ASMR – Page 11 – The Procrastination Pen

Sleeping With ASMR

Another week and onwards towards a longer playlist and another set of videos (from YouTube) to review.

Today we have another set from a student, presumably this was originally created as part of an assessment process.

As is typical for this type of channel, the last update was some time ago and now the channel is not maintained. We have already seen that some videos can be taken down and these could become the same, so my advice is “get ‘em while you can”.

The channel is Jordynlee21 and the updates are nine years ago (2015). There are four videos, which as you will see, have pretty much the same title but feature different “patients”.

There are no playlists available on the channel so, in no particular order, this is the first one.

Head to toe Ashley Brehmer- South University

The camera pans the room in the most disconcerting way. The initial verbal description is a bit drony, as if it is narrated by someone who is just going through the motions.

There is an ever-present background noise (probably air conditioning). This is a situation with which we are now well familiar.

South University appears to be located in Savannah Georgia as we’d expect it has its own YouTube channel.

As is usual, the channel for South University does not include medical examination videos.

I’m always fascinated by the terms used by those using a stethoscope such as “Intercostal Space”, this gives a good definition:

“2nd intercostal space (i.e., the space between the second and third ribs).

3rd intercostal space (i.e., the space between the third and fourth ribs).

4th intercostal space (i.e., the space between the fourth and fifth ribs).

5th intercostal space (i.e. the space between the fifth and sixth ribs).”

At intervals the presentation does settle down to be more gentle and is more the kind of video that we’re looking for (or “hearing for” if that could be a term).

In this case the medical professional is Ashley, I am not clear who Jordyn Lee (the name of the channel) is. The channel has been around since 2009 so considerably before the video.

Callie Donnay head to toe- South University

Again, with the maniacal whirling of the camera about the room, presumably to demonstrate that there are no prompts in the room for the student. However, I would have thought it straightforward to pan the room initially and then introduce material subsequently, but maybe I’m over thinking this.

The medical professional is Callie Donnay, again, the video is posted nine years ago. The air conditioning noise remains ever present. The “patient” here is the medical professional from the previous video i.e. Ashley Brehmer.

Sensibly there are no comments permitted; we’ve seen negative comments against such videos before.

Eventually the video settles down and gets reasonably quiet. I wonder if initial nerves in such videos is the reason that they often set off loud and settle down later.

There is the occasional clatter as equipment is moved around. This is distracting but not massively off-putting.

Alana Haas head to toe- South University

Alana Haas is the medical professional. Again, the camera pans the room. The “patient” confirms it is actually a hospital and not a domestic setting as we have often seen before. The patient states her name as Jordyn Hutchinson. The surname isn’t Lee – so perhaps she is not the owner of the channel. The patient states the date as 2013 so the video is posted somewhat later than that (which seems a bit odd if it is part of an assessment process).

Like the previous videos, the voice isn’t spot on for ASMR and the background noise is always present. However, there are periods of calm. Again, there are clattering noises which are only marginally distracting.

Jordyn Hutchinson head to toe- South University

Here, Jordyn becomes the medical professional. I’m not sure how common the spelling Jordyn is seen (I’m more used to Jordan). However, it is conceivable that Jordyn married and took the name Lee and hence the channel belongs to the self-same Jordyn.

I’m not sure how that could be verified as the videos lack any notes.

As before the camera sweeps the room and the medical professional starts off loud, so far, so familiar.

The patient is Alana Haas who appears in the previous video.

It settles down and is moderately quiet. I do often hope for another Hollie Berry but I think these videos are adequate for getting to sleep.

They’re going into the playlist and I’ll rely on the review process to sweep them into the archive list if they cease to be appealing.

The Jordyn Lee playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The Procrastination Pen playlist (which is no-doubt what you have all been reading this in order to locate) is found here:

I have been working through that playlist repeatedly and some of the videos that were members have now fallen from favour. If any of your favourites are in there you can find them here in the archive list:

Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than unwelcome loud equipment noises.

The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function), usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night, is here:

I hope that you find the playlists restful and that you get a good night’s sleep.

Hope to see you again back here for the next blog article.

If you liked this blog item why not subscribe to this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by Jennifer Uppendahl on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

If you’ve been following the blog for a while by now, you know the drill. I browse around YouTube and find a video which might cause ASMR symptoms in those lucky enough to feel such symptoms. For others, I hope it proves relaxing enough that, if you were listening to it and trying to sleep, it might prove to be helpful.

If you’re new to the blog, welcome, as an explanation the outcome of each one of these articles is a review of the video (and possibly some associated videos) and ultimately a playlist that contains the best ones.

Each week I also review and weed the playlist, so that some of the videos that have not stood the test of time are removed from that playlist. But in case you miss them, I have an archive list of such videos to enable you to find them again.

This week the video commences with an image of a textbook so I think it safe to assume it is all about education. It appears the basis of study is going to be a textbook called Macleod’s which is probably some kind of medical bible to those in the know about such things.

Macleod’s Examination of the Hand

This is just over six minutes long so it isn’t going to be hanging about. We have been used to videos which are substantially longer.

There is a title telling us all about it: “Video taken from Macleod’s Clinical Examination 13^th edition By Graham Douglas, Fiona Nicol & Colin Robertson”

One key to the professional nature of the presentation is a nice comprehensive set of notes: “New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition

This video demonstrates clinical examination techniques, as described in Macleod’s Clinical Examination. The textbook with access to the full set of videos is available at http://www.elsevierhealth.co.uk/macleod More info about the director www.iainhennessey.com”

It is possible that Elsevier Health may be worthy of a future review.

The video itself is a bit strange. I get the sense that the voices don’t actually belong to the participants, either that or it is just subtly out of sync. The first time I saw the beginning, I was convinced that they were artificially generated images rather than real people. But given we will not be watching, but lying there worrying about that meeting first thing and distracting ourselves with the soundtrack, that will almost certainly go unnoticed.

It is a video designed for education and therefore is heavily narrated. Fortunately, the narrator has quite a good voice. Not as good as Shane Brun, but pretty good nonetheless.

Part way through the sound abruptly cuts off as if the narrator intended to continue and there is instead a few seconds silence. It has the feel of a bad edit.

There are way too many terms in here for me to attempt definition of them all – in any case this isn’t a medical blog.

However:

Crepitus noises occurring on movement of a joint.

Sinovitus – swelling of the joint.

The custom with this blog (once the one video has been viewed) is to take a look at the channel which it is from, and determine if there is other ASMR-y (official term) material available there.

The channel is called Farsight Channel.

It contains fifty-nine videos and five playlists as at today’s date.

With this quantity of videos, it has now become customary to choose one playlist and to stick with it. However, the playlists which might be of interest are twenty-four videos long. That seems a bit much and will most probably test your patience.

Therefore, the established route is to find videos featuring the same medical professional or the same “patient”.

This, still leaves us with a long list. In this case I think we can choose between two playlists:Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition

and

New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition

and then focus on the patient (who only appears in a subset of the videos).

Taking the first playlist, we find the patient occurs in the following:

Macleod’s Gastrointestinal Examination

Here we establish that the medical professional is “Ben”. Although given the strange “dubbed” nature of the soundtrack, he could be anyone at all and for our purposes I do not suppose that it matters.

The notes state “Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition

Sample of DVD content available with Macleod’s Clinical Examination 12th edition. A further 24 DVD quality clinical examinations available with the textbook and on student consult. The 13th edition has just been released and its content found at New! Macleod’s Cl…

More info about the director www.iainhennessey.com”

There is also a comment on the channel: “The character of the bowel sounds is unlikely to be changed by palpation. Bruits will also not change. Hutchisons, Tally, Ford and Macleod’s textbooks examine in this order and it is standard exam convention (in the UK). However, tailor your examination to local practices for exam purposes”

It is quite remarkable for a professional video series that comments are permitted at all (we have seen how brutal comments can be).

From the comments we can see that other ASMR fans have found this one before.

Definitions again

Palmar erythema: Redness of the palm of the hand.

Spider Naevi – enlarged blood vessels in the skin with the appearance of a spider.

Xiphisternum lowest part of the breastbone.

Ascites – accumulation of fluid in the abdomen.

Gastroparesis – slower than usual passing of food through the stomach.

Hypoalbuminemia – low levels of albumin in the blood.

Macleod’s Knee Examination

The notes state “Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition

Sample of DVD content available with Macleod’s Clinical Examination 12th Edition. Further videos are available with purchase of the textbook or online at student consult.

More information about the director www.iainhennessey.com”

Now we discover that the patient is called “Abby” (I imagine that there are many spellings of that name and I have probably selected the wrong one). As pointed out previously given the nature of the video this is in all probability not the “patient’s” real name in any case.

Definitions:

Genu valgum – knee misalignment.

Tibial Tuberosity – an image is best for this one:

Macleod’s examination of the Hands (joints)

The notes are: “Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition

Sample of DVD content available with Macleod’s Clinical Examination 12th Edition. Further videos are available with purchase of the textbook or online at student consult.

More information about the director www.iainhennessey.com”

Definition:

Vasculitis – inflammation of the blood vessels.

Rheumatoid nodule – swelling normally near a joint.

Bouchard’s nodes – hard bony growths associated with arthritis.

It’s probably wise to let the medical terminology wash right over you or it may be easy to convince yourself that you have all kinds of nasty conditions. The odd comment with some of these videos seems to indicate the occasional viewer is heading down just such a rabbit hole.

Macleod’s examination of cranial nerves 2,3,4 and 6

The dubbed soundtrack is definitely off with the way the people are behaving in the video, it’s as if they are artificial people. But that surrealness only comes across if you are actually watching it. Here we have a medical professional “Amy”, who like “Ben” is probably not Amy because the desire from such videos presumably is anonymity. Perhaps the voice has been electronically masked to the same end, at points it is so clipped that the participants seem abrupt or as one commentator states – robotic.

The notes with the video state “Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition

Macleod’s Clinical Examination video. Demonstrating clinical examination technique as described in Macleod’s clinical examination. Textbook and accompanying video available in full quality at http://www.amazon.com/Macleods-Clinic…”

The comments indicate that the narration is “boring”, however, in terms of relaxing for sleep, I think the narration track is actually pretty good. Obviously every video should be the quality of Dr James Gill in an ideal world, but I’d say this set has been consistent so far and I see no reason to exclude any of them from The Procrastination Pen playlist.

Macleod’s Thyroid examination

The final video for this post and a very brief one at two and a quarter minutes. The channel has been a consistent resource so we will be back, I think.

The notes state “Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition

Thyroid examination from Macleod’s clinical examination

More information about the director www.iainhennessey.com”

I am almost convinced now that the people in these videos are artificially generated, the only way you’ll spot this when drifting off to sleep is the odd intonation of the voice and the very clipped interactive manner which to a real person would probably be deemed to be rude.

In terms of sleep though I think it is consistent – almost monotonal – and relaxing. After all, you will not be actually watching, unless sleep really isn’t happening for you and you need something to distract you from the fact that you’re lying awake and you’re in the office in only three hours’ time…

The Procrastination Pen playlist for Farsight is here:

The overall playlist for all videos featured on the blog so far is here:

Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than occasional equipment noises which can get irritating on repeated listening.

The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function), usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night, is here:

I hope that you find the playlists restful and that you get a good night’s sleep.

Hope to see you again back here for the next blog article.

If you liked this blog item why not subscribe to this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

Today marks one year since I started blogging on ASMR. To celebrate I thought we would both have a treat and get some ASMR from a recognised ASMR professional.

This is like a kiddie being found with a hand in the sweetie jar. This is not at all in the theme of medical examinations. It has been assembled by a famous ASMR artist (so definitely fabricated). At 4.59 million subscribers (as I am looking at it) this is a channel that is fantastically popular.

I have strayed from the true path of the blog with this video but we will return to unintentional ASMR in due course. However, if this kind of post turns out to be popular, I may consider professional ASMR artists in the future.

YouTube has some algorithms in it. When you (as I have) start exploring items that have an ASMR theme, other items get recommended as the next video to view. This is one of those recommendations and I have to confess I really like this one.

Gibi ASMR is so famous that she has a Wikipedia entry.

I did not know about her prior to finding this channel. As you’d imagine the Gibi ASMR channel has quite a few videos, so many I have no idea how to count them all.

There are forty-seven playlists, some of them with a very large number of videos in.

Todays’ video is this one:

ASMR | Professional Worry Removal

As expected, this is professional, polished, great intonation, great voice but then I’m cheating and we’d be kind of upset if a professional ASMR artist could not do that, wouldn’t we?

As it turns out one of the Gibi ASMR playlists is Gibi ASMR | Worry Removals of which this is the first video.

There are seven videos in total and just for a change we’re not finding any hidden ones.

I suspect there are many advantages with just going with a professional ASMR artist and judging by the comments Gibi ASMR has many loyal fans.

I think as I am starting into review of professional ASMR artists (of which this is perhaps the only one – dependent upon how this is received) I am going to create a new Procrastination Pen playlist called “Sweetie Jar” for all such videos. These videos can be placed in that list without guilt that I am diluting the Procrastination Pen playlist which is designated for videos which contain inadvertent ASMR content.

Given the first one is so excellent what are we going to find with video two?

ASMR | Another Professional Worry Removal

As before the character is spot on in my opinion. Sybil is just right in terms of the way she speaks. No doubt this is the outcome of a great deal of time making ASMR videos.

ASMR | Professional Worry Removal & Spa Double Relaxation Treatment [1 Hour]

I really didn’t like the Luna character here. Given there is so much great material with Sybil, I don’t see the point in including it in the playlist.

ASMR | Sybil Gives You a Soothing Manicure

Sybil comes in at three and a half minutes into the video. Three and a half minutes of advertising to start the video. It is bad enough dismissing the YouTube adverts outside of the video itself without the sponsors messages in the video itself. I can’t put this one in the playlist either.

ASMR | Professional Worry Removal for the New Year

This is good; however, it is only going to be valid at the New Year. I’m not certain that isn’t going to be jarring at other times of year. However, the presentation is still great so on balance I think it should be included. (I can always weed jarring videos to the archive in the future.)

ASMR | Professionally Removing Your Anxiety & Stress in 2023

This applies in 2023 only, and as I am posting this in 2024 I am sure it also should not be in the playlist.

You may have noticed that I rushed through this blog entry. I am a bit guilty about straying from the norm of medical exams. However, having heard how good some of these are I thought I should at least cover them.

I will try to avoid coming back to professional ASMR for a while unless there is demand for it.

The Gibi playlist on The Procrastination Pen is here:

The new “Sweetie Jar” playlist for professional ASMR videos is here:

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

I am not adding “Sweetie Jar” videos to this overall playlist as they are off-topic for the theme of the blog posts so far.

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after repeated review not to make the grade, is here:

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Recently I have noticed that the videos available in The Procrastination Pen playlist have started to reduce. I haven’t commenced any new weeding activity so the videos have not been jettisoned into the Procrastination Pen archive playlist. Nonetheless the number of videos is going down.

Looking at the Procrastination Pen playlist, I find that ten unavailable videos are hidden at the current moment. It is tempting to conclude that because an extra spotlight has been shone on them by The Procrastination Pen blog, people have rushed to hide them from view. More realistically, I think this is the natural process of attrition. Two of the videos are now showing as marked private and eight have been deleted.

It would appear there is a race on to getting the material listed on this blog before the featured video disappears.

It would be great to create an archive of ASMR videos so that they would be permanently available. However, I am no legal expert and I suspect that there maybe a whole argument about original ownership of videos, permissions, fees and so on. The upshot is that unless the blog keeps on rolling forwards, the playlist is going to continue to diminish in terms of the number of videos it contains.

It also means that you need to get listening to the featured videos soon after I publish the blog article, as videos are obviously being removed and you may be left with a small subset of those featured.

Another undesirable outcome is that some of the blog items are going to have blank spaces where videos used to be. I can’t see how to avoid that, other than to keep deleting old blog items. That may, ultimately, be the approach that I have to take.

I’ll keep rolling forwards with articles, unless it becomes obvious that simply by documenting videos in this blog causes the videos to be removed. In which case, the blog will have become a Jonah of ASMR and I will desist with it. (However, given the statistics on this blog I think that is unlikely and extremely unlucky if it turns out to be the case.)

And so, to today’s video:

The Full Neurological Examination

This begins with the kind of funky music that we have become used to. How much nicer it is when we find a video that does not employ music. This one is narrated and the narrator has a good voice. Immediately it seems that we are in safe hands.

Definition:

Romberg’s test – a test of balance involving a person standing with feet together and eyes closed.

The voice of the medical professional, which we hear briefly at intervals, is also a good voice and better still there is little background noise.

Just examining the comments, reveals that a number of other listeners have discovered its relaxing effects.

The channel is UCL Clinical Skills which as at today’s date includes thirty-nine videos. That is quite a few to document in one blog post (and I’m sure that you’re in a hurry to get to the Procrastination Pen playlist).

There are no playlists on this channel, so the habitual mechanism of thinning down the number of videos to a size that can be readily dealt with in one post by focusing on a playlist on the channel is not going to work.

The backup method is to look for videos where the same medical professional is involved or the same patient.

In this case, there is more than one video involving the same patient. I’ll focus on just those videos this time.

Abdominal examination (basic for Y1 & Y2 students).

There is more funky start up music (oh dear) and a different narrator. The sound quality is not so great but no less relaxing. There is now evidence of background noise on some of the narration tracks.

There is also a variability in volume which is undesirable when listening and trying to get to sleep.

However, it is still a good one to include in The Procrastination Pen playlist, I think.

Neurological sensory examination of the lower limb (basic for Y1 & 2 students).

Here we have the same narrator as in the last video and the same start up music. It would be great to edit that startup music out.

The volume of the narrator seems to be lower which will make inter-video volume an issue if you are listening to the playlist. The background noise in the examination parts of the video seems a bit higher. There are hardly any comments, so it is possible that this is not getting as much ASMR listening time as the previous videos (let’s hope The Procrastination Pen can change that).

Neurological motor examination of the lower limbs (basic for Year 1 & 2 students).

The self-same intro and narrator. The narrator used in the first video (who had a better voice) has obviously packed his bags and headed for the beach which is a shame for us but probably great for him.

Definition

Clonus a rhythmic stretch reflex.

An introduction to examining the cardiovascular system; Y1 & Y2

We’re now well used to the start-up music. The narration sound quality is not that amazing on this video. It sounds like the narrator is at some distance from the microphone (or the microphone hails from 1958).

Definition:

Peripheral cyanosis: extremities having a blue colour.

An Introduction to the Abdominal Examination – Y1 and Y2

We are ringing the changes with the narrator here although not with the introductory music. It would be delightful if that music would just go for a walk somewhere rather than play at the start of a relaxing video. The narrator’s voice is really too deep in this video to be properly relaxing and comes as a bit of a shock after what has gone before.

However, it is not sufficiently off-putting to deny it membership of the Procrastination Pen playlist. (Although it may be weeded out in the future).

Fortunately, the delivery is well paced and spaced. Which soon allows relaxation to return, although this isn’t a top ASMR candidate by any means.

Definition

Epigastrium upper area of the abdomen.

Cardiovascular Examination

We’re back to the peppy music. This time the narrator sets off as if she has to speak to an auditorium, loud and a bit clipped. Perhaps that auditorium is full of misbehaving children.

It is not a relaxing presentation.

Although we have the same patient it is not as chilled as previous videos in this set. I do not think that it can sneak into The Procrastination Pen playlist.

This set of videos must be excellent for instruction, I’ve seen a few medical examination videos now but I am still learning a great deal by watching. However, that is not the purpose of this set of blog posts.

Abdominal Examination

We’re back to the deep voice we heard in “An Introduction to the Abdominal Examination – Y1 and Y2” above. It isn’t marvellous ASMR-wise however not enough to discount it from the Procrastination Pen playlist. It might be dropped on future review though.

Definitions

Glossitis

Inflammation of the tongue

GALS Screen (Gait Arms Legs Spine) examination – real time

There is no narration on this one which is actually rather refreshing. The medical professional is relatively quiet. In fact, this is a great video for ASMR purposes. His tone is good and his approach methodical, everything that we have been looking for thus far.

Some of the videos do repeat some of the material from previous videos in the same series. I am assuming that this will not be too off-putting of you follow my advice to play the playlist on shuffle so that you do not just get them one after the other.

That’s it for now.

However, the channel has been good for us so I intend to return here to look at some of the other videos it contains.

The UCL Clinical Skills playlist on The Procrastination Pen is here:

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

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after repeated review not to make the grade, is here:

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

The first thing that strikes me about today’s video is the very quiet start. What a change to some of the canned music that usual precedes videos on YouTube. There is also the absence of oppressive air conditioning noises that plague so many of these.

The patient “Natalie” (possibly misspelled) announces that she was born 10/15/98 and the medical professional states “so you’re 20”. 10/15/98 is 15/10/1998 (UK Format i.e. October). We can assume that this is filmed 2018 which given it was posted four years ago seems to indicate that it was filmed and posted around the same time.

Head to Toe Health Assessment

The patient states that she attends Colby Sawyer college https://colby-sawyer.edu/ which is a school of nursing and so potentially where this video was filmed. Colby Sawyer, as expected, has its own YouTube channel with one hundred and thirty-eight videos, four hundred and one subscribers and three playlists. A brief check seems to indicate that sporting videos are quite important on this channel but, probably unsurprisingly, these turn out not to be videos suitable for a blog about ASMR.

For today’s video the channel is Marissa Nance and consists of this one video and no playlists.

I’ll make the assumption that this was for an assessment in that year and I’ll assume the medical professional here was Marissa.

It remains wonderfully calm and, judging by the comments, I am not the only one to think so. Many ASMR fans have checked this one out previously. Although sadly, the negative not to say nasty, comments are here as we have seen in the past.

This one is distinguished in that both Natalie and Marissa have calm voices, that is a rare (if not unique so far) find.

It seems over rather too soon, given there are no alarming noises throughout the entire video (something we have not always been able to say).

So that’s it, just the one for you today but I am certain more will be coming very soon. The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:

(and now it includes the Marissa video).

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after repeated review not to make the grade, is here:

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

Today we are very much more mainstream i.e. back to the core theme of this blog which has been to review medical videos on YouTube. Medical education establishment – tick. Medical examination the theme – tick. Person with quiet voice – tick.

This will perhaps compensate for some of the forays off into other areas that I have committed recently.

Shoulder Examination – KCL KUMEC

As we’ve seen with previous professional videos in the past this one has an associated set of notes which fills in some of the gaps in our knowledge.

In this case:

“Shoulder examination video produced by King’s College London – King’s Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community Physiotherapist: Laura Smith Patient: Donald Sze Filmed at The Royal College of General Practitioners.”

This is great. The first time in a while we have a video with no extraneous background noise. The only irritation (presumably because the video is for instructional purposes) is that the audio and video track has cuts in it as it dashes between the tests that are being performed. Instead of evolving slowly as a conversation, it cuts off abruptly once a specific test has been performed.

However, this video is good enough for the Procrastination Pen playlist I am thinking.

The channel is KCL Kumec. It has twenty-nine videos, 9.48K subscribers and just one playlist. A brief look at the playlist indicates it is not really suitable in terms of ASMR.

Here it is if you want to take a look:

(It does not have a title).

Habitually, I thin down the videos under review by checking an already-supplied playlist. A quick overview of the twenty-nine videos shows that the same “patient” is in a number of them.

However, only a subset of these videos feature the same physiotherapist. I think that a way to attempt to thin these down a bit is to choose only those in which Laura Smith appears.

It appears that a return here in the future might well be in order, to cover some more videos from this channel.

Knee Examination – KUMEC

The notes with the video are: “Knee Examination produced by King’s College London – King’s Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community. Physiotherapist: Laura Smith Patient: Donald Sze Filmed at The Royal College of General Practitioners.”

Laura is excellent in this, not quite Hollie Berry but still nicely relaxing to listen to.

As before, the video chops between steps of the examination and so there is no evolving conversation as such. For some reason this seems less forced in this one – i.e. the transitions do not appear to be as abrupt.

Elbow Examination – KUMEC

The notes state “Elbow examination video produced by King’s College London – King’s Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community. Physiotherapist: Laura Smith Patient: Donald Sze Filmed at The Royal College of General Practitioners.”

The more I listen, the more relaxing it feels. This seems to be quite an ASMR discovery and puts some others into the shade. If the remaining videos sustain this kind of consistency, I may have to look at the existing Procrastination Pen playlist to weed out those that are not this quality.

Hand Examination – KUMEC

The notes state “Hand examination produced by King’s College London – King’s Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community. Physiotherapist: Laura Smith Patient: Donald Sze Filmed at The Royal College of General Practitioners.”

The comments indicate that other ASMR fans have got here long before I did. Laura might even stand up to Vicki Scott in ASMR terms which is really saying something. Her manner seems caring, thoughtful, methodical. If only the video was allowed to run the course of the entire examination, rather than chopping between important elements.

However, the consistency of these in terms of relaxing effects has been marvellous (better even than we have been used to of late).

And that is it, just the four videos featuring both Laura and Donald, I hope you agree this was a great set in terms of ASMR

The KCL Kumec playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

Following on from the previous blog items featuring an osteopath here is a new one. To me the voice is not a natural ASMR one however the examination is quite relaxing and missing the clunks, clicks, and exclamations that we have seen before.

Pelvis & Sacrum Palpatory Landmarks for Physical Examination and Osteopathic Structural Exam

Fortunately, this is lacking obtrusive background noise. There is also a helpful set of notes (which we can probably now take to be a sign of a professionally released video). This tells us that it was all filmed at the North Texas Health Science Center Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (UNTHSC – TCOM) Medical Education Training (MET) facilities.

It is also lacks the borderline nasty comments which we have occasionally seen before.

All of these are good signs. However, the voice is no Shane Brun – but hey this is not what the video was produced for.

The channel is Osteopathic Clinical Skills there are extensive notes on the channel but none of these details who is doing the presenting. There are ninety-seven videos as at today’s date. As usual I will select a relevant playlist to slim this down to something more manageable for a blogpost. There are ten playlists and as luck would have it our first selected video is a member of this one:

Landmark Palpation

Six videos including the one that we have already covered above.

The videos are:

Common Palpatory Landmarks for Physical Examination and Osteopathic Structural Examination

Again it is calm, no Dr James Gill but far better than some of the student videos we have seen in the past.

The background noise (air conditioning again) is not excessive here unlike some that have been reviewed of late.

Standing Postural Examination – Osteopathic Structural Exam (OSE) Screening

The length of the videos starts to slope off a bit with this one, just in excess of six and a half minutes. The quality though still remains consistent. It is more relaxing than true ASMR. As such, I still think that these are going to make it to the Procrastination Pen playlist, although I reserve the right to archive any that don’t stand up to continued review.

Upper Extremity Palpatory Landmarks for Physical Examination and Osteopathic Structural Examination

The video we started with in this blog post occurs after this one in the playlist. There is very little variance in terms of presentation with the videos we have already seen in this post. Assuming no terrible surprises, I think all of these will be in the Procrastination Pen playlist (at least for a while). I use the playlist myself so it gets continuous evaluation for effectiveness. So far, my favourite remains Hollie Berry, but it is always possible something even more marvellous will make itself known soon.

Somatic Dysfunction: Tissue Texture Assessment (TART) – Thoracic, Lumbar

Interesting how much a person has to be informed of, so that they are able to consent to the procedure. This seems a fairly recent development or maybe it is a regional one. This video remains consistent with the others. This has been a good set with no outlandish noises or strange behaviours. Not true ASMR but relaxing enough to be in the Procrastination Pen playlist I contend (subject to future review).

The Osteopathic Clinical Skills playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after repeated review not to make the grade, is here:

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 log on. This interrupts the listening experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Chris Wong on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Given the furore in the media one would imagine that I’ve abandoned writing altogether and that this is now being written by some variant of AI. There is almost a fevered excitement about these engines of productivity, even amongst those who, from an objective viewpoint, will ultimately be replaced by them.

After all, if an AI ever gets to the stage of producing reliable, readable copy, then what would be the need for bloggers, writers, journalists and so on.

Anyway, I write this blog because I want to write. I did not write the blog to ask something else to do the writing for me. So sadly, you are unlikely to see much in the way of AI-derived content here (although I’m told one should never say never).

This far, the blog is not a business and so the mechanisms involved in writing this are part of the process, not an obstacle on the way to deriving higher amounts of income. Should that change (I’m sure there is an ASMR millionaire out there who wants to pay me huge amounts to write for them) then perhaps ChatGPT (alternative AIs exist) will form a major part of the process and I’ll be on a Seychelles beach. In the more prosaic world, I’ll keep on pressing one key, and then another one to see what emerges and post it up onto the blog in the hope someone would like to read it.

Today’s is another diversion from the norm. I contend it is still ASMR, but it isn’t a video. In fact it is a podcast and it isn’t on YouTube, it is on Greater Good Magazine. A site which the sleepless may wish to attend at intervals as there are occasionally features on managing stress and anxiety. Although, quite often, it focuses on how to be reasonable to one another, which cannot hurt.

Therefore, rather than an embedded video we have a URL: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/podcasts/item/how_to_keep_love_alive

But I think that you may find the voice to be worth it.

Ayesha Mattu has a voice like cotton wool and chocolate in a warm room. A really calming quiet backdrop for relaxation. I hope that they do not take this audio down.

It is just over twenty-one minutes. Sadly I can’t add this into any playlist without uploading to YouTube and I do not own the audio.

However, I hope you agree that it is worth just kicking back and listening for a few minutes to Ayesha who is a proper audio find.

You can catch Ayesha on Amazon (she is an author).

Given how great her voice is and that she is in the public eye I thought it worthwhile to search for material (videos) featuring Ayesha on YouTube.

I found this one:

The voice is not quite so amazing as on the above podcast but still good enough for a playlist, I think. Part of the problem is the consistent background music which detracts from the experience for me. It is way off message for this blog, of course, because it does not feature any kind of medical examination.

I think following up with other blog items on Ayesha will be a definite future for this blog. I hope that you enjoy this one.

The Procrastination Pen playlist (which remains the same as last week) is found here:

I listen to that playlist most nights and I have removed some videos that no longer seem as excellent as when first reviewed. If any of your favourites are missing from that main playlist you can find them here in the archive list:

Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than the occasional loud clang from medical equipment.

The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function), usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night, is here:

I hope that you find the playlists restful and that you get a good night’s sleep.

I hope to see you again back here for the next blog article.

If you liked this blog item why not subscribe to this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

Habitually I am reviewing inadvertent ASMR videos i.e. those videos made for one purpose (usually medical examinations) but which are relaxing enough to produce ASMR effects in those lucky enough to have them.

Recently though I seem to have meandered more into the world of ASMR YouTube channels. It will not be a permanent move however. My intention is to get right back to genuine medical videos.

Today’s channel is “ASMR Sandwich Breath”, as mentioned before “sandwich breath” is a bit of an insider ASMR joke. People either know of the sandwich breath video or they do not. Afficionados of ASMR videos are expected to understand the inside jokes. (I only get a few of them as there are a great many such videos).

Today’s blog article is about this video:

Physical Medical Exam Unintentional ASMR

The video starts with the title “PE for TOPE Student Demonstration”.

Ross, here the “patient”, Jessica the medical professional. She states this is the University of Washington and that she is a registered nurse. The comments state that the original of this video has now been deleted. Assuming that we can trust those comments, this is possibly the only place we will encounter this video.

The University of Washington has its own channel of course.

There are seven hundred and fifty-seven videos on that channel and twelve playlists. The upshot of which is that some of those playlists are composed of over one hundred videos.

Jessica’s video does not seem to be there.

UDUB is apparently a shortening for the University of Washington to those in the know.

Ross does not seem the happiest patient or, taking a more positive view, he could be half asleep.

Jessica enunciates the medical terms here in such a clear way, possibly the best I have heard so far.

I also notice a great deal of time taken to explain what is coming next. Perhaps this thoroughness explains why the video is in excess of thirty-four minutes.

This is very quiet. Jessica at intervals is on a par with Vicky Scott which is quite a statement. The result is a video which is a good Procrastination Pen playlist candidate.

The video concludes with a healthy amount of information Jessica Burke-Lazarus BSN, RN Midwifery-DNP student was the medical professional Jessica it turns out graduated in 2013 and now works in Seattle.

The “patient” was Rosson Wiebe PMHNP-DNP Student Ross also graduated in 2013 and went on to work in Florida.

It also tells us that it was filmed December 9 2011 in the Center for Excellence I Nursing Education at the University of Washington.

ASMR Sandwich Breath has forty-eight videos as at today’s date. That is a fair-few videos to attempt to motor through. A quick scan of them reveals some old favourites which we have covered before.

The usual approach is to reduce the number to be covered by selecting a suitable playlist from the channel.

There are five playlists on here but some of them are a little on the long side.

A nice short playlist is this one:

which is titled:

Medical ASMR – Male Nurse/Doctor with Male Patient

Ostensibly consisting of four videos but one of these is listed as hidden. We have seen this before but I am no closer to explaining it.

So that leaves us with three videos to look at (the first video with Jessica in it is not part of this playlist).

Fit and Evaluation of GP Contact Lens Unintentional ASMR

Dr David Meyer and we are back at the Moran Eye Centre. We covered a subset of the Moran Eye Centre videos previously.

However not this one or the one after this. However, I think a return to Moran is indicated when we can cover these videos in their natural home.

Which for this one is here:

Prescription & Fit a Contact Lens Unintentional ASMR

This is also on Moran CORE it is here:

As with the above video, I will cover this one in a future review of the video in its proper home.

Gastrointestinal Exam Unintentional ASMR

We’ve covered Mark Pepin and Corey Duke before so I won’t repeat it here.

Only one video made it to the Procrastination Playlist this time so there will be no Jessica Burke-Lazarus playlist on the Procrastination Pen. (Great though this video proved to be).

The Procrastination Pen playlist (which is no-doubt what you have all been reading this in order to locate) is found here:

I have been listening to that playlist most nights and some of the videos that were members have now been removed. If any of your favourites are missing from that main playlist you can find them here in the archive list:

Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than occasional intrusive noises. The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function), usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night, is here:

I hope that you find the playlists restful and that you get a good night’s sleep.

Hope to see you again back here for the next blog article.

If you liked this blog item why not subscribe to this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

Recently, I am finding some variability around the efficacy of using just the ASMR videos to get some sleep. Some nights very effective, some nights a distraction, and some nights just not effective at all.

On such nights, I tend to lie on the sofa and tune into the dreariness that is late night television (dreariness is probably advisable as really compelling television is only going to keep you awake for longer).

However, there are other things to try, for example, there are free online meditation resources. Some people I am told find the discipline of meditation really diverting. I have until recently found focusing on meditation to be one more thing I do not want to do when I am tired and I want to sleep.

However, never say never, I recently have received a gift subscription to Calm and I am giving some of the meditations a try. So far without positive outcome, but you never know.

Meantime I am back to finding more ASMR videos. I am trying to stay ahead as I notice that some of my blog posts already have blank spaces where videos used to be. Videos are obviously being taken down.

Previously, we have dealt with the Sterling Freeman part of this partnership.

Now we have Olivia Rabone and, as we saw in that previous blog post, this looks like it is a video designed as part of an assessment.

Head-to-toe physical assessment-Olivia Rabone and Sterling Freeman

As we have heard before, the ever-present air conditioning to provide an audio background for us. In this, Sterling Freeman is the “patient”.

Sterling is currently a Registered Nurse at Martin County Hospital District Texas. She attended Howard College

Olivia Rabone attended Howard College Texas until 2022

Howard College has (as we’ve come to expect) has its own channel.

However, the badge on the shoulder of Sterling does not look anything like that on the Howard College Channel.

Sterling also studied at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

This college also has a YouTube channel. However, the badge is not like that on the uniform.

Sterling early in the video confirms that they are both at Howard College, Big Spring Texas. (Perhaps the college has subsequently changed its branding).

We also get the confirmation that this is 2019, which was very likely Sterling’s final year there (although Olivia appears to have attended for longer than that).

I always find it amusing that in these videos the students provide privacy by drawing an invisible curtain. We have seen this before of course.

I’ve seen a few applications of a blood pressure cuff in these videos. Given how far Olivia has to wrap that cuff around Sterling’s arm I think it might be bit on the large side.

The assessment proceeds at the pace of an express train. This makes me wonder if trainee health professionals are under the cosh to get things accomplished in the smallest amount of time possible.

Olivia seems to be reciting from a mental script as the empathy quotient in this video is not obviously high.

Against that, the tone is really pleasant; it is not excessively loud. It makes a good Procrastination Pen playlist candidate.

The channel, unsurprisingly, is called Olivia Rabone. It has eight videos on it, which is a number I think I can cover here without over stretching your attention. (The Procrastination Pen playlist is at the end of this article if you want to skip to that point, simply scroll down to find it).

The remaining seven videos are:

Head-to-toe physical assessment- Sunny Kuykendall & Olivia Rabone

Although Olivia hosts this one on her channel the medical professional here is Sunny and the “patient” is Olivia.

Sunny has her own channel which might be worthy of a future review.

Judging by Sunny’s shoulder badge (which is the same as Sterling’s in the previous video) this is also filmed at Howard College.

We have the constant drone of force-driven air to keep the ears entertained. In this case the medical professional’s volume is not aligned with this background noise. It is quite difficult to hear what Sunny is actually saying. This might be ok if the air conditioning noise was more restful but I do not find that it is.

The camera appears to be a huge distance from the two participants. This is unusual for videos of this type. However, given we are mainly here for the listening experience I cannot judge this video solely on that basis.

Sunny at intervals seems to be distracted. Potentially she is trying to follow some standard assessment checklist.

This does make it a little difficult to relax into the experience (and fall asleep to it for example).

Overall, I think the sound quality discounts this video from the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Head-to-toe physical assessment- Olivia Rabone & Stacy Kuykendall

This continues in the vein of the last video, with a high background noise in relation to the main spoken audio track.

Stacy Kuykendall is a remarkably common name in Texas it turns out (including one woman whose children were killed). The upshot of which is that I have been unable to determine if Stacy has a YouTube channel.

To be honest given this is set up exactly like the last one it didn’t stand a chance from the outset so I will not be adding it to the Procrastination Pen playlist.

CNs, Musculoskeletal, & Neurovascular Assessments-Olivia Rabone

The background noise on this is really intrusive, including what sounds like a whole flock of rock doves trying to outcompete one another.

There are a number of non-medical and non-ASMR comments with this video. But none of these have any interest to us.

There is the noise of overflying planes. At one point Olivia starts laughing, which given the challenges involved in filming here, is probably unsurprising.

If you’re watching as well as listening, there are also some strange artefacts coming from sunlight across the lens.

As before, there are occasional gaps as Olivia consults a checklist so it is a little staccato in approach.

It just isn’t there in terms of ASMR, so it will not be into the Procrastination Pen playlist.

CN’s & Musculoskeletal-Olivia Rabone and Sterling Freeman

Here we are straight back to the partnership that we started this blog item with. Although the partnership is the same, it appears that someone stuck the microphone actually inside the air conditioning outlet.

The audio track is nearly completely occluded by the constant whirr that is going on.

It is a shame because in all other respects this is the equal of the video that we started with in this article, but I don’t think it can really go through to the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Respiratory & Cardiac assessment-Olivia Rabone and Sterling Freeman

Yet again the background noise is high. However, I think this is just acceptable. It is very calm and considerably more methodical than some others featured in this blog post. However, it may well suffer an early weeding if it proves to be distracting on subsequent review.

A louder vocal track would have compensated for the air conditioning. Perhaps YouTube videos of the future will incorporate an air conditioning filter designed to eliminate all that excess noise.

HEENT assessment-Olivia Rabone and Sterling Freeman

This seems to start a bit louder, but so does the air conditioning. I could probably provide a good service to listeners if I could somehow process all the sound tracks to eliminate background noise. Sadly, however I am no sound engineer.

There are relatively few comments but just shy of seven and a half thousand views, which sounds remarkable.

To be honest, I’m not certain it is a great Procrastination Pen playlist candidate.

NG tube/EN/PN discussion

This is so much quieter than the others which must be down to the change of venue. This is filmed inside someone’s house. The start of the video though is not restful. It is almost in the format of a lecture with the delivery a tad hesitant.

Someone off camera starts coughing and Olivia is merely reading from a script.

This one isn’t for the Procrastination Pen playlist either.

The Olivia Rabone playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The Procrastination Pen playlist (which is no-doubt what you have all been reading this in order to locate) is found here:

Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than occasional intrusive noises.

The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function), usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night, is here:

I hope that you find the playlists restful and that you get a good night’s sleep.

Hope to see you again back here for the next blog article.

If you liked this blog item why not subscribe to this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae