Category: Health Assessment

Sleeping With ASMR

Exploring YouTube, as I do now several times a week, leads to many random dead ends. Let’s face it, when faced with a screen full of prospective videos, I am looking at a thumbnail of each video and making a guess as to what the video will sound like for any ASMR fans out there that are reading this blog. Which of the many videos might be relaxing for a person, like myself, seeking more sleep than they currently achieve.

I am not that successful. For every video you have seen, there are many dozens with off-putting noises, strange sequences or that my suspicious senses kick off – thinking that, in fact, they were generated by a professional ASMR artist.

Of those I have evaluated, a subset get into the Procrastination Pen playlist. Sadly after a period of listening, quite a few of those subsequently get archived because they just don’t turn out to be that appealing in the long run.

It is therefore no surprise that once a good video is located by ASMR fans on YouTube a loyal following develops. In some cases, once videos are taken down, ASMR fans recover the video and repost it on their own channel.

(Much as I applaud this from the viewpoint of video availability, it is fraught with risk – out there are some hungry copyright solicitors and they, I am certain, would love to spot infringements of copyright and gain any fees due as a consequence).

Today’s video does not permit comments. From the perspective of defraying the Internet trolls this is jolly good news. However, it does not assist me in determining if ASMR afficionados have found this one already. In most cases, I assume they have. ASMR fans are substantially faster than I am at discovering new content.

The video is this one:

Neuro exam 2

It is just shy of ten minutes, so not terrible in length in terms of a medical examination video. There are no notes, so I suspect an amateur, rather than a professionally, produced video. It starts a bit loud, and straight away we get the impression this is another of those videos produced on a course required as part of a student’s assessment.

That said, background noise is negligible, the volume is not terrible (other than the occasional clang of equipment which is normal in terms of such videos.

Sadly, it is in portrait mode. I assume because it is filmed on a mobile phone but this will not be a problem because you’ll be listening rather than watching.

My viewing was constantly interposed by adverts at an inappropriate level of volume (which seems to be YouTube’s latest thing). I have no hatred of the adverts as such, but if I’m watching a video for ASMR content, an advert some levels of volume louder than the video seems a very bad idea.

But I digress. The pace of the video is slow and the level of speaking is (mostly) quiet. The scene is in a medical room but there are no clues as to where. At intervals there are other people talking in the background which is quite common in this type of video as well.

As we have seen before participants find it hard to take the process seriously and this is also the case here with laughter on occasion (on other occasions obvious boredom).

Someone interrupts the video at one stage (also a hazard in these videos) by knocking on the door. The BBC doesn’t seem to be challenged in this way…

The channel is Anna Cason.

I’ll assume that Anna was the medical professional and given it was posted earlier this year, may well still be on the course that it is a requirement for.

The channel has fourteen videos and no playlists. That is a fair few for one blog item and it looks like the current participant is the favourite “patient” as she appears in the majority of them. So I can’t go for my much used method of only reviewing videos with the same medical professional or same “patient”.

So I’ll go through all of the videos in the channel (as at today’s date anyway). If you haven’t the time for such a lengthy post, scroll to the end and the playlist will be waiting there for you. Hop over to YouTube – click the shuffle function – lie back and drift off to sleep (well in theory at least). Please let me have any feedback (such as favourite videos you’d like including).

The next video is this one:

Peripheral vascular exam 2

I think the patient introduces herself as “Emma Hilt” but it could probably be anything as it passes in a real rush. April 16th 2002 is her DoB, not that it is relevant in checking if this is a genuine medical video.

This video is short at just under three and a half minutes. Again, there is a comforting lack of background noise. No notes, Emma (I’ll assume that is her name) yawns frequently throughout so it obviously isn’t the most compelling thing she has on that day.

There are more equipment noises – I guess quiet equipment just isn’t a priority. Either that or medical professionals are more interested in moving equipment around quickly rather than doing so quietly, which seems a sensible choice.

The next video is this one:

Bedside assessment

This is just over six and a half minutes

I think that Emma tells us that she is at nursing school (although I have no idea which one). She seems either very bored or she’s getting even less sleep than I habitually do. There are conversation noises from adjacent rooms (although it isn’t excessively loud).

There are more equipment noises but mostly a very measured examination.

Nose mouth throat exam

These videos are remarkably consistent given they are produced as part of a student assessment. This, has more laughter and, to me, a more obvious set of air conditioning noises. But at least it lacks the conversation from adjacent rooms. Emma still seems utterly bored. Perhaps she has in mind her own set of videos, yet to be filmed, for the same course.

Hearing exam

The same two participants in what is quite a short video at just over three and a half minutes. No notes and no comments. Background noise, now seems to be a companion – which is something that we are used to of course.

Eye exam

This is almost identical with the previous ones apart from noises relating to what I assume are messages arriving on a mobile phone (perhaps the one being used to do the filming). It is just over four and a half minutes in length. There are air conditioning noises, general amusement in places and utter boredom for the “patient”. It is feasible that these were all filmed at one time and that the process was just a tad wearing.

At one stage Anna forgets her medical terminology and one gets the feeling it’s all getting a bit tiresome for them.

Skin, hair, nails exam

Anna forgets which video she is supposed to be filming. Emma announces she has “KP” which I had to look up.

KP: Keratosis Pilaris painless bumps on the skins – a long term condition.

Anna again forgets where she is going and then gets very loud, perhaps to block out the conversation from an adjacent room. There is a thudding sound at one stage almost as if someone were tapping the phone that is doing the filming.

Abdominal exam

The same participants this video is just under four and three quarter minutes. Background conversation noises are there from the outset and air conditioning is really getting into its stride. Anna sounds fed up with the process already.

Emma states that she has IBS.

IBS Irritable Bowel Syndrome a lifelong condition affecting the gut which can be controlled but not cured.

Anna is again amused at intervals.

The phone is relocated part way through with associated clanging noises. Presumably equipment was kicked at the same time. Anna forgets what she is supposed to say but the approach to the examination is quiet.

It’s quite unusual to see one of these videos in which the person participating seems quite stuck. However, I don’t think this impacts the ASMR-i-ness as such.

There seems to be equipment missing (perhaps a hammer) which is reminiscent of the student who used canteen equipment to film one of these videos. Anna just uses her finger.

Peripheral vascular exam

The same participants feature again, the video is five minutes ten seconds long. If all of these videos were filmed in one session, I assume it took the two of them a very long time. Anna has problems getting through the door initially so there is a loud bang at the start. There is background conversation from an adjacent room and at stages it continues quite loudly. Air conditioning has now fully established itself and is working on becoming a session musician.

Anna forgets what she intends to say (but at least we are fully aware that she is not following notes off screen).

More message noises are heard from the phone being used to film this. There are more equipment noises and Anna is again amused by the parts that are going wrong (mainly where she forgets terminology).

Cardiac assessment

We’re in the swing of this now and all the same symptoms are in this one that were in all the previous ones. The level of background noise merely differs.

Just over five and a quarter minutes so not long. It follows the exact same theme as those we have seen previously. The start is quite stumbly as if Anna is finding her way through it. It remains quiet though apart from overheard nearby conversations and the low roar of air conditioning, which is constant.

I think Anna’s voice is actually improving as we go on and if some of those niggling additional noises were dispatched this could have been a really great video. In any case I’m intending to trial these in the Procrastination Pen playlist with the understanding that some or all may ultimately get dispatched to the archive.

Lungs and thorax assessment

This is approaching six minutes which feels long in comparison to some of the others but for the videos we commonly see is still a short video.

We’re used to the intro now as it runs through exactly the same set of sentences each time. The examination itself though differs (fortunately for us).

Anna appears to be struggling to remember some specific terminology (unclear what). There are noises of doors opening in adjacent rooms so it is feasible that other students are filming vastly similar videos for their courses in the rooms next door to this one.

Overall, though, a good video for the Procrastination Pen playlist I think.

Head, Face, Neck Assessment

Here, Emma is wearing some kind of identity badge which one would hope would give us the institution involved. Sadly, it is too tiny for me to read so it remains a mystery. Just under four and a half minutes, so a short one in terms of this set and the last one in which Anna and Emma appear together.

It seems to start a bit louder than previously and the air conditioning is ever present (or I’m getting tired by now).

However, to have produced this number of videos in such a short period is quite a piece of work.

Definition:

Crepitus – noise when moving a joint

Does anyone not have this?

Neurological exam at home assessment

Anna now has a new “patient”. Michael Atkis (I think) DoB. 02-12-03 (December in case there are any US readers). This, as expected, changes the sound profile markedly as Michael has a much deeper voice than Emma.

However, he does not get to talk a great deal.

The background air conditioning now sounds like it is aiming for some kind of award and the extraneous background talking noises are now quite pronounced.

Michael tells us that we are at “college of nursing” I think – it’s hard to discern. But I cannot make out where that would be.

This is over seven minutes in length. Again, Anna is a bit tentative, apparently as she forgets some terminology.

Having seen this examination done professionally by Vicki Scott we have been a bit spoiled; I think. This one is a bit more filled with humour – especially as Anna forgets the content she needs to perform.

Musculoskeletal home assessment video

the last one in this set and this has been a rather long post for which I apologise. Anna returns with Michael. Almost identical to the previous one in terms of sound – maybe more noise from the next-door room than previously.

Just under seven minutes so only slightly different in length to the previous one. Anna laughs quite a bit in this one too.

Very loud equipment noises in this, I jumped at one stage because I was listening rather than watching the screen.

The Anna Cason 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 Christian Krebel on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

If you’re struggling for some rest and night time just brings nightmares, this is the place to stumble upon in your internet browsing. Each blog post brings you a new restful video usually drawn from YouTube. The aim is to create a great long playlist of restful videos so you can lie there being lulled off to sleep.

The playlist is regularly reviewed and the less-great videos in it archived off so that it remains a useful resource for the sleep deprived. A number of the people appearing have voices that are so good you may find proper ASMR effects from the videos (but as these seem to differ between people, only you will know if you get them).

I always put the playlist at the end of each blog entry so you can just scroll to there and pick it up if you’re short of time.

For regular readers you might remember the article from which the term “sandwich breath” originates. This is a term exchanged between ASMR devotees to check if you are suitably in the know about ASMR material. There are a few such terms and, thus far, I have only got to the bottom of very few.

In that article we encountered Dr James Kelly and the blog item focused on his voice. However, the “patient” was Pat LaFontaine, who I had never heard of up to that point in time. Readers of that item (or more especially those who watched the video) may have noticed that Pat too had a very good voice for our purposes, in that it is measured in delivery and not excessively loud.

And so, we come to today’s video:

NHL Hall of Famer Pat LaFontaine Shares His Story

This is another professionally produced video and hence comes with notes:

“3 Feb 2012

Hear hockey great Pat LaFontaine recount the steps he took during his recovery after several brain injuries forced him into retirement

Watch more clips of Pat LaFontaine –    • Pat LaFontaine & …  .

For more information about brain injury and PTSD, please visit us at https://www.brainline.org.”

The previous blog item was also from this channel and so it is turning out to be quite the resource.

Today’s video is just less than half an hour so reasonably substantial in terms of the videos we look at habitually. It is lovely to be reacquainted with Pat’s voice. It is like meeting an old friend.

I decided that we would not just follow the brainline channel again. I have mined it heavily and there are no further Pat La Fontaine videos in there to be had. Plus the video is such a good one that it would be a hard act to follow.

However, to show how famous the Dr James Kelly Pat La Fontaine video is, I discovered that parodies of it are now being made. This one is just a piece of fun and is in no sense going into the playlist.

The Pat LaFontaine Cranial Nerve Test Except It’s Jeremy and Hannah [ASMR Parody]

It shows how established the ASMR category of videos is that there are so many people dedicated to watching such videos. In some cases it looks like they spend a considerable amount of time in this activity, otherwise how would so many new ASMR videos continue to be made.

The Brainline 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 Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

ASMR fans are like Miss Marples. I happen across a video and it seems to me it must be one of the hidden gems that no one could possibly have come across before. I read the comments and I find that a number of people have come across it before I have. I then discover that they comment how relaxing the whole thing is. So it is with today’s video.

The problem with coming at videos from random searches or YouTube recommendations is that you do not get to see them in the order that their creator intended. This one for example is obviously one of a series (and not the first one):

Examination of the Hand – Part 3

The notes are somewhat brief “19 Mar 2018 The Medical Assessment of Impairment”.

It starts with funky music sadly, but Roger Pillemer has a very quiet and relaxing voice, so it is worth enduring that music. The patient is “Chris” (probably misspelled) who has literally nothing to say.

The examination is methodical and gentle, just the sort of thing we are always looking for. There is zero background noise. This is a great little video for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Roger Pillemer is also the name of the channel.

This channel has twenty-four videos, which is rather too many for us to read about in one lump. There are only two playlists, one of which is seventeen videos in length.

I think the approach here is to select only those videos that are connected with the hand. Including the first one, we have four such videos. But I have no doubt that with a voice this good we will return to Roger in the future.

Taking the Examination of the Hand series in the order which it is supposed to appear, this one would appear to be video one of the series:

Examination of the Hand

At over thirty minutes it is a chunky one. Same funky music to start. There are no notes this time. There are however, yet more ASMR comments. By far the bulk of the video is given over to Roger speaking, but the latter part does include a medical examination. However, it is a quite fascinating presentation.

In the early part of the video the funky music continues to play along behind Roger’s voice. That is just not fantastic in relaxing, get-back-off-to-sleep terms. The impact of this can most deeply felt in the brief periods where the music is not playing, which is just so much better. Sadly, I think this disincludes this video from the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Examination of the Hand – Part 1

I can’t be certain but this simply seems to be a section taken from the half hour version reviewed previously. There is no medical examination in this video and sadly Roger’s voice is backed by constant funky music which makes it less than fully relaxing. This is not great when you’ve woken from a particularly vivid nightmare that you need some soothing background noise to wind down from.

I notice that one of the commentators contributes if the video only included Roger’s voice it would be much enhanced and I have to say I wholeheartedly agree.

I think like the previous one this does not belong in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Examination of the Hand – Part 2

This seems to be taken from the main “Examination of the Hand” video rather than being an entirely separate recording. Again, it has the background music. It has several fans in the comments, whether ASMR fans or medical students is not clear. However, given it has the same limitations as the previous video I do not think this one is going to be in the Procrastination Pen playlist either.

Examination of the Hand – Part 3

This is where we came in and by happy chance I happened upon the best video in the set. It is sad because Roger has a great voice but the way these have been recorded means that this is the only one lacking a backing track of funky music.

This is also the last video of the set and as it turns out the only one to go into The Procrastination Pen playlist.

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 article, why not follow this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by Anna Lacroix on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

In a previous blog post I pointed out that there was a whole page of videos on the Internet that had no affiliation (that I could determine) to YouTube, and that therefore I was unable to embed in a WordPress page for viewing.

In addition, I felt that the videos could be better shown to you if I took them and uploaded them to YouTube on my channel. However, I am not a copyright expert, and in my amateur way rather thought some very well-paid people in threatening clothing might send me a formally-written letter if I tried it.

So I looked out for a contact email and found that the owner Dr Michael Koller had died. This is not only very sad but very regrettable in that I could not ask him if I could upload these videos to my channel on YouTube. I have approached Stritch via email, but each time I look at the website there seems to be another email to try and so to date I have not received permission (or a flat refusal) to use them.

The upshot is that the blog posts on this page tend to be a little dry as they are not dotted with friendly-looking embedded videos. However, given I habitually recommend that you go to YouTube to play the videos in my usual posts, and in this case, you simply have to go to the page to play the videos, there isn’t a great deal of difference.

I would feel that I wasn’t doing my part in telling you about the material that is out there if I simply limited myself to YouTube.

However, I don’t want to dwell too long on material that cannot be actively linked to (other than via URL) so although it will make this blog post a long one, I intend to cover off the remaining videos on that page in this blog post.

The complete page is here: https://www.stritch.luc.edu/lumen/meded/medicine/pulmonar/pdself/menu_videos4.htm

This has now been covered in two prior blog posts.

As part of this process, we satisfied ourselves that where there were complete and part videos under the same title. That the part videos were simply parts of that complete one. That is, you could get the material from all the part videos simply by watching the complete one. This will save time here; I can link the part videos for interest but cover only the complete videos. In addition, the included text files seem to only be of academic interest to those on the course for whom it was intended, so we have no need to review those.

15 Minute Screening Neuro Exam; Dr Michael Merchut

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=63316618-E354-4810-B165-86F5BE921595

This starts quietly and thankfully devoid of startup music. The video is just over twelve minutes in length. Dr Merchut turns out to have a great ASMR voice, and had this been available on YouTube it would have been in the Procrastination Pen playlist. This is a loss to the list and to the ASMR community.

Detailed Neurological Exam; Dr Michael Merchut

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=9E4CE1F3-C34F-47FB-BD71-0CABC3072A8E

Part 1: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=AA8922F6-F798-4142-A821-42882B67E091

Part 2: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=E979142A-9E74-4F3A-B3A4-A78945B1C703

Part 3: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=6F820BDB-82F2-4B7E-ADD6-652AE7FEAFCA

Part 4: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=45E2AD3F-AEC4-4E01-88D4-0749FFA55142

Part 5: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=0C5B819B-57E5-4EC5-BA2E-9E4D26DD5A41

Part 6: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=9EF4F8DD-CC9B-4B21-A4AA-456863FC34E8

I’ll ignore the part videos as they have nothing extra to contribute. The complete video starts with startup music, which fortunately is neither too long nor too loud. Dr Merchut returns and gives a reasonably lengthy introductory speech. The entire video is a little over forty seven and a half minutes.

His voice is not quite so excellent in this one, but this is in comparison with the last one which was actually rather good.

Nancy again the “patient”. She featured in our previous blog post.

Again, I think if this video had been on YouTube, then it would have already been in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Oral Presentation; Dr Michael Koller

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=3EFE23F8-8960-4AC6-8A37-F1EFBD73B302

Part 1: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=0247721D-D980-446B-B786-C69B70D641F2

Part 2: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=861669A7-1548-4E51-AA41-BB2834464384

Part 3: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=8F822DBB-08A6-4FB7-B957-F6CEE834FFD2

Again, I’ll focus on the complete video only. In this case it features Dr Koller. We know that we are on safe ground with Dr Koller, in fact we have already added one of his videos to the Procrastination Pen playlist from YouTube.

This also begins with startup music but this time it is really going for it. The video quality is also on the abysmal side of poor. The sound has the normal background we would expect by now (air conditioning again).

The video is a little less than twenty-three and a half minutes. The initial presentation style is a little halting and, although this is the point of the video, it proves to be distracting.

Dr Koller is doing the narration which is great but somewhat intermittent (more narration by Dr Koller would be welcome as he has a good voice).

The music then kicks in again at breaks in the video. The sound has a metallic edge to it.

Although Dr Koller is as good as we are used to, the way the video is structured makes it more stimulating than anyone really needs when they are trying to get to sleep. Even if it were possible, I do not think that this one would be finding its way into the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Definition:

HPI – History of Present Illness.

PCM Gowning and Draping; Dr Michael Koller

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=08522D70-D724-4F3E-8BB1-39914783108E

This time just one video available, again with Dr Koller. This is just less than twenty-five and a quarter minutes and thank goodness there is no startup music. There is an ever-present air conditioning background drone though.

Dr Koller still has a good voice for our purposes. In this case though, I’m not certain the subject matter is that fascinating to anyone who isn’t in the medical profession. However fascinating is not that useful in getting off to sleep so this video might be a great fit.

Part way through we have loud clunks due to equipment noises (metal drawers being pushed in and out), just the kind of noise to stir someone from sleep as they were dozing off.

A great deal of thought has gone into the positioning of gowns and drapes in this video and apart from equipment noises, it is a good video for us. It’s a shame about the equipment as otherwise it would have been a great Procrastination Pen playlist candidate (well had it been on YouTube in any case).

Full Body Skin Exam; Estelle Kahn MS4 and Dr Anthony Peterson

In this case there is no “complete” video, so no choice other than to review each in turn.

Introduction: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=19CBA75E-0AF6-4B70-87E3-390A01173012

Unfortunately, there is start up music and it is really dynamic stuff too. Estelle initially does not have a true ASMR voice, sometimes this happens when the person is presenting rather than examining someone however.

This introduction is a little over four minutes in length. If you are watching it is slightly distracting that Estelle seems to be reading a script which is slightly off camera.

I’m pretty sure that even had I the opportunity, this one would not be in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Exam: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=2C6965B5-F2BC-4EED-A2B4-52E185A77EE1

It starts with door opening noises which are a little distracting. We see this in student assessment videos of course, soft-close not being a thing in medical establishments.

Dr Peterson has an excellent voice. He might be worth checking for elsewhere in case there is other material available. As expected, Estelle’s voice is much more muted during the examination. The examination is gentle and methodical and the whole video lasts only a little under nine and a quarter minutes. There are occasional equipment noises, equipment not having been designed to slide quietly in use apparently. All-in-all it is quite a good video. If it had been on YouTube this would be a strong Procrastination Pen playlist candidate.

Conclusion: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=75C54DF8-09FB-4141-A186-4A654725FFC5

Dr Peterson presenting and this is great as he has by far the better voice for us. There is no startup music – yay. There are occasional loud moments; watch the volume. Dr Peterson appears to be consulting notes at intervals, although if you’re just listening you will not notice that. The whole video is somewhat under three and a half minutes. This would’ve been a good Procrastination Pen playlist candidate (had it been on YouTube).

Neonatal Exam; Dr Thomas DeStefani

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=4DE8CA15-DAF6-42FC-AA95-40EA218E2942

Part 1: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=B736EE60-21CA-4916-BBA6-00E433518D68

Part 2: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=0917610E-D1CF-4575-9005-83A091053322

Part 3: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=702D5D1B-A58B-4244-A26D-826524F854F4

Reviewing the complete video again, the entire video is thirty-seven and a quarter minutes. It starts with some positively starship enterprise style music; very grand; very distracting. Straight away we seem to be in the soundscape of a public area, there is some kind of hubbub in play. Dr De Stefani is narrating this one. He does not have as good a voice as Dr Peterson sadly. There are telephone noises which Dr De Stefani has to talk over.

When the examination of the baby commences it quietens down a great deal. Of course with examination of a baby, the baby starts to complain about it. Not substantially so though. In fact, this was a good baby to choose as she appears to be so chilled under examination. After a while she does lose patience and lets us have it crying wise.

Background medical establishment noises continue; a repeating electronic beep sound at one stage, sounds of other babies at some distance who are a bit less chilled, muted conversations from adjacent rooms, distant equipment noises, an occasional telephone and of course the continuous accompaniment of air conditioning noises.

Although this is in part a great video, I think these distracting noises would discount it from the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Definition:

Foetal Alcohol Syndrome: effects that occur as a result of a mother drinking (alcohol) while pregnant.

Knee; Dr Jerold Sterling

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=52F9EC84-D261-46C3-B048-6EBA2CE966AE

Just the one video to look at a little over twelve minutes and it starts with startup music and there is a constant background hiss happening as if the entire thing was recorded on an LP and then poorly stored.

For some reason after a minute that hiss disappears entirely. Dr Sterling does not have a natural ASMR voice but by no means the worst that we have heard.

The delivery is measured and even and accompanied only by the hmm of air conditioning.

It’s sad about the start as otherwise this could have been a good video for us.

PCM1 Upper Limb/Spine; Dr Paul Lento

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=49B3EF2E-91D6-4DB7-B7A6-FBA1933D7AEA

Part 1: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=D64FC0E9-D5DC-461C-80F0-77F88CC9A3DD

Part 2: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=05E08513-5688-497B-8058-72CB85B564A5

Looking at the complete video then, it is just under twenty five and three quarter minutes. Dr Lento has an impressive voice, impressive in its volume I mean. After the start-up music it is quite surprising to find the voice of the presenter louder than the music.

The “patient” is Sal – or that is what it sounds like. The volume also exposes the metallic sound to the audio track which we encountered with a previous video in this blog article.

This video really isn’t a suitable one for our purposes.

PCM1 Lower Limb; Dr Bill Hopkinson

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=CEBDE33C-BBA4-4F9C-BD72-7D2F39E1C3B4

Only one video to review, eleven and three quarter minutes and again with the startup music. The videos are now starting to fall into a theme. Dr Bill Hopkinson who immediately has a better voice for us. He is quieter, more measured in expressing himself but he does attempt to compensate for that with the loudest washing of his hands I have encountered thus far.

We encounter Sal again as the “patient” – they obviously had him around and so were going to make good use of him. This one seems to have less background noise, certainly less hiss than encountered in previously videos in this article.

The actual video quality is no better though, not that I suspect you would be watching in any case.

PCM2 Musculoskeletal Provocative Exam; Dr Neeru Jayanthi

In this case there is no “complete” video so there is no choice other than to review each video in turn.

Introduction: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=49A8423E-73F8-4111-860C-6808C3CF30F4

Less than three quarters of a minute so do not blink. Dr Neeru Jayanthi who on the basis of this amazingly brief video has a good voice for our purposes. Eric is the “patient” here. There was still time to sneak in introductory music (boo), although the background noise for some reason is a great deal more muted in this one, probably not enough here for me to consider it for the procrastination pen playlist.

Shoulder: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=79BA4C19-6E74-41FB-89A2-6D29AF23CF19

Just a bit more than three and a quarter minutes – none of these are winning any length contests. This would be a good candidate for the Procrastination Pen playlist if it ever appeared on YouTube (hint Stritch hint).

Elbow: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=1B623A46-E00E-476B-BB63-0BF76F51DEF3

Just less than one- and three-quarter minutes probably not long enough for any playlist, in fact the way these are going it would be better to combine them into one long playlist – which I sense is probably how it was filmed in the first place and then they were divided up for (presumably) educational purposes.

Hand/Wrist: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=B60FA5A4-C1A1-4F81-85B7-B25328532E71

One and a quarter minutes, again rather short – combine these, lop off that music and this would be a good set for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Functional-Hip: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=2F1751ED-CA75-484C-A9DA-A0CB750361F2

Just less than one and a quarter minutes – it looks like we have a theme developing.

Knee: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=B7BC44CE-7A50-4148-B73B-505D5B7C8605

A little less than two minutes but remains consistent with others in this set.

Foot/Ankle: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=5355FBDC-93E8-4439-B3BD-D6F02FD9C8C2

Almost a minute, so short it is barely a blip.

Hip/Spine: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=89F41E6A-1265-4B82-ABF9-81D725BDE903

Just over one- and three-quarter minutes, again no extraneous noises and a good presentation. A good combination of these videos would make one good one for the Procrastination Pen playlist – assuming anyone uploaded it to YouTube.

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 Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

You may remember the explanation of the origins of the term “sandwich breath” in one of the blog items previously. Here, in the comments, we have someone who refers to it. So I think it is safe to say that the ASMR community are all over this video already.

Neurological Exam Video

The introductory section tells us that the client is “Rachel”. Straight away, we get the feeling that we are back in the world of student videos of which we have seen the odd one before.

The participants who are unable to take it completely seriously, the background noise, the loud start to the video as if the medical professional is trying to project to an opera house, the participants in casual clothing. The location appears to be some kind of meeting room, rather than a hospital bed, we have a long table and chairs. In the background someone is tapping away on a laptop keyboard (the keys are quieter than expected for a desktop version). There is also the continuous noise of air conditioning which we know and dislike.

It is just shy of sixteen minutes. Ashley continues quite loud but Rachel has a much better voice. Fortunately, Rachel gets to contribute or we could pack our stuff and head home.

The camera person is a bit fidgety with a finger intruding into view occasionally – so far, so normal student video. At least the keyboard noise dissipates fairly early on.

Strangely where one would anticipate use of a tuning fork for sensing vibration someone raided the canteen and came back with an actual fork left over from lunch and is using the handle. As if Rachel was likely to get any sense of vibration from it. That’s probably one of the stranger pieces of student adaptability that I have seen this far. Many of the commentators also point this out.

The T-Shirt with Alpha Omicron Pi on it, is not much of a clue to location with many universities having one of these in both the United States and in Canada.

Then there is the use of a spoon as a reflex hammer, which I would think just would not work. However, it is attempted here, which is surreal to watch. However if you are using this video for sleep it is likely that you will not be watching as such.

Ashley Carmichael is the channel.

There are six videos on this site which leaves five more for review.

All of them are posted four years ago which fits with requirements for a programme of study.

KINE 305 Introduction Video

Here Ashley self-reports attending Cal State St Marcos, and being in her fourth year there. Given the videos are all posted in the same year it is probable that all of them are connected with that course of study.

This university, of course, has its own website, which refers to KINE305 as being a course in Movement Anatomy.

California State St Marcos, as usual, has its own YouTube channel. This is exactly in line with our expectations: having lots of university promotional videos.

It looks like Ashley did a Bachelor’s Degree in Kinesiology and Exercise Science.

This is useful info but not a useful video for ASMR purposes. However, at least it confirms that the video is not a construct put together by a professional ASMR artist.

Mock Client Exam Video

Here we find that the client is called “Chris” and he really seems to have a very boomy voice. Either that or the recording equipment is trying too hard. There certainly is a lot of background noise, air conditioning again, I think.

There are no comments with this video so apparently no ASMR fans this time and I think there is a good reason for this. Rachel had the better voice in the first video and of course this time no Rachel.

The location looks domestic with another building visible through the window. Doors to what appears to be a cupboard are directly in view.

At intervals, the air conditioning starts to sound like a 1950s vehicle that has been revved rather manically and is flailing to recover. I guess if you live in conditions that require air conditioning you acclimatize to the constant noise, but it isn’t great for ASMR purposes.

Axial Exam Video KINE 305

The client is “Olivia”. It again appears to be a meeting room, however at least the air conditioning is a bit more under control than in the previous video. Ashley is a little quieter here (mostly) which is quite welcome. Olivia really has nothing to say and so I am not clear if she would have a good voice in ASMR terms.

Some people are talking away in a neighbouring room which provides a muted background to the sound at intervals.

Again, there are no comments so I assume no ASMR devotees. There are one hundred and forty nine subscribers though, I notice.

Orthopedic Exam Video

Here we have Chris again, who must sing bass, I think. He could make mahogany vibrate with that voice. It is back to a domestic setting, a kitchen this time. Here we discover that this is Christopher Carmichael (so reasonable to assume – brother). Again, Ashley seems to need to speak to us without the aid of microphone; her voice is really loud here.

At intervals the air conditioning goes all Apollo-space-program-rocket-launch. I think someone may need to replace some bearings or something like it.

All told, the video is not that great for our purposes.

Client Exercise Video

This is designed for someone called “Mike”, presumably a client or as I more usually refer to them “patient”.

It starts loud, but at least the air conditioning has been taken round the back and shot through the head.

We’re in a domestic setting again, a dining room potentially. The kitchen is visible (well an oven anyway).

It’s just that bit too loud, sadly, but I am in no doubt that “Mike” found it efficacious.

That is the last for Ashley on this particular YouTube channel, However Ashley has an alternative YouTube Channel I notice.

I’ve no idea why that should be (perhaps Ashley misplaced the password to access the other one). There is just one video on that channel which is three years more recent than the videos on the previous channel.

AT Final Project

This is just over half a minute so blink and you’ll miss it. Sadly, it decides to go with music as a backdrop and worse still funky loud music, eek and no no no.

That’s all the videos available. Only one video was worthy of consideration and that was really a stand out amongst this set. It was helped a great deal by “Rachel”. If I could work out who “Rachel” is I would stand some chance of finding her channel wherein there might be some great material.

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 François Bonnet on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

I’ve noticed when waking from a playlist-accompanied sleep that YouTube is not always respecting the use of shuffle and repeat functions. Recently I can wake up to some completely unknown (and non-ASMR related) video, usually accompanied by loud adverts.

I’m not certain what is causing this because the issue kicks in whilst I have been asleep. However, I am embarking on a weeding of the main playlist to try to ensure it contains only quality videos now. Some do not seem to have stood the test of time. I will keep monitoring in the hope that this resolves the issue. Perhaps a problematic video is the cause of the problem.

If anyone has seen this before (and better still resolved it), do please get in touch.

Today’s video is this one:

Lung Examination – Jessica Nishikawa

At just less than fourteen minutes not far off the normal length for videos we have seen on the way to creating the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Jessica Nishikawa initially starts a bit loud (well the video is designed as an educational vehicle) but has a good voice for our purposes. I think the patient might be called Makata (probably nothing like that spelling). There is a mountain in Hawaii called Makana so I would guess that is a much more likely name. I’ll stick with that as the spelling from this point onwards.

There is of course the background air conditioning noise that we are used to by now but it is not as oppressive as some we have heard.

Some of the comments are not study-related but there are no obvious comments from ASMR aficionados. Given how diligent such people are in seeking out material it is unlikely this is a brand new find, however.

The channel is Jessica Nishikawa, there are twenty-six videos on the channel which is a few too many to cover in any one blog post.

The old trick of narrowing down the videos to cover by choosing any available playlist is not going to work. There is only one playlist which does not appear to be on the same subject. You can see what I mean:

A quick visual review of the available videos though reveals that only a subset of them feature Makana as the “patient”. This seems an adequate way to focus down the videos for this review.

The next video to feature Makana is this one:

JVP Exam – Jessica Nishikawa

Like the previous one posted seven years ago and at not much over two minutes is quite a brief one. As a professional video of course, it includes notes: “29 Oct 2015

Jessica Nishikawa demonstrates the JVP examination.

Subscribe at    / jessicanishikawa 

Twitter @JessNishi”

This is consistent with the last one and also deserves a place in the Procrastination Pen playlist, I think.

The next video featuring Makana as the “patient” is this one:

Heart Exam – Jessica Nishikawa

A little halting to start, but it soon settles down. Again, there are several non-medical comments. Any video poster on YouTube must have to get used to such comments (or deny comments altogether, which on reflection, seems rather sensible).

The notes are similar for all the videos so I won’t document them for this one. This video is five minutes long, which isn’t exactly huge. It remains consistent with the last one. In fact, like all professionally-produced videos we have seen, if you like one of them it is quite a strong indication that you are going to like the remainder.

And that’s it for videos featuring Makana. However, we have now proven that the channel is rather a good source of relaxing videos and so I have every belief we will be back here again.

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 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

If you have got to that time of life where you cannot remember the last time you had a decent night’s sleep and your daily consciousness is about walking around in a fog, you are in the right place.

For some little while now, the Procrastination Pen has been compiling a playlist of videos designed to be relaxing and to lull you off to sleep. If the bedroom has become a warzone with wakefulness, at the very least, you can lie there and listen to the videos rather than worrying about the sleep you’re not getting.

Today’s video comes from a source that we have seen before. It is from an institution that most people must be aware of.

It is this:

Demonstration of Teaching the Reflex Exam by Dr. Abraham Verghese (Stanford 25 Skills Symposium)

and like most professional videos we have covered, it comes with notes:

“27 Apr 2016  Skills Symposium – 2015

Founder and leader of the Stanford Medicine 25, and best-selling author, Dr. Abraham Verghese demonstrates how he teaches the reflex exam on a real patient in front of an audience of clinical educators.

On September 28th & 29th, 2015, the Stanford Medicine 25 team hosted the first annual bedside exam symposium for clinicians and educators. The purpose was to share how we do bedside teaching and allow them to improve upon their bedside exam skills.

Learn more about past and upcoming symposiums on the bedside exam:

http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.ed…

Visit the Stanford Medicine 25:

Website: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/

Blog: http://stanford25blog.stanford.edu/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/StanfordMedic…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanfordMed25

Google+: http://goo.gl/UBM7SP”

Dr Verghese it appears is some kind of powerhouse of the medical profession.

However, we are more concerned with whether he produces a great relaxing video.

It starts with the inevitable music, but fortunately, this is short and not excessively loud. Dr Verghese has a calm sounding voice but the video is a presentation so he isn’t completely quiet here.

The video has the benefit of being an interesting one as well, perhaps it will prove to be a distraction from your concerns about insomnia.

This is a definite candidate for the Procrastination Pen playlist I think.

It is from the channel Stanford Medicine 25, this channel has eighty-five videos and so a few if we were looking to review them all (perhaps that will happen with time but not all in this one post).

Our video is found in the playlist Skills Symposium – 2015

Normally this would therefore be the subject of our blog post. However there are seventeen videos in this playlist and given it is a symposium, some of those videos are rather long.

I think therefore we will focus on presentations from this symposium that feature Dr Verghese. This is a subset of the videos in this playlist. However, I suspect we will return to the others in the future.

Purpose and History of the Stanford 25 by Dr. Abraham Verghese (Stanford 25 Skills Symposium)

The same music, a similar start up format. So far, so expected for a professional video.

Dr Verghese remains excellent in this. Sadly, for us it is a bit more interactive with laughter at intervals, for example. I’ll include it in the Procrastination Pen playlist for now (as you know this list gets reviewed constantly, and those videos which turn out not to be relaxing enough after extensive exposure get archived from this list).

An extract from the notes is as follows: “27 Apr 2016  Skills Symposium – 2015

Founder and leader of the Stanford Medicine 25, and best-selling author, Dr. Abraham Verghese talks at the opening of the Skills Symposium about the purpose and history of the Stanford Medicine 25.”

Why are We Doing this Teaching? – Dr. Abraham Verghese (Stanford 25 Skills Symposium)

“Founder and leader of the Stanford Medicine 25, and best-selling author, Dr. Abraham Verghese talks why we’re doing this bedside exam teaching.”

A different but equally unwelcome start up jingle. However, Dr Verghese remains consistent in having a great voice. Although at just over one minute you are not getting a lot of it.

The 5-Minute Bedside Moment – Dr. Abraham Verghese (Stanford Skills Symposium)

“Founder and leader of the Stanford Medicine 25, and best-selling author, Dr. Abraham Verghese talks about the 5-Minute Bedside Moment: our tool for teaching the physical exam at the bedside.”

He might be talking about the five minute bedside moment but he is taking two and three quarter minutes to do so.

Start-up music tick, notes, tick, same presentation tick. This consistency is such an asset when one video of a series is a good one (less good if it is a bad one). In this case these have all been good videos in terms of delivery and I shall be looking out for Dr Verghese videos in the future.

That is it for this time, thank-you for reading and I hope you get a restful night’s sleep.

The Stanford Medicine 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 Jonathan Fink on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

For the keen Procrastination Pen enthusiast, the Moran CORE channel will not be a mystery because we have been here before.

At that time, we encountered a “patient” Megan who had a good voice for us, but sadly didn’t get much air time. There is not a chance we will find any other Megan material unless someone reading this happens to know that she has a channel and passes that info along. (A search on “Megan” brings up all kinds of unrelated material as you would imagine.)

On the basis that we are unlikely to see that happen, I return to Moran CORE because one of the professionals on this site also has a good voice. This is David Meyer.

The video I start with is this one:

Using Subjective Refraction to Calculate Glasses Prescription and Fit a Contact Lens

Straight away the advantages of a professional video are heard, no background noise. In this case, no funky start up music (heaven be praised). David has a nice quiet and methodical approach – it’s all going swimmingly. The video informs us that David is the Director of Contact Lens Services at the Moran Eye Center Utah.

In addition, the video has notes: “8 Feb 2018

Title:  Using Subjective Refraction to Calculate Glasses Prescription and Fit a Contact Lens

Author: David Meyer, MD

Date: 3/08/2017

From Moran CORE Collection: http://morancore.utah.edu”

David tells us that Moran is located in Salt Lake City.

The technical content is quite a bit beyond me I have to say so in this case I found it best to allow it to wash over me.

Definitions:

Phoropter: an instrument for evaluating vision

Axis: position of astigmatism in the eyes

Cylinder: lens power needed to correct astigmatism

Vertex: the distance between the cornea to the back of a lens

Slit lamp: a lamp the ophthalmologist uses to view the retina

Although, occasionally, he does get a little more energetic in his presentation, he does not stray here into loud. All-in-all I think a good one for the Procrastination Pen Playlist.

Moran of course has approximately one thousand videos available and thinning down those to review for this blog is one of those interesting tasks we have seen before.

In this case I think the only approach is to search YouTube for videos in which David appears (on the understanding that I will probably miss one or two videos featuring David which the search does not capture.)

Meet David Meyer, OD, FAAO

Notice that now we are on a new channel

John A. Moran Eye Center

I have no idea why there are two channels for one centre but I notice this latter channel has a lot less subscribers and a much more manageable one hundred videos. I suspect if it is anything like the University Channels we have explored before, this will be a marketing channel and of limited interest to us

This one, sadly includes ongoing funky music. I think it is safe to say this is a promo video and as a consequence David is much more energised here. Great for David less good for relaxing-sleep-time videos. This is not one for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The notes back this up, definitely more of a sale-sy pitch to it “25 Jan 2023

David Meyer, OD, FAAO, specializes in the fitting of contact lenses at the John A. Moran Eye Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. He also practices at Moran’s Midvalley Health Center. He primarily focuses on keratoconus, post-surgical corneas, pediatrics, irregular or high astigmatism, and fitting traumatized eyes. Dr. Meyer also provides primary eye care for those who do not wear contact lenses.

Call 801-581-2352 to schedule an appointment at our University and Midvalley location.”

Proper Fit and Evaluation of Gas Permeable Contact Lens

Back on the original Moran Core channel and at just over ten minutes a more substantive video, such that it feels like we are on home ground again.

Yet again no funky intro music, a quiet David voice which we are used to from the first video. The “patient” is the same, the approach is equally measured, however the technical terminology just keeps on coming.

The notes are somewhat brief this time “8 Feb 2018

Title:  Proper Fit and Evaluation of Gas Permeable Contact Lens

Author: David Meyer, MD

Date: 03/08/2017

From Moran CORE Collection: http://morancore.utah.edu”

Definitions:

K reading: measurement of corneal curvature.

Diopter: focusing strength of a lens.

Over refraction: even when wearing the lens, the patient will still have some focusing issues left – this is a measure of those remaining issues.

Fluorescein: stain used to diagnose eye conditions.

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

Corneal Topography in Keratoconus and Contact Lens

Back on form, David is certainly turning out to be reasonably consistent for our purposes.

The notes are: “8 Feb 2018

Title:  Corneal Topography in Keratoconus and Contact Lens

Author: David Meyer, MD

Date: 3/08/2017

From Moran CORE Collection: http://morancore.utah.edu”

Definition:

Keratoconus: a bulge in the cornea which affects vision.

This is substantially shorter in that it is just over three and a half minutes. The condition sounds alarming but fortunately there are none of the, sometimes-shocking, images that can haunt the dark alleyways of YouTube. So nothing (I hope) to aid in your sleeplessness. As a result I am going to include it in The Procrastination Pen playlist. It might be weeded in the future.

The playlist is subject to continuous review (by me) so if it turns out that something is just not a good fit I’ll plop it into the archive list (just in case it turns out to be one of your favourites, in which case it would b rude to ban it completely).

I hope that you find the playlist restful. My advice is always to pick up the playlist on YouTube itself. That way you can make use of the shuffle function and play it in random order. Otherwise, you may get a lot of similar videos playing one after another.

The Moran Core playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others are 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 lingda kong on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

In searching for new ASMR videos I’m prepared to try various avenues. You will have noticed that on occasion I do voyage away from the main theme, which to date has been medical (and similar) examination videos.

Despite the attrition of videos slowly being removed from YouTube, the Procrastination Pen playlist continues to grow and hence I can afford to be quite critical of its contents and to weed out those that are less desirable for sleep promotion than at first thought.

The overall playlist as usual appears at the end of this article, so if you are short of time scroll straight to the end and pick it up from there.

If you’re still reading, onto today’s idea.

Of late I have noticed that some gruff and loud presenters seem to calm down and go quiet when dealing with young people. Today’s is a foray into that area therefore.

It is this one:

Rachel Bridges Head to Toe Assessment

As expected, it is quiet, calm and methodically presented. The only thing I would say is that you might need to turn the volume up a bit.

At just over twenty-five minutes, it is quite a good length and it seems others think so too as the channel has over two thousand subscribers as at today’s date. However, (probably sensibly) comments are not permitted which means I cannot tell if ASMR fans have already tracked this down. (As we’ve seen before some comments are less than helpful).

The small person seems suitably entertained including being tickled at one stage, I think.

The medical institution is not identified. Rachel has an identification badge but I cannot make out what it says.

There is as expected continual background noise (probably air conditioning) as we’ve heard before.

I would guess from the orientation of the video (Portrait mode) that it was taken using a mobile phone or similar device.

Rachel maintains a conversation with the small person throughout, including in areas I thought they would find hard to comprehend.

I think this one belongs in the Procrastination Playlist, although it might be subject to future weeding.

This one is posted in 2018 to the following channel:

Rachel Bridges

The videos on here range from five years ago to five months ago and there are only four of them. There has to be a reason why there are quite so many subscribers. I would make a wild guess some ASMR fans have got here before me.

Looking at the other videos:

September 15, 2017

Very brief, just over a minute and appears to be reading from a piece about nurse practitioners. Rachel has a good voice but this one does not seem to be a great fit for the playlist. I think this might be an assessment piece for a course which is in line with other videos that have been featured before.

Another very brief video:

January 20, 2023

This one is on the role of a psychiatric nurse mental health practitioner, again, it is reading from a script and is not a good fit for the playlist.

The next one is another “Head to Toe” but without the small person (the person involved is more adult sized). Let’s see if my theory about people changing behaviour based on whether a person is a young person is supported by the second video.

The video is this one:

R.Bridges Head to toe assessment

Straight away the presentation is a lot faster than the last “Head to Toe” on this channel, and a lot less measured. However, the tone remains quiet. The presentation is so fast in places I am not sure what medical terminology is in use.

I have a feeling that the “patient” here actually has a slightly better voice (than Rachel). However, he gets little to say (he is also unidentified).

Comments are permitted but there are no comments that are helpful to us (such as where this is for example).

However, at one stage the badge comes into view and I believe it states “NP Student” at “Indiana Wesleyan”.

So at least we have identified the location, if not the “patient”.

We’re back to landscape mode with this one but the background noise persists. The volume is slightly louder, not markedly, but I would say the approach is less gentle (than the first video in this article).

It is just over nineteen and a half minutes so still a good length and on balance I would say also belongs in the Procrastination Pen playlist. However, I keep reviewing this playlist and videos get demoted to the archive playlist all the time based upon their long-term sleep promotion effects (or otherwise).

The video goes out of focus at one stage but, given you will not be watching but lying there praying for sleep whilst listening, I think that’s unlikely to affect you.

As is not atypical for assessment videos. There are occasional thuds as equipment is relocated – in the past I have weeded videos for this, and this one might be another that goes the same way.

I notice that (like me) the patient has apparent problems with the heel to toe exercise (not great if you have dodgy balance).

So a couple of videos from Rachel worthy of conclusion and so, as is habitual on this site, I have created a Rachel Bridges playlist:

The main playlist on the Procrastination pen is (as always) here:

The archive list of videos which whilst once in that main list were found over time to be less listenable than at first thought is here:

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I hope that you continue to find them restful

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

Until next time.

Photo by Anas Belmadani on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

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

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

Today’s video is this one:

Physical Medical Exam Unintentional ASMR

The video starts with the title PE for TOPE Student Demonstration

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

The University of Washington has its own channel of course, 757 videos on that channel and 12 playlists. The upshot of which is that some playlists are composed of over 100 videos.

Jessica’s video does not seem to be in there.

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

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

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

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

This is very quiet. Jessica at intervals is on a par with Vicki Scott which is quite a statement, the result is a video which is a good playlist candidate.

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

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

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

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

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

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

A nice short playlist is this one:

which is titled

Medical ASMR – Male Nurse/Doctor with Male Patient

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

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

Fit and Evaluation of GP Contact Lens Unintentional ASMR

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

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

Which for this one is here:

Prescription & Fit a Contact Lens Unintentional ASMR

This is also on Moran CORE it is here:

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

The ASMR Sandwich breath 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 process. 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