic activity almost designed to maximise sleeplessness.

Further videos are as follows:

Cardiac Arrest and ALS (Code Blue) Simulation – Training Video with Questions

It is slightly less than seven minutes the notes are:

“168,813 views 8 Mar 2017

This interactive 360-degree training video demonstrates a cardiac arrest (code blue) as if the doctor is leading an arrest for the first time. The doctor will ask questions in the arrest. PAUSE THE VIDEO WHEN YOU SEE THE INFORMATION BAR APPEARING and try to answer them – there are a number of options each time.

Produced with Rewind VR studio and filmed in the Education Centre at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. 

For further information visit ww.oxfordmedicaleducation.com or comment below.”

It starts without startup music again, which is great for us. However, it is frenetic and loud (just like the last one). This is not going to be suitable for us.

Cardiac Arrest Experience – Patient point of view in advanced life support / code blue

The notes are:

“182,696 views 8 Mar 2017

This 360-degree video is filmed from a patient’s point of view and demonstrates what happens if you have a cardiac arrest in hospital. You (the patient) would be unconscious throughout.

If you have been a patient or relative involved in cardiac arrest please comment below – we’d love to hear from you.

This is a well-led cardiac arrest and results in a successful outcome (return of spontaneous circulation). In practice most arrests are unfortunately not successful.

Produced with Rewind VR studio and filmed in the Education Centre at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. 

For further information visit ww.oxfordmedicaleducation.com or comment below.”

Just less than seven and a quarter minutes, no startup music, however it is far too loud for us.

Cardiac Arrest (Code Blue) Advanced Life Support – Mental Health Training

The notes are: “51,203 views 8 Mar 2017

This 360-degree training video demonstrates how to manage a cardiac arrest (code blue) using an automated defibrillator. It was filmed as part of a series to train mental health staff how to manage medical emergencies in mental health facilities.

Produced with Rewind VR studio and filmed in the Education Centre at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. 

For further information visit ww.oxfordmedicaleducation.com or comment below.”

Just over seven and a quarter minutes, there is no startup music but as before it is loud and frenetic and so not much use to us either.

Cardiac Arrest and Advanced Life Support (ALS) in 360 Degrees – TRAILER

For which the notes are: “35,322 views 12 Dec 2016 Most Popular

Trailer for our Cardiac Arrest and Advanced Life Support (ALS)/ Code Blue simulation videos. These are clips of three 360-degree medical simulation videos we’re producing at Oxford Medical Education to train doctors in running cardiac arrest situations.

Produced with Rewind VR studio and filmed in the Education Centre at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

For further information visit ww.oxfordmedicaleducation.com or comment below.”

Only a little over one and a half minutes but it is excessively loud in any case.

Choking and Cardiac Arrest (Code Blue) Advanced Life Support

A little less than two- and three-quarter minutes the notes are: “38,966 views 12 Feb 2017

This 360-degree training video demonstrates how to manage a cardiac arrest (code blue) due to choking. It was filmed as part of a series to train mental health staff how to manage medical emergencies in mental health facilities.

Produced with Rewind VR studio and filmed in the Education Centre at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. 

For further information visit ww.oxfordmedicaleducation.com or comment below.”

Again, it starts loud, it continues loud and so it is not useful for us.

Respiratory Examination – Clinical Skills

A little less than eleven minutes. The notes are: “376,646 views 27 Feb 2015 Clinical Examinations

This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School – demonstrates how to perform an examination of the respiratory system. It also indicates common pathologies encountered. It is part of a series of videos covering basic clinical examinations and is linked to Oxford Medical Education (www.oxfordmedicaleducation.com).”

The start is with an introduction, the person has a good voice for us and it is not excessively loud. The actual examination though is a little on the echoey side as if filmed in a large corridor. The examination is also dogged by background noise (likely air conditioning). However, the medical professional has a good voice for our purposes.

This is a good video for the procrastination pen playlist.

I think that I will conclude the blog post at this one and continue in a second post, failing that this blog post would become really large indeed. To the point of boredom, I imagine.

That’s it on this occasion, more next time.

The University College London Hospitals 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

Sleeping With ASMR

I am reflecting on the double-edged nature of companionship. On the one hand, many resources now indicate that loneliness is a killer. That having people regularly in one’s life is a source of happiness. On the other hand, it is rare that you will find yourself having arguments with yourself… It isn’t often that you find you’ve made a profound social gaffe whilst completely in your own company. It is hard to get stressed and anxious over a quiet evening in, accompanied only by a book.

If you find that social events have got on top of you and you’re lying awake when you should be asleep, mulling over the various errors you made and perhaps the need to go back and apologise afterwards. Be assured a good night’s sleep may ameliorate some of those feelings, and a good night’s sleep is what this blog is here to promote.

Of late, I have been starting the blog articles with something provided by Calm. I am lucky enough to have a Calm subscription and I do so love the absence of advertising. In many ways Calm is not ideal, the need to pay for it being a big one. The absence of the ability to create playlists is a second. Third the fact that every day the content changes and that item you so loved yesterday will now be absent, unless you remember what it was called and go search for it.

However, I think the content provided is great. I like the voices of the professionals involved. Much of the material is not only restful but educational as well. So far, I have not encountered one loud and distracting advert deliberately interposed with the restful content in order to grab your attention.

Today’s suggestion is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/b-gRGIQlxn

Daily Trip

Vertical Thinking

NARRATOR

Jeff Warren

AUTHOR

Jeff Warren

Jeff has an excellent voice, second only to Tamara on this site for me. I also really enjoy a lot of the content that Jeff chooses. We seem to have similar interests and concerns in some areas. I hope you also enjoy his stuff. (If you have a subscription, that is).

This is just a little over eight minutes so it won’t take you long. This concerns rumination and the periods of quiet in between.

If you’ve been following the blog for a while you will realise that, of late, I like to review a professional ASMR artist. Mostly this is in contrast to the inadvertent ASMR which is the bread and butter of this blog. Also, I thought anybody meandering across this blog might enjoy the variety.

This week we are looking at a video which is brief in comparison to many professional ASMR videos we have examined.

ASMR Inspecting Your Entire Body, Soft Spoken, Personal Attention

it’s a little over seventeen and a half minutes in length so it is not going to keep us very long.

As a professional ASMR artist’s video, we would expect there would be notes and we would expect that a fair proportion of the notes would be about self-promotion. The notes associated with this video are: “47,900 views 5 Oct 2025 #asmr #asmrsounds #asmrvideo

Hey my friends, I hope you’ve been well! Tonight, I am going to be random inspections on your body to help you unwind and relax! Let me know what your favourite part was! Thank you so much for watching! xx

Instagram ➤   / brittneymay__ 

Business Inquiries ➤ brittneymay.asmr1999@gmail.com

Throne Gifting ➤ https://thronegifts.com/u/brittneymay

(Please don’t feel obligated to gift me anything! I just set this up for if you are feeling generous and would like to support myself and my channel!)

My Upload Schedule:

Wednesday’s ➤ 4 PM PST/ 7 PM EST

Saturday’s ➤ 4 PM PST/ 7 PM EST

Thank you for watching and supporting my channel, I am so grateful! ✿

✿

#asmr #asmrvideo #asmrsounds #asmrinspection

Brittney May ASMR

138K subscribers”

It is enormously gratifying to find such restrained notes associated with such a video. In addition, the video does not start with whoever is sponsoring the video today. You don’t get to see videos of that nature on this blog. Sponsor’s information in a video is, I find, hugely distracting. I can see that someone has to buy the groceries but I would have thought the place for details of the sponsor would be in the associated notes, not taking up ten percent of the actual video.

Comments are permitted and, whacky feedback allowing, mostly reinforce the idea that ASMR artists are held in high-esteem by YouTube visitors (well the ones who can be bothered to leave comments, in any case).

The voice is, as expected, excellent. It is very towards the whispery end of presentation which seems to be where a number of ASMR artists find themselves. Perhaps this is what the listening public is demanding. It isn’t a terrible idea; I just cannot envisage a medical professional actually holding a session in that way. It has a tendency to be a bit on the breathy side, again a number of ASMR professionals also do this. Perhaps a quantity of ASMR afficionados find that characteristic appealing. Personally, I am all about the quality of the voice.

There are various other noises, gloves, rustling, cloth-related noises, thumping noises, wood against wood noises, scribbling noises, finger drumming noises, brushing noises, spraying noises, scraping noises.

At least there is no startup or tail-end video music which seems to mar many inadvertent ASMR videos I have reviewed.

I would say the setting appears to be more domestic than hospital-related but as you’ll be listening rather than watching I doubt it will phase you. The channel is Brittney May ASMR it has 138K subscribers from five hundred and three videos there is one playlist containing thirty-four videos. Interestingly from our point of view these are on a medical theme (which this blog has been for several months now).

You may want to check that playlist out for yourself:

I rather liked this video. I certainly can see some value in you giving it a review.

If you wandered into this blog article without previous awareness of the blog, you might like to know what it is all about and why you should be interested.

The Procrastination Pen, for over a year now has been searching for medical videos (and sometimes other videos) predominantly on YouTube (but not uniquely so) for content which might cause ASMR symptoms (in people lucky enough to feel ASMR symptoms).

In this case, it is for people who get “tingles” or similar ASMR symptoms from people speaking quietly and calmly (even so far as whispering). However, this does not cater for people who like scratching, squelching, paper turning or other stimuli.

For those who sadly do not feel ASMR symptoms, the aim is that the video will be quiet enough to relax you. The hope is that you will relax sufficiently that sleep will come more easily. If you leave the Procrastination Pen playlist playing, it is also hoped that it is calm and quiet enough that if you do awaken during the night, you will find it more straightforward to fall back to sleep.

Sometimes life is too busy to read a review of individual videos and for people who find themselves in that situation, the playlist is always found at the end of each blog article – simply scroll straight to the end and pick up the link from there.

This week we come in with a video which by title is part way through a sequence of videos – such is the way that recommendations on YouTube seem to work. Logic does not necessarily appear to be relevant.

The video is this one:

Examination of the Hand – Part 3

It is a little less than ten minutes and features Roger Pillemer as the medical professional and he has an absolutely excellent voice for our purposes. Quiet, gentle and moderately slow paced, what is not to like.

The channel is called Roger Pillemer and has twenty-five videos as at the date I am looking at it. The oldest seems to be seven years old and the latest just a month ago. There are two playlists one of which has seventeen videos and the other five. Our video of course occurs in the longer playlist and I do think the longer playlist is a little – long.

Any review of seventeen videos will probably have you reaching for the TV remote control, or similar, part way through.

However, there are three videos called “Examination of the Hand” so let’s review the other two.

Examination of the Hand – Part 1

As before, Roger’s voice is what carries the day. The presentation isn’t necessarily fascinating but above all, it is relaxing. There are no disturbing noises, no background air conditioning racket and no equipment noises. Sadly, there is start-up music but thankfully it is muted. There is also a continuing background music which plays continuously throughout. Sadly, I think this discounts this video from being included in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

It is nearly thirteen- and three-quarter minutes which is a presentation regarding the hand. Usually, I reject videos involving presentation as being excessively loud, as if trying to project from a stage to a large audience. Roger does not make that mistake. He remains as quiet as he was in the first video of this blog article.

Examination of the Hand – Part 2

This is just less than twelve minutes and the same problem as the last video i.e. a music track that plays continuously. A great shame as Roger has a really great voice.

So sadly, just one video on this occasion.

However, the playlist is now really quite large so plenty there for you to enjoy.

That’s it on this occasion, 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 DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

I’m spending some time recently exploring psychology books and trying to work out if I am actually learning anything about myself, or if I have an ego sufficiently huge that nothing is ever going to penetrate it. I have found that no matter how many books I read, it does not seem to translate into more of a restful life. Which probably says a great deal about my inability to learn effectively.

So, given life is carrying on at the hubbub it had last year (or more likely an ever-increasing pace with each passing year), I have found it helpful to have something restful to listen to. It was for this reason that I started to explore ASMR. I’m not sure if I am a typical ASMR listener, (I have a sinking sensation that many such people are a great deal younger for instance).I did pretty swiftly find that the quality of “ASMR” was highly variable. I wondered how I would settle down with an ASMR track in the hope of getting to sleep, knowing that the ASMR video was actually going to be restful (and not crammed with all kinds of weird effects designed to hammer on every “trigger”, as if it needed a 4lb hammer).

After a while I realised that I couldn’t depend on the commentary associated with the videos. It ranges from sycophantic through aggressive, onto asinine. The review sites I found seemed to belong to people whose ears were obviously assembled in a different factory to mine. Therefore, I was going to have to review the material in advance before I wanted to use it and make use of some method of storing the ones that were worth listening to.

YouTube played material without paying up front. At the time, the adverts really did not seem too overpowering, but the clincher was that you could assemble the items that you liked into a playlist for subsequent playing. There was no need to own the videos to do so.

I also discovered that you could make the playlist public, so that other people could benefit from the work that you had done.

I reasoned that I would have to be pretty formal in my approach and hence, this process of reviewing videos started. I hope that you have ears not too dissimilar to mine and that therefore you will like the videos that I like.

If so, the Procrastination Pen playlist always appears at the end of every one of these articles and you can hop over to YouTube and see if you like what you hear.

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.

For many people this will be a show-stopper and if so, the YouTube reviews are coming very soon in this article (scroll down a bit). I used to be the same. I find too often now I’ve drifted off to a charming little ASMR video only to have some loud and distracting advert kick off and rouse me back to wakefulness again. In fact, of late this has become so frequent that I think it is by design. Advertising pays the bills, after all.

Today’s Calm track is taken from the Calm Dailies. I find these rather more approachable than Calm “sleep” tracks. The artists involved, frankly, have better voices. The Calm Dailies do not have music (I find music is just not as restful as people would have you believe). Some of the Calm “sleep” tracks involve an actual story and so rather than drifting off to la la land, you find yourself engaging with the story.

The Calm track this week is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/kgezKhbBSs

Daily Calm

Thinking

NARRATOR

Tamara Levitt

AUTHOR

Tamara Levitt

Tamara has a great voice. She maybe my favourite but I rather like Jeff Warren, so I dither in the mornings when I am looking at the next track. That said, Jay Shetty has much of the more interesting material, especially if I need a mental kick up the backside – which is most of the time, frankly.

This is quite a long one for a Calm Daily, in that it is nigh on 11 minutes in length. It is about obsessive thinking. If you find yourself struggling with intrusive thoughts at bedtime, this may well be the track for you.

I’ve settled into a semi-rigid structure for several weeks now: Calm review, professional ASMR review, inadvertent ASMR review. The blog originally only considered inadvertent ASMR videos. It has evolved this way. So, in deference to custom, this is this week’s video from a professional ASMR artist:

ASMR – Extremely Satisfying Allergy Test!

It’s a professional ASMR video so of course it has notes and of course the notes are going to promote the ASMR artist: “410,294 views 24 Sept 2025

Hi guys, welcome back! In today’s video I’m doing your allergy test. Hope you enjoy!

My Spotify Nanou ASMR: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2trBl…

My TikTok ASMR: nanouasmrofficial

My Dutch vlog channel (with subtitles):    / @nanouphilipsvlogs  

My new English vlog channel:    / @nanouphilips  

🖥 My other channel:    / @nanouphilips 

🖥 My channel with shorts:    / @nanouasmrshorts 

📱My Instagram:   / nanouphilips 

🎥 Production: Arc Agency – contact: info@arcagency.be

TikTok: nanou.philips

TikTok ASMR: nanouasmrofficial

Twitch:   / nanouasmr  

🅿️Paypal: https://paypal.me/NanouASMR

📧 E-mail: nanou.asmr@outlook.be”

The notes were so extensive I’ve given you the edited highlights, which, to my mind, are still way too long.

There are comments, of course, and, of course, because it is a professional ASMR artist they vie towards the sycophantic side. So far, so usual.

The video comes from the channel Nanou ASMR, this has 1.75M subscribers, seven hundred and fifty-two videos nineteen playlists, more than one of those playlists has in excess of one hundred videos. So, a hard-working ASMR artist – full kudos given. I am a little concerned because the last video I listened to that had in excess of 1.5 million people raving about it, I really couldn’t get on with at all. Let’s see how this one fares.

It is surprising how often a video starts from a professional ASMR artist that raves about their latest sponsor and so it is a rare experience to be free of that. I disregard completely the many I find that do that. Making money is reasonable but I do find this disrupts the ASMR experience, whether you introduce sponsor du jour in a whispering voice or you do not.

In this case we are music free, sponsor free, and the video starts instead with what I assume to be recognised “trigger” sounds.

Clucking noises, keyboard noises, paper-related noises, donning-gloves noises, crinkling noises, tapping noises, liquid noises, a potpourri of sound, presumably designed as a catch-all of “triggers” for any attending ASMR devotee.

I am not really interested in that. I’m here for the voice and so how is it? The voice as you would expect, with such a popular artist, is excellent. Presentation is on the whispery side of whispery and so is about as believable as Boffo for Prime Minister, but this does not detract from its effectiveness as an ASMR voice or as the audio for a restful video. It does that job very well, in fact.

Sadly, the keyboard is selected for its ability to be heard which is sad, because I would prefer that it wasn’t heard at all. I think the keyboard is distracting and excessively loud. No doubt there are some ASMR fans who just love that kind of thing (I guess a number of subscribers to this YouTube channel, in fact).

There are quite a few rustling noises, gloves, clothing, the ASMR artist moving around. This is not obtrusive and so if it isn’t your thing either, it should not cause any concerns.

I’m not sure why ASMR artists do that clicking/clucking noise at intervals with their tongue, it seems out of place to me, but I just bet there is a die-hard devotee that turns up for new videos just to hear that sort of thing.

The plastic arm that intrudes into view and is then drawn on with a felt tipped pen is a tad on the surreal side, as if Metal Mickey had turned up for an examination. Given that you’ll be listening rather than watching, I’d say this should not have any impact. I’d say the video goes on about two to three minutes longer than I would have liked but a heck of a lot of subscribers disagree with me. On that basis you may want to give it a review.

The routine in these articles for the last few months has been that now I deal with the material on which I originally based the blog i.e. inadvertent ASMR videos. Of late, this has been videos on a medical theme, just because I have found a lot of success finding calm and restful videos where those videos were designed to illustrate some medical concept or other.

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. There is though 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). In order to cover the notes for new readers, I will give a precis version with the first video.

I think this will be the concluding such article, as I believe I have calculated that we have covered very nearly every video available. I make it that there are six left to cover and so we’ll mop those up in this article. I suspect we are getting a bit towards the tail-end in terms of quality as well but I live to be surprised.

Straight Leg Raise & Femoral Nerve Stretch Test – OSCE Guide | Clip

In case there are people who have not read any of those previous articles, I will include the notes associated with this video so you see how they work. The notes are lengthy and I’ll only include them once (or this will grow to become a very long article composed principally of notes).

The notes are: “48,856 views 14 Sept 2022  Musculoskeletal Examination OSCE Guides | CPSA | UKMLA | PLAB | MRCS

This video demonstrates how to perform a straight leg raise (a.k.a. sciatic stretch test) and a femoral nerve stretch test in an OSCE station.

You can read our step-by-step guide to the examination of the spine here: https://geekymedics.com/spine-examina…

Check out our other awesome clinical skills resources, including:

• 🔥 Geeky Medics Bundles (discounted products): https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

• ✨ 1000+ OSCE Stations: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

• 🏥 Geeky Medics OSCE Revision Book: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

• 📝 150+ PDF OSCE Checklists: https://geekymedics.com/pdf-osce-chec…

• 🗂️ 3000+ OSCE Flashcards: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

• 📱 Geeky Medics OSCE App: https://geekymedics.com/geeky-medics-…

• 🩺 Medical Finals SBA Question Pack: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

• 💊 PSA Question Pack: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

Chapters:

00:00 Straight leg raise

00:36 Femoral nerve stretch test

Subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to know about our latest content: https://geekymedics.com/newsletter/ ✉️

Join the Geeky Medics community: 👩👩👧👧

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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…”

As we have heard in the previous articles, these videos commence with an unwelcome piece of startup music. So far, I have found no mechanism for removing startup music on someone else’s video. If I had, you would see more of the videos that have been rejected on the road to getting the odd “acceptable” one out to you.

I have tolerated the startup music in previous Geeky Medics videos and I will do so this time. It does not preclude bumping them to the archive list at some point in the future.

This video is a little over one and a half minutes so it is rapidly over with. It is the voice here that is excellent. There is background noise but it is not excessive. There are periods of silence which might be distracting whilst listening. Personally, I found this quite restful.

There is tail end music which is even louder than the startup music and it would be great if it just wasn’t there at all. Of course, given the video is a short one, there is much more opportunity for distracting adverts which was certainly maximised at the time I was reviewing this one.

Lachman’s Test – OSCE Guide | Clip

One and a quarter minutes long and so none of the ones we’re looking at this week seem to be very long at all. It finds time for the distracting start up music though. It is nicely calm in the few moments it is actually playing. However, it also finds time for the even louder tail end music – I’d have to ask why this is necessary.

Anterior & Posterior Drawer Test & Collateral Ligaments Assessment – OSCE Guide | Clip

Just over one and a half minutes and now we’re in the swing of these, we know how it will go, distracting start up music, nice calm presentation, even worse tail end music, YouTube advert…

Patella Tap & Sweep Test – OSCE Guide | Clip

All of these seem of a similar length; this is the same length as the last one. The format is the same as the previous ones including unwelcome musical parts. This video seems to have been substantially slowed down and is mostly silent. This makes for very calming watching but does not contribute much when you’re listening and not watching.

Thomas Test – OSCE Guide | Clip

This one is shorter at just over one and a quarter minutes. Same format as the previous ones. In common with previous OSCE videos there are on screen medical notes for medical students. Of course, these are of no interest to us. The presentation is beautifully calming, but oh so brief and it’s back to funky music again.

Trendelenburg’s Test – OSCE Guide | Clip

The last ever such video and the last item in blog posts featuring Geeky Medics. It has been a while now. This is the shortest so far at only slightly over a minute. Same music top and tail. Same on-screen notes, useful to medical students but not to us. Same calming voice but this time we barely have time to hear it before it is back to the music again.

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