Dr Hollie Berry – The Procrastination Pen

Sleeping With ASMR

I was recently lying awake, as I often do, watching rubbish TV in the hope it will tempt the sleep fairies out from hiding. I came across something which was a TV programme covering TikTok videos. The concept seemed sufficiently low rent that it was bound to drive any idea of wakefulness screaming for the hills. I discovered that there had been a TikTok video in which there was a person who had decided that a specific individual was the one for her. He was going to have to be working in finance, physically he had to be six foot five inches and he had to have blue eyes.

The idea that selection on such a basis was the concept that would lead to a successful relationship rather appalled. But then I found that the video had been viral, had spawned a music video, a collaboration with a famous musician, and an income of several hundred thousand pounds.

This seemed to indicate a general consensus that selecting a partner for a relationship on the basis of appearance and income was, all in all, a generally good idea.

I then thought of people I found intriguing, those who gave up their lives to save the pangolin for instance. Those who worked hard to make a relationship work with much less obviously appealing material. Those who endured a difficult situation with failing health, failing resources and so on.

I realised that perhaps the reason sleep is not as much a friend is that I have found myself out of step with the zeitgeist. But then I reassured myself that, on the basis of current information, I probably always have been.

If you find that the world seems to be moving along in a direction that you no longer feel a part of, perhaps it may not be a terrible idea to distract yourself with a restful video, a music file, perhaps even a meditation. The Procrastination Pen is here to help with that.

I came across an older podcast recently on the subject of ASMR. It appealed because the artist describes ASMR in the way that I understand it. A pleasurable experience that is non sexual but can assist with sleep. It turns out that this podcast is so old that the website it linked to for the artist is no longer available. Because it was a podcast, I have no idea what Melinda Lauw looks like which I imagine makes the locating of any ASMR by Melinda slightly more exciting. However, I need not have worried because there is an entire YouTube video dedicated to her here:

which helpfully links to the relevant website.

And it would appear that Melinda is now also producing YouTube videos of her own, for example:

ASMR | Face Measurement Exercise (Personal Attention, Math Tools)

I think this week I shall use Whisperlodge ASMR as the professional ASMR artist. Even though this will make the order of this article somewhat out of step with how I have been previously doing things. (Perhaps being out of step is somewhat the message for this week.)

There are nineteen videos here and 4.29K subscribers which is a pretty healthy figure I’m sure you agree. There are four playlists, none of them on an obviously medical theme and indeed the selected video this week is a little peripheral in that respect.

The video is from a professional artist and so of course it has associated notes: “49,339 views 24 May 2020

Hi everyone, I’m finally starting to make videos!! This time, I’m using old school math tools for a little face measurement exercise. While this isn’t perfect, I know I’ll get better with more practice! A few of our Whisperlodge guides will also be contributing their videos here! More to come!

https://whisperlodge.nyc/”

Comments are permitted and, as usual, are the premium level of sycophancy that we typically find associated with professional ASMR artists. Whatever they have it should be bottled. But maybe it secures them a tall blue-eyed partner who works in finance…

The video is fifteen and a half minutes long and hence is properly short for a professional ASMR artist. It starts without music (heaven be praised) and definitely is on the quiet side of whispery. I got the impression that whispery was not the natural volume for this as if it was a little strained but that may just be me.

You may need to roll over and turn up the volume a bit to get much from this at all. For me, it is therefore not the greatest voice I have heard. However at least there are no offensive noises. A lot of ASMR videos (professional or otherwise) could learn a lot from that. Even with the volume turned way up I found it a bit quiet for me (but I do have old ears). Be aware though with the volume up when the inevitable intrusive YouTube advert kicks in, you are very likely to lift vertically off the bed in stunned surprise. Not for the first time I wish I owned the video such that I could amplify it a bit to make it more listenable.

That said, I found it enjoyable. I would return to the channel to take another look only there is precious little material to draw upon. Perhaps the future will bring more. Maybe it will even be on a genuine medical theme, I can hope…

I found the presentation relaxing and really would like to see more. Let us hope that Whisperlodge is reading The Procrastination Pen.

Slightly in reverse order this week, the habitual Calm offering (usually I write about this before the professional ASMR artist). A small subset of people may find this appealing (in that you have to pay for a Calm subscription before you can listen to the full track).

https://www.calm.com/app/player/ZChWn_-1Bl

Daily Jay

Become the Lake

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

This is about one’s mindset and how to widen perspective. As usual with Jay the content is interesting and challenging, but perhaps this one is not enough by itself to comfortably get you off to sleep.

I’ve discovered a recommendation online for some miracle pillows. Miracle anything is a bit like pixie dust; it would be incredibly useful but seems exhaustingly difficult to find. So it is with some trepidation that I put down the money. The service was excellent but the pillows smell a bit like the inside of a factory at the moment so I haven’t actually laid my head on one. I’m leaving them to acclimatise in a quiet area and they may need a spray of lavender oil before I start using them.

However, I’m not going to feedback on what they are like until they actually start living up to their claims (the leaflets in the packaging state at least fourteen days before judging). Given my partner accuses me of sounding like a hog at the trough when I sleep, it will be interesting to see if it makes any difference.

Meantime the ASMR video search continues apace. Sometimes the videos are very effective in lulling me off to sleep, but sadly, unlike pixie dust, they aren’t universally effective and sometimes there is a night of much tossing and turning and relatively little sleep. (The noise cancelling headphones are a terrific help and I recommend them).

Today’s video is this one:

Alana Haas head to toe- south university

Again, it has come up in my YouTube recommendations so frequently that I am not clear that I haven’t covered it before, but a quick search of the blog does not reveal any trace of it.

It is just less than fourteen minutes and comes to us as part of the gift that keeps on giving – the student assessment video. These are by part manna from heaven and by part noisy, irritating, and a source of many discarded videos.

Initially you will see that the video is in portrait mode and this tends to produce the more “Blair Witch” style of videos – i.e. shaky and with intrusive noises. Possibly because it is frequently a mobile phone that is in use to film it.

The medical professional is Alana Haas i.e. the person in the title and she announces that she is at South University.

South University of course has its own YouTube channel with one hundred and seventy-seven videos on the day I’m looking at it and 2.8K subscribers.

These seem to be (as is typical for such channels) material promoting the University rather than suitable ASMR material.

Back to the video, Alana does not have a typical voice for us and it starts a bit loud. We find that the filming date is 2013, and the “patient” is Jordyn Hutchinson (I’m basing the spelling on the name of the channel). The surname is less than clear and it isn’t the same as the surname in the channel as you’ll see in a short while.

The video gets into its stride and quietens down but this is no Hollie Berry. There are equipment noises but air conditioning noises are not too obtrusive for a video of this type.

The channel is Jordynlee21. I’ll make the assumption that Jordyn met a Mr Lee after college sometime, but it is feasible that the channel goes back to when she was Lee and she is now Hutchinson.

The channel has only four videos yet 3.36K subscribers (which is frankly amazing).

Given how few videos there are it is well worth our time reviewing the other three.

Jordyn Hutchinson head to toe- South university

Here the former “patient” is now the medical professional. The former medical professional is now the “patient”.

It is filmed in the same manner as the previous one and, as before, no notes and no comments. Given the nature of some of the comments that is frankly a relief and, given the number of subscribers, I think we can assume that the ASMR community has set up a tent, a fifty inch plasma screen and a seven speaker surround system around this channel.

This video is twelve and a half minutes so it looks like they are going to be much of a muchness in terms of length (I expect the remaining two to be similar).

There is knocking and a door closing at the beginning which isn’t the most restful. The air conditioning, for some reason, is more intrusive. Jordyn doesn’t have an amazing ASMR voice. Which might be a theme for this set of videos.

There are equipment noises. Some of the conversation sounds designed to fulfil a brief rather than the empathy that perhaps you might expect. It quietens down but still no Vicki Scott.

Callie Donnay head to toe- South university

This is just over fourteen minutes so assumptions about video length seem warranted (they’re all about the same length, well, within a couple minutes). Callie is the medical professional. Straight away Callie seems to have a better voice. The patient is Ashley Brehmer. The air conditioning, though, is building up to full Shakespearian drama. (this is a constant hazard with such videos)

Ashley seems a bit noisy in this one but she isn’t the main player.

There are equipment noises, some of them are really quite loud. Obviously, a video that would profit from some healthy editing, if I was disposed to steal someone else’s video, (which I’m not). Part way through Callie begins to sound a bit tired of proceedings, or nerves are setting in, one way or the other.

Ashley seems quite amused by it all and there is the odd mouthed comment which I cannot make out, probably my elderly hearing equipment.

Head to toe Ashley Brehmer- South University

Again, a reversal of roles Ashley Brehmer the medical professional here and Callie Donnay the “patient”. This is just over twelve and a quarter minutes.

By now we are familiar with the format. Door noises at start – tick, air conditioning ramping up its role – tick – lack of real empathy – tick.

It settles down to become almost muted, barring the inevitable equipment noises of course. There is a sense that at intervals the participants are just going through the motions. Who knows how early or late this is being filmed. However, everyone participating could just be very tired (that or a rather energetic night in the bar the previous night, let’s hope it was the latter for their sake).

I suspect that this video is likely to be the one that more fully stands the test of time in the Procrastination Pen playlist, notably because obtrusive noises are less in this one. (sometimes one clang is enough to wake me from sleep and that condemns the video from that point onwards).

That’s it on this occasion, more next time.

The Jordyn Lee playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway, here is today’s Calm recommendation:

Daily Calm

Interruptions

NARRATOR

Tamara Levitt

AUTHOR

Tamara Levitt

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

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

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

Three Decades in Kernelland – Jonathan Corbet, LWN.net

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

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

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

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

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

The video is this one:

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

–DREAM”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The video is this one:

Eye Examination 2

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

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

Follow Twitter @JessNishi”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eye Examination

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Jessica Nishikawa playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

After a period of reviewing videos I suspect that availability of ASMR material within the wider medical examination video material follows something of a normal distribution. I cannot prove it but the occurrence of truly awesome ASMR material such as Hollie Berry or Shane Brun is very rare and so they must be outliers.

More bread-and-butter material occurs somewhat regularly. The huge lift in the curve is of videos which are watchable but unsuitable. They are just not relaxing enough. Right out at the other end of the curve are some rather nasty videos which, thankfully, I rarely come across.

That being the case, the discovery of another Vicki Scott is a matter of trawling through a vast number of videos to uncover the jewel in the coal mine.

You can be certain that should I discover such a person they will be featured in this blog, and no doubt (like Dr James Gill) flagged as a favourite from that point onwards.

Today’s video is at the Hollie Berry standard which is fighting talk ASMR-wise.

Alexander technique lesson with Diana Devitt-Dawson

This is just under fourteen-and-a-quarter minutes so a quite typical length for us of late. The medical professional is Diana Devitt-Dawson the “patient” is Gita (probably misspelled). The film quality is not the greatest which is probably of little concern if you are using this to get to sleep.

Diana has a really good voice for us I think. Another smile-causing aspect is the absence of intrusive background noise which haunts some of the videos I have featured.

Comments are permitted and judging by the feedback, I am not the first person to notice how good this is for ASMR. Many are rating this above professional ASMR artists (I’ve seen a few such videos, and in many cases they are correct).

The sad thing is that the channel Diana Devitt-Dawson contains only one video and this is it.

Diana appears not to have any further entries on YouTube (this has heavy echoes of my experience with Hollie Berry).

There are reiterations of the same video featured on ASMR channels, such as this one:

Legends of ASMR – Diana Devitt-Dawson

So that’s it this time, I’m afraid.

I now think that the Alexander Technique might, potentially, be a source of more ASMR material. I’ll keep my eyes open and my search fingers poised.

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Adam Kuylenstierna on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

At the point of writing, I am now four months ahead in terms of written blog articles to those that I have managed to post. One of the aspects of this is that I notice a lot about the dynamic nature of YouTube and the problems with rendering something which is static (i.e. a blog) to cover something that is changing all the time.

Recently as I came to review an article ready to post it, I discovered that the entire channel it had been based upon had been removed. A search of the video titles in that article though revealed that other channels were now hosting the self-same videos. So, whilst the blog article could still be written, the nature of it had changed. Playlists were gone, the channels had changed. The idea of coming back for future reviews was dispensed with.

I fear therefore that even as I publish blog posts they are sliding into the past, referring to places, channels, playlists, even people who are no longer present.

I apologise if you find one of my posts which refers to empty space. I know that all the blog writing guidance indicates that a blog article is the shop window into my site and that it should be polished and up to the minute. Elegantly researched, delicately presented, ruthlessly targeted and so on.

Mine is not going to achieve such pinnacles of God-like wonderment.

If you like it, I hope that you stick around and read some more.

If you don’t like it, then I am continually surprised at the many millions of blogs that do exist and the breadth of content that they represent. I hope that one of those alternative blogs will be a good fit for you.

Occasionally I come across blogs that are interesting (to me) and I will flag them. In just the same way that I am flagging video content from YouTube. Perhaps someone happening across this blog on their journey through the Internet may even find it useful.

Today’s video is from a channel that we have explored a great deal. It again features a very young person. And reinforces the view (I think) that people are much more careful in their handling of the small person in comparison to the fully fledged large person.

This leads me to suspect that videos featuring small people could, potentially be a source of material for this blog. It is not as if age of the “patient” will be obvious when you are trying to get to sleep the as you will be listening rather than watching, however the attitude of the medical professional is, it seems, more likely to be gentle.

Head and Neck-Jasmine

Here we have a medical professional Jasmine who is dealing with someone who is quite early in life. I am terrifically poor at estimating ages but I’ll make a guess at four or possibly five (earlier would not surprise me, much later probably would).

The video is twelve minutes-ish so a pretty standard length for videos we have covered recently. I believe the small person to be called David and David could probably win awards for the best voice heard recently.

The medical professional is a little loud to begin with (which ruins my theory about dealing with young people).

David remains quiet, perhaps I should have been focusing on him rather than Jasmine in this case.

The video quality is towards the fuzzy end of focused, read 1980s straight-to-video kind of quality. However, as you will be listening rather than watching, I doubt that this will bother you that much.

The setting is domestic. There is a large display unit in shot and the two participants appear to be using what appears to be dining room chairs for the examination. This strikes me very much along the line of student videos that we have seen of late.

The channel is one well known to us now which is MGA nursing – we’ve visited here a few occasions now and it remains a source of videos (if not the best ASMR videos we have encountered so far which I still contend is Hollie Berry.

We have established the protocol that once we browse MGA nursing, all other videos by the participants are fair game.

This is confounded in this case because Jasmine, and indeed David, feature in only one video on MGA Nursing and it is the one just covered.

I think therefore it is sensible to make this a short blog post and you can swiftly get back to the thousand things that need doing.

I hope you’ll come back and read the next one.

The MGA Nursing playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Yerlin Matu on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Recently, as happens in everyone’s life, things have been stressful. Habitually in the past, this would mean that I would achieve substantially less sleep. However, the addition of some Bose QuietComfort headphones (a company with which I am affiliated in no sense) and the Procrastination Pen playlist has really helped in this respect. The sleep isn’t super refreshing, don’t get me wrong, but there is at least more of it than I might have expected in similar circumstances in the past.

I hope that you find the playlist is helpful in your pursuit of sleep, no matter the headphones that you choose to employ to listen to it.

Today is another one from an old favourite channel which regular readers will instantly recognise. I also think, if anything, this video is superior in terms of restfulness than the last video I featured for this particular channel.

The video is this one:

Examination of the Cranial Nerves – Demonstration

At just over seven minutes it’s not huge in length and the comments lead me to suspect that the ASMR community has thoroughly taken to this one, adopted it and gone out for walks with it in the park on Sundays.

As a professionally produced video it, of course, has notes and the notes in this case are very helpful:

“13 Dec 2011 Clinical Examinations

A second more detailed video can be found at; http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/msce…

This is a real-time demonstration illustrating technique and patient interaction involved in the Examination of the Cranial Nerves.

The film was produced by practising clinicians to aid the teaching of clinical examination skills. It starts at the point when the clinician has finished taking the medical history and begins the clinical examination.

Presented by Dr Richard Abbott MD FRCP Consultant Neurologist. Produced and Directed by Dr Irene Peat FRCR FRCP, Dr Nicholas Port MBChB BSc and Jon Shears.

More Clinical Examination materials can be found at; http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/msce…”

The video starts without introductory music – wow!

It begins quietly, it continues perfectly. The medical professional and the “patient” both have excellent voices. All-in-all a video one could wish would go on for better than forty five minutes.

But it is a brief one, so we must console ourselves (like the Hollie Berry material) that at least it exists and is on a University channel (and so may exist for a while yet).

The channel is: University of Leicester and at this rate it is likely to become a thoroughgoing favourite on this blog (along with the University of Warwick).

Sadly, it has in excess of 1300 videos. Trawling that lot for the odd additional one is likely to take longer than is sensibly available.

I think falling back on the searching of YouTube for more videos featuring Dr Richard Abbott is a valid approach in this case.

It turns out that this search reveals some ASMR channels have now adopted this video as their very own for example here:

Unintentional ASMR – University of Leicester Exams (without Walkthroughs)

which is on a channel:

Princess Eev [ASMR]

Hopefully it (the channel) sticks around. Some of the pure ASMR channels have disappeared of late and I do wonder if some channel owners fall foul of copyright action (although I have no evidence for this of course).

However, there is another in the same series (sadly only the one more) and as I prefer to get the videos from original sources, if I can, I’ll go with that video.

(I have used pure ASMR channels before this, but I do try to implement the more po-faced approach of locating unintentional ASMR videos the old-fashioned way i.e. by watching a lot of normal videos and trying to locate any restful ones).

Examination of the Cranial Nerves – Explanation

This is just less than sixteen and a quarter minutes long. There is again no startup music, thankyou video recording persons for this (and other such persons take note).

It starts again quietly, it continues quietly, in my view it is every bit as good as the previous one.

The comments indicate the ASMR community love this, with many cross references to other ASMR videos known to those “in the know”. By this stage I imagine that you are all familiar with them as well. There being no mystery to them, other than the need to watch far too much potential ASMR material.

There are notes again: “30 Apr 2012 Clinical Examinations

This is a detailed explanation of the examination of the Cranial Nerves illustrating technique and patient interaction. The film was produced by practising clinicians to aid the teaching of clinical examination skills. It starts at the point when the clinician has finished taking the medical history and begins the clinical examination. Presented by Dr Richard Abbott MD FRCP Consultant Neurologist. Produced and Directed by Dr Irene Peat FRCR FRCP, Dr Nicholas Port MBChB BSc and Jon Shears. More Clinical Examination materials can be found at; http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/msce…”

I’m afraid the urls no longer lead to additional material which, given the video was posted in excess of eleven years ago, is probably no surprise.

In addition, the Internet Archive has no record of it (as at today’s date in any case).

Very regrettably that appears to be all Dr Abbott and “Paul” left for us. They enriched the ASMR community with their (sadly brief) presence and we could have but hoped for more.

So back to what you were doing then, but remember to come back in a week’s time.

The University of Leicester playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Svetozar Cenisev on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

In previous blog posts I have been promising to come back to this channel in the future. When we left it, there were a great many videos remaining. However, I did not want to get into a glut of videos as it is a distraction from the unintentional ASMR that this blog has been focusing on. As I’ve previously said, this is a bit of a guilty pleasure as the channel is dedicated to ASMR and therefore all of the curation work has been done. Assuming the channel owner has any taste, I should be able to just sit back and let the ASMR sensations wash over me.

However, it is not unknown for the odd jarring-pick to crop up on these sites and therefore I propose to give each video a formal review much as I would have done had I plucked it from a channel dedicated to medicine or to wood-block printing.

As far as I can tell, the videos remaining number sixteen, so I’ll cover eight more here, and a further eight in one final blog post in the future.

The channel of course is ASMR Exams and regular readers will know that I have given a thorough look at this channel, not once, but twice. Some of the videos do seem to have been worth the effort.

Of the remaining, this one is the first video:

Physical Assessment (ASMR)

This is twenty-one minutes long and has no notes and so no
immediate clues about the video. Comments have been permitted and as expected some of them are properly unhelpful.

Straight away, this is incredibly quiet. I have the volume turned right up and some of the speech still eludes me. However, on the positive side, it is too quiet for any offensive background noises to be heard.

The “patient” appears to be “Bernette” (that could well be an erroneous spelling) and the medical professional is Mary-Beth Robbins.

The location has the appearance of a professional medical establishment but for some reason has artwork on the wall (possibly a famous historical medical figure). Mary-Beth is very calm and gentle, however, Bernette seems quite amused by the process. So far, so student assessment video. It’s just that this one seems to have taken a hit on the volume control.

At the point of the eye test, we get a view of the other patients in the room and it becomes obvious that they are all dummies, in the manner that they are made of plastic, not that they are especially gullible. So far, so student educational establishment.

Mary-Beth has a prominent name tag but I just can’t see it well enough to determine if it identifies the location. However, there is that large “W” which is discernible.

In all quite excellent which is what we would expect from a channel dedicated to ASMR of course.

Physical Examination (ASMR)

This video is a bit longer at a bit over thirty minutes. Again, there are no notes, again there are comments, and again the comments are often unsupportive.

This video starts a bit loud. Lauren the “patient” (possibly misspelled), the medical professional does not introduce herself.

This time the setting appears to be domestic rather than professional.

The volume seems to wander about a bit despite the fact that the two participants remain a consistent distance from the camera/phone used to film it.

The quality of said camera must be off a bit too, if you did decide to watch rather than listen; it appears 1980s VHS quality. The medical professional is wearing a name badge but given the fuzziness of the output I defy anyone to read it. Therefore, there are no clues as to who/where this is.

Later in the video, the dog decides to be a semi-hidden participant by lying under the table on which Lauren is sat. Dogs seem to be natural hams as we have seen. I also notice that the medical professional is wearing carpet slippers (which might now be the standard hospital garb, for all I know).

Neither participant seems to have a natural ASMR voice but at least the soundtrack seems to lack extraneous noises. Lauren in particular seems to have quite a loud voice in fact. Also, at intervals Lauren coughs and that is quite loud in comparison with the ongoing interaction.

The medical professional as well has her loud moments, as if attempting to project to a large room. (Perhaps she is stood in a large room although you would not know to look at it, the camera being focused on one small corner of whichever room they are stood in). The medical professional also seems to be regularly consulting something (perhaps a checklist) but you won’t notice this at all if, as I recommend, you simply listen to this.

This might be a bit marginal in terms of the Procrastination Pen playlist. I will trial it and reserve the right to weed it out in the future.

Physical Examination (ASMR)

This time there are no notes and (thanks be to God) no comments either, no more snide nastiness, we can fast-forward directly to the content.

This one at thirty-four and a half minutes is slightly longer than either of the videos covered thus far. It shares the “is this out of focus?” appearance of the last one, so is obviously trading on the sound rather than the visuals.

It starts amazingly loud, like “ohmigod I was asleep” loud. The “patient” is introduced as Courtney (probably misspelled) the medical professional as “Holly” and unlike the exalted Hollie Berry, sadly, she does not have an ASMR voice, not in any way. More your “oyez, oyez, oyez” kind of voice. At intervals I would label it a shout rather than conversation. Fortunately maintaining that volume appears to be too much of an effort such that it ameliorates a bit. However, the presence of ongoing and easily overheard conversations in neighbouring rooms then becomes a distraction. In addition, we have the presence of continuous background noise like the sound of a 1950s reel-to-reel tape recorder.

It is a great shame but it does go to show that just because a video appears on an ASMR channel does not mean it is actually a great ASMR video. It is worth taking the time to evaluate for yourself; I am sure this happens on the Procrastination Pen equally as much as on ASMR Exams.

This one does not belong in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Chiropractic Adjustment LOOPED (ASMR)

As I have already established I really do not like looped videos.

Several commentators do love this one though. At twenty three and three quarter minutes a bit shorter than the last two.

The medical professional has a great voice, but the marvelousness of that voice is ameliorated to a great extent by the sound of conversations from adjacent rooms. There is also the off-putting sound of the clicks and clunks used in chiropracty (we’ve covered these kind of problems before). There are whirring noises from the equipment being moved accompanied by whistling noises of escaping air which sounds like a dump valve. Perhaps a sound more for car videos than those for ASMR.

All-in-all this one does not belong in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Physical Examination (ASMR)

An absolutely whopping fifty-one and a half minutes (and some change). This is a physical examination going for the truly methodical.

The comments are variable (aren’t they always). The video quality is of the soft-focused variety (and that is being charitable). The background noise is of the intrusive type, air conditioning most likely. The patient is identified as “Kylie”(probably misspelled) and there is a crucifix on the wall which may give a clue to the location.

The medical professional is “Kristen” (again spelling may well be wrong) and she announces that this is a Head-to-Toe assessment. (We are well used to these by now).

Kristen is not the quietest and certainly not a natural ASMR voice. There are thunks from equipment at intervals but thankfully no conversation from adjacent rooms this time.

Definition:

Snellen chart: used to measure visual acuity

See below

At regular points in the video there are breaks in the recording, as if this huge video were actually an assemblage of shorter videos. In cases like this, I always prefer to have the shorter videos and for you to be able to play them using the YouTube shuffle function.

The shoulder badge on the medical professional appears to be a stylised cross, so good luck determining which medical establishment it is from.

The medical professional at intervals is consulting something (I assume some kind of checklist) which gives this the feel of a student assessment video.

I do not like ASMR videos that have been assembled from other videos and I don’t think that this is of sufficient quality to make an exception, so I will not be adding this one to the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Physical Examination (ASMR)

Twenty-six and three-quarter minutes, comments again and by now we know the kind of content they are likely to have without even checking them.

This begins in a much more thorough fashion in that we have names and location. Monica Barbara a student at the University of South Florida. As we would expect the university has its own YouTube channel dedicated to promotion, there are 655 videos and 11.1K subscribers. There are ten playlists but no obvious candidates for ASMR material.

Of course, “Monica” and indeed “Barbara” might be misheard and misspelled.

The patient is introduced as “Alisha” (again spelling might be off there). The visual quality is of the type as if someone smeared Vaseline all over the lens. There is, again, the constant hum of background noise (probably air conditioning). In addition, this time though, there is a profound echo, as if it is being filmed in a large corridor. I notice that Alisha seems to be perched on a table with a cloth over it so hardly the bespoke medical centre. However, it does not have a feel of the domestic environments we have often seen in student assessment videos.

That echo though does prove to be somewhat distracting. I think Monica would have to be using a profoundly minimal whisper to escape its effects.

In fact, Monica does not have a natural ASMR voice so we have a sound that verges towards the boomy. (Think Bonnie Tyler in an echo chamber).

On balance I do not think this belongs in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Neurological Physical Examination (ASMR)

This one is just under thirty-one minutes. The comments reference some ASMR “In” comments that you will be familiar with now if you have followed this blog for any period of time. I swear some people comment because they can, rather than to say anything meaningful less helpful.

This is filmed against a dark blue curtain as if it was set up purely for filming. The quality of both video and of sound isn’t that great, to be honest. It is about the same as home taping in 1985.

It kicks off with a mental test and it isn’t that quiet. Rather the “patient” is quite quiet but the medical professional has quite a deep voice which he is using to full effect. The patient is Milena Pavlova (almost certainly misspelled) and it was filmed on 25/07/2000, (UK Format so therefore in July). Goodness knows what it was filmed on as I would imagine that the quality produced by equipment was somewhat more advanced than this by then.

The location sounds like something-haven hospital, possibly Shoalhaven, although that hospital is in Australia and neither participant sounds spectacularly Australian.

Given that Milena feels it necessary to tell us that Bulgaria is in South Eastern Europe, one imagines that this was not actually filmed in Europe where a large number of people would already know where the country is.

I notice that a copy of the New York Times is used as an illustration of a newspaper to be used with patients. This indicates that the something-haven hospital is located in New York. The only one I can find is Yale New Haven hospital. Assuming this is correct, they have a YouTube channel with 124 videos, 1.51K subscribers and 16 playlists. No obvious ASMR content though.

It comes to a conclusion rather abruptly which leads me to suspect that there is another longer version out there. I’ll add it to the Procrastination Pen playlist in lieu of finding the full version.

Physical Examination (ASMR)

This is just over thirty-nine minutes and the comments associated with it are somewhat disheartening. It has a healthy amount of background noise and seems to have been videod in a classroom setting – this usually means lots of extraneous noise. The person teaching has a good voice but the air conditioning is properly loud in this. The video quality is also no better than others we have covered in this blog post.

Given the subject matter (breast examination) previous experience tells me that I should now be halted and prompted to log on. But not in this case for some reason. There is nothing on display but that hasn’t stopped previous login prompts.

There is feedback from the class. The people videoing are visible in mirrors in the classroom. People are coughing and shuffling (as is to be expected in a large group). There is laughter and equipment noises and someone keeps clicking the device that is being used for filming (probably fidgeting with their phone).

As is expected, the voices are a little raised as they need to project to the group rather than any individual. This is a shame as it could actually be quite good (well if someone put a bomb in the air conditioning).

This one also concludes rather abruptly but we have found some classroom-based tuition videos do that.

So, it isn’t the greatest, but I think worth putting in the Procrastination Pen playlist to see if it sits well there. It might get weeded out to the archive list in due course.

In summary, I do not share the taste of the owner of ASMR exams (or indeed of some of the commentators to the videos). However, I hope that means that the quality of the Procrastination Pen playlist is being maintained. I’ll revisit the ASMR exams channel again to attempt to capture the last of the videos. Most seem to have been posted about eight years ago so it should be possible to mop them all up.

The ASMR Exams 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

Having a bad day at work? Just want it to be over? Despair that you’ll ever chill enough to actually get any real sleep tonight? Welcome to The Procrastination Pen. Here the finest in inadvertent ASMR material is reviewed at intervals. Even better there is an ever-growing playlist of curated items for your delectation. And if after all that you’re still plotting ways to murder the boss in an undetectable fashion, at least you’ll get to listen to a relaxing video whilst you are doing it.

Today we have a video from a channel dedicated to health. Nothing could be more medical than that I am thinking and therefore any ASMR effects must be purely down to chance. So far so much the aim of this sequence of blog posts.

The Lung and Thorax Exam

The notes are helpful, which we often do not find: “Jessica Nishikawa demonstrates some of the techniques of the Lung and Thorax assessment.”.

We know who the professional is before we start. Comments are turned off which is a breath of fresh air after some of the nasty stuff that you sometimes see.

We start with Jessica Nishikawa DNP, FNP-BC. DNP appears to be Doctor of Nursing Practice. FNP-BC is Family Nurse Practitioner – Board Certification

Unless you follow nursing, you, like I, may not have been aware these qualifications existed.

Suffice to say a highly qualified person then, but this is not why we are here.

The background hiss which we have heard often before is present here as well. Initially I thought I was going to exclude this video from the Procrastination Pen playlist, but it soon settles down to be less obtrusive than in some of the videos I have reviewed of late.

The “patient” is McConnaugh (probably nothing like the spelling). A quick search of YouTube determines that McConnaugh appears elsewhere such that he might crop up in a future blog post.

At intervals Jessica looks off video to her right. I’m not sure if there is a person there or if she has notes about what she wishes to cover. However, you’re likely to be listening rather than watching, so it is unlikely to affect you.

This is moderately good – no Hollie Berry but still worthy of a place in the playlist I think.

The channel BilderbackHealth surprisingly has only eight videos (including the above one), so we can comfortably cover this off in one blog post.

The majority of the videos feature Jessica – there’s a couple that look like they are not going to be on theme including one on Log Cabins so it might be that six is the total we’re going to be looking at today.

The HEENT Exam Video.mov

The “patient” is Miley (the spelling may well be incorrect).

HEENT head, eyes, ears, nose, and throat.

Sclera the white of the eye.

It is great to have a medical video from a medical facility (not someone’s front room) and for the noise of air conditioning to be absent. Having got used to background noises of late, it is fantastic what a difference silence makes. I may be weeding some of the more air condition-y (new technical term) videos from the playlist going forwards.

The presentation is lovely and quiet. Positively gentle at intervals.

Definitely a Procrastination Pen playlist member I think

The Cardio Vascular / Peripheral Vascular Exam Video.mov

McConnaugh is the “patient” again

JVP – Jugular venous pressure – used to diagnose types of heart and lung disease.

Thrill – a vibration felt whilst palpating a blood vessel.

This remains consistent with the first video we looked at.

The Abdominal Exam Video.mov

Miley returns as the “patient”.

I’m not sure if this is bias but the videos featuring Miley sound to me moderately more-gentle than those featuring McConnaugh. In any case this one is consistent with the HEENT video featured previously.

The Neurological Exam

Connie is the “patient” here – somebody new. Interesting that cranial nerve one is generally not tested and yet how many of these videos have we seen in which people test coffee or even alcohol to verify that this nerve is functional (its function is for smell perception).

This is a bit more of an instructive tone than the ones that have gone before. However, it is probably indicative of the consistency of this set of videos that I even bring this up. Usually in a group of videos that I review we are lucky to have one or possibly two videos included in the playlist. In this case we very likely will include the majority of them. We have not seen that since Dr James Gill.

The Musculo Skeletal Exam

Chris is the patient this time (I’m a bit more comfortable with that spelling)

The best demonstration of abduction and adduction I’ve seen so far.

I’ve watched a number of these and have just realised that Jessica does her nursing in a set of high-heeled shoes, I have pity for her poor feet and respect for her endurance standing on her feet all day in those shoes.

Anyway, this will probably be the last time I actually watch the video (listening being the more usual approach) so this will be of no concern to me (and likely to you either).

I love the pronunciation of buttocks probably the first time I have heard it pronounced that way.

Another video the equal of the ones we have seen in this post previously.

It’s worth noting that Jessica has her own channel, which given the nature of these videos is very likely going to be the subject of an upcoming blog post.

Hand Hygiene

The guitar music is good, but in other respects this is just not the quality of those that have gone before. This is not going to be in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

It also goes all funky subsequently which is just not conducive to great relaxation. (Entertaining though I’m sure it is).

Outside Log Cabins 1.16.21 with Jamie O’Brien and friends

Funky music from the outset, charming images but that isn’t why we are here. This is a poor fit for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

In general, an excellent set of videos and the largest consistent set of videos for the Procrastination Pen playlist we have seen in a while. This gives me more ammunition for ongoing weeding activity to perfect that playlist.

The Bilderback Health 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 excessive background noise.

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

Continuing in our search for medical videos which may induce ASMR in some listeners (or at the very least induce enough relaxation to see you napping) we have today’s video:

Hip Extension and Hip Abduction MMT

This one is from the channel Dominican College which has just seven hundred and three subscribers as at today’s date (this seems a little low for a college). There are one hundred and ninety-four videos at the time I’m looking at it. This is a tad too many for any single blog post. There are seven playlists but many of these have a high number of videos in them. So in this case using playlists to narrow the field may not be effective. This is thirty-eighth in a thirty-nine video playlist “PT541 Basics of PT (2022)”

I do not think that we will be covering thirty-nine videos in any single blog post even though some of them are quite short.

Today’s video is obviously filmed in a classroom setting, there is a general hubbub happening as for people chatting in the background. The sound is quite muted and the background noise is prevalent (I’d guess air conditioning again). It ends rather abruptly as well which might be off-putting.

It is marginal in terms of the purpose that we wish to put it to (engendering restfulness). This is no Hollie Berry or Vicki Scott. I’ll let it sneak into the Procrastination Pen playlist but it might be subject to future weeding.

The channel tells me very little about the college itself – merely that the channel was established in 2018.

Checking for Dominican College online I find that it has been rebranded to Dominican University now. I think I’ve found the correct one as it offers a PT programme (which is the subject of the playlist).

It is located in New York and has an interesting history.

Whilst we’re in the playlist let’s see if there are any others worthy of examination.

Given the large number of videos in this playlist I think we’ll need to arbitrarily cut the number. I’m going to choose five and then revisit on another occasion.

Gross UE ROM Screen

I wonder if the small number of subscribers is because it was posted for a specific reason, say a class during a time of Covid or something similar.

The tutor is Justine Ward. Sadly there is no channel for Justine, there might have been a chance to find something with better audio quality.

The sound quality is no better on this video and given it is less than three minutes it isn’t worth adding to The Procrastination Pen playlist.

Assessment of knee flexion end feel

A short video at just over a minute. Sadly the sound quality does not improve, the teaching professional really needs a lapel mic. Given it is so short, again, I don’t see the point in adding it to The Procrastination Pen playlist (it might have sneaked in had the sound quality been better).

The theme of these videos is they all seem to end abruptly which is even less great given it gives the opportunity for a loud YouTube advert to kick in immediately afterwards.

UE strength screen

This is two minutes long and the sound quality is not great. There is however no classroom banter in this one which helps. Someone does clear his throat part way through (I assume the person holding the camera).

There is a repeat of the “don’t let me move you” phrase we’ve encountered before. Again, I don’t think this will make it to The Procrastination Pen playlist.

Assessing ankle DF and elbow ext end feel

This is very short at just over one and a half minutes and the noise quality is not the greatest here. It’s noisy to begin with, slightly better as it settles down later on.

It’s also unnerving in places. I’m sure if some of the manipulations were tried on my elbow for example, I’d be nursing it for a long time afterwards.

It doesn’t belong in The Procrastination Pen playlist.

There is only one candidate video this time. As a consequence I will not create a playlist on The Procrastination Pen for Dominican College.

However, the playlist for all videos covered on The Procrastination Pen so far is here:

I recommend you view it on YouTube (rather than on this blog) then you will be able to use the shuffle function so that the videos play in a random order.

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 trying to relax in order 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.

I hope you find the playlist relaxing, any feedback is welcome.

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

I realise that for people who have not been following (the ASMR theme on) this blog since the beginning might find this to be nonsense. For such people, a bit of background. With each blog article I review a video (mostly videos located on YouTube) for its ability to either produce ASMR symptoms or to be restful enough to aid in sleep. At the end of which the video either gets added to The Procrastination Pen playlist or it does not. The assumption is that ASMR aficionados will just go straight to the playlist and listen, but some of you may like to read the material before doing that.

For an idea of where this all began take a look at the initial ASMR blog post which will give you an idea.

I think we are on more solid ground today as this one is back firmly in the medical exam area.

The channel is Ryann McCarty and sadly for us is not going to be a rich resource of ASMR material. In fact, there is one playlist of music videos entitled Rye and the video that we are featuring today entitled:

Ryann McCarty Student Nurse health assessment performance

So this is all you get today I’m afraid – look at it as an appetiser – keeping you keen to see yet more. (Yes, that didn’t sound that accurate to me either). Posted in 2017 and nothing posted on this channel subsequently. (The music playlist was last updated in 2020). Hopefully Ryann is out there doing more important things with her life. The sleeve badge seems to be for Suny Downstate College of Nursing, only sometime subsequently they’ve had a rebrand.

Ryann announces herself at the beginning so we’re pretty certain this is the Ryann we’re talking about. Initially her voice is a bit loud but once the examination starts it begins to settle down (although I don’t think she will ever be a Hollie Berry).

At intervals, (despite the constant air conditioning sounds in the background) I found myself quite calmed by it.

At one stage the person behind the camera starts laughing which is a little disconcerting. (It is easy to forget that there will always be a third person in each of these one-to-one encounters due to the presence of the camera).

I also liked the comment about cold hands – one feature of using alcohol-based hand sanitiser is that your hands get properly freezing – although in other videos I have featured in the past the medical professional does warn the patient about the incoming iceberg.

The notes state “Week 6 lab- Final health assessment performance”. I’m not sure how the education process works but if Ryann achieved this level of proficiency after merely 6 weeks of education then I am impressed.

In all quite a charming short piece at twenty minutes and fourteen seconds. Worthy of adding to the Procrastination Pen playlist I think.

The overall playlist of all videos featured so far in this blog is here:

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Photo by Hana Oliver on Unsplash