According to a guide I was reading recently, in order to be successful in the cut and thrust world of blog posts this really should be entitled “Ten ways to the sleep you’re hoping for” or similar. Apparently, I should have researched my audience so that I know I’m targeting a fifty-year-old non-smoker living in West Wales with her five cats and a small moped called Nigel.
As you can tell, I have not done that.
So if by some miraculous twist of fate you have happened across this blog post, welcome. I hope that you enjoy and if you feel so disposed tell all of your ASMR-loving friends. If you are living with multiple cats and a moped, or if you are not.
Today we are looking at a video from an establishment that even I have heard of. I am hopeful that it’s expertise also churns out medical professionals with a gentle deliberate manner and calm attentive voices.
Percussion of the Chest (Stanford Medicine 25)
It begins with a funky tune which, sadly has become the norm for such videos. However, the medical professional’s voice is actually quite good. This is quite obviously an instruction video but lacks the elevated volume and strident delivery of many such videos.
The “patient” is Geoff (or possibly Jeff). As usual for such videos some of the comments are not particularly relevant or even complimentary. I am beginning to prefer the videos where commentary is denied altogether.
A search around the Internet reveals that this is Dr. Abraham Verghese who even has his own Wikipedia entry and website.
(I wonder if it is feasible to create a Wikipedia entry for yourself, that could be quite fun).
This is not as great as Dr James Gill but is a worthy addition to the playlist, I think. The video is part of a playlist
In which there are only two videos. The second of which is
Stigmata of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (Stanford Medicine 25)
(The same patient, the same medical professional, the same institution).
Again, with the funky music, which, thankfully is soon over. This is equally as good as the last one.
Sadly, it is also quite brief.
So, a brief playlist today but it would seem that we need to follow up with Dr Verghese in the future as he may be a great source of future ASMR videos. Look out for future posts of this type. The Stanford Medicine playlist is here:
I continue to harry this list with demands for ASMR perfection and so at intervals one or more videos drop from this list to the “playlist of Hades” (I mean the Procrastination Pen Archive list):
I keep them here in case I have demoted one of your favourites and you make a reasoned argument why I should restore it to Heaven’s glory (I mean the overall playlist.)
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 have a restful sleep listening to the playlist. If you do why not subscribe to the blog (even I don’t know what is coming up next and it would be a shame to miss it wouldn’t it).
I Hope to see you again back here for the next blog article.
We came across Michael Koller in a previous blog post.
At the time I pointed out that he had a page dedicated to videos i.e. this one.
So far I have not tried reviewing videos which have been linked to from a web page. This is a venture into the unknown. It is not possible to add them into a playlist so this entire blog post will buck the trend of all previous blog posts on ASMR and ASMR-related videos.
The organisation of the page is impeccable, a series of links in a table. I’d guess that they are designed for education purposes.
The first video is:
Head to Toe: Male; Dr Michael Koller
There is a link to the main video entitled “Complete Video”. The video has also been divided into four parts (I’m not sure what the point of that is).
There is also a link called “Text”, this turns out to be a fourteen-page checklist. Students have a much greater memory than I have if they can memorise and utilise all of that.
The quality doesn’t improve just because they are a component of the main video above. These are also quite loud for what we want.
If the tone was a bit quieter, then these might have been ideal.
I was considering asking Dr Michael Koller if he would permit me to upload the videos to YouTube so that they could be enjoyed in the normal way. However sadly he has died so I am unable to do that. As such I cannot upload them to YouTube and therefore, I cannot add them to the Procrastination Pen playlist.
I very much suspect that this is a lost branch of a website which will one day be rediscovered by the Stritch school of medicine and taken down.
For that reason, if you want to see the videos, now is probably the time to do that.
Head to Toe: Female; Dr Michael Koller
For these the only videos available are the Part1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 videos rather than a complete video.
Parts 1, 2 and 3 are secured by a Stritch logon leaving only part 4 for us to see. There is no associated text file as there is for the Head-to-Toe Male video. The reason is not obvious.
This video is much better than any of the Head-to-Toe Male videos in that it is substantially quieter. If this video was on YouTube, it would be in the playlist. I suspect that one cannot just take other people’s videos and upload them to YouTube so I’m sorry for ASMR video fans out there who would like this to be in the Procrastination Pen playlist.
In contrast to the above this video does not come in parts -only the complete video is available. In addition, the above video does not have a “Text” link but for this video a link to the text file is provided.
The text file is four pages long and is again a checklist to go with the video.
At least the music used to start this is gentle, a bit of classic guitar music. Dr Koller introduces Nancy Grecko (assuming that is how you spell that).
The sound for the video is not great – a constant background noise. It is as if the sound track had been lifted from an ancient cassette tape. We have heard background noise like this before.
Given the track is not on YouTube it will not be in a playlist, however I may have considered it if it had been.
I have made an email request to a general contact address at Stritch to see if permission will be granted for me to upload these videos to YouTube. Assuming permission is granted I will upload the videos to my channel in the future and create a playlist as I would normally do. If no such list appears you can assume no such permission was given.
At intervals there are brief snatches of narration which do not have the background noise and this is distracting in that the noise is only emphasised as a consequence.
Thorax; Dr Michael Koller
There is an associated text file, which is again a four-page checklist. There is a bit of a theme developing.
The complete video has funky start music (thanks but no thanks). The background noise is still there but just less pronounced than with the “Head and Neck” Video.
Dr Koller refers to this being a composite video composed of videos that are found elsewhere – my apologies if you notice some overlap (I have not done so).
This is a reasonable video. It is not truly quiet, but it could be said to be quite calm and methodical, not as good as Dr James Gill however.
Part way through, though, Dr Koller starts whacking a tambour which cannot be said to be properly restful.
The outro indicates the “patient” was Thad, assuming that is how you spell that.
A review of the “part” videos indicates that, as expected, they replicate the content of the complete video.
Pulmonary; Dr Michael Koller
Having established with reasonable assurance what the expected behaviour is i.e., the “part” videos are just bits of the complete video, I’m going to limit myself to reviewing the complete video in each case.
We are back to the classical guitar music approach to video introductions although it seems to be a bit louder than before, the inter-video volume problem reasserting itself
Dr Koller and Thad appear again. (Apologies to Thad if I am misspelling your name, happy to correct this if you let me know).
The sound is strange like there is a slight metallic tone to the voice (as if the microphone was inside a metal box). Thankfully we lack that awful background noise in this video though.
There is a set of breathing sounds on the track but (to me) these were not excessively loud and did not distract from the track in anyway. Your mileage may vary.
Again, we see the definition of egophony which we have seen before.
Heart; Dr Michael Koller
The obligatory text file (which I think we can assume now is a checklist) and the complete video supplemented with 2 “part” videos.
The complete video starts with the classical guitar music again (a bit loud this time). This video still features Dr Koller and Thad. Again, we have a slightly metallic edge to the sound.
This is very much of the quality of the previous video.
Towards the end there are various heart beat sounds but I did not find then distracting. You may have a different reaction.
Abdomen; Dr Michael Koller
This video begins with far-too-loud start music, no restful guitar music this time. It has the metallic sounding vocal track, Dr Koller and Thad as we have heard in previous videos. This really needs a better microphone, I think. If it wasn’t for this aggravating metallic echo I think this would have been quite a good video.
This is the last Dr Michael Koller video on the site. However, there are a lot more videos with other participants.
I’ll return here in a future blog post to review the others assuming the page stays up.
Sadly, I have not created a playlist this time (I may get permission to create one in the future from Stritch perhaps).
The overall playlist of videos covered so far in this blog is here:
The archive playlist (videos which were in the overall playlist but after repeated playings it turns out that was a mistake) is here:
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 them restful
If you liked this article why not subscribe to this blog.
If you’ve wandered into the blog via a search engine then you may not have read any other articles in this series. A brief background to explain what this blog is about. The plan is to review videos for their potential for ASMR or at the very least the ability to soothe you off to sleep.
The main output is an ever-growing playlist and my unwritten contract is that this will always appear at the end of each article. The assumption is that if you just want to hear the playlist you can scroll completely through the article and take up the link at the end.
Today’s video comes from a channel that we have seen before.
The channel is MDforAll, it contains no playlists. I use playlists habitually for filtering down content (i.e., limiting the number of videos covered in any one blog post). The channel also has a large number of videos, at today’s date sixty-seven videos in fact.
In the previous blog article I decided to adopt the mechanism of featuring only those videos which all contained the same medical professional and patient together in each one. On that occasion it resulted in nine videos which was a more workable number for you to read about in that one post.
This is therefore a sensible mechanism for arriving at a sensible length blog post on this occasion as well.
A scan through the videos on this channel indicates that a number of them are way too loud for our purposes. They are designed as instruction videos and the participating medical professionals are obviously trying to project themselves. Fair enough, the videos were not designed for the purpose to which we are putting them.
Eye, Ear, Nose, & Throat Examination
In contrast this video is a nice fit. The person presenting (unnamed) is quiet throughout. The patient has little to say. The video quality isn’t exactly HD but, given we’re using it to sleep, then it is probably of little consequence. The sound is pretty good but of course accompanied by air conditioning noise. This is something we expect by now.
The video has notes but they do not tell us very much we don’t already know: “Physical Examination of The Eyes, Ears, Nose, And Throat.”
The comments reveal that other people have happened across this video for ASMR purposes, so we are certainly not the first here.
Having selected this medical professional, the number of videos featuring this person (on this channel) is now limited, to just three videos in fact.
Neck & Cardiac Examination
This continues in the same vein as the previous video. It is equally quiet and the background noise (which we are probably getting used to by now) is limited to air conditioning noises.
One of the comments indicates that this is from MSU CHM. Assuming this is accurate, this refers to Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. This has a channel on YouTube with forty-five videos in it. This channel might be worthy of future review.
At least the medical professional asks the “patient” to hold his breath rather than “stop breathing” which we have seen before this. As I commented previously slavish obedience to this instruction (if it were possible) could have very final consequences.
The heart sounds at one point in the video might prove to be a little distracting. Not least, that I think my heart beats a bit faster than this guy and yours might as well.
On balance though, I think this video is worthy of inclusion in The Procrastination Pen playlist.
Lymph Nodes & Thyroid Examination
This video is slightly louder at the start but that still does not exclude it from the Procrastination Pen playlist. The notes tell us nothing we didn’t know: “Examination of the lymph nodes”. But at least there are notes. The video fades out even as the medical professional is talking. This makes me think there was/is a longer version of this video out there somewhere.
Again, there is no identity for the medical professional listed so there is no way to check where this originated. For all we know there could be more of these. Unless a random YouTube search turns them up though, I’m afraid that this is it.
These videos have been consistent. They all belong in The Procrastination Pen playlist.
These are the only ones on the channel that feature this medical professional and this patient. From the review, I think this channel might be getting mined-out for ASMR related content but I may review it one more time to be certain.
The playlist for MDForAll (On The Procrastination Pen channel) is here:
The playlist which contains every video reviewed so far on the blog is here: (less any that have subsequently been weeded)
The playlist of videos that initially made the above playlist but after much review it was determined they didn’t really make the grade is here:
(I’ve kept them in that list in case you still find them helpful)
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop listening to log on, this interrupts the flow. You may not find this to be the case 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.
Following on from the previous blog post, there were a number of videos that I had not had the time to review in that article. I did promise (ish) that we might revisit the videos to see if any might be potential ASMR-generating or at the least restful and possibly sleep-inducing.
There remains a huge great list of videos still to review and so one extra post on this subject just isn’t going to cover it. Since then, I’ve also found that shorter posts seem to be more appreciated than longer ones such that it isn’t a fantastic idea to just plough on and subject you to page after page of video review.
In any case I suspect the driver for attending this blog at all is the output, which in this case is the playlist. In which case, stroll straight to the end where you will find it in all its splendidness.
So we return to ASMR Exams (the channel on YouTube).
By my back-of-the-envelope calculations, I think we had twenty videos which were neither reviewed nor added to any playlist (assuming they were any good ASMR-wise). I think five will do for this post, assuming that we find even one in those five worthy of addition to The Procrastination Pen playlist.
Let’s dive straight in:
Abdomen Exam (ASMR)
The professional’s voice is a little high-pitched to be truly restful. But at least it is quiet. A number of commentators dismiss this one as about as ASMR-y (potential official term) as a smack in the face with a wet cloth. However, the fact that the professional is a bit dithery does not (to me) discount this video. Although I suspect that the professional here may have struggled with whichever assessment, they were involved in.
At just shy of twenty-six minutes this is thorough indeed (although not excessively long in terms of videos that we have already seen on the blog).
The embroidery near to the left shoulder on the uniform of the medical professional states that the person is Maureen Bolmgren RN. In which case, given this is a quite tentative medical assessment this could have been when Maureen attended Middle Georgia State University. There is a channel for Middle Georgia State University with One Hundred and Four videos at the time I’m looking at it. This might be worthy of a future review.
Given a cuckoo clock kicks in at 18:24, I would guess that the examination is occurring in a domestic setting and so this is also indicative of a student assessment rather than a professional one. Incidentally that cuckoo clock is not at all restful. However, I will give the video the benefit of the doubt for the moment. It may get weeded out to the Procrastination Pen Archive at some future point.
If you search YouTube for Maureen Bolmgren you find this:
on a channel called MGA Nursing. This channel has forty-three videos and seems worthy of a future review.
Physical Assessment (ASMR)
Marina Bolshinsky introduces herself as the medical professional at the beginning.
Marina has a channel as well but it does not contain this video. The patient is Amber Rosenthal who it turns out is also a medical professional.
So this could well be an assessment video of the kind that we have seen before.
At 38:39 the video is a tad long and for me a tad loud. Other commentators have reflected the same.
We know the president is Barack Obama so it was filmed between 2009 and 2017. It appears that Amber and Marina would have been at Long Island University doing a Master’s degree at that time. Long Island University also has a channel which might be worthy of a future review.
This video also gets a bit dithery at intervals also a bit wordy with lots of nervous over-talking.
All told, this is not a great ASMR video and I won’t be adding it to The Procrastination Pen playlist.
Physical Assessment (ASMR)
There’s a helpful intro which states “Physical Assessment Head to Toe Examination Jamee Boutilier”. The “patient” is introduced as Jana. The university is also introduced but I can’t catch it. However, the shoulder badge reveals it to be Cape Breton University. which as we expect also has a YouTube channel (I might even review it at some point).
The video is chopped up into sections which when half asleep I doubt you will notice.
In fact, it isn’t startling in terms of ASMR but still worthy of The Procrastination Pen playlist I think. Future weeding might dispatch it, we’ll see how it settles in.
Physical Assessment (ASMR)
The health professional is Amy and the “patient” Tara (I think). They are in Missouri and it looks like a standard assessment video of the type we have covered before.
They have a YouTube channel (as you would expect) with three hundred and ninety-six videos at the time I am looking at it.
Physical Assessment (ASMR)
Reading the comments on YouTube regularly as I do, I get the feeling that some people add one because they feel they have to, they don’t contribute anything worthwhile.
The medical professional is Kelly Lomack (I’m guessing the spelling again). She kindly tells us that she is a paediatric nurse at the University of Texas El Paso. The patient is Regan.
As expected UTEP has its own channel, Seven Hundred and Sixteen videos as at the time I’m looking at it – it’s a possible for a future review.
Kelly also has her own channel which may also be suitable for a future review.
It is considerably quieter than the previous one, thankfully. The patient appears to be as delighted at the activity as if she had a sack of coal for Christmas rather than the Ferrari she’d been dreaming of.
Right up to the point that she has to stand on one leg with her eyes closed, whereupon she loses balance. I have never seen this test before and it looks a tough one. At least it raised smiles all round.
This one belongs in the Procrastination Pen playlist.
It came to me today that this series has been going on so long that I should provide an ongoing introduction to these articles, so that any newcomers will know what is happening. This needs to be brief enough though, so that the stalwart reader doesn’t get bored.
The aim of this particular blog series is to explore the use of ASMR videos for sleep. Specifically, to be helpful in the getting off to sleep and getting back to sleep when you awake in the middle of the night.
I’m assuming you have a device that can attach to the Internet somewhere near to your bed. On this device that you can open YouTube, browse to The Procrastination Pen playlist, click on shuffle, lie back and listen to the rest in peace. (This might require some kind of sleep-friendly headphones or similar).
My focus so far has mainly been on ASMR videos which have ASMR effects despite being designed for something else (most commonly medical exams so far). These are so-called “unintentional ASMR” videos. There are quite a number of these so I doubt we are going to run out of these any time soon. However, I do occasionally stray into the professional ASMR arena and select one of those videos that appeals.
Each article reviews a video or videos that came up on YouTube. These frequently are found through recommendation by YouTube. I then determine whether the ongoing playlist needs to be enhanced by addition of the reviewed video or that the video needs to be rejected. (In which case the video will still be clickable from the article itself – if you decide you rather like it).
You are free to recommend videos that you feel fit the bill or to disagree with my choices (I may even change the playlist in response to contributions).
At intervals, I review the playlist and pull out the less-successful videos into an archive list of those that seemed to make the grade but over time have not proven to be quite so restful. I use the Procrastination Pen playlist myself so I have a reasonably constant interaction with it.
Today’s video appears to have once been on YouTube on a different channel but was taken down for some reason. The comments indicate that it is a very welcome restoration.
The channel is ASMR Archivist and the notes state that its mission is “an archive for lost AMSR videos” (I assume that’s ASMR). This seems like the kind of place that we could enjoy.
That said, on exploring ASMR Archivist we find just one video (today’s video) and zero playlists.
So today’s article is going to feature just the one video.
Cate Darnell – Head to Toe Assessment
It is so popular that we find that it has an entry in the Internet Archive.
This indicates that it was deleted in 2020, but sadly not where it was deleted from – i.e. where its original home was.
As a consequence of being so popular we find that a similar thing has happened to this video as for the Vicki Scott video covered previously That is, the video is now posted in several places on YouTube. For example here:
On a channel called Sleep ASMR (which seems appropriate)
Our video is just shy of twenty-six minutes long so not the longest we’ve seen. It seems to start with “Miss Spagboll” (I’m sure I heard that incorrectly).
The badge on the patient is just not discernible enough to make it out however it could be Honors College which resolves as The University of Alabama in Huntsville. This has a channel UAH Admissions. This channel has forty-three videos and seven playlists but it appears this is all about marketing the university rather than medical examinations.
Possibly the Cate Darnell video once came from a Cate Darnell channel which has now gone.
Our video looks like an assessment video for a nursing university. We’ve seen these before of course. There is the normal level of background noise, air conditioning again, I think.
Cate has a brilliant accent and talks very quietly, just the sort of thing we are looking for in a video.
As usual the odd definition may help (well they do me – as I have no medical background) in this case bruit is an abnormal sound generated by a turbulent flow of blood.
I have no idea what Cate did next but for our purposes it is a shame that she did not produce a whole wealth of videos à la Dr James Gill.
The comments as usual are very helpful, one points out that details of Cate are online and that the video is over a decade old.
As many commentators state this is an excellent ASMR video. Definitely one for the playlist.
Sadly there will be no playlist for ASMR Archivist on the Procrastination Pen (there is only one video)
However, the overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
(and now it includes the Cate Darnell 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.
There comes a point where I’ve been checking for ASMR videos for so long that I start to come back to items that I have covered before.
This one concerns me because I have seen it in my suggested videos list quite often so I am not certain that it has not featured somewhere previously in this blog.
If it has, then I apologise and I’ll ensure any duplications in the playlist are removed – I can imagine that would prove to be very irritating.
ASMR🏥🩺Unintentional – Physical Examination
I think a number of channels are carrying this video, at least it seems to come around in YouTube recommendations rather often. However, finding a duplicate with such scant information (I just have the first names of the participants) might be interesting.
Twenty-nine minutes of medical exam and the title calls it “Full Physical Examination” not only that but it tells us who originally supplied it i.e. Prohealthsys.
The “patient” in this one is Courtney, the medical professional is James. The location seems to be a gym. Courtney’s voice seems a little peppy for ASMR. James’ voice is better. Be warned though this isn’t going to be a James Gill. However at intervals it is quite gentle, which is better for us.
This is the first time I’ve seen the gown-held-like-a bikini-approach, although it is referred to in other videos as a technique to preserve privacy.
The Channel is A Quiet Place this has one hundred and seventy one videos and one hundred and thirty four subscribers on the day I’m looking at it. There are quite a few videos in here which I recognise and have featured previously elsewhere on this blog. There is also any number which I have not previously featured and so will probably crop up in future blog items.
Prohealthsys have their own channel this has four hundred and twenty eight videos but not the one above. Most appear to be featuring a Dr Vizniak who is not the medical professional in this video.
I would guess this is a Prohealthsys video which is an older one and has now been removed from the main Prohealthsys site.
Checking for “Prohealthsys exam” (via YouTube search) I find that there is the one above and a reversal of the roles in this one:
30 min Full Physical Exam Flow
This is on channel SuninSavannah which appears to have only this video on it.
This video also appears on Roos but with the title:
Unintentional ASMR | Full Medical Exam | Med School
It comes up so frequently in YouTube recommendations that I suspect it also crops up on other channels.
Courtney’s voice here is just way too loud, I mean talking to a football stadium loud. For some reason the air conditioning now sounds like it is supplying a blast furnace and there is a sound like a background trickle of water as well.
The presentation is also fast. If I’m wanting something for sleep, slow and measured is the way to go.
I have to confess to disappointment as following the James’ presentation I really wanted to like this video. But it wouldn’t be fair to add this to a playlist.
So one video only. There is no need to create a playlist for that.
The overall playlist for the videos covered so far in this blog is here:
The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after lengthy review not to make the grade, is here:
I keep this in case people have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos regarding age verification is here:
I dislike these as they require me to stop and login to verify my age. You may find that you have more patience than I do.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of a result.
If you liked this blog article why not follow this blog.
The Procrastination Pen 