Fifty – The Procrastination Pen

Sleeping With ASMR

I notice that advice for insomniacs abounds. Quite often the advice does include suggestions to distract oneself with another noise (white noise seems popular). Of course, The Procrastination Pen exists to describe distracting noises. Until recently it has consisted primarily of videos on YouTube. However, I have often bemoaned how intrusive the inter-video adverts are. I therefore keep trying to find alternatives.

So, I thought this week we would start into free resources that might preclude the need for YouTube at all. I am looking for things that could be restful and which are not going to wake you with loud adverts.

I had made a note of a URL during lockdown and never returned to it. Now it turns out that it has gone and can only be located on The Internet Archive:

https://web.archive.org/web/20221005123843/http://me-cl.com/resources/

There are three files that appear in this order:

Talk: Mindful Eating by Jan Chozen Bays (note: begins rather abruptly with a short chant)

Meditation: Mini-Meditation before Eating by Char Wilkins

Meditation: 10-minute Breath Awareness by Char Wilkins

The Jan Chozen Bays talk is close to forty-two minutes in length. It has a long, quiet introduction (silent, in fact). Then it gets really loud very quickly. It seems to consist of rhythmic chanting which I, for one, did not find relaxing. After about a minute the chanting stops, but it is enough, from my perspective, to discount it as a source of relaxation.

After that time a talk starts and that is nicely quiet (another situation where, if I owned the MP3, I would truncate that initial part altogether and the file might be quite usable). The voice is ok, not much in the way of ASMR-y, but given we are looking for sleeping aids, I would say certainly relaxing enough for me.

Not unexpectedly the talk has a religious theme and also (perhaps unexpectedly) a US-centric theme. I apologise if you find either to be not for you. In which case perhaps this review will save you listening to it at all.

The further through the track we go the better it is paced and the calmer the voice becomes. Perhaps it’s one to start playing before you’re ready to sleep and start listening a few minutes in…

The Mini Meditation by Char Wilkins is just less than six and a half minutes long. It starts with a bell, which might be a bit jarring. The voice is, again, not as quiet as I expected, you’d probably want to adjust the volume down a bit. The pace is quite good though. Not an ASMR-y tone but restful enough for sleep, I think. There is another bell about midway through; I’m sure this is a mechanism for punctuating the meditation but it may also be something that causes the slumbering mind to surface again. The final three minutes or so is completely silent.

The ten-minute breath awareness also starts with a bell. It is actually eleven minutes long. Here the voice is a better volume and a better pace than the previous one. There is also a further bell towards the end of the track.

The files seem to be free to download, such that you could download them and manipulate them as you see fit with an editor such as Audacity.

(Perhaps you could even chop out some of the louder bits, for example).

Of course, this mechanism of locating restful material does not build into a playlist. I think you’re stuck with downloading, manipulating to focus on restful moments, and then building a playlist yourself using a media player of choice. Given the files are not mine I dare not do that for you in case a formal person in a serious suit were to find out about it.

The other alternative to YouTube I have explored for a while now is limited only to those who already have a Calm subscription. I am not sure what percentage of a readership this actually is (conceivably it could be a waste of time). However, I have felt that describing alternative methods of getting some peaceful background noise might be more effective than taking a chance with those adverts. Today’s is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/kM_FSkJ6oJ

Daily Jay

You Belong

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

This concerns the universal desire to belong. It features an enlightening story about belonging and attitude to belonging. Even if you are not using it to relax for sleep it makes for interesting listening.

I like the statement “any form of suffering is a part of life”. Those of us who struggle with sleep probably will take some succour from that.

Frequently having covered the Calm option, I have now been featuring a professional ASMR artist (often on a medical theme). I started reviewing these to see if the offerings were as good, or preferably better, than the inadvertent ASMR which has been the subject of this blog so far.

This week I am looking at the channel Celaine’s ASMR this has 2.01m subscribers, nine hundred and seventy six videos, thirty one playlists some of which have greater than two hundred videos in them. This is an extremely popular channel.

I notice that there are some playlists on a medical theme (which has been our focus for a while now).

and

As you can tell this is a very prolific ASMR expert.

From all of this huge bounty, I have selected this one:

ASMR Eye Exam Lens 1 or 2 (With or Without) 👓 Light Tests, Realistic Medical Roleplay for Sleep

It is twenty-four minutes in length and in my case started with the loudest advert I’ve encountered yet. Celaine is excellent, she has a great voice. There is no startup music. No attempt to cover every random trigger – for example, no mouth clicking, scratching, or nail tapping on a hard surface. If only there were more videos like this.

There are notes of course:

“388,965 views 23 Dec 2024 ASMR Cranial Nerve Exam Roleplay Podcast

ASMR Eye Exam Lens 1 or 2 (With or Without) 👓 Light Tests, Realistic Medical Roleplay for Sleep. Vision Test & Cranial Nerve Orbital Exam. And MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

In this ASMR medical exam video expect an eye exam roleplay that’s focused on the lens 1 or 2 test, Glasses Fitting, Orbital Light Exam and ASMR Light triggers for sleep FAST.

The perfect ASMR eye examination video to test your orbital vision! This video includes Dr. Eye who will give you a detailed eye exam and eye test for your ASMR relaxation~ ASMR: Lens 1 or 2? With or Without? (role play) inspired by the amazing YouTube creator SRP ASMR !

✿ What is ASMR? ✿

Autonomous sensory meridian response, is a tingling sensation that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. Used to help with sleep and relaxation

#asmreyeexam #asmrroleplay #asmrvideo”

As usual for a professional ASMR artist the notes are on the long side. I have truncated them a tad or it would be boringly long. The video is divided at intervals and loud adverts, as you would expect, populate those intervals. The video has comments of course. Some of which are a tad on the odd side, the majority, as we would expect, being profuse with praise.

I can hear why that is. I think it is close to ideal for sleep purposes, those intrusive adverts permitting.

At this stage we usually do an inadvertent ASMR video, but this post is already quite lengthy. I think I will cover one video but not attempt to find any linked videos, or this is likely to go on forever.

The channel is

Joel Sattgast with 4.14k subscribers, one hundred and sixty eight videos, twelve playlists. Some of those playlists look worthy of further review (given more time and blog space).

The chosen video is this one:

Foot and Ankle | Palpation Guide

It is a little over seventeen and a half minutes long.

It has notes: “21,676 views 4 Jul 2020

This video takes students through palpation and identification of the major landmarks, bones, and joints of the foot and ankle.

MU DPT Sp2020

Fair Use Act Disclaimer: This material is for rehabilitation educational purposes only (e.g. DPT education)

Fair Use

Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education & research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

Copyrighted material used for educational purposes is indicated with citations.”

I think I qualify under the “criticism” heading, at least that is the gamble I am making. If I suddenly stop posting I might be enjoying some leisure time at the behest of His Majesty. There are comments, but precious few of those (let’s hope that is not a bad sign).

Joel’s voice is excellent. It starts calm and nicely paced. There is no startup music and no loud equipment noises. He does get a bit louder as if trying to communicate through projection alone. That said the video is not ideal ASMR material. To be restful I think you’re going to have to reduce the volume a bit. (I’ve commented before that inter-video volume changes are a problem on mixed playlists like that compiled by The Procrastination Pen).

On that basis, just one, video on this occasion.

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

See you again next week.

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

The amount that has to be achieved in a day is increasing. As a result, I have to turn these reviews around more quickly than of late, and certainly more quickly than I did even last year, for example. It is likely that these reviews are going to be a little shorter going forwards but I will do everything to keep the quality high. (Well as high as it has been to date anyway, readers can decide at what level of quality they perceive that to be).

I have been reviewing an offering from Calm for a while now. I have a Calm subscription and, in many ways, I prefer listening to Calm content in order to get off to sleep. It is the lack of advertising in the content. It isn’t as if I have any objections to adverts, as such. It is the insistence that I give them my full attention. This is forcefully applied by making them louder than the video I was just listening to; fast paced, often with bright, fast-moving images and not taking into consideration the time of day. At 3am I want restful adverts, not some catchy tune or person loudly telling me that only they have the answer to this or that life problem.

However, Calm is not free and I do occasionally come across free resources that are not weighed down with adverts. Mostly they have no associated video so they will not embed well in a page. Often the ones I have located concern meditation, rather than ASMR, so a slight change of focus. But if people like the idea I will feature the odd one. Let me know what you think.

Today’s Calm is the following:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/OJtPBsWToz

Daily Jay

Humility & Curiosity

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

Jay has some of the more interesting and challenging content on Calm. I would not say he had the best voice on there for me that is probably Tamara Levitt. But I find myself listening to him more often than not and trying to adjust my mindset to the message (I am often nowhere near calm enough for a start).

This is a little under eight minutes in length, so will not keep you for long. It concerns the qualities that assist a person in navigating a world as confusing and challenging as ours is. I hope that you enjoy it (if you have a Calm subscription in any case).

Recently I read that Gen Z has the edge on persons of my age in the sleep habits that are recommended. What strikes me is the ability to compare apples with apples. As a young person I could sleep, within seconds, anywhere. Noise did not disturb me. I could go to bed early and sleep right through to the alarm. I could sleep all weekend going to bed on Friday after work and rising to the alarm on Monday morning. I could also go for days without sleep and apparently have few ill effects.

There is nothing like passing fifty to show the weaknesses. I now find that the least noise will wake me, if I go to bed at nine, I will wake at three. If I go to bed at any time I will always wake at my old work wake up time of 4am and then I need to make a special effort to go back to sleep because I no longer wish to wake then.

I have trouble getting to sleep at all some days and lie awake/do some reading/watch television, whatever seems to work. The Gen Z person is also not the only one to feel tired limited by such habits. Old people feel equally as tired I can assure you. The point being I have no doubt that a young person has better sleep habits. It is just that older people often have limited choices because they just sleep a lot worse – age seems to just do that. It was for this reason that the Procrastination Pen blog started looking into restful videos in the first place.

That, of course, brings us to where we are now.

At this stage I always review a professional ASMR artist and so today we have:

ASMR Soft Spoken Medical Exam

This is twenty-two and three-quarter minutes and so a little shorter than we have watched of late. Comments are permitted and are filled with the normal weirdness we have associated with YouTube, interposed with the normal comments we are used to for professional ASMR artists which are always positive, as far as I have found thus far.

There are notes, of course. These ones are a little different to the type of thing we are used to from professional ASMR artists:

“571,112 views 28 Aug 2025

♡ A SPECIAL thank you to my channel members who help make these videos possible ↓

THANK YOU!! :DD

I hope y’all enjoyed this one!! I’ve been listening to a lot of Avril Lavigne lately 😛 specifically the albums: under my skin, let go, the best damn thing, & goodbye lullaby

FAQs:

What is ASMR? A feeling of well-being combined with a tingling sensation in the scalp and down the back of the neck, as experienced by some people in response to a specific gentle stimulus, often a particular sound.

Why soft spoken? I loveee this type of ASMR and many others do too!!

Where are you located? East Coast of the USA!

Instagram: caitASMR

TikTok: caitASMRofficial

All of my links: https://linktr.ee/caitasmr?utm_source…

Transcript

Follow along using the transcript.

cait ASMR

401K subscribers”

However, you will notice no less lengthy for that. (I’ve heavily edited them or they would be pretty huge). It is from the channel cait ASMR. This has 401K subscribers, two hundred and sixteen videos, five playlists. None of the playlists are on a medical subject and so they are not in keeping with the theme we have been following for a while now.

As we would expect the voice is excellent, with a tendency towards the whispery. We have heard that this is a tendency that a number of professional ASMR artists make use of. I can only assume it is exactly the voice level that the majority of ASMR fans are demanding at the moment.

(Perhaps they always have).

There are, as we have heard before, a number of non-voice related noises, clicking noises, liquid noises, tapping noises, container unscrewing noises, tape measure noises, glove -related noises. I have, to date, assumed that these are exactly the noises that some ASMR fans are demanding.

I am only really interested in the voice. The voice here is very good and I may well come back to cait ASMR in the future. Why not review it for yourself.

I noticed this week that WordPress has a little AI button that is there to tell me all the things I did wrong when publishing a new blog article. It would seem that a great deal more work is needed in introducing, summarising, and concluding.

I sometimes wonder if I start to obey other people’s (or in this case a machine’s) recommendations, is the blog still mine? Does it then become a product of the AI which in fact I have simply fluffed a bit to give it a Procrastination Pen piquancy?

There are probably a great many people who do not bother to ask such questions. To guard against the circumstance in which the machine is correct and I am not a little more in the way of introduction. Just in case you have just landed from Oumuamua and wonder what the heck is going on, a few words on the blog.

Way back in the dim and distant it seemed to me I’d rather like to write something and, if I was going to write something, wouldn’t it be marvellous if some people would read it and better still, provide feedback.

It seemed obvious that the way to go was to put it on the Internet because wasn’t everybody doing that? Reviews seemed to suggest WordPress was a great platform for that – because wasn’t everybody using it? A life of posting articles and getting feedback glistened.

If anybody else has tried this, the next stages are probably familiar. Firstly, it is quite difficult to know what you want to call your blog. Secondly how do you go about getting a logo, what should you write about yourself and more to the point, what should you write about in terms of the blog?

Life goes on, pages turn, and people didn’t descend in their millions to praise and criticise and the purpose for the blog was lost. Anyone viewing the archive will probably notice that I quit blogging in 2018.

Then I realised that if the only reason to write was to get something back from other people, then there probably wasn’t any point in writing at all. One of the sagest pieces of advice I ever read is that people just don’t care about you. People care about themselves. For that same reason I wasn’t about to try to determine what people wanted me to write about. Because even if I found out, I wouldn’t be interested, unless (and this is probably quite unlikely) it also spoke to me.

That was 2022, and since then I publish a blog post at pseudo-regular intervals and sometimes people read it.

There was at the time, a huge number of ASMR videos on YouTube (and if anything the number has subsequently grown). I found some of them effective, a great many off-putting and I didn’t have the time to spend my days listening to them. It became obvious I was only ever going to be able to use them to get off to sleep at night.

It seemed to me that I am probably not alone in being bemused in navigating the YouTube wilderness of video recommendations. There might be, say, one other person out there with a similar taste in videos who also needs some material to use in getting to sleep.

I was going to need to navigate the YouTube video recommendations. To store the videos I found, I was going to need a playlist. If I made that playlist public, other people could also use it.

I was going to have to listen to each video to work out if it was worthwhile. Were there jarring noises, was the background drone too oppressive, had someone dropped the lapel mic into their pocket so it sounded like it was recorded through a filter? It might be useful to document the process; some people might agree; some people might vehemently disagree; most people would ignore it altogether.

As I have gone along, the playlist continues to grow. I keep listening to it at night. Occasionally one of the videos wakes me up or grates so much I find it hard to get to sleep in the first place. Such videos are ejected from the playlist and put into an archive list, in case someone, somewhere was listening and finds their favourite video gone. It also acts as a trail of the process; at least those videos made it through the initial critique (many more do not do so).

And so today, another video and another review.

People who have been reading the blog will possibly remember a blog item on Ayesha Mattu in which I was quite glowing about the quality of her voice.

Following that blog item, I have been meaning to make time to go back and seek out any videos featuring Ayesha to determine if there is any content which has an equally relaxing feel to it.

Women of Spirit and Faith: Ayesha Mattu

Just less than six and a half minutes it has a very relaxing tone to it. However, it incorporates an ongoing background music track – which is quite jarring. I’d prefer we just had Ayesha’s voice. The voice is really one of the better ones I have heard so it does not need adulterating with additional music.

It has notes “4,631 views 23 Oct 2013

Ayesha Mattu, writer and co-editor of “Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women, explores universal questions of love, intimacy and spiritual co-leadership with her husband, Randy, leading up to the release of the companion anthology, “Salaam, Love: American Muslim Men on Love, Sex & Intimacy” (available Valentine’s Day 2014 from Beacon Press!). In sharing her own story, she hopes to spark interfaith dialogue and confront leading myths about Muslim-American men and women, and their search for Love.

Visit her blog at: http://loveinshallah.com

To hear more voices from Women of Spirit and Faith visit our web site: http://womenofspiritandfaith.org

and

The Divine Feminine Blog at www.patheos.com”

Despite the music, I think I’ll tolerate this and put it into the playlist, Her voice is really that good. (It might get weeded in future, however).

Ayesha Mattu & Nura Maznavi: Salaam, Love: American Muslim Men on Love, Sex, and Intimacy

At over an hour, this is a bit longer than the types of video I usually review. It is also a professional video and as such it has associated notes:

“8,744 views 12 Feb 2014

Harvard Book Store is pleased to welcome Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi, editors of Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women, along with four of their contributors: Ahmed Akbar, Dan I. Oversaw, Mohammed Samir Shamma, and Sam Pierstorff for a discussion of Mattu’s and Maznavi’s latest work, Salaam, Love: American Muslim Men on Love, Sex, and Intimacy.

From the editors of the groundbreaking anthology Love, InshAllah comes a provocative new exploration of the most intimate parts of Muslim men’s lives.

By raising their voices to share stories of love and heartbreak, loyalty and betrayal, intimacy and insecurity, these Muslim men are leading the way for all men to recognize that being open and honest about their feelings is not only okay—it’s intimately connected to their lives and critical to their happiness and well-being.”

This is a presentation and as such could not be said to be muted. Ayesha actually does not get a massive amount of air time. This is a shame as when she does contribute, her voice remains really calm, quiet and measured.

This one doesn’t belong in The Procrastination Pen playlist.

Ayesha Mattu and Ali Eteraz on Diffused Congruence Podcast: The American Muslim Experience

This also has notes “

49 views 2 Jul 2019

Ayesha Mattu, Co-editor of “Love, Inshallah” and its new sequel “Salaam, Love” talks about reactions to the books and what she’s learned from her audience. Also, Ali Eteraz, author of “Children of Dust” and the upcoming “Falsipedies and Fibsiennes” talks. about his book.

This is an unofficial channel created by a fan to create more awareness about the excellent “Diffused Congruence Podcast: The American Muslim Experience.” I do not own the audio interview or images.

The podcast explores and celebrates the many facets of the American Muslim experience with scholars, activists, and thought leaders. It has been hosted by Parvez Ahmed and Zaki Hasan since October 2013. This is episode 11 that was released on September 23, 2014.

You can stream or download other podcast episodes at: https://diffusedcongruence.podbean.com

Please donate to keep this great podcast going at: https://www.patreon.com/diffusedcongr…

Learn more about this podcast at http://www.facebook.com/diffusedcongruence or http://www.diffusedcongruence.podbean.com”

This has probably the most energetic startup music I have had the chance to review. Straight away I knew it was not going to be suitable for our purposes and at over one and a quarter hours I think I’d have to be really content with it to feature it more fully on the blog.

(Shame I couldn’t set the start and end time of the video, as I could have wiped some of that content out).

American Muslim Women Tell All About Love and Sex

which also has notes “39,694 views 1 Mar 2012

Twenty-four American Muslim Women, in a collection of published essays, open up on the issues of love, sex, religion, cultural norms and family expectations. Frances Alonzo of VOA Middle East Voices speaks to the co-editors of “Love InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women,” Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi.”

At less than five and a half minutes it isn’t going to take long. Again, it has startup music, which is thankfully brief. There is a fairly strong set of background noise on it. I’m unclear why, as it seems to have been professionally recorded.

Thankfully Ayesha gets a reasonable amount of air time and that voice is worth tolerating challenges like background noise. The video might, however, get jettisoned after a protracted review.

Salaam, Love: American Muslim Men on Love, Sex, and Intimacy

Notes again “4,263 views 30 Apr 2014

Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi discuss the process of compiling and editing Salaam, Love – a collection of essays written by Muslim men about love, sex and intimacy.”

A bit less than three minutes, so blink and you’ll miss it. Again, with the startup music and this time it is quite loud, but fortunately brief. There is a reasonable amount of air time for Ayesha so it is worth a spin in the Procrastination Pen Playlist.

That seems to be the best of the material available. It also marks an end to any series I might do on Ayesha. It’s a shame for our purposes that she does not have a channel (that I can find), as it would be one worthy of following.

Onwards till next week.

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

The Ayesha Mattu 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

We are back to fairly safe ground this time. Firstly, this video is not found in a channel dedicated to ASMR (this blog focuses on unintentional ASMR videos for review material). Secondly, we are back to a Cranial Nerve exam which has featured before.

Neuro PACES is the channel and it is fairly easy to cover as it contains in total five videos none of which is longer than ten minutes (in fact all are quite a bit shorter than that).

The Cranial Nerve Examination is this one:

Cranial Nerve Examination Example

A nice calm start but progress through the video does seem to be quite hurried. Dr Michael is the medical professional, Mr Foot is the “patient”

I would guess that in order to get the entire exam completed within five minutes Dr Michael really needs to be motoring along.

The video is quite a bit different to the Vicki Scott one in this respect.

As the video progresses, if anything, it gets even quieter but the pace never seems to slow down much. To me that is not too distracting and it is a good video for the Procrastination Pen playlist I think.

The patient here states that the sensation in his face is unequal. This is the first time we have come across this in any of the videos covered so far. Surprisingly there is no mechanism here for noting that concern, that seems unusual. In addition, the medical professional here does not echo back the concern. Reflecting the concern has been more typical in the videos we have covered so far.

The link at the end of the video links back to Liverpool university neurosciences research.

A number of the videos seem to have been set up specifically for the neuropaces course organised by:

Professor Benedict Michael, Professor in Neuroscience, MRC Clinician Scientist and Honorary Consultant Neurologist

Professor Tom Solomon, Chair of Neurological Science and Honorary Consultant Neurologist

Dr Viraj Bharambe, Neurology Consultant

Dr Rosie Heartshorne, Neurology Registrar

I’ll make a guess that Dr Michael and Professor Michael are the same person.

Investigating the rest of the Neuro PACES channel we find that there are no playlists. Without a playlist order to guide the sequence of videos to review let’s begin with those videos dedicated to medical examination:

Lower Limb Examination Example

This features Dr Michael again, this time with Mr Jamieson. Again, this is a very gentle presentation. This one is pretty nigh ideal for our purposes and is a definite candidate for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The patient here seems to be really struggling, the first time I’ve seen this featured in a medical examination video. The videos reviewed to date have always featured healthy people. I’m guessing these are usually student volunteers. This is quite a good vindication of what the process is supposed to be for i.e., verifying an unwell person’s condition.

For our purposes though it is a good ASMR candidate and like the previous one merely five minutes long. I’d say Dr Michael is as good here ASMR-wise as Dr James Gill which is quite a statement to make.

Neurology Lower Limb Examination for MRCP PACES. NeuroPACES.mov

https://youtu.be/zSqczy8Km2M

The patient isn’t introduced in this video and Dr Michael starts off in much more robust fashion than in the previous two videos, (it’s quite a bit louder, as if he is trying to enunciate for a distant audience). There is a consistent background hubbub as if it is being filmed in a public area.

However, it still has its quiet and attentive moments which brings it back into a candidate for the Procrastination Pen playlist for me. It is still not quite as good as Shane Brun though.

In common with the other videos in this article it really motors though and is all over in five minutes. Overall therefore this one is not a great Procrastination Pen playlist candidate.

The Solomon System- NeuroPACES

This time the medical professional is flagged at the beginning Professor Tom Solomon PhD. FRCP of the Walton Neuro Centre NHS Foundation Trust & University of Liverpool

The “patient” is quite quickly introduced as Simon.

This is a longer video at eight minutes fifty seconds (though that is still not long in terms of the many videos we’ve reviewed in the past).

Professor Solomon has not got quite such a calm voice as Dr Michael sadly. I think again the problem is that he is presenting to a wider audience so his voice is louder. But at least there isn’t the background hubbub in this video.

There is quite a good description as to why some of the tests are actually performed and how to do these tests in the minimal time.

I’m not going to add this one to the Procrastination Pen playlist though.

NeuroPACES: The Walton Centre Neurology MRCP PACES Course

Another calm start, however it is just an intro video to the neuro PACES course. We get promotional material including funky music. This is not the kind of thing you want when you’re attempting to doze off.

This one is not going into the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The NeuroPaces playlist on the Procrastination Pen channel is here:

The overall Procrastination Pen Checklist (featuring all videos covered in the blog so far) 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 requiring age verification is here:

I dislike these as they require me to stop listening and login to verify my age. You may find that you have more patience than I do in which case this list is for you.

I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of relaxation as a result.

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

Till next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

As promised in a previous blog post we are back again at the Merck Manuals channel. Last time we were covering the Ortho Exam playlist.

Relevant videos from this playlist/channel have already been added to the Merck Manuals playlist on The Procrastination Pen YouTube channel.

And into the overall The Procrastination Pen playlist:

There are twenty-two playlists in this channel some of which are extremely large. (The “Merck Manual Consumer Version” contains ninety videos for example. If I attempted to cover all of those it would not be not so much a blog post as a book on ASMR).

Since my last blog post they have changed elements of the Merck Manuals channel to state that it is not available outside the United States.

I hope it wasn’t something that I said.

If like me you’re not in the United States I am afraid that you are left with whatever remaining crumbs there are in terms of videos that are still available.

Parts of some playlists remain accessible.

The playlist:

The Neuro Exam – Merck Manual Professional Version

Contains seven videos which are still visible outside of the US. (Who knows how long you’ll be able to see even these. I suggest you go listen to them before it is too late).

How to do the Mental Status Exam | Merck Manual Professional Version

https://youtu.be/14s9jMf4vR8

This is another video with funky start up music. I mean, really, don’t they know I’m trying to sleep?

The narrator here is way too loud sadly. Fortunately, that doesn’t last very long. The “patient” states that she is in Philadelphia in the Einstein Medical Centre. It’s not your standard ASMR stuff in that it is a little bit loud even in the medical exam portion.

I also notice that the medical professional asks how many nickels there are in a dollar and I realised that I did not know (in case you’re also not located in the US the answer is twenty apparently).

Some of these tests are a bit tough. It made me wonder about my own memory as I’m not sure I’d be able to pass such tests.

The video is just a bit loud I think and not great ASMR material so not one for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

How to do the Cranial Nerve Examination | Merck Manual Professional Version

It looks like startup funky music for videos in this playlist is going to be a theme.

Here the narrator is more muted and much more in keeping with what we’re looking for, I think. The video is designed to be for teaching/instruction so although there is an examination of a patient the actually dialogue between medical professional and “patient” does not feature in the video.

However, I think this one will make it to the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Cerebellar Examination: How to Assess Gait, Stance, and Coordination | Merck Manual

There is music at the start as before. Maybe eventually I will find a way to edit videos for their ASMR effects but that currently is not the purpose of this blog/playlist.

The narrator has learned his lesson after the somewhat loud presentation of the first video in this list. He is quite calm and reasonably quiet.

The exam proper appears without audio – the narrator is filling in what the stages in the exam mean. It is an instruction video that is also quite good for ASMR. This video will also be in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

How to do the Motor Examination | Merck Manual Professional Version

I notice that comments for these videos are turned off. Turning off comments stops some of the crazier contributions that we’ve seen of late but it also stops us working out if others are using these videos for their ASMR effects.

To me they seem a good find, this one included.

How to do the Sensory Exam | Merck Manual Professional Version

This is the longest video of the set, but it follows the format of the other videos seen so far. We’re entirely reliant upon the quality of the narrator here (especially to distract us from the music interludes). Fortunately, he has a good voice.

There are intrusions of parts of the genuine exam here. The only distraction with these interludes is the background noise. This is almost certainly the air-conditioning noise which we have become used to from other videos.

In this playlist whilst the medical professionals have changed between videos the “patient” remains the same.

Another good video for the Procrastination Pen playlist, I think.

How to Test Reflexes | Merck Manual Professional Version

Apart from the first video these have been consistent. Quite a good find this series and this particular video is worth making part of the Procrastination Pen playlist.

How to do a 4-Minute Neurologic Exam | Merck Manual Professional Version

https://youtu.be/5UuQV-0o4CE

This is exactly the same format as the other videos covered in this article. They were all posted six years ago. I notice that the notes tell me something about the Merck Manual:

“First published in 1899 as a small reference book for physicians and pharmacists, The Merck Manual grew in size and scope to become one of the world’s most widely used comprehensive medical resources for professionals and consumers. As The Manual evolved, it continually expanded the reach and depth of its offerings to reflect the mission of providing the best medical information to a wide cross-section of users, including medical professionals and students, veterinarians and veterinary students, and consumers. • Merck Manual Professional Version: http://www.MerckManuals.com/Professional”

I’m guessing that there is some financial consideration involved in its use. If it produces videos of this quality, I’m in favour (well until they totally remove my ability to see the videos in any case).

However, if the video recording guys are reading, please quieten down the funky music at the beginning (or better still go for a silent intro).

This is another one for the Procrastination Pen playlist, I think.

The Merck Manuals playlist has been updated with these videos.

The overall playlist containing all the videos featured so far is here.

The above playlist has now grown quite large so I have started to weed out some of the less effective ones. However I realise that some people may consider them favourites so I have added the removed videos to an archive playlist.

However, if people who post videos keep taking those videos down again, or making them unavailable to a person writing a blog in the UK, then I may find the weeding is being done for me behind the scenes.

There is also the playlist for the small number of videos I have covered that require age verification. There has been limited demand for these so I doubt I will cover many more (unless I do so by accident).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5WRzP-r5mY&list=PLoNk1vXn1i4E3Lj_4mYQlX1QvGafeFLPg&pp=gAQBiAQB

I hope that you find them restful (and that you get some great sleep).

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

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

As promised in an earlier blog item, I decided to follow up on “ROM and MMT” as a search term. This results in a great many videos with the kind of unpleasant noises in them which prove to be distracting.

There are however, a multiplicity of videos on this theme. It is a matter of persistence to find one which doesn’t have the air conditioning pretending it is a steel band.

UE Evaluation Review

The title is: “UE Functional Assessment ROM & MMT Screening Pinch & Grip, Edema & Pain”.

(I was pretty sure that was oedema – but obviously not.)

Janey is the medical professional in this one, Lisa is the “patient”. It is not as relaxing as Vicki Scott but is pretty calming. At only seven minutes thirty-nine seconds it is quite a good length for a medical exam. Fortunately, it lacks much in the way of obtrusive background noise.

Janey Detommaso is the channel. There is nothing posted here more recently than four years ago. This video is the shortest one. There are four videos and Lisa only features in this one.

With only four videos and none of these any longer than fourteen minutes thirty-four seconds, it’s worthwhile running through the others to see if they are any good ASMR-wise.

Shoulder & Elbow ROM and MMT

The title at the start of the video is “Range of Motion & Manual Muscle Testing ROM of the Shoulder, Elbow and Forearm” which is handy as that fits with the search term I was originally using.

In this one Janey is a bit loud from the start. The camera angle is a bit odd. It is probably just propped on a table somewhere. But it isn’t the visual aspect of the video that is the reason for us being here. At intervals, Janey tones it down a bit and actually gets to quiet. It is a shame she doesn’t do this the whole way through the video because when Janey chooses to do this she has a great voice.

Subsequently the filming switches to a bedroom – which leads me to suspect the whole video is part of some student assessment process. I would guess that otherwise it would be filmed in a medical establishment.

At fourteen minutes thirty-four seconds this is the longest of the four videos on this channel. There are twenty-three subscribers but no comments. It is conceivable (though not probable) that no one in the ASMR community has yet reviewed this one.

Midterm practicum: NDT, PNF, Rood, & Brunnstrom techniques

The sound on this one is really poor. It seems to have been filmed in a group situation in which people are paired off.

Other people are talking away in the background. It is difficult to distinguish the main track in this video. This really wrecks it for ASMR sadly.

This is not one for the playlist then.

The badge on Janey’s top seems to indicate it is at an establishment with the acronym TWU. This is potentially Texas Women’s University who seem to offer occupational health courses at Dallas and Houston locations.

It is a shame about that sound quality.

Hand & Wrist ROM/MMT

This video is twelve minutes fifteen seconds so it is the second longest video on this channel (and the final one available). Mr Hernandez crops up again (we saw him in the “Shoulder & Elbow ROM and MMT” video earlier).

Again, the interior appears domestic rather than medical. At the start of the video there is a strange flickering light behind the window Mr Hernandez is sat in front of. This is distracting, but only if you’re watching. As we’re all about the listening experience here, I’m ignoring it.

The sound is quite good, there is no background noise and Janey seems at her most calm here compared to any of the videos covered in this article.

This one seems well worthy of the Procrastination Pen playlist as it is quite relaxing.

The playlist for Janey Detommaso is here:

The overall playlist for all videos covered so far in this blog is here:

The archive list of videos that once made it into the overall playlist but upon reflection did not make the grade is here:

That list only exists in case I remove someone’s favourite video.

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

Warning this list will cause you to stop in order to log on to verify your age. If you’re happy with that then this playlist is for you. Personally I just ceased watching any material that requires that logon.

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

Photo by nine koepfer on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Channels dedicated to ASMR are like the sweets of the ASMR world. Whilst sweets are an easy source of calories requiring no more than that you unwrap them; ASMR channels provide a range of videos pre-curated, edited and enhanced for ASMR effect. Sometimes I find a great video and I just can’t find anything like it anywhere else. I’m afraid the video this time comes from a channel which is (you guessed it) dedicated to ASMR.

Just like the aftermath of sweets though I have this sense of guilt about it since this blog has been dedicated of late to ordinary videos that just happen to have ASMR effects. Here we have some videos where someone else has decided that for me (i.e. done all the work).

Normal service will swiftly resume I assure you.

The channel is Roos it has two-hundred-and-seventy-three-thousand subscribers at the time of writing about it.

The first video is this one:

Unintentional ASMR | Full Medical Exam | Checkup

I’m sure this video is almost certainly edited to enhance its ASMR effect.

Thirty-seven minutes seventeen seconds so this is long for one of these edited videos.

The notes are: “21 Aug 2020 #asmr #unintentionalasmr

I will try to upload more unintentional ASMR video’s from the medical field, because I personally like these the most. I suffer from anxiety and depression and these video’s help me a lot, so I want to make them more easy to find. Please subscribe to get notified with the latest uploads. Original video can be found here: Hope you will feel relaxed after this video. Xx”

There are no notes with the video which tell us about the content.

However the “patient” is introduced as Kate and the medical professional I think (it isn’t that clear) introduces himself as Leonard Alvier (probably nothing like that spelling) student medical practitioner. No helpful comments on this video (in fact one derogatory one). So all-in-all a limited opportunity to discover this video anywhere else (such as the original source for the video).

This is introduced as Head, Ears, Eyes, Nose, and Throat Exam. To be honest Leonard’s voice is not the most marvellous at the beginning (but that isn’t the first time we’ve come across that problem).

However, once the exam proper kicks off, this all settles down and it becomes a great deal calmer. At one point Leonard makes an error and has to repeat part of the exam, but this does not seem to significantly affect the progress. He also seems to get equipment problems (with a penlight) despite “changing the batteries today”. I wonder if that happens in a real exam? Errors like this seem to crop up in these videos which must show that they are filmed in a live environment and unedited after that.

The video finished rather abruptly in the middle of the Romberg’s test which causes me to speculate what happened then… (If anyone knows where the original is let me know).

I’ve seen a few now where the medical professional gets the patient to say ninety-nine during the exam.

It turns out “If it sounds louder over one area of the lungs, this is a sign of fluid (from pneumonia). We have patients say the letter E and then, if it sounds more like an A when we are listening to the lungs, this also can indicate pneumonia (because the fluid in the lungs transmits sounds differently).” So now we know…

This is a good one for the playlist.

The next one is this:

Unintentional ASMR | Medical Exam | Nurse Check Up | Demonstration With Ross

The notes are: “8 Feb 2021 #unintentionalasmr #realpersonasmr #medicalasmr

Unintentional ASMR

Nurse demonstration with Ross

I do not own this video, it has been shared for asmr purposes only!

#unintentionalasmr #realpersonasmr #medicalasmr”

I have no idea who Ross is so it doesn’t help in locating the original source. The introduction to the video states “Advanced Health Assessment Special Techniques: Cardiovascular & Peripheral Vascular System. Faculty Demonstration with Key Learning Points” sadly no guidance as to which institution it was filmed in. The medical professional here has a great voice. Ross does not seem to get a lot to say. “Ross” by the way occurs in other ASMR medical exam videos on other channels for example:

I am beginning to discover that we cycle back to the same videos via other channels as the process of discovering new videos continues. I will endeavour to point out duplicates as they come up. Let me know if you see any.

Cranial Nerve Examination | Nurse Check Up | Unintentional ASMR

The notes state: “7 Jan 2021 #unintentionalasmr #realpersonasmr #medicalexam

Ross is Back | Unintentional ASMR Nurse Examination | Full Physical

I don’t own anything. This video belongs to the university of Washington

#unintentionalasmr #realpersonasmr #medicalexam”

This indicates that the University of Washington is worthy of some future attention. (they, of course, have their own channel.)

Fortunately this time the video has a tail section that tells us the nurse was Jessica-Burke-Lazurus BSN, RN Midwifery-DNP Student (well she was when it was filmed in December 2011).

The model is Rosson Wiebe PMHNP-DNP Student and it was filmed at the Center for Excellence in Nursing Education at the University of Washington for use on graduate health assessment courses. The closest channel I can find appears to be this one:

University of Washington GME

Unintentional ASMR | Full Medical Exam | Med School

This one is familiar in that it comes up in a number of recommendations via YouTube when I am reviewing other potential ASMR videos there are four hundred and eight one thousand views at the day I am looking at it and a few of those are probably me.

We quickly find that Courtney is the “patient” which is interesting because there is another video where the roles are reversed and Courtney is the medical professional. And the medical professional here – James as it turns out – is the patient. The James and Courtney pairing will almost certainly get better coverage in a future blog post.

The branding is Prohealthsys, which has its own channel on YouTube.

That channel does not have the above video in it any longer. There seem a number of Dr Vizniak videos but a brief review isn’t producing much in the way of ASMR content. It might be deserving of a more in-depth review in future.

The video concludes with reference to the Prohealthsys website.

The video seems to be filmed in a gym rather than a hospital (or school) environment – there is a set of weights in the background for example. Mirrors in amongst the gym equipment give some view of the environment which is not directly in front of the camera.

The examination table has a set of books laid out under it on a shelf – which is an arrangement I have not seen in any other video to date.

There is the constant background noise that we are used to in hospital-like environments which I have always attributed to air conditioning – although they must be in a desert judging by how hard this sounds to be working.

Definition: Cerumen Ear Wax

Dermotomes an area of skin supplied by a single nerve

There was a reference to “Mid-clavicular line” it turns out there are a few anatomical lines.

Pictures seem to be the easiest way to show these

and

The medical professional has a nice steady voice not actually quiet and certainly no Dr James Gill. However I think this is a good one for the playlist.

On a connected theme is this one:

Unintentional ASMR | Full Medical Exam | Med School

Here Courtney gets to examine James – the reverse of the earlier video. In the video where James was the medical professional Courtney did not get to say a great deal and I concluded that the video was a reasonable one for the playlist.

In this one Courtney is the main participant and so talks all the time. Sadly her voice is too loud throughout for this to be properly restful. Whilst similar material is covered to the earlier video this really is not suitable for the playlist.

The remaining videos are off-subject for us and all posted greater than one year ago. It looks like Roos moved from medical exams to makeup videos at this time – perhaps this blog will change in a similar way eventually but I won’t guarantee it.

Fortunately, this means we can cover these videos swiftly and dismiss them as irrelevant to the subject we’re trying to focus on. I’ll feature them in case anyone finds them of interest. (If prompted I may even add them to the playlist).

Unintentional ASMR | Winged Eyeliner Tutorial | Minimal Talking | Makeup

This is not a medical-related video so it isn’t relevant to this particular blog post. Unless I change focus in the future I will not be cycling back to cover it again however I have included it here in case any ASMR readers find it restful.

Macadamia koeken met witte chocolade | Recept | Bettyskitchen.nl

Noisy, loud, boisterous, fast, no no no no. Not in the playlist

Unintentional ASMR | Victoria Jackson Cosmetics | VHS Commercial 90s

Nothing medical here

Unintentional ASMR | 80’s Make-up Look | Colourful Eyes | VHS

Not medical either

Unintentional ASMR | Make-up Tutorial | 80’s Make-up Kit | Soft Voice

Still not medical

Unintentional ASMR | 80’s Makeup and Hair Makeover

I’m probably biased in my assessment as makeup videos have no interest for me. However I have considered videos which have an alternative theme to medical exam ASMR videos previously (and I am certain to do so in the future).

Let me know if you’d like a makeup playlist and I will set one up.

The Roos playlist on The Procrastination Pen is here:

The overall playlist for all videos reviewed on The Procrastination Pen (and found worthy of listening to) is here:

The archive playlist (for videos previously in the above list but weeded out because after long term review they were found to be wanting) is here:

I only include the above one for people who might have had the odd one of these as a favourite.

The playlist for videos which could have been in the master playlist (but require a logon to verify your age) is here:

(Personally, I don’t bother with these as the logon, when you’re trying to sleep, is a pain in the neck but you may be more patient).

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

Photo by Amy Chen on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Continuing the mission to identify videos with possible ASMR effects (or at the very least ones that can lull you off to sleep) I have come across today’s video.

This one is acronym city – I doubt you’ll need to understand much of them to enjoy the video. However, if, like me, you find it annoying that you do not understand what things mean, here are a few of those that came up:

OSPE – office of standardised patient education

UAB the University of Alabama at Birmingham

HEENT Head Eyes Ears Nose and Throat

(Knees and toes, knees and toes)

Ahem, so with the preliminaries out of the way, let’s progress to the video and what it does for ASMR.

This is todays’ video:

The HEENT Physical Examination

Mark has an excellent voice, if a little nervous in this one. In fact, at intervals, he seems to be looking to the student for reassurance.

The channel (unsurprisingly) is Mark Pepin, MD, PhD (The photo on the channel indicates that this video was recorded some time ago – he’s older on the photo than he is in the video). In fact, the video was posted in February 2018.

The channel has fifteen videos in total and only some of these are to do with medical exams. This is probably a number of videos that might prove tedious to read about in a single blog post (attention spans being what they are at the current time).

There are seven playlists and to be honest, different ones appear appealing from our perspective. (This is another channel to return to I suspect). However, the playlist Clinical Physical Examinations

includes the one selected. There are ten videos in this playlist which does not seem excessive to cover here. (If you’re bored already scroll to the end of this blog post where you will find the relevant playlists).

The Cardiovascular Examination

Mark with Erin again, this time Erin is a clinical skills trainer. Mark is still good in this video, whilst Erin again doesn’t get to say anything.

It is going in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The Pulmonary Physical Examination

I notice that Erin has an escalating involvement in these films – now she is helping with filming and editing. Heather Hallman PA and Shawn Galin MD are presenting in this one.

If anything, Heather Hallman has a better voice than Mark Pepin. Slightly energetic in places perhaps (for the purpose of getting off to sleep) but excellent for relaxation. There appears to be a background click playing in the video which is initially a bit distracting but is significantly better than some of the air conditioning noises we’ve had previously. Shawn’s voice is not the greatest fit for ASMR but he doesn’t get to say a lot here (thankfully for us).

This one is going in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The HEENT Physical Examination

This is where we came in of course. Made at the University of Alabama at Birmingham they have a channel with a very large number of videos, thirty-three playlists – at least one of which is seventy-four videos long. This may be worthy of exploration in a future article.

At intervals the video is really deeply restful. As before it is Procrastination Pen playlist bound.

The Neurologic Physical Examination

Dr. Victor Sung and Erin returns. Sadly, Dr Sung is not so great in ASMR terms. I’m sure it’s a very instructive video but that isn’t why we are here.

It is also the longest one we have encountered so far, in excess of fifty-nine minutes.

If you persist with it, Dr Sung has a much gentler voice at intervals. So, the default voice must be Dr Sung in instruction mode. I’m not sure how I would subdivide the video to isolate only those moments. What we’re looking for is an exam video for Dr Sung which would also be a lot shorter.

This video is not going to make the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The GI/Abdominal Physical Examination

Erin again but with M. Tosi Gilford this time.

M. Tosi Gilford is not as good as Heather Hallman in terms of voice. However, the video isn’t loud or shouty. It is definitely an instruction video rather than a true examination and that is probably why the tone is different.

Once the actual examination proper commences it is a lot better. On balance I’ll include this in the Procrastination Pen playlist – although it might suffer archiving in a future weeding process.

Gastrointestinal H&P (Part 1/3): Taking the History

This feels a bit odd here and in fact is from another playlist in the Mark Pepin Channel i.e. this one:

This is Mark Pepin with Corey Duke. It’s got some kind of overlay happening in that the side of Mark Pepin is cut off entirely by the scenery in places. However, hopefully you will have your head on the pillow and you will not notice this.

It is remarkably calm given the subject matter (Corey in particular has a very good voice). Unfortunately, Corey does not seem to have his own YouTube channel because that would be one worthy of further exploration.

It’s shorter than the ones so far at seven minutes fourteen seconds.

The concluding sounds though are not at all restful.

Gastrointestinal H&P (Part 2/3) – Physical Examination

Introductory noises are rather familiar from other medical videos we have so far seen. But thankfully that is soon over. Then it gets very gentle, which is pretty well ideal for us. At four minutes thirty-three seconds it is regrettably brief (not that atypical) but is a very good Procrastination Pen playlist candidate.

Again, it concludes with a loud noise which it would be great to do without.

Gastrointestinal H&P (Part 3/3) – Presenting the Patient

This is more of a presentation. It is not loud though and there are no objectional background noises.

Until the end – when it gets all funky. I’ll put it in the Procrastination Pen playlist for now, but it might become a fatality at a future playlist review.

The Musculoskeletal Physical Examination: Part 1 – Upper Extremity

Mark returns with Erin Dorman again. We are back on form as for the first video of this article.

It is eighteen minutes thirty-four seconds long and so it is a more thorough exam. The background noise (air conditioning again) is none too intrusive.

This is very calm; not loud, and seems a good fit for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The Musculoskeletal MSK Physical Examination: Part 2 Lower Extremity

This is a follow on from the previous video but this time with Mark and Erin standing.

As in the previous video the tone is great in this one.

There’s rather a lot of information in these. Usually when I am awake enough to take in the video content I learn something. In this case I felt a bit swamped. If you’re like me and the purpose is to use it to get to sleep, the approach seems to let all the technical terms wash over you. However, perhaps after a number of plays you may even learn something.

At just over nine minutes police sirens start, that is a shame but I still think I’ll keep this in the Procrastination Pen playlist – at least for now.

I notice that the list is flagged as last being updated four years ago, this seems a shame for our purposes as more contributions from Mark would definitely be appreciated. The Mark Pepin Playlist is here:

The playlist of all videos reviewed on the blog so far is here:

The archive playlist (of videos previously in the above list but which eventually were found to be less great than hoped – retained in case you still find them useful) – is here:

I hope that you find the videos restful.

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

Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

The video quality for this one is a tad poor. And perhaps I don’t mean a tad. However it is quite different to what we have had before and it is partly because of its age and its purpose. This one is recorded (to video cassette tape I assume) in 1996 and reflects its time I think.

The sound quality is actually not as bad as in some of the other videos I have already featured on this blog (and no doubt many to come). There is no loud equipment noises in the background for example.

It is designed to inform/educate and as such is calm and unadulterated by extraneous sounds (such as a snazzy backing track for example). It’s recorded at the University of Michigan – Department of Neurology, February 16^th 1996.

The Neurologic Exam part 1

This video is of sufficient quality that it crops up in a number of ASMR video compilations which are the kind of ASMR videos I do not watch anymore. It is too much like a box of sweets in which a good twenty percent of the sweets you do not like. Compilation videos are complicated by the fact that no one seems to be able to get the inter-clip volumes to agree. If you start off at a quiet sleep-friendly volume you can be woken sometime later by an individual with a predisposition to bellow. This is John Wald and Douglas Gelb in a demonstration of how to run a Neurologic Exam but who (presumably inadvertently) have good voices for ASMR. In this I feel that Douglas edges out John slightly. Which is good news because in this video he also does the majority of the talking.

Johnwaldmd is the channel (presumably the John Wald MD in the video footage although somewhat more advanced in years I would suggest). I’m guessing a great many of the people who watch the ASMR video compilations were probably as yet unborn when this video was first recorded.

There are only seven videos in this channel and it is obvious that we will not be looking at many of those; some of them appear to appeal to quite a narrow audience (probably family and friends).

I think we can consign four of these into the metaphorical ASMR bin without further review, leaving the above one and two others. Part two of the above presentation:

The Neurologic Examination part 2

This is the “review” section which effectively is giving instruction on how to perform the neurologic exam. In my view this is not as wonderful from an ASMR perspective so I think it won’t make the grade for the playlist.

There is also this video:

VTS 01 0

This is both silent and only 30 seconds long so it may have been some kind of test…

So one video only this time around folks.

On that basis I have not created a playlist for johnwaldmd.

The overall playlist containing all the videos featured in this blog is here:

I hope that you find it relaxing.

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

Photo by Daniel-Eduard Doman on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Here I’m being completely unfair – I stick with the medical theme for ages and then change tack without warning.

What can I say? This was a YouTube suggestion I watched and I liked. That said it is outside the normal progress of ASMR blog items and so is a bit of a wildcard. I’ve included it because some readers may well like it.

There is also an associated website.

Woodblock Printing Process … in 3-D spatial audio

David has a reasonable ASMR voice not quite Dr James Gill, but still pretty good for ASMR. The video is not subdivided into sections and so it is to be hoped YouTube will not intrude with one of their noisier adverts.

There is a great write up in the notes about what was involved and the aim of the video – this is somewhat more than we have been used to of late – some of the videos reviewed recently having nothing in the way of notes (and sometimes just one sentence).

It is interesting to hear how much of a noise problem there is where David is trying to work. The sort of thing that makes me fear city breaks. That kind of outside noise would be enough to keep me awake for days.

I’m also in admiration that he can get up at 3am and still function. At that hour I would be an incommunicative zombie.

David obviously has a great deal more patience than I have.

After the intro there is no speech, so it’s an unusual one for me as I prefer people talking quietly. Think of this as a treat for people who get ASMR from brushing sounds, paper sounds, scrubbing sounds and so on.

There is a certain magic in watching the image emerge, a privilege I would not normally have as I’d be listening to the video rather than watching it.

As such I think this one is going to need special treatment as it does not really belong in the existing playlist. It’s more an ASMR item blogged for other people rather than myself.

At nearly one and one quarter hours this is a bit of a mammoth and probably stands on it’s own. However I am in the habit now of reviewing the channel on which it is found for any other ASMR-related content.

David Bull is the channel also the name of the person doing the carving.

I make it one hundred and thirty five videos at the current time, which is rather too many for a blog item. Given this is a diversion from the main subject I had better strongly limit this for fear of rebuke and shock-horror loss of reading public.

Sadly I can’t find a playlist (provided by David) that includes this one.

The playlists available include:

I think not to test your patience too much, I’m going to focus on the last one as it contains only four videos (however I fully intend to return to David’s channel in the future).

Creation of the Fox Moon woodblock print

Ukiyoe Heroes (11) : Fox Moon – preparation for carving

This video starts with David again, as we have established, he has quite a good voice. The printer though is not at all good in terms of ASMR.

This, unlike the previous one, is narrated and so is much more in keeping with our normal ASMR video.

Ukiyoe Heroes (12) : Fox Moon – carving the key block

David has a cold so less talking sadly. The carving is fascinating but of course usually I would not be watching it. There is persistent background noise – possibly air conditioning.

There is also a guest appearance from David’s neighbour.

The speed of the carving activity is quite extraordinary.

Ukiyoe Heroes (13) : Fox Moon – carving the colour blocks

This consists of initial impression taking. That is in which the key block is covered with black pigment and a test print taken. This is lovely to watch but for us that isn’t really the point. There is a radio or similar playing in the background at intervals.

This is quite chilled and quiet, much better with the narration – well until the hammering starts anyway.

Ukiyoe Heroes (14) : Fox Moon – proof printing

This is the more fun stage in terms of visuals in that you start to see the images building up. There is some kind of background fan type noise happening. It is again very calm and if it was on theme would probably be top of the pops. However carving wasn’t really what I was trying to achieve.

I think the way to manage this is to create a David Bull playlist and not to add these ones to the overall playlist.

The David Bull playlist is here:

The overall playlist (which this time does not include the items featured in this blog post, but does include those from previous blog posts) is here:

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

Photo by Sarah Dorweiler on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

I came across this one initially from here:

Physical Examination #2 (ASMR)

This is on Channel ASMR Exams which as the channel name suggests the video has been edited to enhance the ASMR effect.

However, it was obvious that the video originated in a medical school somewhere.

The comments however give it all away: “I’ve solved the mystery of these two. After some intense digging, I found that her name is Jan Victoria Scott, and he’s an impulsive improv actor named J. Chachula (first name near impossible to find). Dare I dig deeper? Okay. I have discovered “J” to be his nickname, his real name is “Julian Chachula Jr.” He owns/directs/teacher an improv group known as “The Flying Machine Theatre Studio“, and he (alike Vicki Scott) is from Raleigh, North Carolina, or areas nearby it. His parents are Cuban immigrants, and he is okay with Spanish. Victoria Scott just finished teaching her last class at Duke University in Summer 2017, and she’s going to move onto either retirement or other things. She lives in (more specifically) South Shore, and she’s a heavy supporter of “Conquer Paralysis Now“. She graduated with a Bachelor of Health Science degree in 1981, and earned the Master of Health Sciences degree in 1991. She taught this education program for 20 years.”

That is very helpful, this should mean that the original is going to be available via Duke University.

However a search on YouTube reveals that there is no such video (perhaps it was taken down a very long time ago). So for our purposes we are stuck with professional ASMR channels who have retained the video. In essence this is a cheat, however it looks like there are no alternatives.

The video has a title page Duke Health The Complete Physical Exam. Duke Health still has a YouTube channel. This has three-hundred-and-sixty-eight videos at the date I checked them but this one isn’t one of them.

Returning to the video – Vicki has a very good voice for our purposes and there is a good interaction between Vicki and “Mr Allen” (probably misspelled). At in excess of forty-five minutes this is a long exam and a long video for ASMR however it might be a good length if you’re really struggling to get to sleep and the dreaded YouTube adverts keep kicking in and snapping you back awake every time you finally get to doze.

I notice Vicki uses “it looks symmetric” which must be grammatical but I would have said “looks symmetrical”.

She also uses the term “stop breathing” and “breathe” whereas I would have expected “hold your breath”. “Stop breathing” if feasible being a lot more final in its effects. I’ve seen this phrase used before in other examination videos (no doubt some that will feature on this blog) so I have no doubt it is correct despite my misgivings.

There is some humour here so it is nicely relaxed (which you may have noticed is not true of a number of the student videos where some participants look like they are on the way to the gallows).

For those (like me) who had no idea about an otoscope, it’s a device used for examining the ears.

I think Vicki Scott may have a voice on a par with the quality of Hollie Berry and that is fighting talk ASMR-wise. It is definitely worthy of inclusion in the playlist – it makes some of the existing ones in the playlist seem a bit lacklustre by comparison (perhaps it is soon time for some judicious weeding).

Inguinal nodes – another mystery term – these are lymph nodes which can be felt in the groin area in healthy people.

The video gives credit to the participants including Physician Assistant Vicki Scott, MHS, PS-C and Mr Allen J Chachula with copyright set at 2003 so twenty years ago. This gives credence to the comment above about the participants (together with some of the information found elsewhere on the Internet).

Some of the comments seem a bit nasty. This is a tiresome attribute of a number of videos I’ve looked at recently – be nice people. It is best probably to ignore comments if it is just to get to sleep. Some videos I notice hide all comments and judging by this are none the worse for it.

The videos I can find for Vicki include the above one.

This one:

Duke PA Program Complete Physical Exam PART ONE

Which is on channel Natural Massage. This is just a bit longer than twenty-five minutes which is a more usual length for edited ASMR videos (well those not involving looping in any case). It has the same title as the previous one but starts with an introduction that we did not see before. In essence it is substantially the same but including some parts missing from the previous video. Therefore, many of the prior comments remain valid. Despite the repetition I think I can include it in the playlist although it may suffer a future weeding effort as that list starts to get more unwieldy.

This one

ASMR Duke PA exam part 2 for night time

Which is effectively a black and white version. The channel is ASMR Clips. The content of course will be familiar it’s just a black and white version. It is just over twenty minutes long so if anything a better length than the previous two. However I’m debating the relevance of it given we have two previously which surely must be enough for the ASMR material we need. At the moment therefore I am not going to add this one to the playlist. Let me know if you disagree and I’ll add it in there.

This one

ASMR Duke PA exam part 1 for night time

Which is also in black and white and on the same channel as the above video. This one is twenty five minutes and by now I am really, really familiar with this material. There is nothing new here that I can perceive so this one will not be in the playlist either.

As you can see these are not even found on one channel and one set are simply black and white variants of the earlier (colour) videos.

Still it is helpful to know that there is some background to the video even if the originating organisation no longer host it.

In fact there are sufficient number of channels hosting this video that it must be something of an ASMR legend.

The Duke University school of medicine is here:

https://www.youtube.com/@dukemedschool

perhaps at some future point I will check it out for ASMR material.

I have not created a playlist for Vicki Scott – ostensibly there is just one video but in different edits.

However I have added the two colour videos to the overall playlist of videos covered so far on this blog, which is here:

if you liked this blog article why not subscribe to this blog.

Photo by Aleksandar Cvetanovic on Unsplash