Category: Middle Age

Sleeping With ASMR

Of late I am becoming as good at procrastination as the title of the blog would lead you to suspect. I am not writing and yet, perversely, when I am writing I don’t find the process that unpleasant. So it is rather odd that I am choosing to avoid writing in this fashion.

However, apart from getting you a blog article this has nothing to do with ASMR (well as far as I am aware anyway).

Of late I have been falling asleep to Paul Temple who is a character that I came across quite by accident. There is a whole set of Paul Temple playlists on YouTube like this one:

and this follows on rather nicely I think from the Agatha Christie material that I used to dose off to:

There are even more of those, for example:

and in fact, as part of my material that is not on YouTube, I can choose one of those that is in the Internet Archive such as:

https://archive.org/details/ATTWN_AC_DS

https://archive.org/download/ATTWN_AC_DS/01%20-%20And%20Then%20There%20Were%20None.mp3

https://archive.org/download/ATTWN_AC_DS/02%20-%20Ten%20Little%20Soldier%20Boys.mp3

A bit of a cheat in that it has nothing to do with ASMR but as a mechanism of falling off to sleep, I do find that the occasional audiobook is a great way to ring the changes from ASMR every once in a while.

This week’s Calm offering is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/D1jDKA6-QE

Daily Calm

The Place

NARRATOR

Tamara Levitt

AUTHOR

Tamara Levitt

This explores the tendency of grasping.

Calm is not free. I feel a tad guilty about suggesting something that isn’t free in that I am certain it will therefore appeal to very few people, so moving right along.

Today I decided I’d ring the changes in an entirely selfish fashion given that I have been trying to learn Italian for years without success and in my YouTube recommendations I found an Italian teacher who does ASMR. This is not at all medical. It is therefore not on theme for what I have been doing and I apologise for that. Normal service will be resumed soonish.

ASMR Your Italian Teacher Explains Italy Geography Lesson

It is a little less than twenty two minutes so somewhat shorter than some we have been used to. There are comments – a fair few of those and mostly positive too which bodes well. The channel is AppleWhispers ASMR. I am pretty certain I have not been here before; it has 4.15k subscribers, four videos, no playlists and there is even a medical themed video:

So, I may be returning to review that if nothing else. With only four videos over the course of very few blog articles I could review all that there are. Assuming the present one is impressive, at any rate.

There are notes with the channel (of course):

“AppleWhispers ASMR

Description

🌙 Welcome to AppleWhispers ASMR! Hi, I’m Elena! 🤍 I’ve been creating ASMR videos for over 6 years, helping people relax, unwind and fall asleep. I also run one of Italy’s largest ASMR channels, AppleTingles ASMR, and I finally decided to create a space for my English-speaking audience. Here you’ll find: ✨ Soft spoken & whispered ASMR 🩺 Medical roleplays 💆 Personal attention 😴 Sleep & relaxation videos 🎧 Tingly sounds and cozy atmospheres Thank you for being here. I hope my videos can bring you a little peace, wherever you are in the world. Whether you’re here to relax after a long day, reduce anxiety or simply fall asleep, I hope you’ll feel safe and welcome. Sweet dreams, Elena 🍎 🇮🇹 My Italian ASMR channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AppleTinglesASMR“

So that is interesting. This is just a sideline channel o the main feast as it were. I may be reviewing that other channel in future then.

The video (of course) also has notes:

“72,761 views  10 Aug 2026  #asmr #sleep #relax

Today we’re taking a relaxing journey across Italy, exploring the geography, history and fascinating facts that make my country so unique.

Many people know Italy for pizza, pasta and beautiful cities, but there’s so much more to discover.

In this ASMR geography lesson we’ll explore:

🇮🇹 Why Italy is actually a surprisingly young country

🏔️ How the Dolomites were once ancient coral reefs

🌋 Italy’s active volcanoes

🏛️ Vatican City and San Marino

🌊 Italy’s incredible geography

🏞️ Mountains, lakes and coastlines

…and many more fascinating facts!

So, sit back, relax, and let me guide you through one of the world’s most beautiful countries.

If you enjoy this video, let me know in the comments! I’d love to continue this series and explore more of Italy together. ❤️

🍎 Welcome to AppleWhispers ASMR!

Hi, I’m Elena! 🤍

I’m so happy you’re here.

My goal is to help you relax, unwind and fall asleep through gentle whispers, personal attention and immersive ASMR roleplays.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🎧 For relaxation purposes only.

Please do not listen while driving or operating machinery.”

I’ve truncated those a lot.

The warning is amusing, who knew that ASMR could be as powerful as a bottle of Night Nurse.

The video starts without music and surprisingly to me it is in English. OK, English teacher teaching Italian, makes sense.

Even for ASMR it seemed a bit slow to me. Despite that, the voice level is ideal, calm, quiet but not a whisper – quite a rare thing.

However, as far as the teaching Italian goes – no Italian. Some details about Italy but not the language as such. OK, serves me right, I should have stuck to the blog theme and stopped dithering about.

At least there aren’t any gloves-related noises in this one. There is the occasional stoke of the map (fingers on paper). But mainly this is all about the voice which is just the way I like it. After a while I found myself adapting to the slower pace and it became ever more restful as I kept listening.

I rather liked this one (as I am certain you understand from that review). Why not take a listen for yourself.

The inadvertent ASMR video this week comes from a time when I was doing the odd diversion from medical themed ASMR videos and so I had a listen to a woodblock carving video and I rather liked what I heard.

I sent myself a reminder to look it up again (Three years ago now) and so here I am with not one but two videos delivered to you in the form of a playlist:

The channel is David Bull with 192k subscribers, One hundred and forty seven videos, seven playlists of which (unsurprisingly) none at all are on a medical theme. I really am taking a foray to stage left this week.

The channel has notes “

“David Bull

Description

Tokyo-based woodblock printmaker David Bull has created a number of video presentations of his work, including a number of videos showing the complete process of making his prints. A highlight of the channel is the series of videos chronicling the production of prints in the Ukiyoe Heroes series – his collaboration with US-based illustrator Jed Henry.

A great deal of the work for producing these videos is recently being assisted by the Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/mokuhankan/    Thank you very much for your support!

Dave streams three times a week from our Twitch account: https://www.twitch.tv/japaneseprintmaking

Links

Mokuhankan workshopmokuhankan.com

Our Patreon pagepatreon.com/mokuhankan

Woodblock.com websitewoodblock.com

Twitch livestreamingtwitch.tv/japaneseprintmaking”

The first video is this one:

Japanese Woodblock Printmaking Workshop – Hakobi

It too has notes:

“50,125 views 27 May 2021 TOKYO

This is the first in a series of videos demonstrating various traditional techniques and tools in the Japanese mokuhanga woodblock printmaking industry and how we use them today here at Mokuhankan.

Today’s video is about the pigment brushes our printers use, known as ‘hakobi’ (運び) or ‘tokibo’ (解き棒). First Suga-san tells us a little bit about what hakobi are for and why she makes her own instead of only using store-bought ones, and then she demonstrates the whole process from start to finish. Finally, we have a slideshow at the end going over the tying steps again for you to follow while making your own.

We have a list of ideas and have started the process of making more of these – but please feel free to leave a comment about what techniques and tools you are interested in learning about so we can consider your ideas for future videos.

Narration and demonstrations: Natsuki Suga

Cinematography: Yasuhiro Aoyama and Cameron Hilker

Editing and Subtitling: Cameron Hilker

Hasegawa Typeface: Markku Mujunen (https://mokuhankan.com/fonts/ and http://markkumujunen.com/)

On Dave’s personal website, there is more information on making these tools:

http://woodblock.com/encyclopedia/ent…

http://woodblock.com/manga/hakobi/ind…

The Mokuhankan Twitch channel (where you can watch Dave use the tools shown here):

  / japaneseprintmaking 

The Mokuhankan website:

https://mokuhankan.com

Our Patreon campaign:

  / mokuhankan  “

There are a large number of comments and a number are positive. Some lead me to suspect that ASMR fans are already well aware of this one.

It is a little over fifteen and a half minutes so not huge but bear in mind this week we have two of them to listen to.

It starts with the weather and the weather is rather blustery. There is the sound of crows, of the wind, and the rain. We find that this video is actually in Japanese and is being subtitled. The person presenting has a good voice and the pace is excellent. I love the intonation of the Japanese language and given the subject matter I have some assurance that no rude words have snuck in (despite the fact I have no comprehension of the language personally and I am relying on the subtitles).

There are some random noises, which we’d expect given the subject matter is about woodblock printing not ASMR. There are water noises, paper-related noises, scissors cutting noises, a background noise which sounds like sanding (by hand). The end is a series of instructions with no voice; there is just some background noise, which sounds like cleaning activity to me. If anything, this section of the video is more restful than the rest.

The credits indicate that the narrator/presenter was Natsuki Suga and it may well be worthwhile keeping an eye open for further videos from this source.

The second video is a little alike the first, it is this one:

Japanese Woodblock Printmaking Workshop – A Printer’s Tools and Workspace

it too has notes: “64,382 views 21 Jul 2021 MOKUHANKAN (JAPANESE WOODBLOCK PRINTS AND MORE)

This is the second in our ever-growing series of videos demonstrating various traditional techniques and tools in the Japanese mokuhanga woodblock printmaking style and how we use them today here at Mokuhankan.

Today, Natsuki Suga gives us a tour of her printing bench and surrounding workspace. Watch to learn a bit more about each tool she uses in her daily work as a printmaker. We hope you will enjoy this overview and learn something along the way, as well.

We have a list of ideas and have started the process of making more of these – but please feel free to leave a comment about what techniques and tools you are interested in learning about so we can consider your ideas for future videos.

Printmaker and Host: Natsuki Suga

Video and Photos: Cameron Hilker

Hasegawa Typeface: Markku Mujunen (https://mokuhankan.com/fonts/ and http://markkumujunen.com/)

To see Suga-san actually using this space, watch this video:

   • Woodblock Printing Process – A Japan Journey 

The Mokuhankan Twitch channel (where you can watch Dave use many of the tools shown here):

  / japaneseprintmaking 

The Mokuhankan website:

https://mokuhankan.com

Our Patreon campaign:

  / mokuhankan  “

It is little less than fourteen- and three-quarter minutes. The comments are still largely positive and again some of the comments lead me to suspect that ASMR fans have come visiting. It starts loud though, with the sound of a train and various city related noises. Again, we have Natsuki Suga as the presenter, same great voice, same peaceful style. If anything, less background noise. This time Natsuki is not on the floor. I did fear for the knees in that position but less fearful when sat at a desk. The subject in itself appears to me fascinating but of course we are here for the sound and I would say we are well served in that respect. I like the intonation; I like the pace. There is the overarching sense of peace about the entire presentation.

So, two whole videos this week and a playlist thrown in for fun.

I wish you well in your drive to get more sleep.

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

See you again next week.

The David Bull 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 Deep.ai

Sleeping With ASMR

I have not been having a lot of luck with the inadvertent ASMR material of late and I feel a bit of weeding of the playlist coming on in the near future. I am considering stopping the focus on medical themed videos. Although there appear to be thousands of videos to choose from out there, the number incorporating someone with a quiet calm voice and lacking much extraneous noise seem to be rather small. We’ll see how things go.

So, the good news is that, apparently, if you do not get the seven to nine hours sleep a night but you are still getting good quality sleep, then that might be good enough. A good sign being that the sleep is refreshing for you.

Sadly, though, the prevalence of insomnia increases as people get older. Particularly if, as you get older, you develop health conditions that impact sleep.

The things that I habitually do or have done to improve sleep, for instance, napping in the day, sleeping longer at weekends (about the only time I do feel refreshed) tend to make things worse. I have not tried drinking alcohol deliberately in order to get to sleep but that isn’t any help either (if you were about to try it). Alcohol makes it seem that it is easier to get to sleep but then goes on to ruin the quality of any sleep that you actually get.

The priority is to develop a sleep habit. Breaking the habit by additional naps or sleeping longer overall disimproves the situation.

There are more helpful techniques, for example, making use of a progressive muscle relaxation exercise to try to relax. It turns out that there are a large number of these on YouTube and just at random here is an example:

There’s even a non-YouTube option:

(it does require that you create an account to listen and it has no download option).

There is also a downloadable (MP3) which does not seem to require an account to access it:

Muscle Relaxation

Another suggested helpful approach which I struggle with is to make sleep a habit. Habits are the things that we thrive on. If you want to keep doing something, make it into a routine thing that you can repeat without thinking.

There are also habits that can detract from sleeping such as reading in bed, watching TV, keeping the phone near the bed (where it proves distracting).

Of course, if you cannot get comfortable then sleeping is made more difficult. The most comfortable sleep I had was once when abroad. I researched the mattress and found it was only available in the United States. Therefore, you have my sympathies if you also find it difficult finding something comfortable to sleep on.

However, reserving the bed for sleep only is important if you are already having trouble sleeping. It might be that if your partner regularly disturbs you during your sleep that you may have to sleep separately for example which some couples are currently exploring.

It’s also important that any preparation for sleep occurs elsewhere than the bedroom. This associates the bedroom solely with sleep.

You can also prepare in advance. For instance, going upstairs sometime before bedtime and drawing curtains and/or dimming the lights.

The entire sleep habit will probably start sometime before bed say two hours before – any reading will occur outside the bedroom; eating will have stopped and some light stretching (but no heavy exercise). Lowering the temperature down to close to eighteen degrees and ensuring your feet stay warm.

The association of the bed with sleep is an important feature of getting to sleep quickly. There are some habits that can break this association such as pursuing other activities in bed, such as reading

Using alcohol may help a person fall asleep but impacts the ability to get sufficient deep sleep. The clue is the feeling of tiredness when you wake up. In addition, commonly after alcohol, you will need to wake up perhaps more than once to go to the bathroom which further disrupts sleep.

The problem is that if you do not currently associate the bed with sleep you are likely to spend time in bed tossing and turning rather than actually sleeping and this further disrupts the association of the bed with sleep. Therefore, if you do not fall asleep within (say) fifteen minutes it is actually better to get up from bed and only return when you feel tired enough to actually drop off to sleep.

Going to bed early in this context may actually be counterproductive. If you are not tired enough to sleep you are more likely to lie awake rather than to sleep. It is not possible to force yourself to sleep in this way so the activity is more likely to disrupt the association of the bed with sleeping.

Exercise is great for sleep and a regular exercise programme pursued during the day will aid in the eventual sleep process. However, exercising too close to sleep time has the opposite effect as it will tend to energise – boosting both energy levels and body temperature, both things that you do not need when you want to get to sleep.

Eating in the evening will tend to deleteriously affect the ability to drop off. Drinking at night will have the tendency to mean that you’ll need to get up to go to the toilet. This will obviously impact the quality of your sleep.

Anyone who has a poor association of the bed with sleeping is going to make that worse by doing anything else in the bed but sleeping. Reading, texting, watching TV all of these can mean that it takes longer than fifteen minutes to fall asleep when in bed.

Frustration in the sleeping process is a good sign that you have a poor association between the bed and sleeping. You will then need to go through a process of reassociating the bed with sleep. You should start the sleep process about fifteen minutes after getting into bed. If you are just lying there and not sleeping it is better to get up and to only return to bed when you are feeling drowsy. Although initially it seems that you are missing out on sleep because you are spending time out of the bedroom, it will bear dividends in that ultimately when you go to bed you will fall asleep within fifteen minutes.

It is important that on moving room you do not engage in stimulating activities (watching TV, eating, using the phone, answering email and so on). The second space you have moved to also needs to be unstimulating. Reading is good for this, preferably under a light that uses a red spectrum bulb.

You can use white noise to mask background noise to help you to sleep.

It turns out that there is (surprise, surprise) white noise on YouTube as well:

(It seems rather loud to me).

There are some freely playable ones here:

https://white-noises.com/#sounds

and some downloadable versions here:

https://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_whitenoise.php

The Calm track this week is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/4McuYeyMYG

Daily Jay

Yes, and…

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

The rules we choose to live by, choosing acceptance and the flow of life. Always say yes. Accept what is offered and work with it. Do not resist. Yes and means you take what is offered and you take action; it is not merely acceptance. We get to decide our next step.

As I may have mentioned Calm is not free. So only check this out if you already have a subscription (or you really want one).

The professional ASMR video this week is from a channel I reviewed recently, BehindTheMoons (I noted) produces videos in both English and in French. Last time I reviewed this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEK1fSO-gUI i.e. the English language version.

However, a link in the notes from the same video tells me that there is a French version of the same thing. i.e. this video:

[subtitled] ASMR in French – Futuristic Hearing Test [The Personal Enhancing Hearing Device ◉]

I want a chance to run a fully independent review of the French version and see if I reach a different conclusion. Same person, same premiss, simply a different language. Does that affect my impression of it.

As I mentioned before BehindTheMoons has 262k subscribers, two hundred and eighty four videos, but only four playlists some of which (obviously) are in French.I covered the channel notes last time (there are a lot of them) so I will not go over them again.

Today’s video also has notes, which are lengthy. Most professional ASMR artists go in for extensive notes:

“1,012,209 views Premiered on 5 Mar 2023 #ASMRfr #ASMR #ASMRFrance

Please use your headphones to get the best experience from this video 🎧

Disclaimer: This is an ASMR video solely made to help you relax and unwind. I am not a medical professional, please get in touch with one if you need to have your hearing checked. Also, the Personal Enhancing Hearing Device ◉ doesn’t exist yet, unfortunately 😦 ____Hi everyone,

Today is the day. Let me onboard you and tell you everything about the Personal Enhancing Hearing Device ◉, as you are about to get yours installed and improve your experience of the world around you.

This device enhances your auditory field, as well as creates bridges between your senses. For example, a visual or olfactory stimulus will create an auditory response. Welcome into the Future.

The ASMR triggers you will get mostly ear to ear soft-spoken voice and close-up whispers, follow the light exercise, all senses exercises, instructions to follow, personal attention, hand movements, additional dreamy visuals and sounds.

In this video I mix your usual cranial nerve exam and well as hearing test with science fiction, I hope you will like it.

The English version is available here:    • ASMR – Futuristic Hearing Test [The Person… 

Thank you for watching the video and for reading the description. Take care,”

As before I have truncated these. None of us have the time for extensive reading of notes I am certain.

You will have noticed that for some reason the notes are not in French. I have no idea why that is.

The video is a little shorter. The English version was close to thirty minutes and this is a little over twenty-five and a half minutes. There are comments and some of these are not in French. They appear general praising which is all to the good.

There is brief music at the start as there was with the English language version, I therefore presume this is some kind of branding. I am not a fan of music in ASMR videos, it distracts from the ASMR-ish-ness of them. However, at least this music is brief and therefore not overly distracting.

If anything, I would say that the voice of the presenting person is even better in their native language (no surprises, I suppose). It isn’t whispered but it is low and calm and quiet.

I had not realised that French has some of the noises that ASMR artists recreate artificially (presumably because they are triggers for a group of ASMR fans). I can hear an occasional mouth clicking sound, for example.

I have the sense that I prefer this in French. I can sense that perhaps foreign language presentations may start to form a larger part of those videos I review from this point onwards. It has been comparatively rare so far. Although, to be honest, I rarely find them.

This time I tried listening with the headphones on (as recommended in the video notes). I would say that it does make a positive difference, not least when directional affects are implemented. It also helps to filter out some of the household noises. Having a new hearing aid has its downsides.

The muted part of the video and the hearing device calibration is clever but strange. It is not overly distracting. However, I am going to try listening to it when trying to get to sleep and see if that situation remains.

Even with the presentation enunciated in French, the on-screen prompts are still in English which feels a little odd as well. However, if you’re as tired as I am when listening to these videos, I doubt you’ll be doing much in the way of watching, mostly it is just a sleep aid.

As for the previous videos there are clicks, clonks, keyboard sounds, nail clicking sounds, the odd musical tone. Some of these seem to go on for a bit (or I’m more tired than when I reviewed the last one).

I still think that this has the slight edge on the English Language version. Why not take a listen and see what you think.

I realised recently that I have been reviewing ASMR tracks since 2023. You’d think I’d find something grown up to do with my life.

In all that time I focused on inadvertent ASMR videos. Sometimes there have been real gems and sometimes not so much. I have had a fallow period of late I recognise. Let’s see what todays brings.

Today’s video is this one:

Golfer’s & Tennis Elbow Assessment – OSCE Guide | Clip | UKMLA | CPSA | PLAB 2

Here I feel on more solid ground, but mostly it is because it is from a channel where we have reviewed it so often, I must be getting to the stage of nearly having reviewed every video it has.

This is Geeky Medics https://www.youtube.com/@geekymedics, with 1.46m subscribers, three hundred and fifty-four videos, twenty playlists. Well, I’m wrong in that case there is no way I have had the time to individually document three hundred and fifty-four videos. OK, well plenty of scope for the future we can say then.

The problem with all the geeky medics videos I have reviewed thus far is the inclusion of some pretty peppy music which, frankly, is the last thing that you need around snooze time.

This one is scarcely over one and a quarter minutes and you guessed it despite the short length still finds time to cram in some music at the start of it.

There are notes: “82,306 views 26 Sept 2022 Musculoskeletal Examination OSCE Guides | CPSA | UKMLA | PLAB | MRCS

This video demonstrates how to screen for Golfer’s elbow (medial epicondylitis) and Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) in an OSCE station.

You can read our guide to elbow examination here: https://geekymedics.com/elbow-examina…”

Which I am deliberately keeping brief. There are comments, but precious few of these and none from ASMR fans that I can see. Oh dear.

The video though is excellent with the medical professional having an excellent voice and the patient equally so. It is a shame that it is not a longer video to be honest. Of course it has to conclude with yet more music…

On that basis, just one, video this time.

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

See you again next week.

The Geeky Medics 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 Deep.ai

Sleeping With ASMR

This week I was fitted with a hearing aid. Apart from the constant pain in my ear canal from the tube in there, I notice everything is now at top volume and sounds like it was recorded inside a vibrating metal can. I am told that I need to persist for six to eight weeks, so it is another “man up” problem. However, one of my concerns is this that this will completely impact my ability to appreciate ASMR.

In life it is not infrequent that the solution to one of the problems simply brings along a suite of new ones to resolve and this would seem to be one of those.

This week I’m going to take some Nurofen and soldier on with the blog post but it might be that my allegiance to ASMR is irrevocably damaged and I will need to start again in someplace new. We will see.

I have in the back of my mind an ongoing duty to find new, non-YouTube-based audio for your enjoyment but I have to be frank, I just have not prepared any this week. However, I have listened to any number of great voices in my time so I will try to fall back on one of those.

This week, someone who came up on Tricycle.org and I notice the talk is still up there and (for me anyway) I could freely listen to it. That person is Dr Larry Ward who has sadly subsequently died. He was someone who I thought had quite a restful voice. See what you think.

The Power of Boundless Love

This week’s Calm offering is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/zzFunganq5

Daily Trip

The Most Important Practice

NARRATOR

Jeff Warren

AUTHOR

Jeff Warren

Making the decision to look after your health. Given that sleep is one of the key aspects of health, I think that is right on message for this blog.

With the normal proviso that Calm is not free and so if you want to listen to that you are going to need a subscription.

Onto the professional ASMR artist this week, I am sticking with the idea that I am going to be reviewing some of the older ASMR material. Perhaps bringing a goody back from the past. The channel is one I do not think I have reviewed before and the video is this one:

ASMR Cranial Nerve Exam Doctor Role Play

The channel is Cosmic Tingles ASMR with 249k subscribers, one hundred and seventy-four videos, twenty-three playlists,

with the playlist “Doctor Role Plays” apparently on theme for this blog:

That seems to work out to 1400-ish subscribers per video which sounds a reasonable rate of return to me (but then I am not a professional ASMR artist and I am unlikely ever to be one).

The channel has notes associated with it: “Cosmic Tingles ASMR

Description

A cool hippie chick doing the internets. Check out my website to work with me for energy work services 🙂 https://www.cosmictingleshealingcenter.com/

Links

Patreonpatreon.com/user?u=449844

My website cosmictingleshealingcenter.com

Tiktoktiktok.com/@kayla.suzette

Cosmic Tingles Vlogsyoutube.com/channel/UC6KdVy64a73HyCz7VTx8AkA

Cosmic Tingles Twitchtwitch.tv/cosmictingles/profile

Instagraminstagram.com/cosmictingles

PayPal Donationpaypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WFJZEM7UR5RRG

Twittertwitter.com/KaylaSuzette23

More info

            Sign in to see email address

            http://www.youtube.com/@CosmicTingles

            United States

            Joined 4 Jul 2009

            249k subscribers

            174 videos

            72,090,425 views”

The video (of course) has notes associated with it: “5,085,727 views 22 Jul 2016

Join me at Cosmic Tingles Healing Center: cosmictingleshealingcenter.com

This is a new high sound quality edition since my last CNE was made very early in my career with older equipment. 

Come hang out with me on twitch!   / cosmictingles    

SUBSCRIBE TO MY SECOND CHANNEL    / @kayla_vespertine 

Check out my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/user?u=449844

Instagram: CosmicTingles

Twitter: KaylaSuzette23″

I am guessing therefore that Cosmic Tingles is AKA Kayla.

The video is twenty-one minutes and so not huge in comparison to some we have heard and cranial nerve is a classic ASMR medical theme. I must have covered a fair number such videos already in this blog.

There are comments. They seem to be specialising in the strange or comedic and very little in the evangelising ASMR, so that is a tad odd.

The video has a pronounced hiss; I had to turn it down a bit but then had to turn it up again when I realised that the presentation was going to major on the whispery. Of course, this could be the hearing aid effect so you may find things a bit different to me.

There are various clunks from equipment being moved whilst off camera; there are paper noises, scratching noises, clicks and thunks. There are pencil noises, scraping noises, glove noises (fortunately not loud). There are those mouth clicking/clucking noises that professional ASMR artists love. Some quite loud crackling noises. It is that hiss that is really distracting though.

The voice is excellent. If only that hiss was not so loud.

Why not evaluate it for yourself and see what you think.

The inadvertent ASMR video this week follows on from an earlier blog article in which we were exploring my theory that adults who deal with children, in general, deal with them using low, gentle voices. In fact, more or less the ideal voices that I am searching for in my video searches.

I came across a playlist called Stanford Medicine 25: Newborn Exam,

It contains six videos and I more or less promised last time that I would continue to review them video by video. Last time we covered video one (as expected it was a calm and quiet video). So this time I’ll examine video two which is this one:

Stanford Doctor’s Physical Examination of a Premature Infant

The channel will be familiar to regular readers of the Procrastination Pen (welcome, I hope you continue to enjoy). It is of course Stanford Medicine 25. The index I hold seems to indicate I have written at least ten previous articles about this channel and so it must either be a fairly consistent resource or I ran out of imagination a long time back. Take your pick.

The video is a little less than nine minutes so is another of the group of brief inadvertent ASMR candidate videos that I have reviewed of late (the issue with short videos in a playlist is the increased incidence of inter-video advert breaks).

There are zero notes with this one – which is kind of odd for a professional video. But there are a ton of comments and most of those are not only sensible but positive as well. Heaven be praised. The video commences without music and the professional is identified as Philip Sunshine, MD, Professor Emeritus Neonatal & Developmental Medicine. Sadly Philip died in April 2025, which is a shame if only that we will not have any more videos that feature him.

Philip has a lovely calm and measured voice which is non-too loud either. The baby responds by being quite chilled. There is the odd beeping noise in the background but that is not loud. He handles the baby very gently but there is the occasional complaint nonetheless. I did not find that too terrible (because they are brief) but you may find it disturbing (just a warning). I will trial it in the Procrastination Pen playlist and will field it into the archive playlist if it proves objectionable in the long term.

Just one, video this time.

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

See you again next week.

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 Deep.ai

Sleeping With ASMR

I recently fessed up to a fondness for affirmations and rather like the moment you buy a different car, suddenly every car on the road seems to be alike to the one that you have purchased, suddenly I started to see affirmations everywhere.

Recently I was sent from Project Happiness “Modern luxury is the ability to think clearly, sleep deeply, move slowly, and live quietly in a world designed to prevent all four.” With the subtext ” Never forget that no matter what’s going on around you, you do have choices. Your external world may be noisy. The idea is to create a quiet place inside of you to return to. When you move intentionally within an unpredictable world, then you can chart your own course.”.

To be honest, I could not have asked for an affirmation more on theme for this blog.

The Calm item this week is:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/nR1aFGbe8B

Daily Trip

Commitment

NARRATOR

Jeff Warren

AUTHOR

Jeff Warren

Commitment to meditation, what does it feel like, the more we meditate the more commitment towards continuing to meditate.

With the usual caution (for this blog) in that I have a subscription to Calm and you will need a subscription if you want to listen to any of the content – sorry about that.

For the non-YouTube material this week, I return to Dr Rick Hanson who has a good voice admittedly but I have always drawn any material by him from YouTube. This week I found that he has a podcast. Not only does he have a podcast but it is available on Apple podcasts. I gave it a try and you can play any of these without an account (although it will nag you about it) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindful-meditations-with-dr-rick-hanson/id1820216704.

Recently I have been trying to focus on older ASMR videos (in the way that YouTube does not). However, in my recommendations this week, I got one that is way more recent and I thought I would try it. (Damn you, YouTube). No stress, normal service will resume (soonish).

The video is this one:

ASMR Real Person Student Doctor Check | Assessing & Advising

It is just under nineteen minutes long so not huge and was posted only recently.

There are, of course, notes as we would expect with any professional ASMR artist: ” 103,719 views 5 Jul 2026 #bebravebeyouasmr #asmrrealperson #asmrdoctor

Welcome to tonight’s ASMR real person student doctor check. In this realistic medical examination, our student doctor carries out a full medical assessment on a real person whilst the assessor observes the examination, assesses the findings and provides guidance when needed. This ASMR video is perfect for relaxation and sleep.

For The Best Experience Please Use Headphones, Turn Off Stable Audio & Select the Highest Quality Available for Each ASMR Video.

This video is a fictional ASMR roleplay created for relaxation and entertainment only. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Upload Schedule:

Every Sunday, Monday & Wednesday at 9pm GMT/BST.

Shorts Of My Main Videos Throughout the Week No Set Day or Times

Business:

bebravebeyou@runbyinfluencers.com

bebravebeyouasmr@outlook.com

Social Media:

Non ASMR TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@40swithnic

ASMR TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bebravebeyouasmr 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bebravebeyouasmr

Facebook: https://facebook.com/bebravebeyouasmr

All My Links: https://linktr.ee/bebravebeyounic

TIME STAMPS

00:00 Intro

00:07 Greeting & Plan

00:47 Student Doctor Exam With Jodie

18:28 Outro

18:38 Goodnight

#asmr #asmrrealperson #asmrstudentdoctor #bebravebeyouasmr #relaxingasmr #asmrmedical #asmrdoctor”

As per usual these are incredibly long and must test the patience of even the most hardened ASMR fan (I bet that no one reads them, in fact).

This is an odd one for me since it is a collaboration piece (I cannot remember reviewing anything like this previously). The two channels listed are:

Be Brave Be You ASMR 242k subscribers,1.4k videos and a dazzling quantity of playlists of which this is on theme for this blog:

and Jodie Marie ASMR 153k subscribers,1.6k videos thirty-seven playlists with this on theme for this blog:

Wow, more than one channel does add quite a lot of material, good luck getting through that lot.

There are a number of comments for the video. Mostly they seem to be positive which is quite usual for a professional ASMR video, so that bodes well then.

The only start-up sound is that of water – so far so good. Straight away we realise that the presentation is going to major on the whispery, so far, so standard professional ASMR artist.

There are gloves noises again sadly (I have commented on those in previous blog articles – I am not a fan). There are also some clicking noises, some writing noises, (I notice in the comments that some people really rate the gloves sounds so at last I have found a person who likes them to be included.) There is a sound from fingers being run through hair (not my kind of thing but someone must love that I would guess). There is that mouth clucking/clicking noise so beloved of professional ASMR artists which is not my thing either – it must please some fans I’m guessing.

There are beep sounds from the ear thermometer and clunking noises from equipment. There are Velcro noises, the sound of fabric for a blood pressure cuff being tightened and a (quite loud) blood pressure cuff noise. (Those who have used an Omron cuff at their GPs will know the sound I mean and it is not at all ASMR-y).

The pace is nice and slow and actually, despite the (mainly) whispery presentation, I liked the vocal parts (less so the blood pressure cuff noises).

The contrast of the two vocal sounds is actually quite interesting and I did not find it distracting. It might be worth following up with each of the ASMR artists independently in the future and see what their videos are like.

The video ends with that water sound (briefly). I would say it is worthy of a review so why not listen for yourself.

This week’s inadvertent ASMR offering comes from a channel which I have not reviewed before but the subject would seem to be highly relevant for this blog:

Why You’re Always Tired (and how to fix it)

It is fourteen and a quarter minutes, so a little longer than a number of videos that I have reviewed of late.

It comes from the channel AsapSCIENCE this has 10.8m subscribers, five hundred and fifty five videos, ten playlists, frankly even if it’s ASMRishness is limited it must be something as a channel to have achieved so very much attention from so few videos.

The notes on the AsapSCIENCE channel are adorably brief:

” Description

Making science make sense.

Created by:

Mitchell Moffit (@mitchellmoffit)

Gregory Brown (@whalewatchmeplz)

CONTACT

asapscience[at]gmail[dot]com

Send us stuff!

ASAPSCIENCE INC.

P.O. Box 93, Toronto P

Toronto, ON, M5S2S6″

The video notes equally so:

“5,097,219 views 15 Jun 2022 #GrowWithGoogle

The Ultimate Guide to Feeling Less Tired

A portion of this video was sponsored by Google Career Certificates

Enrol now at https://bit.ly/3aUSQes #GrowWithGoogle

Join our science mailing list: https://bit.ly/34fWU27

FOLLOW US!

Instagram: https://instagram.com/asapscience​​

Facebook: https://facebook.com/asapscience​​

Twitter: https://twitter.com/asapscience​​

TikTok: @AsapSCIENCE

Written by: Mitchell Moffit

Edited by: Luka Šarlija”

The comments for once, seem to contain many which are helpful. Where has this new spirit of co-operation come from, I wonder. There is the odd person looking for a medical diagnosis though I see. I suppose this is why diagnosis by AI has become just so popular of late.

For me, the video starts a little loud and a little fast. But then I am listening immediately after listening to the ASMR professional so it might be suffering by comparison. It is one of those where it would be more restful if played at half speed.

However, as a sleep guide it is truly excellent and perhaps it should be taken this way. The first thing it indicates is that eight hours a night is truly a minimum (if you’re reading these blog items most likely you are not getting all that).

It also states that working out whether you function best later or earlier and fitting your day to your preferred cycle is important. If you need to be awake late but have a job that means you get up early you are causing yourself problems. (Your preference may change as you age.)

The video features sponsorship info (Google). I am definitely not keen on such things and if it were not on theme for this blog, I would reject it out of hand. (Perhaps you can skip the sponsorship section.)

It advises that you change your alarm to a more melodic (music based) alarm sound – it is less jarring.

Snoozing the alarm is a very bad move.

Other advice includes: increasing activity when you first wake up; exposure to bright light in the morning (preferably sunlight) for at least thirty minutes; drink fluid, moderate caffeine intake and do not drink caffeine after midday; a balanced diet, do not eat close to bedtime; regular exercise (but not too close to bedtime), long term changes in exercise will improve your sleep even if the effects are not felt immediately, if you’re napping do not do this late in the day as it ruins your sleep; do not drink alcohol (it destroys deep sleep); take a warm shower close to bedtime (It mimics the body’s natural cooling as it approaches sleep); sleep in a cool room with no visible clocks, put away gadgets – they can be a distraction; do not just lie in bed – it makes things worse; if you wake up do not check the clock, do not switch on the light; have a sleep schedule – go to bed and wake up at the same time every day you need a constant routine.

The most important are having a sleep schedule; regular exercise and a balanced diet.

So that was very much sleep advice and definitely not ASMR. Valuable in itself but I still owe you an ASMR video review.

Let’s try this one:

Total Body Skin Exam by PA Melissa Alcox

This comes from the channel Pariser Dermatology Specialists 2.51k subscribers, eighty eight videos only two playlists.

A quick scan of the videos on the day I visited seems to indicate that they are mainly concerned with advertising so almost certainly unsuitable for us then.

There are notes with the video “781,706 views 4 Sept 2018

Pariser Dermatology’s Melissa Alcox, PA-C, performs a full-body skin exam and talks about the details involved in this potentially life-saving routine procedure.”

Which are incredibly brief.

There are a ton of comments and a lot of these are from ASMR fans so that bodes well then.

The video is a little less than five and a quarter minutes. It has some fairly strong background noise (air conditioning I would guess) but, fortunately, no start-up music. Melissa Alcox introduces herself and I would say it is quite loud – I thumbed the volume down a bit and started again. Julianna is introduced. A quick Google confirms that she is Julianna Squicciarini, Assistant Laboratory Manager.

I would say that Melissa does not have a natural ASMR voice. However, it does tone down a bit once the examination proper commences. The pace is a little fast for me, but given the comments, a number of people disagree. There are some (quite loud) equipment noises including from the motion of a wheeled chair.

It concludes with a brief piece of advertising, and then it is all over. I will trial it in the Procrastination Pen playlist but despite the positive comments I would say it is a tad marginal.

So just one this week.

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 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 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 Deep.ai

Sleeping With ASMR

I’m making the move to Lumo for the generation of the regular cat image this week. No specific reason. I was getting along well with deep.ai and I will probably return there. However, Lumo does seem to have rendered something suitable.

Recently I came across another article on a site that I have featured several times previously. Greater Good seems to have a number of articles in broadly the areas I am interested in. This one was specifically about managing your energy.

That seemed so much on theme for a blog dedicated to sleep and the pursuit of sleep that I thought it deserved recommending. It reminded me of some of the Calm material from Jay Shetty – some of which I have recommended before.

The Calm item this week follows on from my discussion recently where I reviewed a WhispersRed video on YouTube which featured the odd affirmation and I quipped how much I like a good affirmation. I have been known to print, laminate, and put up on the wall where I come across it regularly, some of the affirmations that speak most truly to me.

https://www.calm.com/app/player/jGs9dhvgC3

Daily Jay

Self-Affirmations

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

Do affirmations actually work.

I will caution though that Calm is not free. I have not yet found any free content that I can readily share and so this is only applicable to you if you have a Calm subscription already.

I am trying to keep the supply of non-YouTube audio coming although I do keep finding myself coming back to YouTube because I can’t find much decent material elsewhere.

Recently, however, I found that Tara Brach not only produces a weekly meditation on YouTube she duplicates this with an audio file on her website. For example this one:

Which is located here:

Meditation: Know That You’re Here (19:37 min)

These appear to be freely available and are also downloadable such that you can build a playlist of your own off YouTube and indeed off Internet should you so desire.

The professional ASMR artist this week is one that I do not think I have reviewed before. However, it is in keeping with my recent initiative to feature some older ASMR material (largely because YouTube likes to focus on everything being shiny and new and so somebody needs to focus on the opposite).

The video is this one:

Check Up Exam [Role Play] Soft Spoken Medical ASMR

It is just under twenty-nine minutes long so a reasonable one to drop off to. It was posted five years ago so nah nah nah nah YouTube.

There are notes of course (this is a professional ASMR artist after all): “20,877 views 25 May 2021 #MedicalASMR #ASMR #Roleplay

Time for your check up!  Intro- 0:07 Gloves- 1:30 Temp 2:19 Pulse 3:04 Head/Face Check 3:56 Making Faces 6:38 Mouth check- 7:16   Eye Test- 8:01 Nose Check 12:28   Ear Check 12:55 Heart & Lungs 19:40 Arm & leg check 22:37 Reflexes 24:05 Stomach Exam 26:36 Conclusion 27:29

P.S. I am not a real doctor; this video was made for ASMR entertainment purposes.

❤ ❤ ❤

This Video was made for ASMR. ASMR can be used for Relaxation, Sleep and Head Tingles. With how stressful life can be I hope to bring some sort of Escape from that anxiety, stress or Insomnia.

♡Help support my channel! Receive Rewards & Extras! My Patreon Account  –   / calmingescape 

★Instagram –   / calmingescape   

★FB Page –    / calmingescape2 

★Twitter –    / calmingescape 

👕Merch Store☕ https://teespring.com/stores/calminge… 

☆My 2nd channel☆ http://bit.ly/1p6qzE7

🎤 My Podcast -(YT) http://bit.ly/2A2N1Iz (Itunes) http://apple.co/2zZqTyA

👗 Cosplay-   / calming.canary.cosplay 

😴 My ASMR Albums😴 Search CalmingEscape

Itunes- http://apple.co/2ghdHHe Amazon- http://amzn.to/2p8Qkrj

Disclaimer: My Channel cannot replace any medication or professional treatment. If you have sleep/anxiety/psychological troubles please consult your physician.

Made and produced to view on the CalmingEscape YouTube Channel.

©CalmingEscape

#ASMR #MedicalASMR #Roleplay”

As we’ve come to expect these are humongous in their comprehensiveness.

The channel is a new one for me: CalmingEscape ASMR 56.2k subscribers,1.6k videos, twenty playlists

Of which this is on a theme in keeping with this blog theme thus far:

and it has one hundred and thirty four videos in it, no less.

The video starts with music, which is not my preferred way for a video to start but at least the music chosen is unobtrusive. The voice is low but not an actual whisper – so that gets a tick immediately.

There are various clicks and sounds from the person being in motion (clothing related noises). There is the odd clunk – equipment related noises. There are glove related noises which are really not my favourite thing but come up so often in professional ASMR videos that I am guessing that someone loves that sort of noise. The pace is excellent – it is nicely slow. The tone is also extremely good. Absent those glove noises, I’d say this was well above average.

There are pencil-related noises (pencil against paper, off camera by the sounds). There are sounds like something scraping across the microphone which are actually a tad peculiar (but not that unpleasant).

There is whispering content; when there is whispering in each ear. (It’s more of a stage whisper to be honest as it is not that quiet) but at least this is in keeping with the role play and so it could be argued has a purpose.

There are breathing noises (warming of a stethoscope), periods of silence when aspects of the examination are apparently taking place (I found that seemed to work rather well). Tapping noises (apparently connected with a reflex hammer). It ends with a whispered Patreon acknowledgement. This is also not my favourite thing, but at least there isn’t any further music.

I would say that this one is well worthy of a review. Why not have a listen.

And so onto the inadvertent ASMR. Occasionally I find that I have spent a while retrieving what appear to be genuine medical videos but which are contained on sites dedicated to ASMR. As I have mentioned before there is a sense of nervousness about these because what has been done to them to enhance their ASMR effects? Can we really have assurance that the videos are genuine medical videos and were not simply generated by ASMR professionals masquerading as doctors and nurses?

Well today we can take refuge in that the video comes from a genuine University and one that I think is reasonably well known (well, I had heard of it).

Respiratory Examination – KCL KUMEC

At just over five minutes it isn’t going to be around for long. There are no notes, but comments are permitted. From the comments we can conclude that ASMR fans have already been here long before I have.

There is start up music (but it is reasonably muted). The medical professional announces himself as Tristan Fraser. Some of the commentators appear to be having problems with terms used day-to-day in England which for someone familiar with them comes as a surprise. For instance, “Pop” is not a reference to someone’s father but rather to putting something somewhere such as “pop your shirt on”, “pop that over there” or “pop it in the oven”.

The “patient” is Donald, he does say what his surname is but I cannot catch it. We find that he is twenty-nine (Tristan announces this in the video).

The delivery is quiet, calm and measured and in fact pretty well ideal for a video featured in this blog.

The channel is KCL Kumec and it turns out that this is from Kings College London.

Even to my lowly brain I am aware that this is a prestigious educational establishment. The channel has twenty-nine videos and yet has 10.2K subscribers which is quite phenomenal.

Although there are twenty-nine videos (which is a few too many to cover in one blog post), it turns out that Tristan is only in a subset of these and so we can cover those videos in this post (and I suspect return to KCL KUMEC in the future for further blog posts).

Cardiology Examination – KCL KUMEC

At four and a quarter minutes it is even more brief than the last one. Again, no notes again comments again the comments are littered with contributions from ASMR fans. Again, the startup music and again we have Donald as the patient. We find that Donald is born 18/09/1989 (this is the UK format so September).

This is marvellously calm and quiet. In fact, it is very similar to the video that came before. It is a little louder in places but I do not think that to be off-putting (at least in terms of getting off to sleep).

Respiratory Examination – KCL KUMEC

This has the same title as the first video but a different reference. However, it is the same length, features the same two people I suspect it is in fact the self-same video. Comments as before – I think ASMR fans are now following Tristan because, like me, they like his voice.

However, as far as I can tell Tristan does not have a channel of his own so the few videos available on this channel are it in terms of output (which, like Hollie Berry before, is sad for us).

Cardiovascular Exam – KCL KUMEC

at four and a quarter minutes this is very similar if not identical to the Cardiology Examination we saw earlier. Yet again a comment from an ASMR fan referring to Dr James Gill’s famous catchphrase putapitopaper (although I’m pretty certain that is actually putabitopaper).

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

See you again next week.

The KCL Kumec playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop my listening 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 Lumo AI

Sleeping With ASMR

This week I have been trialling L-Tryptophan. After recent blog articles in which I warned about the dangers of supplements and the taking of too much magnesium, I am taking a supplement. This supplement contains magnesium. I’m currently not sure if it is working. It is probably too early days (I read somewhere that any change takes about six weeks to really start making a difference). However, what I can say is that I am getting much more vivid dreams and nightmares since I started taking it. Initially it was all bad dreams, so disturbing that I had just about resolved to stop the supplement altogether. But recently the dreaming has turned onto a more pleasant footing. I do seem to be having more dreams though and remembering more of them. I am not certain if that is a good thing or not a good thing. To be honest, as long as the vicious ones stay in abeyance I do not mind either way.

Finding audio material of a restful nature on the Internet which a) does not require payment and b) is not on YouTube, is proving one of those challenges a Greek hero might have risen to. Leafing through some old meditation tracks I found a couple by Stephen Doetsu Snyder. Not someone I have listened to a lot, but obviously someone I did listen to.

The two I seem to have spent time with were:

and

which fail to qualify, as both (as you will have noticed) are on YouTube.

However, a shufty around the Internet turned up this: a site actually full of dharma talks by Stephen:

https://dharmaseed.org/teacher/261

Plenty there to work out if you like his voice or not, I would have thought.

The Calm resource this week is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/Lh8XCYkB5O

Daily Jay

Sensations vs. Emotions

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

What your body is trying to tell you and how you can use this information to make better decisions. I am still nervous about including material from here as Calm is not free. You can probably tell as I consistently keep this section brief.

The professional ASMR video this week is from a channel I cannot remember ever having reviewed before, so this one is as much an adventure for me as it is for you. The channel is BehindTheMoons. This has 262k subscribers, two hundred and eighty four videos, but only four playlists, I’m interested to see that one of these makes delivery in French:

I occasionally do cover ASMR in another language taking into account that I have no idea what is being said, and so there is a risk I am reviewing something that is lewd or divisive.

The notes on the channel are the habitual level of comprehensive:

“BehindTheMoons

Description

Hello everyone!

I’m a French ASMRtist who has been making ASMR videos on the Internet since 2013.

You can call me Moons 🔆 and use they/them pronouns to refer to me (ael or elle in French)

You will find on this channel ASMR videos both in French and in English to help you relax, unwind, calm down or even fall asleep. I’m working hard to offer you a safe space where you can go back to when you need it.

I created specific playlists of my videos depending on the language spoken, so you can avoid the videos in French or in English depending on what you want to hear.

I currently use a Nikon Z6II to film my video, a Zoom H5 and two Lewitt LCT 440 Pure microphones to record the audio.

Zoruasmr introduced me to ASMR, without him, I wouldn’t be doing ASMR videos.

Margot Lambin designed the subscription badges and emoji, here is their Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/margotlambin/

Thank you for reading!

Take care 🌻”

I almost hacked about those notes as they feel a bit long.

The video (which is in English) is this one:

ASMR – Futuristic Hearing Test [The Personal Enhancing Hearing Device ◉] English Version

At least if it is in a language I understand, I have some assurance no one is swearing out of the screen at me without my knowing.

The video also has notes, which are equally as lengthy as we have come to expect:

“Premiered on 2 Apr 2023 #HearingTest #CranialNerveExam #ASMR

Please use your headphones to get the best experience from this video 🎧

Disclaimer: This is an ASMR video solely made to help you relax and unwind. I am not a medical professional, please get in touch with one if you need to have your hearing checked. Also, the Personal Enhancing Hearing Device ◉ doesn’t exist yet, unfortunately 😦

Hi everyone,

Today is the day. Let me onboard you and tell you everything about the Personal Enhancing Hearing Device ◉, as you are about to get yours installed and improve your experience of the world around you.

This device enhances your auditory field, as well as creates bridges between your senses. For example, a visual or olfactory stimulus will create an auditory response. Welcome into the Future.

The ASMR triggers you will get mostly ear to ear soft-spoken voice and close-up whispers, follow the light exercise, all senses exercises, instructions to follow, personal attention, hand movements, additional dreamy visuals and sounds.

In this video I mix your usual cranial nerve exam and well as hearing test with science fiction, I hope you will like it.

Here is the link to the French version of this video:      • ASMR – Test auditif futuriste [Le Disposit…  “

I’ve edited these down a fair bit; notes can get a bit yada-yada after a while.

The video is just less than thirty-three minutes in length and so is in keeping (in terms of length) with other professional ASMR videos that we have seen of late.

There is brief music at the start which isn’t terribly distracting. I loved the accent of the presenting person. Immediately the pace is nicely slow and we do not appear to be getting a whispered rendition. That is a pretty rare discovery.

I like the voice; there is no attempt to maximise triggers such as mouth clucking, nail scratching or stroking of cloth (all of which you will have heard if you have stuck with this blog for any period of time.)

In all I would say this is the style of video that I search for – something realistic but still relaxing; calm but without trying to exploit every trigger. I do not often find sound like this in my YouTube exploration.

I notice that the comments seem to share my perspective with the levels of ASMR fan adoration being elevated up to that reserved for rock stars.

It’s unusual (and kind of affirming) to find people sharing my perspective on anything at all (let alone my perspective on videos). I am certain it can’t last.

I think I only rarely find non-English ASMR video presenters. Off the cuff I can remember Japanese, Chinese and one other French person. However, perhaps I need to search more carefully if the videos are of this quality.

There is a period of muted presentation which is part of the theme of the video (it is about hearing). There is a strange click, come buzzing noise, which is the hearing device “calibrating”. I found this a clever idea and not off-putting.

This calibration stage takes a little while and there is occasional music involved. I did not find that distracting (much as I am not a fan of music in ASMR videos).

The video does suggest use of headphones and certainly if you are listening to it from out of a set of old PC speakers, as I am, the directional quality of some parts of the presentation are less pronounced. (Elderly hearing also doesn’t help).

I always imagine that people reading this blog are in any case half way between snooze and alert and so the visuals are unlikely to be of a pronounced benefit. This one is clever, a lot of professional ASMR videos are I find. I do try to focus on the sound though.

As the video progresses, the presentation seems to get quieter and quieter until we are back on the whispered footing with which we are more familiar. I rather like whispering but I hear so much of it in ASMR I do like it when I find material that isn’t whispered.

Shame this video did not stay at the volume we had at the start but I can’t have everything…

There is the odd extraneous noise. I notice clicks, clonks, (mainly items being picked up and placed down again). There is a kind of squirting noise – I think that is supposed to be distribution of a perfume into the air. There are the sounds of the bristles of a brush being riffled through; there are very brief moments of breathiness.

I was quite impressed by this. I would think it worthwhile your giving it a review as well.

The inadvertent ASMR material has been in blog posts from me since I started the blog up again, some multiple months ago now. So, I consider it a mainstay.

This week’s selection is this one:

Head-to-Toe Assessment

This is a bit more substantial than some we have reviewed of late (given it is a little over twenty-two and a half minutes in length).

It comes from the channel Kaylee Peters, which is not doing so badly given it has 1.31k subscribers from only six videos, unsurprisingly there are no playlists (I suppose you don’t need a playlist on your channel if you have only six videos). All the videos were posted twelve years ago and then the channel goes into abeyance. This has all the symptoms of a student assessment video.Any regular readers will know that we have seen many such videos.

The channel is very sparse note wise: “Kaylee Peters

More info

            http://www.youtube.com/@kayleepeters5092

            Joined 11 Sept 2013

            1.31k subscribers

            6 videos

            955,885 views”

The video has no notes at all. Most of the comments are not positive but there is the odd ASMR fan in there, which can be reassuring. We do not all like the same things though I notice so it isn’t a given this will deliver.

The video starts without music; there is no obvious background noise. The presentation is relatively loud (at least for me). The presentation is way too fast, I think. I tend to find this with students who need to cram everything into one of these videos. This tends to be reaffirmed by the fact that the student refers to a checklist which is visible to the camera at frequent intervals. I did not find the voice of the student relaxing but the patient was a little more measured (not that she got a great deal of opportunity to talk).

There is a prominent shoulder patch on the student’s uniform but I think you would need to be in the know to determine where it was from as it is too faint for me to make out. So, limited chance of determining where this was recorded. However undeterred I sent it to a google image search which, even in its smudged state, Google tells me it is Claflin University (I’m not sure I set much store by that answer).

The student says “um” roughly once per minute, after a little while it becomes quite noticeable. Many commentators point this out. There are no extraneous noises. However to get a great ASMR experience I think a good first step would be to get into the video play controls and slow this down to half speed. The pace does slow down gradually as the video progresses, as if the student presenter settles into her stride (potentially calms down a bit in a stressful situation). There are sirens at one stage, an obvious hazard recording in a medical facility I would have thought.

It is quite a thought-provoking experience seeing the kind of motion (and balance) that is accessible to a person at this age (and which I do not have now). No doubt many people my age reflect the same thing.

There are genuine quiet and calm moments where I get the opportunity to hear what might have been (there are ever so many videos that I have reviewed previously that are like that, some of them are in the Procrastination Pen archive list right now). I usually give most of them a trial in the main list (as I will this one) but I give up on them when I either lie awake listening to them, or worse was quietly drifting off and one of the videos wakes me up.

I find when a presentation is at speed, not only is volume and calmness sacrificed but expressions of empathy as well. I wonder if the people who set these kinds of exercises in play take such considerations into account.

On that basis, just one, video this time.

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 Deep.ai

Sleeping With ASMR

This week I was listening to a podcast in which it was mentioned that “no regrets” was a daft philosophy. The phrase “no regrets” chimed for me and then I remembered it was the name of a song:

and so, in the way that one does, I looked up the song and found out far too much about it.

It did leave in me a question about the effects of relationship breakup on sleep. I have noticed that things like relationship failure are not often taken seriously. Presumably the phrase “man up” would be employed here. I certainly never hear of any time off being awarded because one’s beloved decided that Geoffrey (or Gemma) from Accounts was a better fit.

It would seem that my suspicion that it would have a significant impact is supported with studies demonstrating shorter duration sleep, depression (which also impacted sleep) and fragmented sleep when one finally gets any at all.

Sadly, The Procrastination Pen is not going to try to stir the crocodile-infested waters of relationships. I have no great solutions to offer you. My favourite AI tells me that 22.8% of couples are divorced by their 25th anniversary, which means a colossal number of people are suffering relationship breakup in their lives. I would be prepared to guess that those people do not get used to breakup even when they have been through one previously. The effects on sleep must be quite staggering.

The Procrastination Pen is however designed to try to alleviate some of those insomnia symptoms. The sole way that it attempts to do this is via distraction. Whilst the disciplined have trained their brain to switch off moments after the light is extinguished, the remainder of us would like something to keep the mind distracted whilst sleep slowly takes over.

The method I have chosen is to listen to something whilst trying to sleep. Personally, I find a calming, caring, dare I say it, empathetic, voice is quite effective in these circumstances. I therefore try to find resources that demonstrate that (rare) facility and evaluate them. Quite a lot of the time I wind up on YouTube but I do try to mine the alternative resources that I can find.

This week I thought I would stay on the subject of relationships and the stuff that goes wrong with them and pick on a podcast that I have often listened to, and rarely for the quality of the voice I have to admit: Limerence The Psychology of Romantic Obsession   Brandy Wyant, Being Well. The actual site lists the resource as being on YouTube but the podcast is widely available including Apple. I have often thought that Dr Rick Hanson has an excellent voice, Forrest also has a pretty good voice. I’m not quite so convinced by Brandy’s voice here. However, there are any number of episodes with just Forrest and Dr Rick in them, so it should give you an opportunity to determine if you like them.

The Calm track this week is this:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/zOO7Lqwcg_

Daily Jay

When to Quit

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

Quitting is not a sign of failure, although it is never wise to make a snap decision. I rather like that. I’m none too keen on the term failure especially as I read often of people who under one metric were terrible failures and by another great successes. Failure sounds to me like one of those rather too convenient labels you can give to others whose lifestyle you dislike.

Calm requires a subscription; I haven’t come across free Calm content yet. If I do, I’ll be sure to let you know. However, if you do have a subscription, why not try that out.

Some months ago now, I decided that some professional ASMR content should appear in the blog by way of contrast to the inadvertent ASMR which is most definitely still the core theme of this blog.

I’m beginning to realise that I actually prefer videos that were posted a little while ago and I see that on YouTube videos posted prior to the pandemic are now being referred to as “old school” videos. Given that is a scant six years ago now, how young are these ASMR artists on YouTube now?

There seems no reliable way to find really older YouTube videos with most searches on the site indicating that the majority of YouTube viewers preferring new, really new, or exceptionally new, videos and all the filters being optimised to take those preferences into account. I take some kind of perverse pride in exploring pre-pandemic videos where I come across them.

Todays for example, states that it was posted nine years ago and is by an artist that my ASMR index tells me I have not reviewed before (let us pray that is not for a fundamentally good reason). The site is Latte ASMR this site has 2.15m subscribers, three hundred and sixteen videos three playlists, I think that is nearly seven thousand subscribers for every video ever posted by this artist which seems a fairly good return to me.

The online translation service tells me that the three playlists are Japanese Videos, All Korean Videos and All English Videos, so no playlist dedicated to medical videos I’m afraid.

The notes against the channel are magnificently sparse: “Latte ASMR

More info

            http://www.youtube.com/@LatteASMR

            Joined 4 Jan 2016

            2.15m subscribers

            316 videos

            667,479,881 views”

I would guess with that kind of patronage there would be very little need to advertise.

The video is right on theme for us (in that it is a medical examination role play):

Cranial Nerve Exam ASMR

It is a little less than thirty-eight minutes and so moderately substantial. There are notes, of course:”2,570,932 views 10 Nov 2016

Hello! This is Latte 🙂

In this video today, I will do the cranial nerve exam!

Actually, it was a bit challenging to make this video in English.

I don’t know the words that used in medical situation and it was difficult but many of you guys asked me to make more English videos and I took courage from your comments and made this video. So, I had to speak very slowly not to lose my mind. I don’t like the outcome of this video that much but I just did my best!

I know most of you guys are very open-minded and sweet-heart so I believe that you can understand me 🙂 I will not give up anyway. I will make lots of English videos again and again to make better videos!

Thank you for taking your time to watch this video and love you all! ♥

☆If you want to support me ♥:

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4170402

★My second channel!

   / @latte5017 

★Instagram

  / latte_asmr “

Which regular readers will recognise are startlingly short for a professional ASMR artist (who habitually can write biblical notes with every video).

Comments are permitted. There are a lot of them, and most seem to be of the off-the-wall variety. That does not bode well. ASMR afficionados tend to wax-lyrical about the videos that they really like, sometimes to quite a nauseating degree. However, that is usually a fair sign that the video is a good one for us.

The video starts without music but there is a kind of background noise. (A hiss, but quite unlike the air conditioning noise that I am used to. It is more probably some kind of artifact from the recording mechanism used). The voice is quite high pitched but it is not whispery so that is quite rare. It sounds to me like the voice I would expect from a child, but the person starring in the video does not look that young. The pace is excellent, very measured. There are additional noises: nails clicking, the rustling of clothing, the odd clunk, paper rustling, the sound of pen scratching against paper, glove-related noises (I’m not a fan of these), the sound of the chinking of a glass vessel, clicking of pen light, what sounds like a small wooden drawer being opened and closed (it is off screen).

There is an amount of whispering during the examination, so that is fairly typical for a professional ASMR artist. There is that mouth clucking/clicking sound so beloved of ASMR professionals. The enunciation of some of the words is properly excellent and not that common in ASMR videos I have found.

There is the occasional oddity; “the liquid of taste” was one that stood out for me. But I thought that added to its charm rather than took away from it. You can probably tell that I very much liked this one. Why not give it a review yourself.

The inadvertent ASMR video this week is, in fact, drawn from a time when I was speculating about the treatment of youngsters and did this mean that people employed a gentler voice, a calmer demeanour, a more measured approach. In fact, did the very fact that a medical professional is dealing with a child mean that they are more likely to produce ASMR material.

I came across not a video but a playlist. It contains six videos however the blog post is already of a reasonable size so I think that I will evaluate the first video and file the other five for a return visit. The playlist is this:

It comes from a channel that I have visited again and again, primarily because it seems to have many suitable videos. It is, of course, Stanford Medicine 25, the playlist on the Procrastination Pen has a fair number of videos drawn from this channel in it.

The first video in this playlist is this one:

Abdominal Examination of the Newborn – Stanford Medicine

It is a little less than four and a half minutes so is another in a long line of brief videos that I have reviewed of late (the content is often great but short videos do maximise the inter video advert breaks).

The notes are sparse in the extreme: “411,093 views 5 Apr 2022

Dr. Bill Benitz demonstrates the abdominal examination of a newborn including identification of the liver edge and palpation of the spleen, kidneys, and a distended bladder.”

Dr Bill appears to be a very prestigious guy so we’re probably honoured to have him (if I did but know enough about medicine to understand it).

The video starts without music, but, in comparison to the professional ASMR artist I just reviewed, Dr. Bill is quite a lot louder. Another situation where the volume button needs to be thumbed down a bit. The speed is nicely slow, however. There is no background noise. The other good thing is that this, in common with all medical professional videos I have reviewed thus far, does not involve any whispering whatsoever. The baby involved is remarkably calm. It does not object in any way, quite surprising. For our purposes it makes for a more restful video though.

Just one, video this time.

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

See you again next week.

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 Deep.ai

Sleeping With ASMR

I notice that it has been so hot that we are starting to get advice about sleeping in a heatwave and that a sleep “divorce” is being discussed as a potential solution to some sleep-related issues. One thing that seems to be coming out of recent sleep articles is that people all over the UK (and no doubt elsewhere) are struggling to get enough decent quality sleep. The very high temperatures cannot be helping.

This blog, as regular readers will recognise, is all about sleep but mainly it focuses on sound and how to use sound to distract your mind from all the stresses of the day (and anticipation of the stresses of the day yet to come).

To this end I recommend (and review) a few audio tracks in the hope that you will find them restful. I am also, very gradually, building a playlist of inadvertent ASMR on YouTube which you may find helpful in this respect.

Some time ago I promised that I would find material that was not on YouTube so that those, like me, that loath the state of advertising on YouTube, during the quieter moments of the night could find refuge with another audio facility.

This week I notice that Susan Piver (someone I have mentioned before) has now started a podcast, called “Buddhism Beyond Belief”. It seems to have started in May and is still going strong. I rather like Susan’s voice. I also found that I could click on any of the tracks and they would just play without the need for any kind of logon (unlike some of the Spotify recommendations I have made recently).  There is no obvious mechanism for downloading each track so, sadly, no method for building into your own personal playlist. It may still be worthy of a review however.

The Calm track this week (which is strictly for people who already have a Calm subscription) is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/rUpkBWv51r

Daily Jay

Unlikely Teachers

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

What do unpleasant people teach us about ourselves.

I do not think that there is any free content, so on that basis (given most readers will not have a Calm subscription) I will move swiftly along.

I have, for some months now, been reviewing a professional ASMR artist. I have recently taken refuge in some rather old ASMR in that it is nostalgic for me (I used to listen to these tracks close to the time that they were first posted). This week’s one is this:

Ocean Fabric Affirmations 🕯[ASMR] Whisper

We have featured the channel WhispersRed ASMR before, but for those of you new to the blog, WhispersRed ASMR has 1.12m subscribers, nine hundred and twelve videos, twenty-nine playlists.

Of which this one is dedicated to getting sleepy:

Regular readers will have noticed that I have, yet again, strayed from the core theme of these blog articles which is medical orientated videos. I have been reviewing such videos for a long time and I assure you that I will be returning to them as well. 

The notes on the channel are quite informative including the fact that WhispersRed has been posting videos for thirteen years now (wow):

“WhispersRed ASMR

Description

Welcome home 💜 Make yourself cosy, put your feet up and I’ll pop the kettle on.

ASMR Tingles ✨ Relaxation ✨ Sleep ✨ Sound Therapy ✨ Silence ✨ Peace ✨ Love ✨ Smiles

Emma WhispersRed, Emma Smith, YouTube Mum

London, England

Links

Vlog Channelyoutube.com/@Emma_WhispersRed

Children’s Channelyoutube.com/c/WhispersRedASMRForChildren

Websitewhispersredasmr.com

Dog Rescue Charitywhispaws.org

Instagraminstagram.com/whispersred_asmr

TikToktiktok.com/@whispersredasmr

Facebookfacebook.com/WhispersRedASMR

More info

            http://www.youtube.com/@WhispersRedASMR

            United Kingdom

            Joined 12 Apr 2013

            1.12m subscribers

            912 videos

            433,408,137 views”   

As you can see the notes are pretty comprehensive (read extremely long). The majority of professional ASMR artists seem to double as part-time authors if the length of their notes is anything to go by.

The video is a little over thirty-two minutes and it also has humongous notes; associated with it. This time I think I’ll edit them down (a lot):

“663,439 views 16 Jan 2020 #whispersred #asmr

An ASMR affirmations whisper using ocean fabric hands sound, candle gazing, smudging and fluffy mics for close comforting hair sounds 💜0:01 – Introduction 6:53 – Guided relaxation 14:36 – Affirmations begin 23:39 – Repeated affirmations for sleep 29:09 – Goodnight, Sleep tight, with LOVE from me 🌟

Items in this video:

🌸US Links – Satya Incense collection including Celestial – https://amzn.to/2u4hpAt

Silver grey blanket https://amzn.to/30o6wFG

🌷UK Links – Satya Incense with Celestial https://amzn.to/2teboRK

Silver Grey Blanket https://amzn.to/2uSixaB

📚My ASMR Book – Unwind Your Mind: The Life-changing power of ASMR https://campsite.bio/whispersredasmr – Published by Ebury/PenguinRandomHouse in the UK/Europe and Harper One in the US and Canada. Available in Hardback, Paperback, Audiobook and Ebook.”

The full set of notes are interesting to true ASMR afficionados and no doubt to out-and-out WhispersRed fans.

Comments are permitted. There are a fair number and as per usual some are lauding WhispersRed as the pinnacle of ASMRishness. Some are just peculiar. This seems pretty average for any YouTube video. (Some YouTube videos also attract some rather nasty comments, but not so here, as far as I can tell).

The video starts without music and I suppose the clue was in the name of the channel in that we can hear that we are focused on the whispery; in fact, I would say it is on the whispery side of whispery.

Emma mimics ocean sounds by dragging her hands across fabric (and it is really very believable). If you find ocean sounds restful, I would say you would be hard pressed to tell the difference with your eyes closed. I am mainly here for the voice and whilst I prefer presentations that are not focused on whispery, as whispery presentations go, this is a good one.

There is the crackling of a burning candle, the sound of a cigarette lighter, the clicking of nails and that ongoing fabric sound which could easily be the waves retreating over sand, if you did not know better. I thought it quite a clever effect and I’m not certain who first worked out that you could employ fabric in this way. The blowing of a Joss Stick quite effectively mimics the wind blowing; it really is quite carefully put together. It even includes a few well-placed affirmations; I’m quite in favour of an affirmation so I would say that gives it extra kudos.

I can now remember what it is caused me to listen to it all those years ago. In fact, whether it was the heat or the restfulness of this video I did find myself nodding whilst listening to it. In terms of this blog, therefore, I would deem that a success.

Why not review it yourself and see what you think.

The inadvertent ASMR video this week is from a channel that regular readers will already know. It is from Oxford Medical Education a channel with 164k subscribers, thirty two videos, nine playlists, and I have mined this channel for material repeatedly. Some of the videos have actually been quite good.

The video is this one:

Neck Examination – ENT

It is a little less than four minutes so play close attention or you’ll miss it!

There are notes of course: “338,976 views 17 Feb 2012

This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School in conjunction with the ENT faculty – demonstrates how to perform an examination of the neck. It also demonstrates the lymph node regions of the neck.

All videos on this channel are linked to Oxford Medical Education (www.oxfordmedicaleducation.com)

This video was produced in collaboration with Oxford Medical Illustration – a department of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. For more information, please visit http://www.oxfordmi.nhs.uk”

How lovely and succinct they are, compared to those for the previous video.

The video starts without music but I was somewhat shocked after WhispersRed how loud the narrator initially sounded. This might be one to thumb the volume down a little. It might also be that in the context of the Procrastination Pen playlist it will fit right in. Something goes wrong with the video at about twenty seconds – it makes a very odd sound and the screen goes crazy for about three seconds. That is a great shame the video is otherwise quite calming. One of those where if I owned the video, I would cut that section out altogether. The medical professional has a great voice for our purposes, quite calm and quiet. However, sadly he does not get to talk as frequently as the narrator in this one. The “patient” doesn’t get to talk at all. The narrator has quite a good voice but not quite as great as the medical professional here. It might be that she has been instructed to be louder in order to be clear for the (no doubt students) attending to the video. It was not, after all, recorded for us ASMR fans.

The only problem from my perspective was the rather active advert that kicked in immediately afterwards.

On that basis, just one, video this time.

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

See you again next week.

The Oxford Medical Education 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 Deep.ai

Sleeping With ASMR

Recently it has been warm. Actually, warm does not even begin to describe it. It has been the kind of warm that must attend a sweating person’s undergarments. It has been hot and humid, and the kind of weather that makes you wonder why winter seems such a terrible idea.

One of the things that I find when it is like this is that lying in a pool of your own sweat is not that conducive to sleep. I also find that a couple of asthmatic tower fans do not really begin to make a dent in it. I am also hearing colleagues discussing the relative merits of this air conditioning system or that one.

England seems a quite different place to what I am used to if air conditioning starts to become as normal as formally a gas boiler would have been.

In these times as far as I can tell, all that is feasible is to rest, trust that your body is going to sleep when it has to, oh, and listen to a nice distracting playlist. It is for the latter that the Procrastination Pen has been reviewing calming material (predominantly from YouTube) for the last mumble-mumble months now. (It’s been a long while).

I am making efforts to live up to my promise of finding Internet-available material which is both free of adverts and also free of cost. (I think I was something of a lummock for promising it in the first place, but the endeavour persists).

This week I remembered that I had heard a meditation from someone called Chris Murchison called “I Am”. I found a copy of it here: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/podcasts/item/happiness_break_an_affirmation_practice_for_the_new_year

There is no obvious download button, however, there was also nothing that demanded payment. It is quite brief and there is some music, which is not my preferred thing. However, I found that Chris has a relaxing voice. Why not give it a try for yourself.

Whilst I’m looking at past relaxing material, I found that I had at one time been listening to this week’s professional ASMR artist in the past. The video is not on a medical theme but it is a goody (in my opinion).

The video is this one:

🌙* Sleepy Time🌙* ASMR * Soft Sounds * Massage *

It is from a channel that I have reviewed before

Gentle Whispering ASMR which has 2.43m subscribers, 848 videos, and 14 playlists.

There is even a playlist on a medical theme:

containing thirty-eight videos no less.

Today’s video is dated 2016 which is when I would have been listening to it. The notes, as usual, for a professional ASMR artist are making a run for war and peace in terms of their length:

“1 May 2016 #Gentlewhispering #ASMR #relax

Good evening🌙 ^_^ In this video we will scratch a pillow 00:59, make sleepy sweeping sounds with it 03:15, tuck you in with a soft blanket 06:22, massage your shoulders and your neck to help you relax more while learning why it is so good for you 08:45, then we’ll rub your temples and your forehead to sooth any tension you might have 17:00, help you locate and relax your jaw muscles 21:14 and at the end we’ll use a tissue technique 23:05 to help you close your eyes and fall asleep faster 🙂 I hope you’ll enjoy this simple and light video. Thank you for watching! 🌙 ♥

Disclaimer: ***- This video is created for relaxation, entertainment and ASMR/tingles/chills inducing purposes only. For more information about ASMR phenomenon please click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomo…

-This video cannot replace any medication or professional treatment. If you have sleep/anxiety/psychological troubles please consult your physician. Thank you 🙂

Email: MariaGentlewhispering@gmail.com

#ASMR #Gentlewhispering #relax”

As usual I have truncated those quite a bit. The video is a little over twenty-six and a quarter minutes. There are a shed-ton of comments. As usual there is lots of fawning commentary with the odd strange comment thrown in to remind you this is YouTube.

There is no startup music and the presentation is heavily dependent on whispery, breathy presentation. Pretty standard for a professional ASMR artist then. I do prefer them less on the whispery side personally, probably because such videos are comparatively rare. The voice is so quiet that at intervals what is being said cannot be made out (by me at any rate). However, the tone is so restful and quiet and the pace so marvellously slow. There is a persistent background hiss but it is barely noticeable. (I had turned the volume up a bit as the presentation really is that quiet).

There are non-vocal sounds of course: nails clicking on sequins, fabric-related noises, (some of those do not seem to be that restful), stroking of a cushion (which is uncannily like an ocean noise), stroking of a jumper, rustling noises, fingers tapping on material.

At intervals my mind did start to drift a bit which is perhaps not a good sign. Then again it could be a sign that if I was horizontal, I would have drifted off at that point.

I would say this one was definitely worthy of a review, why not take a look yourself.

The Calm track this week is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/yS_L-ODr3t

Daily Trip

Awareness for Curious Cats

NARRATOR

Jeff Warren

AUTHOR

Jeff Warren

What is awareness? We can never fully know ourselves but we can try.

I know the chances are that relatively few of you will have a Calm subscription and I am not going to sell you one. However, if you do subscribe to Calm, why not give that a try.

For the inadvertent ASMR we are back, once again, with a channel that I have covered many times previously, that is Geeky Medics. This channel has 1.44m subscribers, three hundred and fifty four videos, twenty playlists and occasionally we do find a really rather relaxing video. With the downside that as far as I remember every single video I have reviewed from this channel has music.

Today’s video is this one:

Tinel’s & Phalen’s Test – OSCE Guide | Clip | UKMLA | CPSA | PLAB 2

In common with several recent inadvertent ASMR videos of late it is rather short at a little less than one and a half minutes. The video still has notes though: “2 Oct 2022 Neurological Examination OSCE Guides | CPSA | UKMLA | PLAB | MRCS

This video demonstrates how to screen for sensory loss in the hands in an OSCE station. Sensory assessment of the hands (radial, median, ulnar nerve) is commonly performed as part of a hand and wrist examination.

Tinel’s and Phalen’s test screen specifically for median nerve compression (i.e. carpal tunnel syndrome).

You can read our step-by-step guide to hand and wrist examination here: https://geekymedics.com/hand-examinat…

Always adhere to medical school/local hospital guidelines when performing examinations or clinical procedures. DO NOT perform any examination or procedure on patients based purely on the content of these videos. Geeky Medics accepts no liability for loss of any kind incurred as a result of reliance upon the information provided in this video.

 Achieve success in your medical school OSCEs, UKMLA CPSA, and PLAB 2 exams with our free clinical skills videos. Subscribe to our channel to be informed of our latest releases. 🙂

CPSA OSCE Guides https://geekymedics.com/the-clinical-…

 UKMLA AKT Notes https://geekymedics.com/ukmla/

 PLAB 2 OSCE Stations https://geekymedics.com/plab-2-osce-s…

Revise for the Simulated Consultation Assessment (SCA) with our collection of high-quality SCA cases written by GPs and Training Program Directors. Check out our SCA revision cases and prepare for the MRCGP https://geekymedics.com/sca-cases-ban…”

Again I have edited those down a tad.

Despite how short this video is there is still time, apparently, for startup music (I am not a fan). The examination is not quiet, but the tone is good and the pace is excellent. Without the music it might even have been very good indeed. There is even further music at the tail end of the same video… it’s a great shame, I need a Geeky Medics Senza Musica but no such channel exists.

Still worth a review though I feel.

On that basis, just one, video this time.

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

See you again next week.

The Geeky Medics 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 Deep.ai

Sleeping With ASMR

This week I have been examining supplements to determine if my mistake of the other week (in which I believe I took too much magnesium) is complicated by the fact that a number of supplements contain magnesium. I found that in fact they do. Three different bottles I read the ingredients list of contain magnesium in one form or another. Taking more than one set of supplements may have a greater impact than would seem at first sight to be the case.

I also read this week that glucosamine (an apparently benign supplement to assist with aching joints) has a rather nasty potential side effect. This all makes me somewhat nervous about supplements and the recommending of them. Todays symptom-free supplement for sleep assistance might be tomorrow’s carcinogen, for example. It also goes to show that articles on the Internet, wherever they derive from and no matter how prestigious and reliable the author purports to be, need to be taken with a container load of salt.

The search for material that is advert free and yet is also no cost continues, and I am getting to trawling some pretty ancient stuff to find it. Some time ago I remember that I heard a meditation by Natalie Bell.

Of course, YouTube resources for Natalie exist, such as this one:

Nonetheless, that does not get us to a free – advert-free resource,

However, I did find a set on SoundCloud which is accessible simply by creating a login:

https://soundcloud.com/natbell77/sets/natalie-bell-meditations.

Of course, whilst I still maintain a subscription, I tend to post something from Calm each week. Maybe there’s the odd Calm subscriber out there who hasn’t had chance to listen to the same meditations that I have. Maybe we could even swap notes about it…

https://www.calm.com/app/player/bCDgJm-Jo4

Daily Trip

Deep Acceptance

NARRATOR

Jeff Warren

AUTHOR

Jeff Warren

Can you back out of the way things are supposed to be to the way things actually are?

Jeff is the presenter on Calm that I have the greatest sympathy with. I often feel that we are wired in the same way. He does not have the best voice on Calm, I think that might belong to Tamara Levitt. But don’t tell anyone in case it goes to her head.

I have another “Isabel Imagination” this week. I have a feeling I may have spent a while listening to her channel in the past and built up a resource in terms of previously-viewed video material to return to. As a professional ASMR artist, either she is remarkably consistent or I have been lucky and happened across a few videos that happen to be ok to listen to.

This week’s one is this one:

ASMR Nurse Personal Attention Role Play

Of course, I have detailed the channel one or two times previously, but for those who have happened across the blog, and have not read my ASMR reviews before, the channel is Isabel imagination ASMR.

This has 381k subscribers, six hundred and forty three videos, thirty three playlists.

Of which I rather liked this one:

Even though it is completely off-theme for this blog (I have tended to focus on medical-orientated videos).

Today’s video is a little over thirty and a half minutes long and so isn’t huge but seems fairly consistent (in terms of length) for the videos from Isabel that we have featured. It starts with that trademark crackly effect that regular listeners will be familiar with and, as usual, we are onto a whispery presentation (at least there isn’t any startup music).

This one has some background noise, presumably associated with the theme which this time is not just medical but wartime medical. Thankfully that noise does not last long. Things then get a bit breathy. I’m not averse to breathy, just not an excessive amount of it. As usual the voice is a whisper, but unusually for a while anyway, it sounds at a distance as if the person is remote from the microphone. I believe this is part of the effect as well. Things do settle down and the excessive breathiness and strange effects are dispensed with and it’s whispers all the way.

If you like a video with good presentation, you should like this one as the background does look authentic. I always assume anyone reading this blog is flat out with eyes closed when listening to the material and so what it looks like is not that important.

As usual, the tone of the voice is excellent and the pacing really good. One day I will find one that isn’t a whisper and it will be even better (as long as the voice is calm, quiet and the pacing slow, in any case).

I did find that occasionally it would get very quiet and the next time that Isabel spoke I was shaken back to awareness. There is the rustling sound of a pillow and that mouth clicking/clucking sound so beloved of ASMR artists; the sound of clothing moving; paper being handled; moments of out-and-out breathiness.

Occasionally my focus on the video wandering a little which doesn’t sound a good sign but it might be ideal when using it for sleep. I also wondered if any “patient” would truly get this level of attention – thirty minutes of dedicated attention sounds like your average patient’s dream and your average hospital’s unaffordable nightmare. I don’t think anyone is supposed to think about the reality of the situation when watching these videos but I can’t help but consider how realistic it all is.

This week’s inadvertent ASMR video comes from a channel that I have featured before more than once. The channel is Geeky Medics https://www.youtube.com/@geekymedics. This has 1.44m subscribers, three hundred and fifty four videos twenty playlists and unsurprisingly all of that content appears to be medical themed. The channel has notes: “Geeky Medics

Description

Geeky Medics has built a reputation as a leading producer of high-quality educational resources. Achieve success in your medical school OSCEs, UKMLA CPSA, and PLAB 2 exams with our free clinical skills videos. Subscribe to our channel to be informed of our latest releases!

Links

Create a Geeky Medics accountapp.geekymedics.com

Geeky Medics product bundlesapp.geekymedics.com/purchase/bundles

Download the Geeky Medics appgeekymedics.com/geeky-medics-app

1300+ OSCE Stationsapp.geekymedics.com/osce-stations

OSCE Booksapp.geekymedics.com/purchase/compare-books

Linktreelinktr.ee/geekymedics

Instagraminstagram.com/geekymedics”

Which are quite comprehensive I’m sure you’ll agree. The video is this one:

Sensory Assessment of the Upper Limbs – OSCE Guide (Clip) | UKMLA | CPSA | PLAB 2

It is a mere whisper itself, at three minutes in length. There are notes of course – it’s a professional video: “19 Dec 2023

This clip demonstrates how to perform a sensory examination of the upper limbs, including assessment of light touch, pinprick, vibration and proprioception modalities.

Read our step-by-step guide here: https://geekymedics.com/upper-limb-ne…

Chapters:

Introduction 00:00

Light touch sensation 00:10

Pin-prick sensation 00:51

Vibration sensation 01:39

Joint proprioception 02:02

Always adhere to your medical school/local hospital guidelines when performing examinations or clinical procedures. DO NOT perform any examination or procedure on patients based purely upon the content of these videos. Geeky Medics accepts no liability for loss of any kind incurred as a result of reliance upon the information provided in this video.

Some people have found this video useful for ASMR purposes.

Revise for the Simulated Consultation Assessment (SCA) with our collection of high-quality SCA cases written by GPs and Training Program Directors. Check out our SCA revision cases and prepare for the MRCGP https://geekymedics.com/sca-cases-ban…”

So not so much notes perhaps, as a mini encyclopaedia. I had to edit them down a lot the blog post would have been mainly notes otherwise. There are comments but there are precious few of those and none of them seem to be from ASMR fans. If there are ASMR fans here they seem to be being unusually reticent.

It starts with music which is a shame, but it does not last long. The voice of both the doctor and of the patient are calm and quiet. There is no extraneous noise at all. It isn’t even possible to hear the tuning fork which in some other videos can be rather loud. It ends with music as well and this goes on for quite a bit longer than the startup music. It is also rather too funky to be restful; it would be great to have the same video topped and tailed to eliminate that music. In all it is a rather good video for our purposes just, sadly, way too short.

On that basis, just one, video this time.

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

See you again next week.

The Geeky Medics 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 Deep.ai