Category: Advice

Sleeping With ASMR

Someone recently bemoaned the decline in evening classes. That back in the 1970s, people would come home from work, head off to a local college and learn to throw pots or paint by watercolours and this now seemed to be a declining art. I am not certain about the statistics, but the account at least seems believable.

There now seems to be this perception that any personal time needs to be snatched from sleep, from lunchtime, or from that ever so useful time originally given over to thinking.

Perhaps, when the engine is running at 6000 revs, then it is hard to let it slow down again to idle, and maybe there we find the current fascination for sleep.

In any case, the Procrastination Pen exists to try to look at sleep. Mainly from the approach that you distract that busy mind through restful background noise.

For a while now, I have been giving the odd recommendation from Calm. I’m not paid by them and I realise that you have to pay a subscription in order to listen. The advantage for me is that you then do not have to put up with the loud and obtrusive advertising that populates the intervals between YouTube videos.

I have seen that it is now possible to pay for an advertising-free experience on YouTube and I have been considering it. However, this would mean that my recommendations would be in ignorance of the reality for most, which is that just after a nice peaceful video something loud and distracting will kick in. There seems to be no allowance for the fact that it is 3am and no consideration that if the video you just listened to is peaceful, why would you want an advert based upon Monsters of Rock circa 1985 to follow it.

Anyway, here is today’s Calm recommendation:

Daily Calm

Interruptions

NARRATOR

Tamara Levitt

AUTHOR

Tamara Levitt

https://www.calm.com/app/player/8szz-qSorG

I like Tamara’s voice and this one is about interruptions and how to deal with them, which I think is likely to be relevant for everyone. If you have access to a Calm subscription why not take a listen. It is a little over ten minutes in length.

I was listening to a video this week as part of the stuff I have to keep up with. It is not medical and so I won’t be listing it in any playlist, but I contend that the voice is just excellent.

Three Decades in Kernelland – Jonathan Corbet, LWN.net

If this is of any interest you might want to give it a review. It is also squarely an “inadvertent” video as it is plainly not designed to be relaxing…

I have been, recently, evaluating a professional ASMR artist in these articles, rather as a counterfoil to the inadvertent ASMR material that I prefer.

YouTube have now decided that as I took a moment to review a steampunk-related ASMR video, now I am the world’s greatest steampunk fan and my usual set of suggestions based upon medical themes have now all got a definite sci-fi tinge to them.

Hey I can live with that. Hence although this week’s professional ASMR review is definitely medical, it is “not as we know it – captain”.

It comes to us from Dreamscape ASMR who most definitely does not need any promotion. The channel has 406K subscribers with one hundred videos and five playlists. This number of subscribers for that output shows a surprising level of efficiency. I am guessing something must be going very right.

The video is this one:

Taking Care of You When You’re Sick 🤒 SCI-FI SOLARPUNK ASMR ☀️ [Unusual Remedies, Deep Resonance]

It is a shorter than I have reviewed of late given that it is a little over twenty-six and a quarter minutes. There are a mountain of comments in the usual ASMR professional adulation mode. I wish I had whatever ASMR artists have…

the notes have the habitual level of self-promotion, so I’ve chopped them a little, the edited highlights are:

“1,286,378 views 4 May 2024 #cinematicasmr #ASMR #asmrroleplay

NO MUSIC VERSION:    • Taking Care of You When You’re Sick 🤒 SCI-… 

You find yourself battling a mysterious illness, one that manifests in an array of strange symptoms—like chromatic sweats, haptic hallucinations, and polarized vision. The city hospital dismissed your case as spring allergies…But I know it’s something more serious than that. After exhaustive research and numerous tests, I’ve begun to suspect that your condition might be a rare sensitivity to the recent solar flares. Here, in the quietness of my eco-friendly sanctuary, I will care for you. Using my scientific expertise, I am committed to unravelling the mystery of your illness and developing effective remedies. You are the most important person in my life, and I will keep you close—watching over you with unwavering vigilance—until we uncover the truth behind these unusual symptoms.

…

I hope you enjoy the ambience section at the end! I love when there’s at least 10 minutes of nothing important happening in ASMR videos so I can actually fall asleep. Scratchy pencil sounds are one of my favourites 🙂

–DREAM”

Even edited that is a healthy set of notes I’m sure you agree.

It starts with music – which is not great – and the music continues during the speech – even less great. I wasn’t taken by the voice to start with (obviously the only person, given the in excess of one million views). I did like the setting but I was less keen on some of the attendant noises, beeps, strange sci-fi related echoes. I did like the running water noises but, for me, it is always about the voice and I wasn’t as enthralled as all of those one million listeners.

I am not as bothered by paper-folding noises, and definitely not keen on the buzzes and hums that were designed to make the sci-fi atmosphere authentic. Of course there are the noises from objects being moved, objects being opened and closed, but there were also artificial voice sounds (which I wasn’t keen on).

I got the feeling that this was a more visual-orientated experience than the title would indicate. For me ASMR is about the sound. By about half way I was looking to do something else which is not a great sign in itself.

So this one is not for me, but over one and a quarter million viewers disagree so why not give it a try.

Moving on to the part of the blog that started the review process all those months ago, the locating of and the review of inadvertent ASMR videos and, to date, this has mainly consisted of videos on a medical theme.

As the weeding process of videos that do not stand the test of time in the Procrastination Pen playlist of ASMR videos, I am finding that I do not share the taste of some sites that exist to curate ASMR videos.

There seem to be videos which are considered good ASMR but which contain loud noises from equipment, distracting background noises, or strange interruptions from people, equipment or even animals.

I don’t think that such videos really belong in a playlist which is designed to provide the background to a person’s sleep time and so, I have been dispatching such videos to the archive list whether they receive a recommendation or not. At the moment I seem to be weeding the average of one video per week in this fashion.

The implication of which is that I had better keep generating more blog posts or that playlist will become so short it will be barely worthy of the name.

For today’s video we are back to an old favourite. She does not have the world’s best ASMR voice, that could easily be someone like Hollie Berry, it is a little too loud for a start. However, I do like her style of delivery and some of her videos have stood the test of time in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The video is this one:

Eye Examination 2

It has notes which are thankfully brief: “151,236 views  17 Oct 2015

Jessica Nishikawa demonstrates common components of the eye examination. Subscribe at    / jessicanishikawa 

Follow Twitter @JessNishi”

It has comments and some of those comments are from ASMR fans, so with any luck we should be on solid ground here.

The video is a little under four minutes so hardly there at all really. (Lot’s more space for loud and off-putting YouTube adverts (grrr)).

It starts quietly and completely without any startup music. (Heaven be praised).

There is no concluding music, which is no less miraculous. In fact, this little video is more or less ideal.

For regular readers you will have spotted that this is Jessica Nishikawa and of course that is also the name of the channel.

Whenever I review a video from a channel which has multiple videos (this has twenty-six of them at today’s date). I look to see if there are other videos on that channel that could also be useful in terms of ASMR/sleep promotion.

In this case we have a video which is Eye Examination 2 which pre-supposes the existence of a Eye Examination 1 video to match it (and if we are luck 3, 4,5 and so on).

In this case we are not lucky. There is just one other video in the Eye examination series and it is this one:

Eye Examination

This too has notes: “22,511 views  11 Oct 2015

Jessica Nishikawa demonstrates common components of the eye examination. Subscribe at    / jessicanishikawa. Follow on Twitter @JessNishi”

Again, some comments from ASMR fans, so this could be a good thing.

The video is a little over four and a half minutes and there is no introductory music. There is, however, the air conditioning from hell. it is as if the microphone is under the air conditioning outlet. We have encountered this before and it makes for very distracting listening. As if in compensation Jessica is raising her voice here quite a bit more than in the previous video.

Thankfully, there are no equipment noises, and after a brief delay the person recording must have cottoned onto the fact that the background noise is oppressive because the recording volume suddenly decreases. Would that there was an air conditioning sound filter and that it had been applied.

In deference to the fact that this is the only extraneous noise, I am going to trail this one in the procrastination Pen playlist. However, I do not have high hopes that it will persist there for very long.

The Jessica Nishikawa 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 post why not subscribe to this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

Some things are changing locally for me which might impact the ongoing nature of this blog, or perhaps the regularity of updates. If I can, I will flag if updates are likely to slow down.

Meantime, I will continue with today’s item.

I have been trying to get more disciplined with my approach to Calm. i.e. to do one of the Calm daily meditations once per day. In general, they are ten minutes in length and one would imagine that ten minutes is going to be available every day, right? Hmm, the resolution is only so-so effective, I have to say.

However, I can say that I found the following one of interest:

Exploring Anger

Tamara Levitt

https://www.calm.com/app/player/5PLKQJSzYP

Tamara has a great voice and I think this one is a great one to play before sleep. Should you already have a Calm subscription, that is. As I’m sure I’ve said before, I am not a salesperson and no one is likely to be paying me to flog their specific pro-meditation product. Also, I know that other products exist (I spent a while in the past using Headspace, for example).

At this point, I have recently been reviewing a professional ASMR artist and in some way determining how well it stands up to my inadvertent ASMR video reviews. This week I have come across a channel that is dedicated to Unintentional ASMR videos. In fact, it is called

Pure Unintentional ASMR and has 398K subscribers (wow). I have had reservations about hosting videos originally belonging to other people (given I am not a copyright solicitor and what I don’t know might cost me).

However, this channel has no such reservations one hundred and forty-seven videos made by a number of different people. There is no way I could deliver this breadth of material in terms of a blog or a playlist. It is possible that I may browse back here again, but probably not for this blog, as all the work has been done. What can a humble reviewer add?

If, like me, you like inadvertent ASMR material it looks like you could do worse than browse this channel of an evening quite possibly as an aid to sleep. However, just because this channel is doing something so well is not going to cause me to stop reviewing ASMR videos – some people may like to read the reviews after all.

It is necessary to choose one artist from amongst the many. Completely arbitrarily, I have chosen this one:

VERY Soft-Spoken Engineer talks about her career while you sleep

This video is just under one hour and twenty minutes in length (wow). It was posted very recently.

Comments are permitted and these are largely positive, some seem to refer to a previous incarnation of this channel. It would seem it has been taken down before (at least once).

There are (I’m afraid) a very large set of notes, with an element of self-promotion for the channel amongst them so this is the edited highlights:

“Cynthia Barnhart is an award-winning engineer who has studied and now works for MIT. She also has a ridiculously soft-spoken voice for you to fall asleep fast too. Perfect for unintentional ASMR!

So we’ve combed through this interview to cut out as many unwanted sounds as we could to try and create the best unintentional ASMR experience possible. Hope you enjoy and find this unintentional ASMR interview as relaxing and interesting as I do.

A huge thanks to the MIT Infinite History project for the video. You can learn more about that here: https://infinitehistory.mit.edu/

Their channel:    / @infinitehistoryprojectmit8815 

🔴 In case this channel is removed, please subscribe to our newsletter for updates on new videos locations: http://eepurl.com/ds-orr. We will never email you about anything other than a new channel.”

The original video is here:

and it is not one I’ve come across before, a great find by this channel. It is interesting that they are preparing already for the channel to be taken down. Something which I fear may happen, given the many sources of the videos. I suggest if you like this sort of thing fill your boots quickly.

Given the video has been edited to enhance the ASMR attributes, it is no surprise that the voice is excellent. There is no startup music – hurray. There is no terrible background noise – hip-hip, no hesitation, no staccato delivery, in fact it is pretty nigh perfect for this kind of video.

A further attribute that I like, in this context, is the lack of whispering. There is, I am sure, a place for whispering in ASMR videos, but there seems rather a lot of such videos. It is refreshing to find one that does not take refuge in whispering.

So onto my own inadvertent ASMR candidate and this one perhaps a bit of a cheat as he was a personal favourite from back when I first featured him (greater than two years ago now, which seems, to me, rather difficult to believe). It must have been fun. The time passing oh so quickly.

This time we are looking at this video:

Clinical Skills: Cervical Spine Assessment – Dr Gill’s Neck Examination

The site, subscribers, playlists and so on are, of course, familiar. However I’ll take a look again in case there are some new visitors to the Procrastination Pen.

There are notes:

“1,088,598 views  Premiered on 12 May 2023  #asmr #neck #DRGill

Neck Examination – Cervical Spine Assessment – Clinical Skills – Dr Gill

Compose a new pain within athletes is cervical spine discomfort, thankfully in the vast majority of cases when the neck is examined the cause of the neck pain is found to be muscular.

However, pain can also refer from the neck to the arm, in which case it is important to be able to assess for cervical radiculopathy prior to gaining more information which may indicate an MRI is needed

We assess for radiculopathy by doing Spurling’s test, an often overlooked part of the neck examination, but it should be included for completeness and reassurance of the patient – not forgetting the athlete or not, neck pain can be a considerable source of distress, so it’s vital to be able to get information from the neck examination which allows you to safely reassure a patient when appropriate, or comment that neck exam found evidence that needs further investigation

#DRGill #neck #asmr”

There are comments but, of course, given it is Dr Gill we can take it as read that the majority of these are positive.

The video itself is a tad on the bijou side given it is only a little over six minutes long. Sadly it starts with music. The voice of Dr Gill needs no introduction (well at least if you are a regular reader in any case). It is restful, not given to whispering, and is at a lovely measured pace. Without the starting music this would be a perfect video. (Well if we could also add about thirty minutes to its length at any rate. Sadly, despite its short length, it still finds time to end with further music.

The playlists on the channel do not seem to be a great deal of assistance in narrowing the field for the location of any related videos.

At the present time there are nine hundred and sixteen videos and it would probably be foolhardy to cover even a reasonable fraction of those in this blog post.

Scanning through the videos for ones which appear to feature the same “patient” reveals quite a number. My thoughts are, therefore, we’ll cover a few here and go on to cover the remainder in a future blog post.

Taking these videos in the order that they appear (from the channel search) we first get to this one:

Ulnar Nerve Examination – Clinical Skills – Dr Gill

Again, it is very short at a little over four minutes. The patient announces her name – possibly Megan Struthers? Even the captioning struggles to capture it so possibly my ears are not solely to blame. The video has music again. I think we can take that as ongoing, as will the existence of notes and comments. Dr Gill’s voice continues as great to listen to. I could probably spend a great deal of my blog just reviewing Dr Gill videos – I won’t – it would make very dull reading. Of course, if you find it very dull reading anyway do feedback and I’ll try to come up with something more stimulating.

Lower Limb Neurological Examination – Clinical Skills – Dr Gill

This one is a little longer at just over nine and a half minutes. Comments are the usual level of variable but not (as far as I can tell) at the level of abusive that is often seen. Such is the power of Dr Gill.

In this one even I can tell the “patient” is Megan Struthers, awards to me for hearing that correctly the first time.

There is another “in” ASMR joke going on with this video in that anyone observing notices that, at intervals, Megan is wearing socks, then not wearing them, then wearing them again.

The “socks” comment seems to be another of those “in the know” comments such as “sandwich breath” which I have referred to before. I suspect it is fun if you enjoy that kind of thing.

Checking a Patients Vital Signs OSCE – Clinical Skills – Dr Gill

Just three and a quarter minutes and still a few seconds at either end given to music – boo.

It is very quiet this one, it would be ideal for sleep if only it was many times the length. As it is in a playlist it should not matter, apart from the opportunity for YouTube to insert as many adverts as it physically can, and at a volume so different to the video springing awake is a not improbable outcome.

General Examination – Clinical Skills OSCE – Dr Gill

A little over five and a quarter minutes in length, the consistency is the thing that stands out and highlights the quality of these videos. If you heard the first video you could more or less assume all the remainder are the same. Much as I hate videos that have been hijacked and concatenated, in the case of these short videos of Dr Gill’s, I can see the point. At least it would keep the intrusive adverts to a minimum.

I think we’ve hit the point where enough videos have been reviewed for one post. Although the total length of this week’s videos is not huge and it will not take you long to review them all for yourself. There are a few more videos featuring Megan and I propose that we come back to those at a future post. Certainly, Dr Gill is a gift that keeps giving, ASMR wise.

The James Gill 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.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

Of late it has seemed to me that a change of approach might be indicated. A weekly approach to inadvertent ASMR videos located only on YouTube might eventually get to be boring for some. Those who happen upon the blog might be asking yes well, but what next.

Of course I can do more. Already I am looking at Calm and at professional ASMR artists but does this really result in any better-quality outcomes? The key, as I’m sure we agree, is a better night’s sleep and a dropping off to sleep that happens reliably and rapidly.

Sadly, I am not sure that I have achieved all that myself. I’ve tried a number of legal pills, some work, some do not. (Frankly, I would not know where to get the illegal variety even should I be so inclined.) I’m using Calm to try to build up some kind of meditation discipline, just in case a surfeit of mental self-control also results in a metaphorical off switch. It seems to me, if that is the route, then it’s going to take a long time in getting there. Of late, the most effective route has been lying on the sofa with some awful early morning TV programme burbling away. Despite what you might be told about the influence of light from the television or the impact of noise on restfulness, more often than not that is an effective action.

YouTube has historically been great (hence this blog), but the increasing intensity of adverts and the lack of filtering for quieter overnight adverts can undo the good work of the playlist in drifting off in the first place.

Admittedly, in the early hours, some TV channels change over from awful programmes to even more awful teleshopping presentations, with presenters of a personality which seems to indicate they do take something of a stimulating variety simply in order to keep it up…

There is nothing that is a perfect solution. Perhaps the Procrastination Pen playlist is one of those things that may prove to be helpful. (I’m always ready to receive feedback regarding improvements).

In the interest of changes (however small), this week’s Calm recommendation has nothing whatever to do with sleep:

Anger Management, Jeff Warren 

https://www.calm.com/app/player/HzvkP4OlNV

However, I do find Jeff Warren’s voice to be restful and the material is interesting. It also is gratifyingly short, so is not going to be waking you again once you have drifted off.

This week, the YouTube recommendation from a presenter who set themselves up as a ASMR video professional is this one:

ASMR the BEST Full Body Exam | “Unintentional” Real Person ASMR | Abdomen, Lung & Back Inspection

It has notes: “2,633,344 views  21 Nov 2022

The most precise and professional ASMR on a real person you will see in a while with layered real sounds of lung listening (respiratory auscultation) and abdomen sounds (abdomen ausculation). Well-prepared unintentional ASMR examination with lung inspection, abdomen inspection, skin inspection, eye examination, hearing examination, cranial nerve examination, and hair inspection.

Ways to support the channel:  https://swopi.co/kewas_asmr (all links)

!!!! NEW !!!! Send Kewa a GIFT:

https://thronegifts.com/u/kewas_asmr

Join my Patreon:

  / kewas_asmr 

Donate thanks to NEW button SUPER THANKS! (button right below the video – heart with a dollar in it)

Follow me on IG to know more about the process:

  / kewas_asmr 

Leave a LIKE, COMMENT and do not forget to turn ON the notifications on your SUBSCRIPTION!

*Disclaimer: We are not professional doctors, security or any other role we play in these videos. This video is for relaxation purposes only. Do not take any medical advice from this content.”

So, the normal level of self-promotion. Comments are permitted and for a change are predominantly positive. As we have come to expect both participants in the video are attractive, I wonder if it is even feasible to make your way as an ASMR artist with a more average appearance. If I find such a video I will feature it.

The video is slightly less than fifty minutes in length so substantial compared to material we have seen recently.

Sadly, it starts with music and, worse, quite loud music which seems to be key to yet more brand promotion, but I would have thought militates against instant restfulness.

There is a strong background noise (air conditioning, I suspect) And initially at least, the voices are not that quiet. However, it settles into the more whispered approach that we are by now familiar with.

The channel is Kewas ASMR and of course it appears on the ASMR index. The channel has three hundred and sixty one videos, four playlists and 333K subscribers. A very busy channel.

The video has equipment noises and there is a kind of bassy sound as if the microphone was slightly being overwhelmed, or it is an echo effect from the room in which it was filmed. Turning the volume down did not appear to remove this on the equipment I was using.

There are parts of the video where internal noises are played quite loudly, for example, heart beats and intestinal gurgles.

Despite these limitations and in common with many of the commentators, I did find the video restful. However, given that this is not an inadvertent ASMR video all these sound factors are within the control of the person filming, and so I do wonder at the choices that include them. I have concluded thus far that it is a drive for authenticity in the material, but I think the video would better promote relaxation if the extraneous noise were to be removed. Again, if I come across such a video (i.e. without these unnecessary noises) I will feature it.

I did find at intervals that I wanted the video to be shorter (which is probably not a great sign). However, I do think it worthy of review if you want to take a look/listen.

Today’s more bread-and-butter offering (at least as far as this blog goes) is the following:

March 28, 2017

Shari Rice is the channel. This has three hundred and seventy-six subscribers, one video, one playlist. The single video is just over fifty minutes in length and this time it is the only video on the site so come-what-may it is going to be the only inadvertent ASMR video I review this week.

There are notes: “148,625 views  30 Mar 2017

Rambo_Head to toe assessment_Nurs 5418”

Comments are permitted and include a number of ASMR-related responses and a number of unhelpful comments – so normal for YouTube comments then. At least it proves that I am not the first person looking for an inadvertent ASMR video who located this one.

The video appears to be one drawn from that rich seam of videos which I often feature, the medical student assessment video. It starts with some aggravating noises, presumably originating with the recording device being manipulated to show the whole room. Straight away we discover that background noise is going to be (a quite intrusive) thing. There is a sound like a motor running constantly in the background (presumably an older air conditioning system). The voices are not classically ASMR-y. There is certainly no whispering here.

We find that the medical practitioner is Sharon Rambo. I notice the channel is Shari Rice so I’m speculating Sharon Rambo got married to a Mr (or Miss) Rice at some stage after the video was filmed. Sharon tells us that this is a “Head to Toe” assessment. A type of assessment which has been featured here many times before. The identity card that appears in the video does not appear to give away where the assessment is taking place. The card is issued in 2016 and the film is dated 28/03/2017 (UK date order, so, March) but there is no obvious clue which course this relates to. However, straight away Sharon introduces herself as a Nurse Practitioner at UT Arlington – hence the “A” symbol on the identity card. A look at the UT Arlington website indicates that the horses head icon (as seen on the identity card) also prominently features.

So that is where we are and when we are.

The ”patient” is introduced as Savannah Martin (which may or may not be misspelled). Who is apparently twenty in this video so nearer twenty-eight now I would guess. Savannah has the look of someone who is not completely entertained by the process and indeed it does seem to go on a bit. Presumably this is so that all the material required by the course is covered. 

At intervals Sharon seems to refer to notes which makes the presentation a little staccato. However, it settles down and Sharon’s voice likewise. In fact her voice is much quieter when performing the hands-on parts of the examination and hence these seem to be the best sections.

As we have seen before with student videos, the presentation at intervals is halting, presumably as memory fails… There is of course the occasional equipment noise, including the odd quite loud bang. There is humour – Savannah turns out to be ticklish…

After a while I found myself settling into the listening and it actually was restful (just as many of the commentators had reflected). It’s not the greatest ASMR experience ever, but I certainly think it is good enough for the playlist.

Have a review for yourself and see what you think.

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.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

I am noticing on YouTube, a number of channels dedicated to the collecting of inadvertent ASMR videos and, sometimes the creation of playlists of such videos, which in many ways replicates the work that I am doing.

There are also blogs out there producing some quality work in this area, so it is feasible that any ASMR-related output has been accomplished even more professionally elsewhere. If you do have a favourite outlet for ASMR material pass it along and I will feature it. I may even listen to it personally.

For the moment I am carrying on doing what I have done for over a year now, reviewing videos, generating playlists, occasionally editing the playlists when I don’t feel that they are fit for purpose. If you happen across this blog in your search for better ASMR material, by all means, give me some feedback and I’ll try to incorporate any relevant suggestions.

Of late, I have been listening to Calm because I have a subscription and, for me, that subscription gives some value, in that without it, I doubt I would be maintaining any kind of meditation discipline. Its value as a sleep aid I have found a bit variable. Indeed, I have found that the Calm daily meditations are more restful in many cases than the items dedicated to sleep. Not least that a number of the items dedicated to sleep incorporate music, which, personally, I do not find helpful in assisting me to get off to sleep. Your mileage may vary.

Today’s Calm item is just the same and, again, it is one of my favourite voices on there, Jeff Warren. Who, coincidentally, once in a while has something useful to say as well. Don’t take this as a recommendation to start splashing your cash. Heaven forfend. I am certain that with a bit of discipline there are other, free, options available.

https://www.calm.com/app/player/Yj26VDZzW_ Jeff Warren, Daily Trip, Sometimes It’s Hard.

However, if, for example, you already have a Calm subscription you may want to give the above a whirl.

For a few weeks now I have been giving a professional ASMR video a review. Today’s comes via a slightly esoteric route, in that I have been trying to learn Italian via Duolingo, without success, for way – way too long. It was for this reason that a video in Italian, by a non-Italian ASMR artist rather appealed.

The video is this one:

ITALY’S Old School Eye Exam is SO Relaxing | Real ASMR sounds

It is from LaLek ASMR a channel with three hundred and ten videos, 242K subscribers and whose output seems to incorporate an impressive number of massage videos. As expected, the channel also appears on the ASMR Index.

The video has notes, some of which are dedicated to self-promotion, so a precis of which are as follows:

“2,152,940 views 14 Feb 2025 #EyeExam #MedicalASMR #ASMR

Ciao a tutti! 🌿✨ Today, I’m taking you inside an old-school eye clinic in Italy for a real eye exam with a gentle, professional old-school eye doctor and vintage optometry tools. This classic vision test includes trial frames, Snellen Eye Test Chart, near and far vision testing, and vintage optometry equipments—all creating unintentional ASMR with soft-spoken moments, gentle tapping, and soothing sounds. 💆‍♂️👓

If you love medical ASMR, real eye exams, and the nostalgic charm of old-fashioned clinics, this video is for you!”

Comments are permitted and surprisingly, are positive and seem to lack the off-the-wall and damning. Perhaps such commentators take a little while to catch up.

The video is a little less than thirty minutes and it is surprising how effective hearing an ASMR video in another language actually is. However, there are quite loud equipment noises. It is also punctuated by ads sadly. There are various electric motor noises, beeps and clicks. None of these seem excessively loud. The summation by the eye specialist is a little louder and somewhat faster than the rest. It isn’t terrible but does not stand up well in comparison with the nicely quiet presentation that has gone just before.

Today we return to a channel that I did promise I would revisit after a moderately successful first review of it.

The channel is Farsight Channel and will be familiar to regular readers.

The video is this one:

Macleod’s examination of the sensory system of the upper limbs

A little less than five- and three-quarter minutes long. Omar and Amy as in the previous article, and by this time I am getting used to that artificial voice (maybe that is just me). A video of that voice would not be unpleasant for us I feel, even though there seems a slight discontinuity between the sound and the video.

Macleod’s examination of the cervical spine

Ben and Omar again. Omar’s responses are so abrupt and flat that it is laughable, definitely not Omar’s genuine voice (in fact, I doubt that Omar is even the “patient’s” name).

It is just over two minutes long and, in every respect, follows the findings indicated for the previous videos in this post.

Macleod’s examination of the ear

Omar with Amy, and I have decided that I like the artificial voice of Amy a lot more than the artificial voice of Ben. Shucks, am I admitting to liking a synthesized voice? Well not really, just that I think it is better than another computer-generated voice.

This one is less than one minute so there is barely time to take in what the participants are saying before it is all over. Again, the narrator is not as quiet as the participants.

Macleod’s examination of the upper limbs motor function

Ben and Omar, but this time a narrator who is different to the one we have had previously, not only that, but he has a markedly superior voice. Much preferred intonation and volume for our purposes.

Omar responds “no” in a completely flat tone which, if you have listened to the ones that went before in this post, you will be completely familiar with.

This is just less than six minutes, so a positive marathon in terms of some in this post but miniscule compared to some we have seen.

Macleod’s examination of lower limb motor function

This is just over five minutes long. Ben and Omar, same narrator as above and this narrator would have been great for all of the videos. Perhaps I will be entering into some judicious weeding of videos from the main Procrastination playlist into the archive list and including only those with this narrator. I’ll let them bed in and see if they are all deserving of long-term membership.

Macleod’s examination of the Hip joint

Just over six and a half minutes, Ben and Omar the participants again. These have all been very similar, which is remarkable in that there has been little to dislike about any of them. I sometimes resort to pointing out minor niggles to distinguish between them (like the narrator’s voice for example). Here we have the preferred narrator of the two featured in this blog post. Already then, we are on a good footing (given the narrator is talking for much of the video).

Definition, just because I thought a picture would be useful – lumbar spine

Lumbar vertebrae anterior

Macleod’s examination of the respiratory system

Amy with Omar and this time with my preferred narrator. So preferred participants (for this set anyway) and preferred narrator, so something of a jackpot. It is nearly thirteen minutes and so reasonably long for the posts we have been covering this time.

Definition Cricosternal distance distance between the cricoid cartilage and the suprasternal notch (labelled as Jugular notch below)

Gray1194

Macleod’s Examination of the cardiovascular system

Just over twelve- and three-quarter minutes, Amy with Omar, and the last of the videos in this particular post. The preferred narrator in fact a good video to go out on.

Definition Cyanotic Congenital Heart Disease, a disease present at birth leading to low levels of oxygen in the blood.

The Farsight 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.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

I have been promising for a little while now that I would make some recommendations regarding tracks on Calm that I have used when sleep seems to be avoiding me. In fact, Calm has a whole range of material dedicated to sleep. This seems to be getting updated so regularly that it is hard to point to any one specific track. That said, I did rather enjoy “A Calmling in New York”. Perhaps a little too music-based for my usual relaxation but you may well have a different point of view. You can find it here: https://www.calm.com/app/player/qJEZPZzlDS but a warning, Calm is not free (and I am not trying to encourage you to pay for it).

Of course, if you are really stressed of a night time, it might just be that you want to be as relaxed as possible whilst acknowledging that sleep just isn’t going to happen for you that evening. In which case, some background noise might be just what you need.

I often give up in these situations and switch on the TV, listening with headphones on. It is not infrequently that I wake up a few hours later, a change of location and some background noise being all that it took to knock wakefulness on the head.

However, if it is looking like a few hours of being awake, you might do worse than to launch the Procrastination Pen playlist, set YouTube to shuffle and lie there listening to the various restful tracks that are available.

I have been in the habit recently of reviewing one professional ASMR artist’s video. Just because I’ve been reviewing inadvertent ASMR for over a year now and it is probably time for a change. (Small though it is).

Today’s video comes from LeannaASMR who is featured on the ASMR index here.

ASMR| Comprehensive Abdominal Exam, Full Medical Roleplay (Soft Spoken)

At a little less than twenty minutes it is rather short for a full-length professional ASMR video of this type. I do notice that there is a rising tendency for ASMR artists to publish their videos as “shorts” i.e. something only a few minutes long. Perhaps this video is trying to draw a middle way between the hour-long material we’ve seen and the one-minute shorts that are at the other end of the spectrum.

The video has quite a lot of extraneous noise; clicking noises, crumpling noises, equipment noises, the odd thump, in fact, the noises I have been hoping that inadvertent ASMR material would not contain. I assume that this was included here for effect but it marred it for me. The voice, meanwhile is as perfect as you can imagine for a professional ASMR artist and does not stray into the whispering level, which tends to make such videos completely unbelievable (what medical professional conducts an examination using a whispering tone)?

So, enough of all these distractions back to the overriding purpose of the blog which is to turn up inadvertent ASMR material or, at the very least, videos which are calm and restful (and hopefully without too much in the way of extraneous noises).

Today’s video comes from a channel that I have covered before N Sight has 3.08K subscribers and twenty videos. The proportion of subscribers to quantity of videos is something of an achievement, I think.

The video is this one:

Nails: Demo Exam

It is four- and three-quarter minutes so not long enough to keep you. There are notes “264,441 views 17 Feb 2016

In today’s medical practice, knowing how to spot physical signs of nutritional imbalances during a routine physical examination is an essential diagnostic tool. This nutrition-focused nails exam is conducted by Kara Fitzgerald, ND.

N Sight is presented by the Institute for Functional Medicine.”

But perhaps wisely comments are not permitted.

Sadly, it has startup music and that startup music is a bit peppy to be properly restful. There is background noise but it is not excessive. Kara has a good voice, the “patient” does not get to say a great deal. Some of the included pictures are majorly off-putting and so, if this blog was not focusing on listening, I would be lairy about making it a member of the playlist. My recommendation is to listen and not to watch.

Fortunately N Sight has an entire playlist dedicated to the Nail Exam category and this playlist contains four videos.

 The playlist first featured is, in fact, number two in this playlist. The first video is this one:

Nail Exam: Introduction, Equipment, & Patient Positioning

Again, there are notes: “7,955 views 17 Feb 2016

In today’s medical practice, knowing how to spot physical signs of nutritional imbalances during a routine physical examination is an essential diagnostic tool. This nutrition-focused nails exam introduction is conducted by Kara Fitzgerald, ND. N Sight is presented by the Institute for Functional Medicine.”

The same two participants are featured and again we have funky startup music (sigh). The video is a bit longer than three-and-a-quarter minutes and does not initially start with a medical examination. Kara Fitzgerald starts presenting and as such the vocal is a little louder than in the first video. The patient does not appear until the two- and three-quarter minute mark, it is interposed with yet more funky music and I find that quite distracting.

The second video is the one we came in with, and the third video in the playlist is this one:

Nails: Teaching Exam

This is much more substantial at a little less than seventeen and a half minutes. There are notes again “43,265 views 17 Feb 2016

In today’s medical practice, knowing how to spot physical signs of nutritional imbalances during a routine physical examination is an essential diagnostic tool. This nutrition-focused nails exam is conducted by Kara Fitzgerald, ND.

N Sight is presented by the Institute for Functional Medicine.”

And the same two participants. The far too energetic music tops and tails the video, as before.

This time we are into the meat and potatoes of an examination. Here, Kara’s voice is much more measured and I would say is pretty good from our perspective. It is not too loud or energetic.

I would say (music excepting) this is a pretty good candidate for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The final video is merely a wrap up. It is this one:

Nails: Conclusion

it is only slightly more than a minute. Same startup (and concluding) music. No medical exam this time and just like that it is all over.

The N Sight 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.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

I had been stockpiling blog articles and had built up quite a number, to the extent that for several months I simply stopped writing. There was every danger that videos would be taken down from YouTube before the article ever saw the light of day and hence any evaluation of the videos would have been a waste of time.

I am happy to report that the backlog is now so tiny that I am danger of running out of material for the blog altogether. I am sure that regular readers would be delighted deeply concerned in case that happened.

Perhaps this is now a good time to start bringing some changes, in order to inject a little more life into the blog, but without the drama of a revolution. To this end I thought I would review at least one video on a medical theme that comes from a professional ASMR artist. If this proves to be a popular change, perhaps I will make it permanent.

Moonlight Cottage ASMR has 1.39M subscribers at the time I am looking at the channel. Some details of Moonlight Cottage have been recorded online., So obviously Moonlight Cottage is a professional ASMR artist (and a very successful one). The channel has one hundred and twenty nine videos and so there is space there for many videos which are not on a medical theme. So far so good.

However, I have self-elected to stick to a medical theme for the moment, so I have selected the following video:

The Shelter | ASMR Sci-Fi Roleplay (medical & skin exam, soft spoken)

It is a little over half an hour and so substantial enough in length and, given it is a professional ASMR video, we are setting the standard very high in terms of review.

It starts with an ocean which is that great standby of relaxing tracks but sadly also with music… It isn’t particularly oppressive music, but I was expecting something spoken or even whispered. It is beautifully constructed in the manner of a professional film, good costumes, effects, scenery but that isn’t why we are here. What does it sound like?

There are a number of distractions in terms of triggering sounds that work for some ASMR fans but sadly not for me: rustling noises, scraping noises, beeping noises. If one of these is your trigger then fill your boots.

As expected, the person participating has an excellent voice and is exactly the correct tone. I am guessing if this was not the case then 1.39M subscribers would be subscribing elsewhere.

However (and no doubt due to the science fiction theme) there are a number of less welcome noises as well. Clicks, beeps and whirring noises crop up sufficiently often to be distracting. There is also a constant background hum as if the video was shot in an area with air conditioning, but I suspect was added to improve the perception of the video being shot inside of a spaceship or similar. Usually I hope to get videos entirely without such background noises but I can see why it was done in this case. There are clunks from equipment, and further sounds from it being dragged – the sort of noises I have avoided in inadvertent ASMR videos.

The tail end of the video contains no speech at all, but more of the beeps, sliding noises, background air conditioning noises i.e. the parts that were less impressive about the rest of the video.

All that said, the bar was set very high, precisely because this is a professional ASMR video and I do think you could do worse than listen to the video for yourself. I’ll add it to the Sweetie Jar list which currently is the only one I have for such professional videos.

That may change if this aspect of the blog proves to be more popular.

So, now we have dispensed with the additional extra video, what about the meat and potatoes of this blog i.e. an inadvertent ASMR video.

Today’s video comes from a site which regular readers will well recognise:

University of Leicester

So it must have something going for it.

The video is this one:

Cardiovascular Examination – Demonstration

It is only five- and three-quarter minutes long and has a little of the straight-to-video quality about it. The patient is Mr Jackson. The notes tell us something about the participants “Presented by Dr Adrian Stanley PhD FRCP Consultant in Cardiovascular Medicine. Produced and Directed by Dr Irene Peat FRCR FRCP, Dr Nicholas Port MBChB BSc and Jon Shears.”

Fortunately for us Dr Stanley has a great voice. The video is not hampered by startup music but it is by the constant background noise, presumably from air conditioning. The pace is good rather than excellent. But it is quite relaxing, I think. 

This forms part of the Clinical Examinations playlist which is ten videos long – perhaps a little long for us today.

However, the University of Leicester does have another Cardiovascular based video worth examining, which is this one:

Cardiovascular Examination – Explanation

This one is nearly thirteen minutes long and shares many of the attributes of the last one, only more so, obviously. There are a few more noises as Mr Jackson gets to undress at the beginning, but Dr Stanley still has a great voice and in this longer video the pace seems much more measured (that might purely be personal perception). There are heart sounds included in this one but these are not excessively loud or off-putting.

The University of Leicester 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.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

Recently, I have noticed that YouTube is just not cracking it on the nights when I am really fearsomely awake. In fact, it is just wise on those nights to get up again, pad downstairs, and watch some late-night nonsense whilst listening with the headphones.

Fortunately, TV now seems well supplied with some barely-watchable early morning viewing. (It’s almost as if they realise that a group of insomniacs are the only people awake in the early hours and that the last thing such people need is something actually interesting).

Sadly, those who turn their channels over to teleshopping are not so enlightened. My advice (if you are forced to resort to similar tactics due to sleeplessness) is to avoid at all costs surfing channels. There is a real risk that you will you happen upon channels trying to keep you awake in order to drive the purchases of mattresses, power washes or strange pruning devices.

You may also wish to give thought to the shape of your spine. For, if you do happen to drop off to some 1980s B movie, it is likely that the sofa will not turn out to be the most comfortable of resting places.

If you are intending to persist with the YouTube playlist as the source of restfulness however, I think I can be confident that you have come to the right place.

Regular readers will recognise the channel N Sight, because of course we have been here before.

Today’s video has a set of notes which are thankfully brief but which indicate that this is a professionally-produced video.

“13,274 views 2 Feb 2017

Michael Stone, MD demonstrates correct technique for blood pressure measurement with automatic and manual BP cuffs, and when to use each type of cuff. He also demonstrates simultaneous BP measurement (to assess autonomic dysfunction), and supine arm and leg BPs (for the ankle-arm index). N Sight is presented by the Institute for Functional Medicine. Learn more at nsight.org.”

Comments are thankfully not permitted – no requests for free medical advice, no disparaging remarks about the participants but sadly no indication as to whether other ASMR fans have been here before.

I would guess that they have.

The video is this one:

Blood Pressure: Demo Exam, Part 1

It is a little shy of eleven minutes long and so it is not going to be your nighttime companion for very long.

Sadly, it starts with some loud and rather too energetic music – so far, so normal, we have found. Sigh.

The patient is introduced as “Steve” the medical professional is not introduced (well outside of those notes anyway). However, we do find that he (the medical professional) has a great voice, very calming and measured.

Today was the first time I tried the transcript facility in YouTube, and it is so very useful for me. Now I can get a visual check for things like the spelling of people’s names, which I am often convinced I have got wrong.

The medical professional seems quite happy with a reading of 128 (systolic) when I was pretty certain that 128 was pretty high…

The video then repeats the blood pressure test but this time manually, rather than with a machine. It is a little quieter but sadly, it means there is yet more music (as an introduction to this section). Comparatively the cuff looks like something unearthed from a Victorian sanitorium but as you’ll be lying down trying to get some sleep I very much doubt that you will notice this.

Yet more upbeat music and then there is a blood pressure test in both arms simultaneously (this is a test I have never seen). This time the automatic machines are in use and so there is the sound of the cuffs being inflated.

Upbeat music again and back to the manual cuff. I do prefer the sound of this being manually pumped vs the electric pump sound on the automatic machine. However, your preference might vary.

Yet more upbeat music and this time the blood pressure cuff is around Steve’s leg. Again, I have never seen this in use before this.

More upbeat music and then the video concludes. And cues straight into the next video which is this one:

Blood Pressure: Demo Exam, Part 2

There are notes “6,172 views 2 Feb 2017

Michael Stone, MD, demonstrates the correct techniques for measuring the ankle-arm index, dorsalis pedis & posterior tibial pulses. He then performs the raised leg oxygen saturation test, followed by carotid and radial pulse comparison. Finally, he concludes with the appropriate orthostatic hypotension exam. N Sight is presented by the Institute for Functional Medicine. Learn more at nsight.org.”

This follows the same scheme of the previous one, same music, same participants. It is a little shorter at just less than nine and a half minutes. The sound of the doppler at the start of this video may be a little off-putting to some people (I didn’t find it so).

Straight into funky music again and this time the pulse is checked in Steve’s feet.

More music, then a check on the carotid pulse.

Music again, then a check inside the mouth. With emphasis on strong dental hygiene.

Music, and a check as Steve changes position from lying down to standing up. And onto tail end music again.

These two form part of a playlist on N Sight Blood Pressure Exam.

They appear mid-way through the playlist which consists of six videos in total.

The first video is this one:

Blood Pressure: Introduction, Equipment, and Patient Positioning

In which we find that the medical professional is Dr Michael Stone. Initially it is not a medical examination as such but a monologue. Despite this his voice is not elevated. Some people in this situation become a tad “shouty” as if projecting to a room. Dr Michael Stone does not fall into this trap.

The video is a little over sixteen and a half minutes so the longest we have seen so far.

However, the chance to punctuate the video with the same music track is not to be missed apparently. perhaps they paid a lot for it and want to feature it as frequently as possible.

It’s a shame as Dr Stone really has a very good voice for our purposes.

The notes have follow the same theme as the others: “3,422 views  2 Feb 2017

Michael Stone, MD, introduces this blood pressure measurement series, including key nutritional considerations for treating patients with abnormal blood pressure. He describes the necessary equipment, calibration needs, and changes in BP measurement over time. He then demonstrates appropriate patient positioning for sitting and supine blood pressure exams.

N Sight is presented by the Institute for Functional Medicine. Learn more at nsight.org.”

As we are not learning to take blood pressure, I will discontinue including them as I’m sure they are of partial interest.

Blood Pressure: Demo Exam, Part 1

Blood Pressure: Demo Exam, Part 2

These two are where we came in.

Blood Pressure: Teaching Exam, Part 1

Like a number of professionally produced videos these turn out to be consistent. This can be great if the first one is marvellous. Less great if it was less than perfect. In this case it means continuation of that annoying music. Set against this, it means the continued exposure to the great intonation and measured delivery of Dr Michael Stone. Not for the first time I am lamenting that I cannot isolate this and remove the little musical interludes.

This one is just under sixteen and a half minutes, so one of the longer ones we’ve seen and in all other respects is similar, same doctor, same patient, same approach, similar notes, same approach to comments and so on.

Definition:

Insufflation: is the act of blowing something (such as a gas, powder, or vapor) into a body cavity

Blood Pressure: Teaching Exam, Part 2

Consistent with those we have seen, nuclear blast needed for the music track, embrace needed for the quiet voice of Dr Michael Stone. This one is nearly twenty minutes in length which is the longest so far. It has some unsettling doppler noises which might be off-putting to some people. There are also some loud car-related sounds indicating that a nearby road can’t be far outside of the building where this was recorded (or someone has a really loud exhaust). Long videos are also an excuse for YouTube to insert an annoying advert and they seem to have made good use of that facility here.

Blood Pressure: Nutritional Factors and Conclusion

This one is a bit less than six minutes and otherwise has little to distinguish it from those that have gone before. I just wish that Dr Michael Stone could produce a music-free version of each of these videos. That and drop some of the louder doppler noises. However, I still maintain that these are all worthwhile trialling in the Procrastination Pen playlist. (However, as you know, every once in a while I’ll get tired of the ones with irritating noises and drop them into the archive list. There is some chance one, some, or all of these may suffer that fate.

The N Sight 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 Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

Last night I discovered that the shuffle function on YouTube is not exactly up to spec. For example, a specific set of adverts can stop the shuffle function in its tracks. I also discovered that some adverts cause the track not to return, but instead, it sets off a not-responding loop.

I recommend the shuffle function because the playlist is growing organically and, therefore, all of the tracks from one review appear in one place. This would mean that if there were, for example eight recommendations from one YouTube channel then these would all occur one after the other. That could make for very dull listening. However, this error in the shuffle function is quite disconcerting.

I do not regularly come across it, which seems to indicate that the problem occurs with specific video/advert combinations. It is irritating when the desire is that the playlist is kicked off and then continues without interaction until waking up the following morning. The error has proven that this is not always reliable.

Currently, I have no adequate solution. I have had the odd problem with YouTube which regular readers will have come across. Alternatives do exist (for example, I often listen to Calm). Some of these would make for less interactive blog posts. However, I am considering widening the scope of these articles to cover some of these alternatives.

Today’s though returns us to YouTube, as has been habitual for a long time now. However, it differs from the usual approach in that, in fact, it is a playlist.

Draping (How to Drape)

by Blackriver & Bootsma Education

It consists of four videos, which is actually a rather good number of videos to cover in one blog post.

The playlist occurs on the Blackriver & Bootsma Education channel. Whilst I am looking at it, I notice it has two hundred and ninety-six videos, as at today’s date, and a quite whopping 52.9K subscribers. I would have little doubt that some of them are going to be ASMR fans as well.

As I have pointed out before ASMR fans can spot a great video in the dark at fifty paces whilst wearing a blindfold.

There are thirteen playlists (The longest having one hundred and forty-two videos) but none seem to be of as such a convenient length for review as this playlist.

However, I have little doubt we will be back to take another look-see at this channel.

How to Drape – Prone (Face Down) [Upper Body, Lower Body, High Glute] Massage Position

This is nearly twenty-one minutes in length, so sizeable in comparison to some we have recently looked at. It starts without start up music and that is very welcome. It has notes and comments and for a change, none of the comments are unhelpful. The medical professional though is quite loud and I had to turn the volume way down. Once I had done that though, the presentation was excellent with none of the equipment noises we have sadly become so used to. The associated noises include movement of sheets which some ASMR fans seem to rather enjoy. At the time I am looking at it, YouTube took every opportunity to insert adverts (every few minutes) and a number of those adverts were really quite distracting. This now seems to be a standard thing – see the comments above about alternatives shortly being included in these blog posts.

Despite the volume, the presenting professional has a great and measured voice. It is very easy to listen to and definitely calming without any jarring unexpected noises.

It was sufficiently calming that the advert breaks come as an unpleasant surprise.

I’m not really expecting that anyone will pay much attention to the subject matter, it being mainly a source of relaxation for sleep. However, it is quite an interesting subject in itself. I would not have known there was so much to it and the number of considerations that need to be taken into account.

How to Drape – Supine (Face Up) [Upper Body, Lower Body, Abdominal, Chest, V Shape] Massage Position

This commences in the same way as the previous one, no startup music, a calm presentation, a very good start. Yet again I kept the volume button on the low side and you might experience inter-video volume issues on the playlist with some of those with a quieter presentation. In an ideal world, I could normalise the volumes so that as one video ended and another began but that option does not appear to be available.

The process is quite careful and a great deal of thought has obviously gone into it.

I notice however that the floor is floorboards, there are wooden cabinets there is a rug. This has the feel of domestic rather than a medical establishment. (I’m sure most medical establishments opt for wipe-clean surfaces simply on the basis of being more hygienic).

How to Drape – Supine to Sidelying (High Glute) Massage Position

This one is short by comparison with those we have just seen, at just over seven and a half minutes. However, it is very similar to what has gone before. This time, one person in the comments is seeking medical advice. People seem to do this elsewhere in YouTube and on the Internet. I suspect when the developers of AI technologies cotton onto this tendency for people to trust almost any location on the Internet for medical advice (more than say an actual medical professional) there will be a large number of medical bots stood up which for a small fee will diagnose and recommend…

The consistency of the video presentation is a great sign and is an indication that this is a professionally prepared video (we have seen the kind of variety in presentation that occurs in student assessment videos, for example).

There really is little to choose between the ones reviewed so far, and this means that we can push all of them forwards into the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The Blackriver & Bootsma 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 Shona Macrae

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

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