YouTube has intermittently started to require me to log on. This only seems to happen on the tablet; it does not seem to happen on the laptop. The upshot is that whilst I am reviewing the videos (on the laptop), I can play what I like and I can write these articles. However, when I go to bed, I try to play the playlist and I get stopped and asked to log on. My password is a lengthy one; I am not at all interested in raising myself from a partially sleepy state to start typing in passwords. I’m sure it is possible, I just don’t value the change in requirements, and I have alternatives that do not dictate to me in this fashion. (Not least a number of videos I have found on the Internet Archive – some of which I have featured of late).
Sadly, it is in a language I do not understand. The person is listed as “Emma Smith” but the content sounds Russian to me. I only worry in case I recommend something which contains language that I wouldn’t recommend if I did understand it. If anyone understands this content and finds it to be filled with undesirable language, let me know and I’ll delete the recommendation. It references a channel, I tried that for further details but found it did not exist. So not a lot of help.
The voice is not what I would call tip-top, but the video does lack background noise, startup (and tail end) music. It is an odd one in that I have seen a few head-to-tail videos (usually by medical students), and this content does not look like any I have seen so far. It is possible that it was extracted from a much longer video. Have a listen and see what you think.
For this week’s Calm recommendation, I am back with Jeff:
As Calm dailies go this is quite a long one. It is close on 11 minutes, possibly even enough to drop off to. However, the thing I love about Jeff is how often he comes up with something which reflects some of the things I have either dealt with or am dealing with. Even where he doesn’t do that, I find the subjects that he brings up to be fascinating in any case. This one is about being able to welcome anything that happens to you in your life. This, to me, sounds like a rather daunting expectation. Even where what has happened will last for the rest of your life. As I get older, I begin to understand there are a number of changes that are just not going to go away. In which case, I think practices like this may increase in relevance.
For this week’s professional ASMR video I have been looking at this one:
Removing a foreign object from your Arm | ASMR Medical role play
It is odd for a professional ASMR video, in that it does not have a description. There are comments but they are decidedly on the surreal side – very normal YouTube then. It comes from the channel sillystarASMR. This channel has six hundred and fifty-seven videos and 7.63K subscribers. There are seven playlists none of which obviously fit with the medical theme which we have been following for a while now.
The video is just less than seventeen minutes in length; it starts without music and straight away we hear that this is not classical ASMR. For a start there is no whispering involved and definitely no breathy moments. There is some mouth clucking noises and some background keyboarding happening. There are, of course, other noises: equipment noises, hand sanitiser noises, plastic sheet noises, beeping noises, Velcro noises, rustling noises, clicking noises, even the occasional clunk.
I would say that the voice isn’t high on empathy (this is in common with a number of student videos we have seen). Which shows how valuable a person who has some empathy in their voice actually is. At one stage there is even some sighing going on, as if the person is tired of the whole thing.
For the inadvertent ASMR this week I’m looking at this one:
Health Assessment
It is from the channel Dylan McCollough. This has four videos, 1.54K subscribers and no playlists. That seems a fair few subscribers for so few videos. Hopefully this bodes well for us.
Today’s video has no notes (usually a sign that it is not a professional ASMR video). Comments are permitted. There are a number of these and quite a few are uncomplimentary. That does not sound good for us.
The video is just less than twenty-two minutes. It starts without music but does have some strong background noise – almost certainly air conditioning. Unlike some of the commentators I rather like the voice. Some parts of the presentation are a mite hesitant so it strikes me as one of the student assessment videos which we are so familiar with. The voice then gets very quiet indeed and personally I was straining to make out much. The auto subtitles seem quite good for that if you really want to watch (I assume you’ll just be listening). Fortunately, it becomes a lot more listenable quite swiftly.
There are noises from other people (presumably in adjacent rooms in the medical establishment). These are unwelcome and quite loud. There’s the occasional clunk from equipment and slamming of doors sufficiently nearby to be quite loud. There is the sound of water running at one point in an adjacent room. There are noises from the patient moving around when requested. I would say that the patient does not have such a great voice and he is a bit louder than the medical professional here as well. However, he is very respectful in his responses so I was quite taken with that. Whoever is operating the recording equipment occasional thumbs the microphone, fortunately that isn’t too loud. The examination is methodical, even gentle, shame about that air conditioning and those extraneous noises, but it is often thus with student assessment videos. I can see why people take videos and edit them to retain only the quiet bits, but how they get over the copyright issues I have no idea.
On that basis, just one, video on this occasion.
That’s it on this occasion, more next time.
See you again next week.
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.
I occasionally listen to a podcast by “Getting Things Done” guru and productivity expert David Allen. I always aspire to be a productivity God but find myself more in the “rushing around trying to get a lot of things done at once” category. Still, I do find his material inspirational in a “if only I was that organised…” kind of way.
It also reinforces to me how important the subject of focus for the Procrastination Pen blog is, and has been. Given that the drive of these articles is to get more and better-quality sleep using distraction as a technique.
Distraction mainly by making use of restful, calming sounds, that soothe a racing mind and make it ready for some rest (where it might not have been before listening).
I have found that there are as many calming sounds as there are people prepared to listen to them. Personally, I like a quiet, peaceful sounding voice. If I can find one that sounds even a little empathetic so much the better. For this reason, for a very long time, I have been focused on YouTube videos with some medical content. (I found that medical professionals often have the better voices, but sadly, not always).
However, the longer I stayed with YouTube, the louder and more frenetic the adverts have become. Also, the more often I seem to have problems with it like a recent iterative logon prompt which went away by itself after twenty-four hours, indicating, to my mind, that the problem wasn’t mine.
On that basis I have started to cast around for material that does not rely upon YouTube, and I have found that some of the video content seems to have been archived onto the Internet Archive.
For example, this one, it is only eight minutes but the voice is excellent. It is also available as a physical file
This seems to be the advantage of this site. Ostensibly you could download the files and assemble them into a playlist offline, without needing to listen to those adverts. Sadly, there do not appear to be a huge number of these in the Internet Archive so it isn’t any YouTube replacement. However, it maybe sufficient to assemble a few videos from various sources and that maybe enough to drop off to.
For some time now I have been reviewing Calm material. I’m making the assumption that at least some of the people that happen across this blog one way or another can access Calm. (Calm requires a subscription). I like it because I have a subscription and more importantly it does not have adverts. I will readily admit that the content is a bit on the variable side and the ones I feature here are just the ones I have got on with the best (so far anyway).
I’ve often reflected that I like most of the artists that record the Calm dailies on Calm (well their voices anyway) but perhaps Tamara has my favourite voice.
This is ten minutes on the value of silence. Including doing everything that you can to preserve silence when you find it.
I have reflected that it is a fortunate person who can find much silence in the modern world. I also recognise that some people with conditions such as tinnitus might find absolute silence to be too distracting. Where you both have and want silence what a privilege it is, and in some cases an asset to sleep as well.
For this week’s ASMR professional I came across a video from an artist who I first discovered by visiting a forum where someone was saying that this person was their favourite ASMR artist. The forum entry seems to be lost now and in my brief reviews of the videos (at that time) I did not find this to be my favourite artist.
I also discovered that all the original YouTube material for this channel was removed some time ago. It is therefore only where someone has reposted a video that you will even get the chance to listen:
It seems that some personal information was leaked and ASMRaurette left YouTube for keeps.
However, there is some content on the Internet Archive.
Including
and
and
and
So, plenty of opportunity to try out the odd video and see if you like the sound.
Today’s video is a little less than seventeen minutes long. The notes are incredibly brief: “712,958 views 23 Jul 2014
20121010″
Comments are denied (perhaps wisely). There is no startup music but there is some background noise. The voice is very muted and almost childlike in fact (perhaps ASMRaurette was very young when she recorded this). The background noise seems to rise and fall which makes me wonder if it is the fan on the computer this was recorded on or similar. The visual quality is poor which may reflect the fact that this has probably been recorded from somewhere and not that well… (such as a piece of software used to stream and record a YouTube video, for example). Although not my favourite voice, this is still a very good voice and if someone caused this artist to leave YouTube then it was a sad day for ASMR fans, I fear. Perhaps a good opportunity to celebrate the videos that we still have.
You may recall a previous post in which I mentioned a URL which linked to thirty two videos. The URL is this one:
It has thirty-two videos (discounting the introductory one). Last time we managed to review just four of these, so there is a fair few left to look at…
The next one in the series is this:
Airway Adjuncts – NPA, Guedel, BVM
Just less than eight minutes. The notes are: “272,764 views 13 May 2012
This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School in conjunction with the faculty – demonstrates the safe and correct use of airway adjuncts in maintaining an open airway.
It is part of a series of videos covering Respiratory Medicine skills 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”
The narrator has a reasonable voice; there is a small amount of hiss on the track, however. As before there is no music (hurray) and the approach is nicely measured.
The actual examination is silent, and so rather useful for us.
Oxygen Therapy and Delivery – How to Prescribe Oxygen
it is seven and a quarter minutes and the notes are: “695,126 views 13 May 2012 Nursing Skills
This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School in conjunction with the faculty – demonstrates how to deliver oxygen therapy through various devices, as well as the prescribing of oxygen. It is part of a series of videos covering Respiratory Medicine skills and is linked to Oxford Medical Education (www.oxfordmedicaleducation.com)
Please see the BTS guidelines for more information:
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”
The narrator has a good voice and the background noise consists merely of a muted hiss whenever the narrator speaks. The actual medical procedure is conducted in silence – which is quite useful in this context as we only have the narrator’s voice to attend to.
Inhaler and Nebuliser Explanation – Asthma
Just over five minutes and the notes are: “183,310 views 13 May 2012 Nursing Skills
This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School in conjunction with the faculty – demonstrates how to use a nebuliser and explain correct inhaler technique to a patient. It is part of a series of videos covering Respiratory Medicine skills and is linked to Oxford Medical Education (www.oxfordmedicaleducation.com)
Please see the BTS guidelines for more information:
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”
The narrator is not as good as the last video but still reasonably quiet. Background noise is absent as is startup music. The lack of startup music really distinguishes this set of videos from a number of others that we have reviewed.
The medical process is initially silent and so we only have to attend to the narrator which is rather good. However subsequently we realise that the narrator and the medical professional have either the same or similar voices (i.e. it is more than likely it is the same person) which makes for great continuity.
Peak Flow and Spirometry – Lung Function Tests
A little less than seven and a half minutes, the notes are: “464,178 views 13 May 2012 Nursing Skills
This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School in conjunction with the faculty – demonstrates how to perform the basic lung function tests of spirometry and peak flow.
It is part of a series of videos covering Respiratory Medicine skills.”
The narrator has a reasonable voice (not the best we’ve heard in this blog article) but it is adequate for us. The actual medical procedure is actually better than the narration in this one. However, the breathing exercises are too loud for this to belong in the Procrastination Pen playlist.
I think that I will conclude the blog post at this one and continue in another post. Failing that this blog post would become really large indeed, to the point of boredom, I imagine.
That’s it on this occasion, more next time.
The Oxford Medical Education Hospitals playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.
This week I have been giving thought to the technique of worry time. The idea being that you’re lying awake at night consumed by innumerable worries, including the worry that the clock is ticking round and, very soon, you will have to rise and shine and be there all bright and ready to take a grip on the world in the office. However, fortunately some time in advance of this happening, you have made a mental arrangement with yourself that you are only going to allow yourself to have any worries during your shower time. Let’s say fifteen minutes during the cold and dark moments of the morning.
The upshot is that you cannot worry now, and you’re just going to have to shelve those worries and pick them up again at your allotted time. Hey presto, you’re off in snozz land. The miracle of the technique apparently being that, by the time worry time does turn around, more often than not you forget what it was that you were supposed to worry about. The outcome is an instantaneous reduction in worries.
I have to confess that I have attempted most techniques that require a modicum of mental discipline, and realised that I have the mental discipline of a runaway train more often than not. If this technique is for you, then grab it firmly with both hands and enjoy the quieter night times that it brings.
For those of you that find it to be a great idea but just at this moment you cannot summon the sleep daemon to rush you off to snooze-snooze land, I have found that providing a distraction can work.
In fact, it can work if you have a noise you cannot dismiss (maybe someone snoring nearby, for example). It can work if your mind is buzzing and will not shut down. It can work if you seem amazingly wide awake and that very fact is annoying you.
I like to try this with sound. Sometimes it even works. Where sound is not fully effective, I try the television. There are some truly unmemorable offerings on television in the early hours of the morning that can properly assist in summoning the zzzs I find.
I have tried for many months now to make part of the solution the Procrastination Pen, where I review all kinds of calming videos, look at alternative sources of sound files (i.e. sources not involving YouTube), and give feedback on some recent listening to Calm that I have been doing.
I thought this week I would look for any content by Tamara Levitt (perhaps my favourite voice on Calm) that does not involve having to listen to adverts on YouTube. I also realise that a number of people are not going to want to buy a subscription to Calm either. It turns out that one video exists in the Internet Archive here:
For those of you that do not have a Calm subscription it gives you the chance to hear Tamara’s voice and to get a better idea of the kind of content that Calm subscribers are getting.
Talking of which, how about some Tamara content on Calm itself?
This is ten minutes and so probably not enough to go off to sleep to, unless you have a sleep trigger like a light switch. In which case I am privileged that you are taking the time to read the Procrastination Pen.
This is about the importance of silence in a world dominated by noises.
At this stage in the blog article (and for several weeks now), I tend to look at the offerings of a professional ASMR artist.
This one is a little bit borderline for the medical theme but still not completely off-topic, I think.
ASMR Victorian Medical Roleplay 🩺 Medical Exam
It has a refreshingly short set of notes for a professional ASMR artist: “2,185,073 views 13 Sept 2022 #asmr #asmrroleplay #asmrmale
Meet with the remarkable Doctor Cosmos and his scientific cures! An incredibly realistic (ha!) Victorian ASMR Roleplay Doctor Exam for your enjoyment!
My videos tend not to be recommended so if you could hit the bell and choose all notifications, I would be most grateful!
Any follows on my social media would be greatly appreciated 😃I also have a Patreon as a sort of tip jar 🙂
/ tinglesmith
/ tinglesmith
/ tingle_smith
What is ASMR? #ASMR Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), sometimes auto sensory meridian response is a tingling sensation that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. It is often driven by soft-spoken scripts, audio triggers and whispering. ASMR is also a major genre in itself where ASMRtists use triggers, storytelling and world-building asmr roleplays to help people experience relaxation and tingles! Disclaimer – These videos are for relaxation purposes. Any commentary is purely for the purpose of entertainment and to give you ASMR tingles! These videos are not a substitute for medical or therapeutic treatment. I do hope you enjoy them though 🙂
How this was made
Auto-dubbed
Audio tracks for some languages were automatically generated. Learn more”
There are comments, of course, and a fair number of those and these are the range we expect from YouTube including the odd one that makes you wonder…
The video itself is a mere twenty-six minutes or so. All in all, it is a bijou little offering. It comes from the channel Tinglesmith ASMR with 167k subscribers, one hundred and five videos ten playlists. None of these playlists are even close to a medical theme however. There are several medical-themed videos including today’s one on the channel though. So, I may come back dependent upon the quality of the sound. For some reason the posting of videos to this channel seems to let up about a year ago. Grab your listening while ye may.
The video starts with prompts for likes, not brilliant but not unknown. There is no startup music – hurrah.
I like the voice, I would not say it is classically ASMR, to be honest, but it is calm, upbeat, even humorous. The layout of the background is detailed (but I assume you will only be listening to this video as an aid to sleep).
There are, of course, noises other than the voice in this as in many reviewed previously. There are paper noises, writing noises, clothing related noises, equipment noises, blowing noises, hairbrush noises, Tibetan singing bowl noises, triangle (instrument) noises, tuning fork (apparently 256hz) noises.
One thing I rather like is that this does not descend into a whisper. This makes a very nice change from the habitual kind of video which we are more used to listening to.
Definitely worthy of a review, I think.
This week’s inadvertent ASMR video appears to feature the most uninterested “patient” I have thus far encountered:
Head to Toe assessment
There are zero notes (pretty good clue that this is not a professional ASMR artist).
Comments are permitted and there are not a huge number. However, of those, a great many do focus on the fact that the “patient” really does not wish to participate.
It is from the channel Madison Schneider this has six hundred and fifty-one subscribers, ten videos, zero playlists. Well, that is a pretty good level of subscribers for that very low quantity of videos.
The video itself is a little over thirty-five and a half minutes. Straight away you can hear that the air conditioning has a starring role. The medical professional (presumably Madison) has a very good voice. The patient (possibly Jenna Wolf but it is not enunciated well enough for my old ears to make out) actually has a fairly good voice as well, but is quite obviously unimpressed by proceedings.
There are various (quite loud) equipment noises including the loudest blood pressure cuff I can recall thus far. The motor for adjusting the bed also seems to want a full speaking part. There is the normal student assessment video fictional privacy at the beginning. The “patient” has some kind of a cold in that she coughs repeatedly during the video. In fact, there are occasional coughs from both participants. There is the normal student level of hesitancy in the presentation, presumably as the medical professional attempts to recall what comes next.
There is also the usual student level of preoccupation – there is obviously a checklist (if even only in the medical professional’s head). This seems to ensure that the medical professional has the appearance of going through the motions rather than being attentive even, dare I say it, empathic.
I would say that the extraneous noises do not make this the most restful video I have thus far reviewed. (This despite the fact that many of the video’s comments are from ASMR devotees). I’ll trial this in the Procrastination Pen playlist but it is one that is more likely than not to become archived with time.
On that basis, just one video today.
That’s it on this occasion, more next time.
See you again next week.
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.
I suppose it is material like this which encourages me to resist some of the effects of aging like declining sleep quality, and to try to do something about it. Who knows, I might suddenly take up something amazingly fulfilling in later life which I would have missed out on if I’d allowed my sleep to just continue to get worse.
I hope that because I mention advancing years this will not dissuade any young people with sleep issues from reading further. Assuming such a person found this blog, I think the relaxing material which is featured here is very likely to be applicable both to young and old.
By all means, feedback if you disagree.
I think I kicked off Calm recommendations in this blog greater than six months ago. Such that regular readers will recognise what comes next. I have a Calm subscription and I make use of it reasonably frequently because I can guarantee that it is not going to have a loud, unpleasant advert kick in sometime during the track. That said, much of the content is variable, and some of it I do not find as calming as the name would suggest. The one thing I am finding out however, through listening to different ASMR tracks is that everyone is different, and some of the ones that I feel are marginal may turn out to be your favourites.
One of the tracks dedicated to sleep is the Calm Nighttime Wind Down, it is a little less than seven minutes:
As such, personally, I do not think it is long enough to get me off to sleep, particularly on one of my more wakeful evenings.
It is also music-based and as I have commented before, I do not actually find music that restful or at least not restful enough to fall asleep to. So, I doubt I’d do much more than lie awake listening. The other problem, for me, is that it isn’t the quietest. I have had more restful moments listening to ITV in the early hours, to be honest. But I guarantee that there will be someone out there who will love it.
Give it a try and see what you think, assuming that you have a Calm subscription in any case.
I have been looking at resources that are not on YouTube (as I wish to avoid the adverts). I came across this one which seems to me a tad surreal:
Collections: Mirrortube: Mirrored YouTube Videos, Social Media Videos, Additional Collections – Video
Ready for your medical check-up? I’m nurse pillow, here to take good care of you and help you get nice sleep! ════ ⋆♡⋆ ════ If you’re thinking about donating, please consider doing it through the link below!!! All tips “
It is animated, it is somewhat peculiar, and the voice is not the greatest. However, it does lack adverts. I’m not sure that you can download it sadly, I could not see a mechanism for doing that. It starts with music – grr. However, it isn’t the loudest music that you ever heard.
The video is in excess of two hours in length! Certainly, long enough to drop off to.
Why not take a listen.
For several months now I have been reviewing just one professional ASMR video per blog article. I have now concluded that if I just review the latest stuff in my YouTube feed it is probably not as useful as picking out a YouTube video at random from the past.
Those of you who do not spend your time reviewing YouTube videos I suspect would not be trawling the historic entries for something that just might be worthwhile. That said I have found a number of professional ASMR videos are not as scintillating as one might otherwise expect and that doesn’t seem to change no matter how long ago, I look back.
Today I am looking at the channel Alleviate ASMR which does seem to be doing the job that I would like to do myself. It would seem that the channel is nicking other people’s ASMR videos and assembling them into a playlist. I shudder to think what copyright implications there might be. It is my lack of awareness in this area that causes me to shy away from similar behaviour. I tend to review original videos where I can find them and keep the videos in the location and in the state that the originator intended. This often results, in my opinion, in a less successful video than might have been the case had they been heavily truncated (notably to remove any branding music from the start and end of some videos). However, I do not want to disturb anyone who can charge a fortune simply for writing a letter. Especially if they are the kind of person who takes to wearing a frighteningly expensive suit.
The channel has 6.9K subscribers and only eleven videos so goAlleviate ASMR for achieving so many subscribers from so little material. There are two playlists one of which is right on theme for us and one of which is not:
and
The channel seems to have been very active a couple of years ago and then swiftly to have fallen into abeyance. I do not have any idea why that should be.
Today’s selected video is as follows:
Cranial Nerve Exams for Unintentional ASMR
As a welcome change this has very brief notes (rather than the lengthy ones we are more used to): “1,167,336 views 2 May 2023 #unintentionalasmr #compilation #cranialnerveexam
A compilation of three incredibly relaxing cranial nerve examinations to fulfil your Unintentional ASMR needs, perfect for relaxation, study and sleep. All credit goes to the owners of these clips. Check out my other Unintentional ASMR videos on my channel 🙂
Check out more Unintentional ASMR medical videos here – • Unintentional ASMR Medical Videos
Be sure to Like and Subscribe for more! Sweet Dreams 🙂
There are quite a few comments, and many are either strange or for ASMR afficionados in the know. If you have been reading this blog for a while you will swiftly appreciate what I mean by this as at one time or another I have tried to translate such comments.
The video is less than twenty minutes long. It breaks the rules of this section as, although this has been professionally assembled, it is not by a professional ASMR artist as such. I hope that you will give me some latitude. Normal service will be resumed with the next blog post.
It starts with some background noise – probably air conditioning. Then the medical professional introduces herself possibly as Dr Pitford. Two other medical professionals are in attendance and are making notes. It is possible this is an example of one of our favourites the student assessment video. I am used to these coming from a number of the nursing establishments in the US but this person has a resolutely English accent so I assume a UK offering instead.
I would say that this person has a very good voice for our purposes. I have no idea how extensively the video was edited (I’m certain that this is not its usual home) but if I do happen upon the original version, I will review the whole thing for the blog. (I do try to find original videos where I can do that).
There are equipment noises, clunking against metallic objects. None of these is excessively distracting.
Around six minutes in, the video segues without warning to a brand-new medical professional, Vicky, who informs us that she is at the Swindon Academy. As I have mentioned before, I do not like videos that have been crammed together like this. By all means use a playlist, but assembling them into one whole is, I find, jarring when you flit from one place to another, one person to another, and in many cases have changes in sound to go with it.
If anything, Vicky has a slightly better voice than Dr Pitford. A shame that we are not starting a new video. I’ll go with the “I’ve started so I’ll finish” philosophy and plough onwards. However, if I was reviewing this for the Procrastination Pen playlist this would disinclude it. In fact, if I was as brave as Alleviate ASMR I’d take ownership of the video and divide it back into individual videos again. At eleven and a half minutes the video segues again, this time to Tom Sutton who (at the time this was recorded) was a final year medical student. The background noise hikes up a bit and the sound recording is somewhat less successful. Tom sounds a little distant and muted to me in comparison to the two that went before. I would say he has a good voice but by this stage we have been spoiled by the two voices that we have just heard and, in my opinion, both of them are superior voices. Another argument for not gluing these videos together like this.
At this stage in a normal blog post (and since the ASMR part of this blog started) I have been reviewing inadvertent ASMR videos on YouTube. These are videos, ostensibly established for one purpose, but which turn out to be relaxing, possibly even giving ASMR-effects (to those that can feel them).
I don’t give guarantees on the ASMR-yness of the videos because one thing I seem to have established is that one person’s ASMR is another person’s annoying video.
For me, I really like a calm voice. It is hard to define what tone is best, as I have listened to a number, but I would like (I’m sure) a tone that was empathetic even supportive. I’m making a guess that many other people would find such a voice restful and might find my reviews of such material to be helpful.
This week, I have chosen this video which is a little off-centre from the usual medical material that I have chosen to review for months now.
SCEHResources ElkinsHypnotizabilityScaleEHS 2014
This is a professional video so, of course, it comes with notes: ” 487,753 views 17 May 2018
The Elkins Hypnotizability Scale (EHS) is a measure that correlates at 0.86 with the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, and can be administered in 30 minutes. Find this and other Hypnosis Clinical Resources on the SCEH website.
This video demonstrates the Elkins Hypnotizability Scale. For more information, see Hypnotic Relaxation Therapy: Principles and Applications by Gary Elkins Ph.D., ABPP, ABPH. Copyright 2013, Reproduced with the permission of Springer Publishing Company, LLC ISBN: 9780826199393.”
Which, fortuitously, are refreshingly-brief. Given the title, it seems to have been recorded in 2014 but not posted until 2018. There is no obvious explanation for the delay.
No comments are permitted, which, given the nature of a number of comments we have seen, is probably the safe option, to be honest.
There are just four playlists with only one looking a good fit for us, I think:
Today’s video is in excess of forty-three minutes in length. That is not bad at all, in terms of videos we have reviewed of late. A video of two hours in length, so far, being an uncommon thing to find.
There is a fair amount of background noise, an ongoing hiss that could be in the recording technology used perhaps. The voices of both participants turn out to be rather good, calm and nicely paced. I can understand why the professional is good at hypnosis if the voice is anything to go by.
There are paper shuffling noises. These are not excessively distracting and are the only extraneous noises apart from the background hiss.
At thirty-five Minutes the video changes over to a presentation by Dr Gary Elkins at Baylor University. Although a presentation, his voice remains calm.
Many people when presenting seem tempted to project, as if they didn’t have a microphone. The upshot is that presentations tend to be louder. Thankfully this is avoided here. That said, I would not say that this part of the video was the most fascinating thing I’ve listened to. However, given I am reviewing material for its usefulness in driving someone into sleep, I would say this is nigh ideal.
On that basis, just one, video on this occasion.
That’s it on this occasion, more next time.
See you again next week.
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.
There is a now well-established relationship between getting enough sleep and the strength of your memory. I have always had a pretty poor memory and had to work very hard to retain important facts for any extended period.
I remember reading that scientists can now alter memories during sleep. It would be rather good to banish some of the more unpleasant memories, but how much more relevant is that if you have had a traumatic experience.
The links between lack of sleep and dementia is being explored. It is widely agreed though, that sleep quality gets progressively worse as you get older.
It is for this reason that the Procrastination Pen started to review restful videos some little while ago. I might be getting older but I’m not keen to join any waiting list for dementia. It is therefore important, I feel, to fight the tendency towards shorter amounts of sleep and for that sleep to be more broken. I have felt that one key part is something that will soothe you off to sleep and lull you back to sleep, should you wake up during the night.
I tend now to start with something from Calm. Only because I have a Calm subscription and I dislike putting up with adverts (Calm doesn’t have any).
This week, for a change, let’s look at a course provided by possibly my favourite voice on Calm which is Tamara Levitt.
Tune into physical sensations to deepen your awareness
Tamara Levitt
Head of Mindfulness at Calm
This has sessions starting at three minutes in length and ultimately building to thirty minutes. I must confess I have not yet learned to sit undistracted for thirty minutes, but it is a good goal.
This is definitely worth a listen if you have a Calm subscription.
At this stage, and for a while now, I have taken towards reviewing a professional ASMR artist – you never know this may turn out to be a great source of ASMR material! (Only half joking, some of the stuff I have reviewed has not exactly set the sleeping muscles to much exercise.)
I was attracted to this one by the title, as it is sleep related:
Chronic Insomnia Healing by Japanese Pro – ASMR
It comes from the channel ASMR Twix with 900k subscribers two hundred and eighty seven videos thirty-two playlists
There is the odd playlist which is borderline for the focus of this blog thus far such as:
and
Videos are still being posted here but the notes against the channel are over a year old:
“Original Japanese Head SPA in Progress for 2024, Spring Grand Opening in Tokyo.
“ASMR Twix” channel set the trend for Japanese Head SPA to become famous worldwide. I am honoured to be the first and biggest YouTuber in Japan to have worked with 190+ Japanese SPAs, salons, haircuts, make-up, kimono, etc. relaxing services and establishments. You can visit all of these relaxing places. Often, there are discounts or gifts just for my subscribers. Mention “ASMR Twix” at the beginning of your session. Feel free to book via Instagram in English or an online website. All places are by appointment only! From the SPA places on my playlist “Gift from Twix,” you can receive a special gift after your session, prepared specially by me (Twix).
Terahertz massage tool collections are available in 16 SPAs in Japan. You can find out more about it (https://asmrtwix.shop) and recent projects at the links below.
For business, contact via Instagram at @asmr.twix.”
(I’ve edited the notes because, as usual, they are quite long).
I’m not! I have been living in Japan for several years.
2. Where Am I from?
I’m full Asian. For privacy issues, I prefer to keep my nationality, real name, age,address in private.
3. Do I get treatments every day?
No. I balance treatments schedule considering my skin and health condition. For example, once a week.
4. Why “Twix”?
Me and My sister work on creating these contents together. As you know Twix chocolate bar has 2 pieces. So, I’m not the only creating these videos. My sister👩 is behind the camera as Camerasister. So we thought that would be fair If I add my sister’s name. Of course, not directly adding her name.
5. Why my Camerasister doesn’t show up in the videos?
She prefers to work behind the camera. I hope you will respect her decision.
6. Does my Camerasister also get treatments?
Sometimes she does. I give her scalp, neck, face, shoulder massages at home😅
7. Who replies to the comments?
Me who always appears in the videos.
8. What kind of ASMR channel is this?
This channel is focused on Japanese exclusive head spa, face and head massage, aesthetics, facial and scalp treatments. In our videos, it is always “Soft spoken” in Japanese language with English subtitles. We don’t do “Whispering” and “No talking” videos.
9. Are my videos sponsored?
If I get sponsored on my videos, I’ll definitely mention about sponsorship in the videos according to YouTube sponsorship terms and conditions.
10. Do all places I visit have good result?
I always do deep research on the places before I visit. Because, I have responsibility of showing the real result and recommend it to my viewers. I always give my honest opinion about the treatment, massage and environment of the place at the end of each video.
11. Do I have any other social media?
No, I don’t. I want to focus on creating better videos on YouTube. We’re working on creating PayPal donations, Patreon page where I can connect even more with Twixes. They will come out probably on March 🥰”
ASMR artists really know how to write very long video notes.
Comments are permitted. There’s a lot of them but they are predominantly positive. So far, so good.
The video is a little over half an hour and so not the hugest we’ve seen. It starts without startup music, for which may the Lord make us truly thankful. However, it does have some pretty impressive background noise. By impressive, read loud. It sounds like a very bad 1980s recording. The video is in Japanese with subtitles in English and it is a shame about the background noise because I would say that the voice is excellent. It tends towards the whispery side with occasional breathy interludes.
The pace is wonderfully slow and relaxed. Turning down the volume a heck of a lot reduces the background noise, a bit. Of course, in consequence, you also lose some of that voice at the same time. The voice is worth holding onto because it is a good one for our purposes, I think. Because it is of such good quality I have made an exception for the advertising that crops up at the tail end of this video. Advertising by the ASMR artist themselves I regard as a no-no for this blog. See what you think, it might be that this video was/was not deserving of a review. Sadly, the normal energetic adverts decided to interpose themselves on more than one occasion (at least whilst I was listening). Of course, this is ever more motivation for me to research sounds that are not on YouTube and that people may find restful. I’ve skipped past that this week due to time constraints but I will locate some more in the very near future.
Meantime, I did not realise until this week that the Internet Archive has some of the ASMR videos we have already covered. This includes the Cate Darnell video which has already been reviewed.
I notice that the files are available for download. On that basis it would seem that you can download these, assemble your own playlist, and avoid the adverts altogether. I have not tried this yet but I am certainly giving it some serious consideration.
You may recall a previous post in which I mentioned a URL which linked to thirty two videos. The URL is this one:
It has thirty-two videos (discounting the introductory one). Last time we managed to review just four of these, so there is a fair few left to look at…
The next one in the series is this:
Knee Examination – Orthopaedics
Somewhat over nine minutes in length, the notes are: “684,941 views 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”
The person narrating has a great voice, lovely and quiet. When I find a good voice like this it is often frustrating that I cannot identify whose it is (so that I could look for other videos in which that person features). In this case though, there are no clues, so reoccurrence of this voice (if ever) will be purely by chance.
Hip Examination – Orthopaedics
A little over nine and a quarter minutes long. The notes are: “938,894 views 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”
The narrator has a good voice and it is nicely paced.
Trauma Assessment – Pelvic Fracture Scenario
A little less than sixteen minutes the notes are: “176,944 views 13 May 2012 Trauma Surgery
This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School in conjunction with the faculty – demonstrates how to perform the initial assessment of a patient with suspected traumatic injury. This scenario is of a patient with a suspected pelvic fracture and internal haemorrhage.
Videos on this channel are 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”
This is introduced and, although it is a trauma situation, it is not excessively loud, but not exactly restful either.
Trauma Assessment – Teaching Scenario (with possible pathology)
Fifteen and a half minutes. The notes are: “58,225 views 13 May 2012 Trauma Surgery
This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School in conjunction with the faculty – demonstrates how to perform the initial assessment of a patient with suspected traumatic injury. This scenario is of an uninjured patient. It includes possible pathology to be found at each step.
Videos on this channel are 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”
The narration is similar to the last one. The medical professional has a reasonable voice and the progress is methodical.
I think that I will conclude the blog post at this one and continue in another post. Failing that this blog post would become really large indeed, to the point of boredom, I imagine.
That’s it on this occasion, more next time.
The Oxford Medical Education Hospitals playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.
This week nothing whatsoever is working. As such I have time to stop and have sympathy for people who struggle for sleep. I notice that the links between sleeplessness and dementia are being used as a fuel to stoke our fears.
I’m not sure that a terror about losing your mind is exactly the mindset you need for a long, restful snooze. Just in case you would prefer a restful track designed to be quiet and to distract those kind of thoughts, the Procrastination Pen exists as a site that reviews video tracks in the hope of finding the odd one that may do that. If it turns out that you get ASMR affects from the video, so much the better but you do not need to regard it as a pre-requisite for enjoying the videos.
There is a playlist of tracks that have been reviewed so far and it always occurs at the close of these articles. So if you want to give it a review, scroll right to the end and try it for yourself.
For a while now, I have been swaggering on about having a Calm subscription and how much quieter I am finding it all than the advert-infested YouTube experience. It is true that if you have a subscription to Calm, you probably already make more use of it than you do of YouTube for night-time relaxation. Not because YouTube videos are not restful. Many of the ones already covered by this blog are quite adequate in this respect (some of them are even great).
However, the insistence of ramming loud and distracting adverts into every interval does make the experience in the round a little more testing.
I am on the search for some other free resource with restful tracks of some kind that does not require commitment to receiving a ton of adverts. When I locate such a thing, I will flag it here.
I like Tamara’s voice. Sometimes I think it might be my favourite voice on Calm, sometimes not. I enjoy the content that she delivers but I often listen to Jay Shetty or Jeff Warren, dependent on what the track seems to have in it.
Mel Mah is much more about activity and I have to say I have not yet bought into the activity aspect. It is probably one of those New Year’s resolution things. To Do but not yet To Done.
The track is a little over ten minutes so it probably will not quite be enough to doze off to unless you are properly tired already. (Perhaps if you’re more bought into activity than I am and, hence, have come in from a long run or similar).
This track is about acceptance which I suppose is not a bad skill to have if your life is heading towards Alzheimer’s.
Recently I have been considering a professional ASMR artist at this stage. So why buck the trend if it seems to have worked for us so far.
This week the video is this one:
【ASMR】Eye Exam for Bloodshot Eyes and Vision Loss🏥 | Ophthalmology Roleplay【Eyelid Injection💉】
It is from the channel Runa ASMR【るな氏】, this channel has 236K subscribers three hundred and nine videos eleven playlists. The longest playlist has nearly one hundred videos in it. This seems to be an ASMR artist that is doing something right.
There are notes of course “299,990 views Sep 10, 2025 #ロールプレイ #mouthsounds #asmr
💭I want to improve my eyesight, but changing my contacts every day is such a pain.
🎮Second Channel
/ @Runa’s Playground
🌙Join Membership Here
/ @runaasmr575″
Comments are permitted but the feedback is predominantly using a character set I do not understand, so they could be instructions for building a space shuttle. More likely they are commenting about how marvellous the video is because that level of adulation commonly accompanies professional ASMR artists.
The video is a little under thirty-nine minutes and so is a little longer than anything we have listened to recently. It has no startup music for which I am very grateful. The voice, as you would expect, is excellent.
Fortunately, when playing, the subtitles were in English so I’m at least clear it didn’t consist of swearing. Sadly, the keyboard features rather loudly, at least initially. But given how good the voice is, I think it is worth persisting with.
At intervals it does not appear to be about the voice. There are tapping noises, liquid sloshing noises, container unscrewing noises, pouring noises, clicking noises, gloves-related noises, equipment noises, liquid noises, plastic crinkling noises, sounds of a pestle and mortar being used to grind stuff.
All of these are a waste of time for me, I’m only here to listen to the voice. But I am betting each one is a trigger for someone. It does mean that we get a lot less of the voice than we would do otherwise, which is a shame.
I still think the voice makes it worthy of a review, why not listen for yourself.
I also think I will be revisiting this channel in the future.
I’ve been spending a lengthy amount of time of late evaluating the sleep offerings through Calm and falling asleep to them. Some excellent voices involved but given Calm is not free it would not be of much service if I start evaluating the content of Calm.
As a result, I have not written much in a while regarding YouTube content and I have been bolstered by the fact that I had written a great deal of content in the past and it was simply a case of editing it sufficiently to bring it up to date before pushing the correct button to put it out there. Calm is certainly interesting and some of the content is worth listening to but whether it is worth the money I can only leave it up to you to decide.
For me it is good to have something else available after YouTube decided to take my channel down one time, and with it all the playlists I had spent time curating. Where anybody has the power to do that to you it is well worthwhile having some other strategy available.
This is probably the message of everything available via the Internet. It is at best transient and so it is not too sensible to base anything permanent around it.
Today’s video draws from previous work indeed it is from an old favourite channel Moran Core from the Moran Eye Center. (UK readers note that is apparently the correct spelling of centre).
The video is this one:
Learning the Ophthalmoscope
It is just five- and three-quarter minutes so don’t sneeze or you’ll miss it. It’s another professional video and as we have established by now, these videos tend to come with notes (not uncommonly because they also serve to promote a service of some kind).
This video has the following notes:
“194,819 views 11 Aug 2018
Title: How to Use the Direct Ophthalmoscope
Author: Tania Padilla Conde, 4th Year Medical Student, University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine; Christopher Bair, MD and Michele Burrow, MD
Date: 08/10/2018”
Tania seems to have a good voice for us, although the volume for me was a little loud, sufficient to sound echoey in the space where it was recorded. The video starts without extraneous startup music which is so rare that sacrifices need to be offered up to the video-recording-god in supplication for the beneficence shown.
If you are listening to this one as part of the larger Procrastination Pen playlist, you might be rolling over to the tablet and giving the volume down button a couple of disgruntled presses. Tis a shame that I do not have control of the videos in the playlist or I would normalise the volume of them a bit. I too am sometimes awakened when the playlist changes from a quiet video to a louder one.
In this case the video is interrupted by a comment by Tania which is even louder. It is all a shame because otherwise she does have a good voice.
Tania does not appear on another video on the Moran Core website so if we are going to stick with her, then a search of YouTube is in order.
Tania Conde returns quite a number of channels and a brief perusal reveals that the majority are just not going to be helpful to us.
Using “Tania Padilla Conde” instead reveals a lot of content in Spanish.
This one:
Nancy Reynoza Entrevista a la doctora Tania Padilla Conde
Which is at the pace of Speedy Gonzalez and so not at all restful.
And a couple of playlists
The first one is:
COVID-19
Consisting of twelve videos. Ranging in length from two and a half minutes to in excess of twenty minutes. Not one of them seems to be a medical examination as such.
I am also hampered in that I have zero comprehension of Spanish, so I am trusting that nothing untoward is being relayed as part of the video.
The first video of the playlist is:
Cómo usar máscara correctamente
This video starts way-way too loud and it continues at a fast pace, this is really not a suitable video for us.
Como tratar los sintomas de COVID-19 en casa.
Double the length of the previous one it starts just as loud with fast paced music. This is just not conducive to sleep.
¿Qué es la hidroxicloroquina? Ensayo clínico aprobado por Kristi Noem en South Dakota.
Continues as for the previous two videos and as such I am convinced there is no purpose in reviewing the rest of this playlist. There is nothing here that we can make use of ASMR-wise.
The second playlist is this one:
Health/Salud
Somewhat more hopeful (given the title) that there might be restful content. It contains fifteen videos ranging between two and three quarter minutes and in excess of twenty minutes.
The first video is this:
Como tratar los sintomas de COVID-19 en casa.
And oh no just as before loud start up music. It strikes me that this is eerily similar to those that we’ve just looked at. So, unfortunately, I think that this playlist isn’t going to offer anything useful either.
On that basis just one, short, video on this visit.
Onwards till next week.
That’s it on this occasion, more next time.
The Moran Core playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.
I am reflecting on the double-edged nature of companionship. On the one hand, many resources now indicate that loneliness is a killer. That having people regularly in one’s life is a source of happiness. On the other hand, it is rare that you will find yourself having arguments with yourself… It isn’t often that you find you’ve made a profound social gaffe whilst completely in your own company. It is hard to get stressed and anxious over a quiet evening in, accompanied only by a book.
If you find that social events have got on top of you and you’re lying awake when you should be asleep, mulling over the various errors you made and perhaps the need to go back and apologise afterwards. Be assured a good night’s sleep may ameliorate some of those feelings, and a good night’s sleep is what this blog is here to promote.
Of late, I have been starting the blog articles with something provided by Calm. I am lucky enough to have a Calm subscription and I do so love the absence of advertising. In many ways Calm is not ideal, the need to pay for it being a big one. The absence of the ability to create playlists is a second. Third the fact that every day the content changes and that item you so loved yesterday will now be absent, unless you remember what it was called and go search for it.
However, I think the content provided is great. I like the voices of the professionals involved. Much of the material is not only restful but educational as well. So far, I have not encountered one loud and distracting advert deliberately interposed with the restful content in order to grab your attention.
Jeff has an excellent voice, second only to Tamara on this site for me. I also really enjoy a lot of the content that Jeff chooses. We seem to have similar interests and concerns in some areas. I hope you also enjoy his stuff. (If you have a subscription, that is).
This is just a little over eight minutes so it won’t take you long. This concerns rumination and the periods of quiet in between.
If you’ve been following the blog for a while you will realise that, of late, I like to review a professional ASMR artist. Mostly this is in contrast to the inadvertent ASMR which is the bread and butter of this blog. Also, I thought anybody meandering across this blog might enjoy the variety.
This week we are looking at a video which is brief in comparison to many professional ASMR videos we have examined.
ASMR Inspecting Your Entire Body, Soft Spoken, Personal Attention
it’s a little over seventeen and a half minutes in length so it is not going to keep us very long.
As a professional ASMR artist’s video, we would expect there would be notes and we would expect that a fair proportion of the notes would be about self-promotion. The notes associated with this video are: “47,900 views 5 Oct 2025 #asmr #asmrsounds #asmrvideo
Hey my friends, I hope you’ve been well! Tonight, I am going to be random inspections on your body to help you unwind and relax! Let me know what your favourite part was! Thank you so much for watching! xx
Instagram ➤ / brittneymay__
Business Inquiries ➤ brittneymay.asmr1999@gmail.com
(Please don’t feel obligated to gift me anything! I just set this up for if you are feeling generous and would like to support myself and my channel!)
My Upload Schedule:
Wednesday’s ➤ 4 PM PST/ 7 PM EST
Saturday’s ➤ 4 PM PST/ 7 PM EST
Thank you for watching and supporting my channel, I am so grateful! ✿
✿
#asmr #asmrvideo #asmrsounds #asmrinspection
Brittney May ASMR
138K subscribers”
It is enormously gratifying to find such restrained notes associated with such a video. In addition, the video does not start with whoever is sponsoring the video today. You don’t get to see videos of that nature on this blog. Sponsor’s information in a video is, I find, hugely distracting. I can see that someone has to buy the groceries but I would have thought the place for details of the sponsor would be in the associated notes, not taking up ten percent of the actual video.
Comments are permitted and, whacky feedback allowing, mostly reinforce the idea that ASMR artists are held in high-esteem by YouTube visitors (well the ones who can be bothered to leave comments, in any case).
The voice is, as expected, excellent. It is very towards the whispery end of presentation which seems to be where a number of ASMR artists find themselves. Perhaps this is what the listening public is demanding. It isn’t a terrible idea; I just cannot envisage a medical professional actually holding a session in that way. It has a tendency to be a bit on the breathy side, again a number of ASMR professionals also do this. Perhaps a quantity of ASMR afficionados find that characteristic appealing. Personally, I am all about the quality of the voice.
There are various other noises, gloves, rustling, cloth-related noises, thumping noises, wood against wood noises, scribbling noises, finger drumming noises, brushing noises, spraying noises, scraping noises.
At least there is no startup or tail-end video music which seems to mar many inadvertent ASMR videos I have reviewed.
I would say the setting appears to be more domestic than hospital-related but as you’ll be listening rather than watching I doubt it will phase you. The channel is Brittney May ASMR it has 138K subscribers from five hundred and three videos there is one playlist containing thirty-four videos. Interestingly from our point of view these are on a medical theme (which this blog has been for several months now).
You may want to check that playlist out for yourself:
I rather liked this video. I certainly can see some value in you giving it a review.
If you wandered into this blog article without previous awareness of the blog, you might like to know what it is all about and why you should be interested.
The Procrastination Pen, for over a year now has been searching for medical videos (and sometimes other videos) predominantly on YouTube (but not uniquely so) for content which might cause ASMR symptoms (in people lucky enough to feel ASMR symptoms).
In this case, it is for people who get “tingles” or similar ASMR symptoms from people speaking quietly and calmly (even so far as whispering). However, this does not cater for people who like scratching, squelching, paper turning or other stimuli.
For those who sadly do not feel ASMR symptoms, the aim is that the video will be quiet enough to relax you. The hope is that you will relax sufficiently that sleep will come more easily. If you leave the Procrastination Pen playlist playing, it is also hoped that it is calm and quiet enough that if you do awaken during the night, you will find it more straightforward to fall back to sleep.
Sometimes life is too busy to read a review of individual videos and for people who find themselves in that situation, the playlist is always found at the end of each blog article – simply scroll straight to the end and pick up the link from there.
This week we come in with a video which by title is part way through a sequence of videos – such is the way that recommendations on YouTube seem to work. Logic does not necessarily appear to be relevant.
The video is this one:
Examination of the Hand – Part 3
It is a little less than ten minutes and features Roger Pillemer as the medical professional and he has an absolutely excellent voice for our purposes. Quiet, gentle and moderately slow paced, what is not to like.
The channel is called Roger Pillemer and has twenty-five videos as at the date I am looking at it. The oldest seems to be seven years old and the latest just a month ago. There are two playlists one of which has seventeen videos and the other five. Our video of course occurs in the longer playlist and I do think the longer playlist is a little – long.
Any review of seventeen videos will probably have you reaching for the TV remote control, or similar, part way through.
However, there are three videos called “Examination of the Hand” so let’s review the other two.
Examination of the Hand – Part 1
As before, Roger’s voice is what carries the day. The presentation isn’t necessarily fascinating but above all, it is relaxing. There are no disturbing noises, no background air conditioning racket and no equipment noises. Sadly, there is start-up music but thankfully it is muted. There is also a continuing background music which plays continuously throughout. Sadly, I think this discounts this video from being included in the Procrastination Pen playlist.
It is nearly thirteen- and three-quarter minutes which is a presentation regarding the hand. Usually, I reject videos involving presentation as being excessively loud, as if trying to project from a stage to a large audience. Roger does not make that mistake. He remains as quiet as he was in the first video of this blog article.
Examination of the Hand – Part 2
This is just less than twelve minutes and the same problem as the last video i.e. a music track that plays continuously. A great shame as Roger has a really great voice.
So sadly, just one video on this occasion.
However, the playlist is now really quite large so plenty there for you to enjoy.
That’s it on this occasion, more next time.
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.
I’m spending some time recently exploring psychology books and trying to work out if I am actually learning anything about myself, or if I have an ego sufficiently huge that nothing is ever going to penetrate it. I have found that no matter how many books I read, it does not seem to translate into more of a restful life. Which probably says a great deal about my inability to learn effectively.
So, given life is carrying on at the hubbub it had last year (or more likely an ever-increasing pace with each passing year), I have found it helpful to have something restful to listen to. It was for this reason that I started to explore ASMR. I’m not sure if I am a typical ASMR listener, (I have a sinking sensation that many such people are a great deal younger for instance).I did pretty swiftly find that the quality of “ASMR” was highly variable. I wondered how I would settle down with an ASMR track in the hope of getting to sleep, knowing that the ASMR video was actually going to be restful (and not crammed with all kinds of weird effects designed to hammer on every “trigger”, as if it needed a 4lb hammer).
After a while I realised that I couldn’t depend on the commentary associated with the videos. It ranges from sycophantic through aggressive, onto asinine. The review sites I found seemed to belong to people whose ears were obviously assembled in a different factory to mine. Therefore, I was going to have to review the material in advance before I wanted to use it and make use of some method of storing the ones that were worth listening to.
YouTube played material without paying up front. At the time, the adverts really did not seem too overpowering, but the clincher was that you could assemble the items that you liked into a playlist for subsequent playing. There was no need to own the videos to do so.
I also discovered that you could make the playlist public, so that other people could benefit from the work that you had done.
I reasoned that I would have to be pretty formal in my approach and hence, this process of reviewing videos started. I hope that you have ears not too dissimilar to mine and that therefore you will like the videos that I like.
If so, the Procrastination Pen playlist always appears at the end of every one of these articles and you can hop over to YouTube and see if you like what you hear.
A little while ago I started listening to Calm, mostly because it does not have the advertising load of a YouTube track. The downside is that you are going to need a subscription.
For many people this will be a show-stopper and if so, the YouTube reviews are coming very soon in this article (scroll down a bit). I used to be the same. I find too often now I’ve drifted off to a charming little ASMR video only to have some loud and distracting advert kick off and rouse me back to wakefulness again. In fact, of late this has become so frequent that I think it is by design. Advertising pays the bills, after all.
Today’s Calm track is taken from the Calm Dailies. I find these rather more approachable than Calm “sleep” tracks. The artists involved, frankly, have better voices. The Calm Dailies do not have music (I find music is just not as restful as people would have you believe). Some of the Calm “sleep” tracks involve an actual story and so rather than drifting off to la la land, you find yourself engaging with the story.
Tamara has a great voice. She maybe my favourite but I rather like Jeff Warren, so I dither in the mornings when I am looking at the next track. That said, Jay Shetty has much of the more interesting material, especially if I need a mental kick up the backside – which is most of the time, frankly.
This is quite a long one for a Calm Daily, in that it is nigh on 11 minutes in length. It is about obsessive thinking. If you find yourself struggling with intrusive thoughts at bedtime, this may well be the track for you.
I’ve settled into a semi-rigid structure for several weeks now: Calm review, professional ASMR review, inadvertent ASMR review. The blog originally only considered inadvertent ASMR videos. It has evolved this way. So, in deference to custom, this is this week’s video from a professional ASMR artist:
ASMR – Extremely Satisfying Allergy Test!
It’s a professional ASMR video so of course it has notes and of course the notes are going to promote the ASMR artist: “410,294 views 24 Sept 2025
Hi guys, welcome back! In today’s video I’m doing your allergy test. Hope you enjoy!
The notes were so extensive I’ve given you the edited highlights, which, to my mind, are still way too long.
There are comments, of course, and, of course, because it is a professional ASMR artist they vie towards the sycophantic side. So far, so usual.
The video comes from the channel Nanou ASMR, this has 1.75M subscribers, seven hundred and fifty-two videos nineteen playlists, more than one of those playlists has in excess of one hundred videos. So, a hard-working ASMR artist – full kudos given. I am a little concerned because the last video I listened to that had in excess of 1.5 million people raving about it, I really couldn’t get on with at all. Let’s see how this one fares.
It is surprising how often a video starts from a professional ASMR artist that raves about their latest sponsor and so it is a rare experience to be free of that. I disregard completely the many I find that do that. Making money is reasonable but I do find this disrupts the ASMR experience, whether you introduce sponsor du jour in a whispering voice or you do not.
In this case we are music free, sponsor free, and the video starts instead with what I assume to be recognised “trigger” sounds.
Clucking noises, keyboard noises, paper-related noises, donning-gloves noises, crinkling noises, tapping noises, liquid noises, a potpourri of sound, presumably designed as a catch-all of “triggers” for any attending ASMR devotee.
I am not really interested in that. I’m here for the voice and so how is it? The voice as you would expect, with such a popular artist, is excellent. Presentation is on the whispery side of whispery and so is about as believable as Boffo for Prime Minister, but this does not detract from its effectiveness as an ASMR voice or as the audio for a restful video. It does that job very well, in fact.
Sadly, the keyboard is selected for its ability to be heard which is sad, because I would prefer that it wasn’t heard at all. I think the keyboard is distracting and excessively loud. No doubt there are some ASMR fans who just love that kind of thing (I guess a number of subscribers to this YouTube channel, in fact).
There are quite a few rustling noises, gloves, clothing, the ASMR artist moving around. This is not obtrusive and so if it isn’t your thing either, it should not cause any concerns.
I’m not sure why ASMR artists do that clicking/clucking noise at intervals with their tongue, it seems out of place to me, but I just bet there is a die-hard devotee that turns up for new videos just to hear that sort of thing.
The plastic arm that intrudes into view and is then drawn on with a felt tipped pen is a tad on the surreal side, as if Metal Mickey had turned up for an examination. Given that you’ll be listening rather than watching, I’d say this should not have any impact. I’d say the video goes on about two to three minutes longer than I would have liked but a heck of a lot of subscribers disagree with me. On that basis you may want to give it a review.
The routine in these articles for the last few months has been that now I deal with the material on which I originally based the blog i.e. inadvertent ASMR videos. Of late, this has been videos on a medical theme, just because I have found a lot of success finding calm and restful videos where those videos were designed to illustrate some medical concept or other.
This week we are back to a channel that has featured multiple times on this blog here, here, here, here and also here. It is Geeky Medics. The videos so far have featured Dr James Lower and Dr Andrew Pugh, and so in this week’s article.
The dedication to this channel has been because the videos here seem to be of a reasonably consistent quality (given that they are inadvertent ASMR videos in any case). They have a tendency to be quiet. There is though the regrettable tendency for the odd distracting noise to crop up in them.
Of course, some readers will not have read the previous articles, so I should mention that Dr Lewis Potter is the founder of Geeky Medics. The videos will all have notes that are similar (this has been established in those past blog articles). In order to cover the notes for new readers, I will give a precis version with the first video.
I think this will be the concluding such article, as I believe I have calculated that we have covered very nearly every video available. I make it that there are six left to cover and so we’ll mop those up in this article. I suspect we are getting a bit towards the tail-end in terms of quality as well but I live to be surprised.
Straight Leg Raise & Femoral Nerve Stretch Test – OSCE Guide | Clip
In case there are people who have not read any of those previous articles, I will include the notes associated with this video so you see how they work. The notes are lengthy and I’ll only include them once (or this will grow to become a very long article composed principally of notes).
Always adhere to medical school/local hospital guidelines when performing examinations or clinical procedures. DO NOT perform any examination or procedure on patients based purely on the content of these videos. Geeky Medics accepts no liability for loss of any kind incurred as a result of reliance upon the information provided in this video.
Achieve success in your medical school OSCEs, UKMLA CPSA, and PLAB 2 exams with our free clinical skills videos. Subscribe to our channel to be informed of our latest releases. 🙂
Revise for the Simulated Consultation Assessment (SCA) with our collection of high-quality SCA cases written by GPs and Training Program Directors. Check out our SCA revision cases and prepare for the MRCGP https://geekymedics.com/sca-cases-ban…”
As we have heard in the previous articles, these videos commence with an unwelcome piece of startup music. So far, I have found no mechanism for removing startup music on someone else’s video. If I had, you would see more of the videos that have been rejected on the road to getting the odd “acceptable” one out to you.
I have tolerated the startup music in previous Geeky Medics videos and I will do so this time. It does not preclude bumping them to the archive list at some point in the future.
This video is a little over one and a half minutes so it is rapidly over with. It is the voice here that is excellent. There is background noise but it is not excessive. There are periods of silence which might be distracting whilst listening. Personally, I found this quite restful.
There is tail end music which is even louder than the startup music and it would be great if it just wasn’t there at all. Of course, given the video is a short one, there is much more opportunity for distracting adverts which was certainly maximised at the time I was reviewing this one.
Lachman’s Test – OSCE Guide | Clip
One and a quarter minutes long and so none of the ones we’re looking at this week seem to be very long at all. It finds time for the distracting start up music though. It is nicely calm in the few moments it is actually playing. However, it also finds time for the even louder tail end music – I’d have to ask why this is necessary.
Just over one and a half minutes and now we’re in the swing of these, we know how it will go, distracting start up music, nice calm presentation, even worse tail end music, YouTube advert…
Patella Tap & Sweep Test – OSCE Guide | Clip
All of these seem of a similar length; this is the same length as the last one. The format is the same as the previous ones including unwelcome musical parts. This video seems to have been substantially slowed down and is mostly silent. This makes for very calming watching but does not contribute much when you’re listening and not watching.
Thomas Test – OSCE Guide | Clip
This one is shorter at just over one and a quarter minutes. Same format as the previous ones. In common with previous OSCE videos there are on screen medical notes for medical students. Of course, these are of no interest to us. The presentation is beautifully calming, but oh so brief and it’s back to funky music again.
Trendelenburg’s Test – OSCE Guide | Clip
The last ever such video and the last item in blog posts featuring Geeky Medics. It has been a while now. This is the shortest so far at only slightly over a minute. Same music top and tail. Same on-screen notes, useful to medical students but not to us. Same calming voice but this time we barely have time to hear it before it is back to the music again.
That’s it on this occasion, more next time.
The Geeky Medics playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.
This week I was thinking how easy it is to feel that people are not being supportive. The mind can fancy a journey of its own. Simply not hearing from someone can do it. Finding that some significant life event occurred and they did not tell you, perhaps. It is not surprising therefore, that the mind can go on a restive journey just as you’re trying to get some sleep.
Those with mental discipline instruct the mind to obedience, no doubt. The less self-controlled do well to distract it with something restful. For such a purpose did the Procrastination Pen first start reviewing restful videos, many moons ago now.
This week, for the first time, a Calm track that is dedicated to getting you off to sleep which has some possibility of doing that:
Andrew Scott reads a series of letters from a writer to his long-distance lover — pondering place and time, longing and belonging, and the meaning of home.
NARRATOR
Andrew Scott
AUTHOR
Florence Skelton
It is calm, the voice has a great tone, there is an absence of music (God be praised). I’d say this one is well worth a review on the assumption that you can. Calm is a paid-for offering and I’m not about to recommend that you shell out for it, if you haven’t already.
Each week, I check out an offering from a professional ASMR artist to see if it is a big improvement on the inadvertent ASMR videos that I set up the blog to review; goodness knows how long ago now.
This week I thought I’d review the following:
POV assessing your spinal function, flexibility assessment & neurological exam | cranial nerve test
It is from the channel asmr august. That channel has 252K subscribers, two hundred and eighty-seven videos, eighteen playlists. Quite a few subscribers, so I, for one, have very high expectations.
The video is a little over thirty-two and a half minutes long. Given it is a professional ASMR video you will be unsurprised to realise that it has notes:
“506,222 views 7 Apr 2025 #asmr #sleep
soft spoken assessing as you sit still
• palpation of the cervical, thoracic, lumbar spine
• testing your nerves
• checking for slipped discs
• ligament and muscle touching
• movement camera tilting
• reflexes testing
• cranial nerve exam
• neurological exam
• video to sleep
*My content is for entertainment purposes and should not be taken as actual medical/beauty advice. I am acting and not a professional.
#asmr #sleep”
Fortunately, not the great long tortuous notes which we sometimes come across.
Comments are permitted and given this is a professional ASMR artist, it is unsurprising that they are predominantly positive. That just seems to be how it goes with professional ASMR artists.
There is no startup music, thankfully. There are however equipment noises, paper noises, clothing rustling noises, scribbling noises, noises from the donning of gloves, noises from spraying, quite loud blood pressure cuff sounds.
It is not the most whispery presentation I have heard and as we would expect, the voice is excellent. It occasionally descends into breathy. None of this is obtrusive or excessive. In fact, I think asmr august is worthy of a future visit.
Recently, I have been finding that the playlist just is not working for me at all. In fact, several nights I find that I sit in front of the television until finally sleep comes and then it does not seem to last long.
For this reason, I am thinking of waging war on the playlist to ensure that only the highest quality items remain in there.
Today’s blog item comes from an area that is well-established in this blog now, that of eye-related examinations.
Qpercom presents Observe in Action: Eye Exam OSCE Station
It is five and a quarter minutes long and bravely supports comments, a number of which (as we have come to expect) are critical. The Internet, and more particularly YouTube, generating a number of experts who know much more than the ones who actually create content.
It’s a professional video and so, as we would expect, it has notes: “24,624 views 23 May 2013
This video demonstrates how examiners use Qpercom Observe to assess medical students during an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). For further information or to schedule a demonstration at your institution please visit http://www.qpercom.com
It starts without music, which is fantastic., However there is a sound like a football whistle at the start which is most disconcerting. The medical professional announces herself as “Elaine” (possibly misspelled). The patient is “Francis”. Both participants appear to have Irish accents. In fact, the voices here are the true highlight. Both are very relaxing to listen to.
People wander across the camera. Hopefully no one will actually be watching though but lying there listening and trying to get some rest. There is the constant background hum (almost certainly air conditioning) – we’re getting used to this. There is then a further whistle sound after the initial examination concludes (about 3:35 on the playing time).
I often complain that a bit of editing would make some videos perfect and so again here. Eliminating that damn whistle would be a true asset.
The second part of the video is intended to be a contrast with Dr Macdonald the medical professional (again, this may well be misspelled).
Despite the fact that this is supposed to be a bad exam, it is equally good sound wise. Immediately afterwards, there is yet another whistle sound.
I have a feeling despite the great presentation this extra whistle noises are going to consign this to the archive list at some point in the future.
The participants are documented. The “Patient” who announces himself as Francis is in fact Michael Browne. Elain Loughlin is the first medical professional and Niamh Mc Donnell the second.
The channel is Qpercom and it has thirty eight videos, and most of these do not appear to be that useful from our perspective.
Which seems to focus on videos that are not useful for ASMR (eight of them). It appears to be a collection of videos to sell the Qpercom product. Good for them, not so useful for us (particularly as it seems to feature a great deal of enlivening music, the last thing that you want when trying to get to sleep).
Therefore, in this case I think it best to restrict myself to videos in which there is actually some kind of medical examination taking place. This restricts those that are available (and those available are short, in terms of duration).
Of these, we have:
Qpercom Basic Life support
One- and three-quarter minutes and sadly it starts up with that whistle noise again. Otherwise, there is an ongoing background noise (a low hum which could well be air conditioning). However, if it were not for that whistle noise it would be great for our purposes. Then they commit the offence of repeating the whistle noise – twice at the end. I will trial it in the Procrastination Pen playlist but I’m pretty clear that if it becomes irritating, it is going in the archive.
Qpercom Basic Life Support- Short
Only forty-five seconds surely this time they cannot be including a blasted whistle noise. Oh but they do. It is basically a cut down of the one featured just previously and all of the comments above for that one apply here as well. Although at least there is only one whistle noise in this one.
Qpercom presents Observe in Action: Breaking Bad News OSCE Station
A little over nine minutes, but that gives time for the initial whistle noise again. There is a small background noise (a hiss). It is quite muted, the voices of both participants are excellent. Without the whistle this would probably be premier class.
There are further whistles as there is a transition between participants. And just to round it off a further whistle noise.
Qpercom presents Observe in Action: Handwashing OSCE Station
Just less than two and a half minutes. The whistle noise as expected, and a lot of noise which I think is the sound of running water hitting the bottom of a stainless-steel sink. There are equipment noises and a whistle noise as there is a transition between presenters. To conclude another whistle noise.
I notice the credits refer to NUI Galway, as expected this has a YouTube channel it has 1.2K videos and 5.51K subscribers, but history tells us that the videos will be about promoting the University (quite rightly) so I will not be investigating that any further.
Qpercom presents Observe in Action: BMI OSCE Station
A bit less than seven and a half minutes. Comments are of course critical. There is that whistle noise again but otherwise it is calm. Again, the voices of the participants are excellent, if only the whistle wasn’t included. There is another whistle as we transition between presenters (roughly half way through the video). A further whistle noise at the end.
Really the whistle noises ruin what is otherwise a good experience.
Qpercom presents Observe in Action: An electronic OSCE Solution
A little less than five and three quarter minutes and the last possible candidate on the site I can currently find. None of these have been ideal, with the whistle noises, and this one has additional noises from a slamming door and a very echoey track. Presumably the action was filmed in a large space with minimal sound deadening in place.
I’m going to run them in the Procrastination Pen playlist but only because the voices of the participants are great. The additional noises distract from the experience and, to be fair, it will probably result in all of them hitting the archive list before too long. However, you will get the time to review them before it does so…
The Qpercom 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.
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.
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.
The Procrastination Pen 