Category: Age

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Head-to-Toe Physical Assessment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Her approach is methodical and gentle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Sadly, as I regularly prove, sometimes nothing at all is going to work in the drive to get some sleep. Some switch in the brain seems to resist getting thrown into the correct position and although you are tired, sleep just will not come.

These kinds of occasions used to drive me up the wall as I fought to get control and tried with increasing vigour to gain that blissful rest. It doesn’t work. The only option is to just let go, 5am is coming round and you’ll still be looking at the ceiling when it does. It is better to fill the time with something restful. The Procrastination Pen playlist is designed for just such an eventuality.

Today’s video is another professionally produced one:

Hip Examination – Orthopaedics

In common with a number of professionally produced videos it has notes with it: “28 Nov 2012  Clinical Examinations

This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School in conjunction with the faculty – demonstrates how to perform an Orthopaedic examination of the hip joint. It is part of a series of videos covering Orthopaedic examinations and is linked to Oxford Medical Education (www.oxfordmedicaleducation.com)

This video was produced in collaboration with Oxford Medical Illustration – a department of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. For more information, please visit www.oxfordmi.nhs.uk.”

So it tells us where it was filmed.

Comments are permitted (brave that) and it turns out that other ASMR fans have been here before me (which is not unexpected).

The video at just over nine and a quarter minutes is not a huge one. There is (thankfully) no introductory music. It begins with narration but no clues as to the participants, the narrator has quite a good voice. The same person talks throughout the examination proper such that we do not hear the voices of the actual participants. This makes their participation seem like that of a mime act or worse some kind of puppet, it is a little surreal. However, if you are listening rather than watching none of this will be obvious.

The channel is Oxford Medical Education. This has thirty two videos and 142k subscribers on the day I am looking at it.

With thirty two videos it seems likely that we would be here a while. There are nine playlists, our video appears to be in a playlist called Orthopaedic Surgery which consists of only three videos including the one I first covered. I’ll focus on this playlist in order to narrow down the choice available.

All three videos exceed nine minutes and are less than ten minutes – I’m guessing there was a target in terms of running time.

The next video in the playlist is this one:

Knee Examination – Orthopaedics

A bit over nine minutes so similar to the last one. Like that one it has notes “28 Nov 2012 Clinical Examinations

This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School in conjunction with the faculty – demonstrates how to perform an Orthopaedic examination of the knee joint. It is part of a series of videos covering Orthopaedic examinations and is linked to Oxford Medical Education (www.oxfordmedicaleducation.com)

This video was produced in collaboration with Oxford Medical Illustration – a department of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. For more information, please visit www.oxfordmi.nhs.uk”

Again, the entire video is narrated. I would say the voice is marginally superior to the last one for our purposes.

Shoulder Examination – Orthopaedics

Nine and a half minutes so slightly longer and in this one the patient changes. In the previous two the patient was the same and the medical professional changed. Now we have a patient change and a medical professional change.

The notes are very similar to what has gone before so I will not repeat them.

The narration is not quite as good for our purposes as the last one. However, as is usual with professionally produced videos, they are amazing in their consistency. In this one (at last!) the medical professional gets to speak for himself and we find that his voice is not at all bad. Part way through, the video goes all sepia in appearance briefly. I’m not clear why, but given you will only be listening this will not be too distracting.

The Oxford Medical Education 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 Girl with red hat on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

I am continually reminded that there is nothing new under the sun. I spend so much time on YouTube now that I sometimes inadvertently happen upon something which I was not really searching for. Recently I discovered that the Procrastination Pen is not the only channel trying to put together a playlist connected with sleep. (On reflection I suspect that there are many of these).

I found that the channel Zbizzle has a playlist just entitled “Sleep”. At the time of looking, it has twenty-eight videos and four thousand two hundred and thirty views so none too shabby. I am listing it because you may be interested in checking it out.

The videos seem to be compiled from professional ASMR channels and so quite different to the approach that I have been taking. It might form an interesting contrast to the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Sadly, Zbizzle has not included any details about themselves in their channel (other than that they joined in 2012 – so somewhat before the Procrastination Pen).

I have not reviewed the sleep playlist myself; I’ve been a bit busy reviewing my own list. I can’t either recommend or criticise, I simply offer it up in case you haven’t found it yourself and you fancy giving it a try.

Back to the Procrastination Pen and the video being appraised today, this being:

Hannah’s Head to Toe assessment

At just less than forty-two minutes this one is a real thoroughgoing test. Recently we have been used to videos quite a bit shorter than that.

The title immediately strikes me as possibly being to do with a student assessment video which we have seen a number of in the past.

The focus looks a bit off, the distance of the subjects as if they are at the end of a long tunnel, both participants reasonably young in appearance.

The patient is introduced as “Miss Strickland” but the channel is “David Strickland” – there is no indication as to how that is the case. A possible gender change individual perhaps?

The background noise is not too oppressive thankfully, there is no introductory music for which may the Lord make us truly thankful. The medical professional does not introduce herself but jumping ahead the second video on this channel may iron that one out – of which more later.

There are no notes associated with the video which does indicate a non-professional video as we have noted. Professional videos tend to have notes associated with them.

There are comments, and as usual the comments are unhelpful. (I’ve formed the view that denying comments is probably a wise move with videos on YouTube).

There are no ASMR-related comments which may mean this is a find or it is a terrible video.

The sound is somewhat muted, which we have heard before and might be connected with the quality of microphone employed.

The delivery is as we have grown used to; the individual is assessed and so has to rattle off a certain amount of terminology in order to get a grade. (I surmise this in that most of the videos produced apparently as part of a course all seem to progress in the same way).

Videos of this type always seem to involve the “medical professional” consulting with some kind of mental checklist in a fairly rigid manner, up to the laughable “privacy” provision sections, where the poor student draws an invisible (i.e. non-existent) curtain.

The delivery is slightly loud and a little hesitant. It is obvious that the “medical professional“ keeps forgetting where they are supposed to be in the examination.

Regular readers will now be thoroughly familiar with cranial nerve tests now of course including some that are delivered by professionals.

The medical professional keeps pausing delivery, presumably in an effort to remember exactly what it is that is supposed to come next. Towards the end she actively consults her notes. But of course, for the purpose which we wish to put this to, which is to lie there and to listen, this need not be too distracting.

I love the way that she pronounces “Lazy eye”, a very different way to enunciate those two words to what I am used to.

The channel is David Strickland, perhaps a relative of Hannah Strickland who we saw as the patient in that first video.

The second video features the same participants but in a reversal of the roles:

Danielle’s Head to Toe Assessment

The key is that the medical professional of the former video was Danielle and in this one Danielle is actually the patient. There remain no clues as to where this actual medical establishment is.

The comments remain unhelpful and there are still no notes. The focus remains on the fuzzy side and the background noise is still muted. This one comes in at a little under thirty-eight and a half minutes.

Hannah starts off a little loud. The introductions are somewhat brief and definitely not enough to give much information about course, institution, more details of the participants and other information that I often use to determine that the video is a legitimate one and not from an ASMR professional. (From the appearance of it, I somewhat doubt it is the latter).

Given the paucity of the number of videos and the complete absence of playlists, two hundred and twenty-two subscribers is a really good result. One certainly gets the idea that the video was never intended to be out there in the greater public and, given both videos are both posted in 2014, any related course is long gone by now.

Part way through Hannah’s voice is completely masked by a background noise sounding like the microphone has been placed in a wind tunnel. Almost as if someone was hoovering it with a 1950s vacuum which had not received regular maintenance in the last seventy years. That is really quite distracting.

As before, the presentation is hesitant with some wrong steps being taken and some parts forgotten and returned to later.

There are obvious pauses as elements are recalled. Like the first video of this article in fact.

We discover that Danielle was born April 6th 1994 but the location is given merely as “nursing lab” which doesn’t help much in tracking down the institution – oh for an identifying badge or similar.

The David Strickland 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 experience to log on, this interrupts the listening 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 Dollar Gill on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

If you’ve been reading the Procrastination Pen for a while you will have come across the theory that people have a much more gentle and quiet approach to examinations when dealing with small people.

What could be better to test if this is consistent or just an occasional occurrence than to occasionally feature an examination with a small person and to observe whether such videos are better in terms of volume and method.

Universities have so far been pretty good for videos but they are also often a huge source of self-promotional material involving MGM style soundtracks and Saachi and Saachi motivational messages. There is, therefore, a mass of material to look at and quite a lot of it is unsuitable for us.

The University of Leicester though, in common with Warwick University, who we saw before,  has a number of teaching videos and some of those are very good. Today’s video is sadly very brief at just shy of five minutes in duration.

Paediatric Clinical Examinations – The Abdomen

It includes comments and as expected a number of the comments are not helpful. Reading between the lines though, I think ASMR fans are here well before I am. This is something that we have come to expect now.

It is a professional video and so of course it has notes associated with it:

“30 Jul 2014

This is a real-time demonstration illustrating the technique and parent and child interaction involved in the examination of the abdominal system of a child.

The film was produced by a paediatrician to aid the teaching of clinical examination skills. It starts where the history has been taken, and the clinical examination is about to commence.

Written and presented by Dr Elaine Carter, Emeritus Consultant Paediatrician, MA, MB ChB, MRCP, FRCPCH, MMedSci.

This film was produced by External Relations, University of Leicester.

Filmed & Edited by Carl Vivian

Written & Produced by Elaine Carter”

There is no – I mean zero – music at the start of the video – Warwick take note. This is such a welcome difference.

We are introduced to mum Sophie and her son Alex, who, it has to be said, looks suitably anxious. There is limited background noise; no obvious air conditioning noises for example.

The presentation is lovely and gentle. So far, the theory about small people is vindicated yet again.

I never expected a child to be this calm when having his abdomen probed in such a deep manner. Perhaps the presentation is just a little loud but that is a minor criticism and is only possible because other aspects of the video are so right.

Interestingly, I found the video is now in the Internet Archive the first time I have ever found that to be the case.

The video is posted eight years ago to this channel: University of Leicester.

This channel is simply huge, 1.3K videos at the date I am looking at it. Eighty-seven playlists and few of these are anything that we could use.

However searching the Internet Archive, discovered earlier, we find that Elaine is also involved in another video of a similar type.

This video, as luck would have it, is also present on YouTube:

Paediatric Clinical Examinations – The Respiratory System

This one seems to have been filmed before the previous one in that this is the first time we are introduced to Alex.

Again, there are notes: “30 Jul 2014

This is a real-time demonstration illustrating the technique and parent and child interaction involved in the examination of the respiratory system of a child.

The film was produced by a paediatrician to aid the teaching of clinical examination skills. It starts where the history has been taken, and the clinical examination is about to commence.

Written and presented by Dr Elaine Carter, Emeritus Consultant Paediatrician, MA, MB ChB, MRCP, FRCPCH, MMedSci.

This film was produced by External Relations, University of Leicester.

Filmed & Edited by Carl Vivian

Written & produced by Elaine Carter”

As before there is no startup music. If it wasn’t the fact that there would be so little material to work with, I would only select videos that lacked startup music (and tail end music as well for that).

We are also introduced to Ellie, Alex’s sister, Alex looks suitably bored, possibly because his sister is the focus of attention in this video.

It is another brief one at just less than six- and three-quarter minutes.

The presentation style here, if anything, is quieter than with the previous video. Ellie seems calm, even happy at intervals.

The comments are variable as always but again reading between the lines this is also already known to the ASMR community.

That’s it for this time.

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.

Photo by Mikhail Tyrsyna on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

I notice that there is now a lot more traffic in social media sites that utilise pictures or videos than there is in sites dedicated to reading. So, it is feasible that writing a blog (to whatever level of skill) is now something of a dying art (a bit like writing thank-you letters to your aunt because you received a fountain pen for your birthday).

It seems few people write letters now other than solicitors and banks. People using fountain pens do so because they like pens, rather than it’s a thing that you just use.

I assume people still have aunts; however, I imagine any messages of thanks are now received via Signal, WhatsApp or even (the now somewhat dated) SMS.

Perhaps AI will save us by writing all these blog articles for us, however I wonder then who will be left to read them.

So, it is with a sense of some stubbornness that I write (however badly) another article on ASMR for sleep.

Today’s video comes from that very deep mine of videos which we have thoroughly excavated of late which is the video apparently produced as some kind of course work. Sadly, these always seem to be pressured efforts produced in public areas and as such the sound quality is often not quite there.

A number of these seem a great idea at first (to me at least) but have subsequently hit the Procrastination Pen archive list because they do not measure up to the competition we are seeing through continual review of the videos available.

So, it is with a triumph of optimism over experience that we come to today’s:

Head to toe

The sound is flat as if being recorded from some distance away (which may be the reality). The pace is frenetic (is someone timing the participants for some reason?)

From the introductory comments I heard that the medical professional is Carmen, a student (some kind of student but it was too fast for me to catch what).

Similarly, the “patient” could be “Charlene” (but that may well not be correct).

The date it is filmed is 03/08/2021 and they are at LIU campus Brooklyn.

LIU of course has its own YouTube channel. (This must be de rigueur for universities). However, there appear to be only fifty-nine videos here. As we have seen before these tend to be promotional videos for the university, rather than material that an ASMR-related blog can really make much use of.

The video (as is common for such videos) is in portrait mode (presumably filmed on a phone). As we have come to expect, there are various noises associated with equipment. Here, the muted nature of the volume works in our favour.

There are no comments permitted (which as has been pointed out before is probably wise). However, it does mean that I have no awareness as to whether other people have discovered this video and are using it for ASMR purposes. ASMR fans are so good at sniffing out a good video that a tracker dog would do less well. I therefore suspect quite a few have been here before me.

Once the examination-proper starts, things begin to slow down. (Thank goodness, this is supposed to be relaxing).

At nearly forty-two and a half minutes this is quite a long video. One does get the idea with such videos that in order to pass an assessment the student has to rattle through a list of certain phrases as if mentally following a checklist.

This often leads to a quite stilted presentation. (Presumably it is effective for assessment purposes, however).

Charlene (if that is her name) seems as anxious as we have come to expect in such videos. Perhaps the pace has not been relaxing for her either.

There are a number of thumps and bangs from the equipment. As pointed out before medical equipment does not seem to come with the quiet option.

Definition:

JVD: Jugular Vein Distention, bulging of veins in the neck.

Thrill: a heart murmur that can be felt.

Bursitis: a swollen and painful joint.

The channel is carmen yip which has one video and no playlists. Yet, despite this, it has two hundred and five subscribers, that is quite an achievement I 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.

Photo by Nihal Karkala on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Welcome to the Procrastination Pen and the latest series which is featuring ASMR. More specifically, videos which will soothe you back to sleep after you have woken for the third time from your most tenacious nightmare.

The output of these articles is a playlist of videos which you can watch in shuffle mode on YouTube (or more probably if you are trying to get some sleep – listen).

I will always put the playlist at the end of the article, so if you have no time, scroll straight to the end and pick it up from there.

Still here? Fantastic, let’s take a look at today’s video. As usual, I am not the first to look at this as a potential ASMR candidate. Some of the comments indicate that others were here before me and obviously at least some of them have found it helpful.

HEINE Direct Ophthalmoscopy — How to perform Ophthalmoscopy

It is a professionally produced video and as we have found with professionally produced videos it has notes to clarify what the contents are about.

“5 Mar 2010

How to perform direct ophthalmoscopy using the direct ophthalmoscope. HEINE products and Mr. Brian Little.

0:00 Intro Ophthalmoscopy

0:55 The Ophthalmoscope

2:29 Examining the Red Reflex

4:37 Examining the Fundus

6:14 Direct Ophthalmoscopy Limitations

6:55 Ocular Pathology

▬ About this channel ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

On “HeineOptotechnik” you will find videos about high-quality diagnostic instruments from HEINE, compact information about their handling as well as application examples.

Subscribe now and stay up to date!

Subscription link: https://www.youtube.com/user/HeineOpt…”

At eight minutes twenty-two seconds not the longest that we have seen so far. This has a good narration track (potentially Brian, if so he has a good voice).

After a few minutes I found that the approach was wonderfully relaxing with, thankfully, no background noise at all. As an instructional video it is methodical and well-paced and gratifyingly, no unpleasant surprises.

The channel is HEINE Optotechnik with one hundred and thirty-three videos at the day I am looking at it. There are thirteen playlists so it seems best to identify a playlist which contains this video. Sadly, none of the playlists contain this video. The next technique I usually adopt is to scan all videos to see if the same “patient” or the same medical professional is in any of the others.

In this case there is not a fantastic view of the medical professional and there appears to be only one video with this “patient”.

In this case I tried videos which feature Brian Little as the narrator and came up with three (Including the one reviewed at the beginning of this article).

HEINE Indirect Ophthalmoscopy — The Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscope (Part 1)

Again, there are notes “29 Jun 2010

The development, the optics, the controls and the clinical examination for the Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscope explained by Mr. Brian Little.

Learning Objectives Part 1:

0:53 Development

1:30 Optics

3:36 Controls

Clinical Examination:    • HEINE Indirect Op… 

▬ Recommended videos ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

► HEINE Indirect Ophthalmoscopy Part 2:    • HEINE Indirect Op… 

► HEINE OMEGA 500 Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscope:    • HEINE OMEGA 500 I… 

▬ About this channel ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

On “HeineOptotechnik” you will find videos about high-quality diagnostic instruments from HEINE, compact information about their handling as well as application examples.

Subscribe now and stay up to date!

Subscription link: https://www.youtube.com/user/HeineOpt…

▬ Social Media ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/heineopto…

►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heineoptote…”

The voice is as good as before, the approach is still methodical but there is no patient examination in this particular video. There are no ASMR comments with the video, so it does not appear as popular as the last one. However, it lacks distracting background noise and has potential for relaxation, I think.

HEINE Indirect Ophthalmoscopy — The Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscope (Part 2)

notes again “29 Jun 2010

The development, the optics, the controls and the clinical examination for the Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscope explained by Mr. Brian Little.

Learning Objectives Part 2:

0:46 Clinical Examination

5:42 Summary

▬ Recommended videos ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

► HEINE Direct Ophthalmoscopy:    • HEINE Direct Opht… 

► HEINE OMEGA 500 Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscope:    • HEINE OMEGA 500 I… 

▬ About this channel ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

On “HeineOptotechnik” you will find videos about high-quality diagnostic instruments from HEINE, compact information about their handling as well as application examples.

Subscribe now and stay up to date!

Subscription link: https://www.youtube.com/user/HeineOpt…

▬ Social Media ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/heineopto…

►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heineoptote…”

Familiar voice, similar approach, professionally recorded, there seems little to dislike. No comments from ASMR fans again so this is probably another unpopular one.

This one does include a patient examination (unlike the last one). Therefore it is more in tune with our standard approach, which is to feature medical examination videos.

Examining the rest of HEINE Optotechnik, there seems little else of value ASMR-wise at this moment in time, so I am unlikely to revisit. Still, we have three more videos for the playlist and we do not always find that.

The HEINE Optotechnik 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 Pourya Gohari on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Some people have echoed the concern that the material to write a blog dedicated to ASMR is soon enough going to dry up and I shall come to an abrupt halt. Recently, however I have signed up to an ASMR group on Facebook. This group receives ASMR posts daily and a great many of them. It seems likely that there will always be ASMR material. It also seems that the popularity of ASMR isn’t going to wane in the short term. ASMR seems to have now been established as an interest for a sufficient time that I think it unlikely that this is a fashion or a fad.

What will perhaps be more challenging is the area I have chosen to explore, which is of ASMR-inducing videos where that was not the initial intent of the video. I find this a great deal more interesting, like uncovering a diamond in a coal mine.

It does mean quite a bit of work in sifting through the very many unsuitable videos. However, the mental reward when the like of Hollie Berry or Shane Brun are discovered does to some extent compensate for that. Although, unsurprisingly, there are many more videos which are not of that calibre.

Every once in a while, I will take a side route to illustrate videos that are not quite on theme but might be of interest. If, one day, I cease to discover new inadvertent ASMR there is always the world of professional ASMR to take a look at. It might even be that readers of this blog will encourage that direction, perhaps to advertise their own ASMR material, for example.

For now, I have another video to look at.

Head to Toe Assessment: Greta Garber

This is quite brief in terms of the videos we have looked at of late, at just over six and a quarter minutes.

The notes are informative: “18 Nov 2020

Head to Toe Assessment done by Greta Garber on November 18th for NSG 261 Skills Test #2”

NSG261 appears to be one in a series of exams with NSG262 and NSG263 material also being readily available in terms of study guides, quizzes, advice and so on. So it does not appear to uniquely identify a specific institution. Where colleges offer NSG courses these seem to be in relation to a nursing qualification, so it might be that NSG is just an odd abbreviation for nursing.

Greta Garber is the medical professional in this video, the “patient” is Audrey Stephens (almost certainly misspelled). Given this is filmed in 2020 it might have been when Greta was at Miami University.

Miami, of course has its own channel with around hundred and ninety-seven videos at the time I am looking at it. However, we have experience of university channels now and mostly they are about promoting the university (unsurprisingly) and experience tells us it is a poor source for ASMR material.

The address is given which sounds like “233 Gaslin”, but which almost certainly is nothing like that. Many of the commentators have mentioned that whoever is handling the camera probably had a bad cold that day, or at the least is used to breathing through their mouth. At times it sounds like someone trying to make a certain kind of telephone call.

The poster for Phi Mu turns out to be a “fraternity” at Miami. I’m not at all informed about what a fraternity would do or why they exist. This one seems to exist as a way to meet like-minded women, which amongst other things, seems to be involved in some charitable events. Perhaps that is why all fraternities exist. Interestingly, the word seems to originate with the term brotherhood, which makes its re-use as a term to define a group of women interesting. American websites seem to more typically use the term “Sorority” to define a group like this. I’m not sure of the ramifications (which could potentially be political).

Although it starts a bit energetically – it seems like it was quite hard to take it all seriously – the video settles down and becomes quite gentle (in places anyway).

The channel is Greta Garber there are four videos of which this one is by far the most recent. The others do not look very promising as ASMR candidates.

cheer winter

Given the music and photographic content I would say it is a nostalgic celebration of success designated for participants only. Definitely of no use for an ASMR video.

meniscus

well, the title is medical so it promises to be more interesting. The music at the start is a lot less so. It is slightly over two and a half minutes so really not very long. The video includes the channel owner and someone called Kayla, who on the face of it has a much better voice.

It was obviously filmed in the equivalent of a canteen with the background noise that we have come to expect from such locations. It then appears to move to a more medical room with a similar level of noise. There is the air conditioning unit running which could have doubled as a cooling plant at Chernobyl. It could have been a very good video in principle but I think it is more likely to keep you awake than lull you off to sleep.

VOTE GRETA GARBER FOR SECRETARY

Loud, so loud. Really not at all what we want to hear.

So that’s it. Not a huge one this time I’m afraid, but I’m sure that we will have next time another for your delectation.

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

In a previous blog post I pointed out that there was a whole page of videos on the Internet that had no affiliation (that I could determine) to YouTube, and that therefore I was unable to embed in a WordPress page for viewing.

In addition, I felt that the videos could be better shown to you if I took them and uploaded them to YouTube on my channel. However, I am not a copyright expert, and in my amateur way rather thought some very well-paid people in threatening clothing might send me a formally-written letter if I tried it.

So I looked out for a contact email and found that the owner Dr Michael Koller had died. This is not only very sad but very regrettable in that I could not ask him if I could upload these videos to my channel on YouTube. I have approached Stritch via email, but each time I look at the website there seems to be another email to try and so to date I have not received permission (or a flat refusal) to use them.

The upshot is that the blog posts on this page tend to be a little dry as they are not dotted with friendly-looking embedded videos. However, given I habitually recommend that you go to YouTube to play the videos in my usual posts, and in this case, you simply have to go to the page to play the videos, there isn’t a great deal of difference.

I would feel that I wasn’t doing my part in telling you about the material that is out there if I simply limited myself to YouTube.

However, I don’t want to dwell too long on material that cannot be actively linked to (other than via URL) so although it will make this blog post a long one, I intend to cover off the remaining videos on that page in this blog post.

The complete page is here: https://www.stritch.luc.edu/lumen/meded/medicine/pulmonar/pdself/menu_videos4.htm

This has now been covered in two prior blog posts.

As part of this process, we satisfied ourselves that where there were complete and part videos under the same title. That the part videos were simply parts of that complete one. That is, you could get the material from all the part videos simply by watching the complete one. This will save time here; I can link the part videos for interest but cover only the complete videos. In addition, the included text files seem to only be of academic interest to those on the course for whom it was intended, so we have no need to review those.

15 Minute Screening Neuro Exam; Dr Michael Merchut

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=63316618-E354-4810-B165-86F5BE921595

This starts quietly and thankfully devoid of startup music. The video is just over twelve minutes in length. Dr Merchut turns out to have a great ASMR voice, and had this been available on YouTube it would have been in the Procrastination Pen playlist. This is a loss to the list and to the ASMR community.

Detailed Neurological Exam; Dr Michael Merchut

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=9E4CE1F3-C34F-47FB-BD71-0CABC3072A8E

Part 1: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=AA8922F6-F798-4142-A821-42882B67E091

Part 2: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=E979142A-9E74-4F3A-B3A4-A78945B1C703

Part 3: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=6F820BDB-82F2-4B7E-ADD6-652AE7FEAFCA

Part 4: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=45E2AD3F-AEC4-4E01-88D4-0749FFA55142

Part 5: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=0C5B819B-57E5-4EC5-BA2E-9E4D26DD5A41

Part 6: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=9EF4F8DD-CC9B-4B21-A4AA-456863FC34E8

I’ll ignore the part videos as they have nothing extra to contribute. The complete video starts with startup music, which fortunately is neither too long nor too loud. Dr Merchut returns and gives a reasonably lengthy introductory speech. The entire video is a little over forty seven and a half minutes.

His voice is not quite so excellent in this one, but this is in comparison with the last one which was actually rather good.

Nancy again the “patient”. She featured in our previous blog post.

Again, I think if this video had been on YouTube, then it would have already been in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Oral Presentation; Dr Michael Koller

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=3EFE23F8-8960-4AC6-8A37-F1EFBD73B302

Part 1: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=0247721D-D980-446B-B786-C69B70D641F2

Part 2: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=861669A7-1548-4E51-AA41-BB2834464384

Part 3: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=8F822DBB-08A6-4FB7-B957-F6CEE834FFD2

Again, I’ll focus on the complete video only. In this case it features Dr Koller. We know that we are on safe ground with Dr Koller, in fact we have already added one of his videos to the Procrastination Pen playlist from YouTube.

This also begins with startup music but this time it is really going for it. The video quality is also on the abysmal side of poor. The sound has the normal background we would expect by now (air conditioning again).

The video is a little less than twenty-three and a half minutes. The initial presentation style is a little halting and, although this is the point of the video, it proves to be distracting.

Dr Koller is doing the narration which is great but somewhat intermittent (more narration by Dr Koller would be welcome as he has a good voice).

The music then kicks in again at breaks in the video. The sound has a metallic edge to it.

Although Dr Koller is as good as we are used to, the way the video is structured makes it more stimulating than anyone really needs when they are trying to get to sleep. Even if it were possible, I do not think that this one would be finding its way into the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Definition:

HPI – History of Present Illness.

PCM Gowning and Draping; Dr Michael Koller

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=08522D70-D724-4F3E-8BB1-39914783108E

This time just one video available, again with Dr Koller. This is just less than twenty-five and a quarter minutes and thank goodness there is no startup music. There is an ever-present air conditioning background drone though.

Dr Koller still has a good voice for our purposes. In this case though, I’m not certain the subject matter is that fascinating to anyone who isn’t in the medical profession. However fascinating is not that useful in getting off to sleep so this video might be a great fit.

Part way through we have loud clunks due to equipment noises (metal drawers being pushed in and out), just the kind of noise to stir someone from sleep as they were dozing off.

A great deal of thought has gone into the positioning of gowns and drapes in this video and apart from equipment noises, it is a good video for us. It’s a shame about the equipment as otherwise it would have been a great Procrastination Pen playlist candidate (well had it been on YouTube in any case).

Full Body Skin Exam; Estelle Kahn MS4 and Dr Anthony Peterson

In this case there is no “complete” video, so no choice other than to review each in turn.

Introduction: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=19CBA75E-0AF6-4B70-87E3-390A01173012

Unfortunately, there is start up music and it is really dynamic stuff too. Estelle initially does not have a true ASMR voice, sometimes this happens when the person is presenting rather than examining someone however.

This introduction is a little over four minutes in length. If you are watching it is slightly distracting that Estelle seems to be reading a script which is slightly off camera.

I’m pretty sure that even had I the opportunity, this one would not be in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Exam: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=2C6965B5-F2BC-4EED-A2B4-52E185A77EE1

It starts with door opening noises which are a little distracting. We see this in student assessment videos of course, soft-close not being a thing in medical establishments.

Dr Peterson has an excellent voice. He might be worth checking for elsewhere in case there is other material available. As expected, Estelle’s voice is much more muted during the examination. The examination is gentle and methodical and the whole video lasts only a little under nine and a quarter minutes. There are occasional equipment noises, equipment not having been designed to slide quietly in use apparently. All-in-all it is quite a good video. If it had been on YouTube this would be a strong Procrastination Pen playlist candidate.

Conclusion: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=75C54DF8-09FB-4141-A186-4A654725FFC5

Dr Peterson presenting and this is great as he has by far the better voice for us. There is no startup music – yay. There are occasional loud moments; watch the volume. Dr Peterson appears to be consulting notes at intervals, although if you’re just listening you will not notice that. The whole video is somewhat under three and a half minutes. This would’ve been a good Procrastination Pen playlist candidate (had it been on YouTube).

Neonatal Exam; Dr Thomas DeStefani

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=4DE8CA15-DAF6-42FC-AA95-40EA218E2942

Part 1: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=B736EE60-21CA-4916-BBA6-00E433518D68

Part 2: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=0917610E-D1CF-4575-9005-83A091053322

Part 3: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=702D5D1B-A58B-4244-A26D-826524F854F4

Reviewing the complete video again, the entire video is thirty-seven and a quarter minutes. It starts with some positively starship enterprise style music; very grand; very distracting. Straight away we seem to be in the soundscape of a public area, there is some kind of hubbub in play. Dr De Stefani is narrating this one. He does not have as good a voice as Dr Peterson sadly. There are telephone noises which Dr De Stefani has to talk over.

When the examination of the baby commences it quietens down a great deal. Of course with examination of a baby, the baby starts to complain about it. Not substantially so though. In fact, this was a good baby to choose as she appears to be so chilled under examination. After a while she does lose patience and lets us have it crying wise.

Background medical establishment noises continue; a repeating electronic beep sound at one stage, sounds of other babies at some distance who are a bit less chilled, muted conversations from adjacent rooms, distant equipment noises, an occasional telephone and of course the continuous accompaniment of air conditioning noises.

Although this is in part a great video, I think these distracting noises would discount it from the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Definition:

Foetal Alcohol Syndrome: effects that occur as a result of a mother drinking (alcohol) while pregnant.

Knee; Dr Jerold Sterling

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=52F9EC84-D261-46C3-B048-6EBA2CE966AE

Just the one video to look at a little over twelve minutes and it starts with startup music and there is a constant background hiss happening as if the entire thing was recorded on an LP and then poorly stored.

For some reason after a minute that hiss disappears entirely. Dr Sterling does not have a natural ASMR voice but by no means the worst that we have heard.

The delivery is measured and even and accompanied only by the hmm of air conditioning.

It’s sad about the start as otherwise this could have been a good video for us.

PCM1 Upper Limb/Spine; Dr Paul Lento

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=49B3EF2E-91D6-4DB7-B7A6-FBA1933D7AEA

Part 1: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=D64FC0E9-D5DC-461C-80F0-77F88CC9A3DD

Part 2: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=05E08513-5688-497B-8058-72CB85B564A5

Looking at the complete video then, it is just under twenty five and three quarter minutes. Dr Lento has an impressive voice, impressive in its volume I mean. After the start-up music it is quite surprising to find the voice of the presenter louder than the music.

The “patient” is Sal – or that is what it sounds like. The volume also exposes the metallic sound to the audio track which we encountered with a previous video in this blog article.

This video really isn’t a suitable one for our purposes.

PCM1 Lower Limb; Dr Bill Hopkinson

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=CEBDE33C-BBA4-4F9C-BD72-7D2F39E1C3B4

Only one video to review, eleven and three quarter minutes and again with the startup music. The videos are now starting to fall into a theme. Dr Bill Hopkinson who immediately has a better voice for us. He is quieter, more measured in expressing himself but he does attempt to compensate for that with the loudest washing of his hands I have encountered thus far.

We encounter Sal again as the “patient” – they obviously had him around and so were going to make good use of him. This one seems to have less background noise, certainly less hiss than encountered in previously videos in this article.

The actual video quality is no better though, not that I suspect you would be watching in any case.

PCM2 Musculoskeletal Provocative Exam; Dr Neeru Jayanthi

In this case there is no “complete” video so there is no choice other than to review each video in turn.

Introduction: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=49A8423E-73F8-4111-860C-6808C3CF30F4

Less than three quarters of a minute so do not blink. Dr Neeru Jayanthi who on the basis of this amazingly brief video has a good voice for our purposes. Eric is the “patient” here. There was still time to sneak in introductory music (boo), although the background noise for some reason is a great deal more muted in this one, probably not enough here for me to consider it for the procrastination pen playlist.

Shoulder: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=79BA4C19-6E74-41FB-89A2-6D29AF23CF19

Just a bit more than three and a quarter minutes – none of these are winning any length contests. This would be a good candidate for the Procrastination Pen playlist if it ever appeared on YouTube (hint Stritch hint).

Elbow: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=1B623A46-E00E-476B-BB63-0BF76F51DEF3

Just less than one- and three-quarter minutes probably not long enough for any playlist, in fact the way these are going it would be better to combine them into one long playlist – which I sense is probably how it was filmed in the first place and then they were divided up for (presumably) educational purposes.

Hand/Wrist: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=B60FA5A4-C1A1-4F81-85B7-B25328532E71

One and a quarter minutes, again rather short – combine these, lop off that music and this would be a good set for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Functional-Hip: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=2F1751ED-CA75-484C-A9DA-A0CB750361F2

Just less than one and a quarter minutes – it looks like we have a theme developing.

Knee: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=B7BC44CE-7A50-4148-B73B-505D5B7C8605

A little less than two minutes but remains consistent with others in this set.

Foot/Ankle: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=5355FBDC-93E8-4439-B3BD-D6F02FD9C8C2

Almost a minute, so short it is barely a blip.

Hip/Spine: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=89F41E6A-1265-4B82-ABF9-81D725BDE903

Just over one- and three-quarter minutes, again no extraneous noises and a good presentation. A good combination of these videos would make one good one for the Procrastination Pen playlist – assuming anyone uploaded it to YouTube.

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

In searching for new ASMR videos I’m prepared to try various avenues. You will have noticed that on occasion I do voyage away from the main theme, which to date has been medical (and similar) examination videos.

Despite the attrition of videos slowly being removed from YouTube, the Procrastination Pen playlist continues to grow and hence I can afford to be quite critical of its contents and to weed out those that are less desirable for sleep promotion than at first thought.

The overall playlist as usual appears at the end of this article, so if you are short of time scroll straight to the end and pick it up from there.

If you’re still reading, onto today’s idea.

Of late I have noticed that some gruff and loud presenters seem to calm down and go quiet when dealing with young people. Today’s is a foray into that area therefore.

It is this one:

Rachel Bridges Head to Toe Assessment

As expected, it is quiet, calm and methodically presented. The only thing I would say is that you might need to turn the volume up a bit.

At just over twenty-five minutes, it is quite a good length and it seems others think so too as the channel has over two thousand subscribers as at today’s date. However, (probably sensibly) comments are not permitted which means I cannot tell if ASMR fans have already tracked this down. (As we’ve seen before some comments are less than helpful).

The small person seems suitably entertained including being tickled at one stage, I think.

The medical institution is not identified. Rachel has an identification badge but I cannot make out what it says.

There is as expected continual background noise (probably air conditioning) as we’ve heard before.

I would guess from the orientation of the video (Portrait mode) that it was taken using a mobile phone or similar device.

Rachel maintains a conversation with the small person throughout, including in areas I thought they would find hard to comprehend.

I think this one belongs in the Procrastination Playlist, although it might be subject to future weeding.

This one is posted in 2018 to the following channel:

Rachel Bridges

The videos on here range from five years ago to five months ago and there are only four of them. There has to be a reason why there are quite so many subscribers. I would make a wild guess some ASMR fans have got here before me.

Looking at the other videos:

September 15, 2017

Very brief, just over a minute and appears to be reading from a piece about nurse practitioners. Rachel has a good voice but this one does not seem to be a great fit for the playlist. I think this might be an assessment piece for a course which is in line with other videos that have been featured before.

Another very brief video:

January 20, 2023

This one is on the role of a psychiatric nurse mental health practitioner, again, it is reading from a script and is not a good fit for the playlist.

The next one is another “Head to Toe” but without the small person (the person involved is more adult sized). Let’s see if my theory about people changing behaviour based on whether a person is a young person is supported by the second video.

The video is this one:

R.Bridges Head to toe assessment

Straight away the presentation is a lot faster than the last “Head to Toe” on this channel, and a lot less measured. However, the tone remains quiet. The presentation is so fast in places I am not sure what medical terminology is in use.

I have a feeling that the “patient” here actually has a slightly better voice (than Rachel). However, he gets little to say (he is also unidentified).

Comments are permitted but there are no comments that are helpful to us (such as where this is for example).

However, at one stage the badge comes into view and I believe it states “NP Student” at “Indiana Wesleyan”.

So at least we have identified the location, if not the “patient”.

We’re back to landscape mode with this one but the background noise persists. The volume is slightly louder, not markedly, but I would say the approach is less gentle (than the first video in this article).

It is just over nineteen and a half minutes so still a good length and on balance I would say also belongs in the Procrastination Pen playlist. However, I keep reviewing this playlist and videos get demoted to the archive playlist all the time based upon their long-term sleep promotion effects (or otherwise).

The video goes out of focus at one stage but, given you will not be watching but lying there praying for sleep whilst listening, I think that’s unlikely to affect you.

As is not atypical for assessment videos. There are occasional thuds as equipment is relocated – in the past I have weeded videos for this, and this one might be another that goes the same way.

I notice that (like me) the patient has apparent problems with the heel to toe exercise (not great if you have dodgy balance).

So a couple of videos from Rachel worthy of conclusion and so, as is habitual on this site, I have created a Rachel Bridges playlist:

The main playlist on the Procrastination pen is (as always) here:

The archive list of videos which whilst once in that main list were found over time to be less listenable than at first thought is here:

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I hope that you continue to find them restful

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

Until next time.

Photo by Anas Belmadani on Unsplash