Sleeping With ASMR

There has been a (hopefully unnoticeable) period of downtime of late, as there seems to have been no brief periods to sneak in a video review. That being the case, I am somewhat grateful of the backlog of material I had built up over the Christmas break. Today though, a few minutes available and a new video review.

Of course, for a very short while, I have been slipping in a review of a professional ASMR artist video. Today’s channel is ASMR Rebecca.

The video is this one:

A Very Realistic ASMR Eye Exam (new props!)

This is just over twenty-five and a half minutes. It starts with various rubber glove noises which seem to occur in several videos and I have now decided I really dislike. The vocal tone is better than some I have covered. At least the voice is closer to one an actual medical professional would use (a lot less whispering here).

I notice that the eye chart is displayed as in a mirror, so it’s a little challenging to read. However, as we are here to listen, I doubt it matters. To me, various parts of the exam seem to be out of focus which might be deliberate.

There are numerous additional noises which I think are supposed to appeal to ASMR fans who respond to different “triggers.” I just find them distracting. For example, there is drumming of the fingers, clicking noises and noises of a pen scratching against paper.

All told for a professional ASMR video, I found that there were rather too many distracting noises for me. I know that some professional ASMR artists include as many triggers as feasible in each video, but this scatter gun approach, to me, means that there is no particular focus. Surely it is better to focus solely, for example, a video on those who like scratching noises rather than whispers + scratching noises + clucking noises + finger drumming and so on and so forth. As each person finds their specific trigger, others are put off and as the artist moves onto the next trigger, they put off the one who was until that minute entranced.

This video is also not helped by extraneous background noise in terms of a car alarm somewhere sounding off. (Probably a good key to restart the entire filming process).

That said there are hundreds of comments on this video and a quick scan through reveals that they seem to be positive. This slightly increases my perception that people are watching due to the way a person looks rather than the ASMR sounds a video may have.

However, the presentation is, as expected, carefully put together and the tone is excellent (eyesight tests appearing as if in a mirror, excepting).

I will put it into the sweetie jar playlist so that you can have a review for yourself.

Onto the core theme of the blog, which is videos that were not designed to be restful but are, nonetheless, relaxing in content. Today, we return to Dr Abraham Verghese who we have featured before in this blog.

On Being a Doctor and Connecting with Patients

Just over four minutes so not a huge video. It has notes which thankfully are not as lengthy as we have grown used to. “14,160 views 7 Jan 2020

In this video Abraham Verghese, MD, best-selling author of In My Country and Cutting for Stone, discusses the origins of the study he coauthored identifying 5 practices that foster meaningful connections between physicians and patients. Learn more at ja.ma/presence5.”

There are few comments but they are quite encouraging – this makes a welcome change. We’ve seen Abraham Verghese before and on that occasion, we concluded he had a good voice for us and so again with this video. There is no introductory music (hurray) no weird background noises (hurray) and no people wandering across the camera (hip-hip…).

This though, is not a medical examination as such. It is a monologue. But it is calm, measured and most of all the volume control isn’t turned up to 11.

Sadly, background music commences after a while, but it is at least calm music and the volume does not suppress the speaker. So, I may make an exception and add this into the playlist. It might though get booted on review into the archive list.

The channel is JAMA Network which has 1.3K videos at the time I am looking at it. Try covering that lot in one blog post.

I think I’ll try for any of those that feature Abraham Verghese and focus that way.

A search on Abraham Verghese’s surname brings up videos that do not include him. However the videos in their entirety number only six so I’ll go with it and see if we have discovered any hidden gems.

The first is the one covered above leaving just five to review.

How to Prepare with Intention

With notes: “1,357 views 21 Jan 2020

Preparing with intention is one of five practices that can help doctors connect with patients. In this video, Donna M. Zulman, MD, MS, Jonathan G. Shaw, MD, MS, and Abraham Verghese, MD, from @StanfordMedicine explain how this practice works and why it’s important. Learn more at ja.ma/presence5.”

It is just over two minutes long, so hardly there at all. Abraham Verghese is this time drowned out by background music and this continues as Donna Zulman speaks and it fails to desist when Jonathan Shaw contributes.

In fact, it ruins the video from our perspective so I’ll move on.

How to Agree on What Matters Most

This is less than one and one half minutes and starts with Abraham Verghese again. There are notes of course: “877 views 21 Jan 2020

Agreeing on what matters most is one of five practices that can help doctors connect with patients. In this video, Donna M. Zulman, MD, MS, Jonathan G. Shaw, MD, MS, and Abraham Verghese, MD, from @StanfordMedicine explain how this practice works and why it’s important. Learn more at ja.ma/presence5.”

In this case the music does not quite overpower the speaker, even as the video moves on to Donna Zulman and then to Jonathan Shaw, so I think I’ll tolerate this one. How long it will last in the Procrastination Pen playlist though…

I am becoming much more critical of late and some of the videos that have been in that playlist for a long time are now getting booted to the archive list.

Listening to Patients Intently and Completely

A little less than two minutes and so all of these videos have the advantage that they will not delay us long. They have the disadvantage that they provide spaces for more of the oppressively loud and distracting adverts that YouTube chooses to put into the gaps between videos, even when those videos are obviously being played overnight!

Why I would want a loud and funky advert blasting from the headphones at 3am is anybody’s guess. But, I suppose, it is more important that a few more pence are added to the coffers.

The video has notes as expected: “2,749 views 21 Jan 2020

“The data source is the patient, and the most important thing is not to interrupt them, and let the story unfold.” Listening intently and completely is one of five practices that can help doctors connect with patients. In this video, Donna M. Zulman, MD, MS, Jonathan G. Shaw, MD, MS, and Abraham Verghese, MD, from @StanfordMedicine explain how this practice works and why it’s important. Learn more at ja.ma/presence5.”

It starts with Abrham Verghese again and I am saddened by the fact that all the participants seem to have reasonable voices but they are masked (even if partially) by continuous background music. I am mystified why anyone would do that, unless it is to frustrate ASMR-seeking listeners – in which case it is highly effective.

Achieving Diagnostic Excellence

This is a much more substantial video, it is very nearly half an hour in length. As if to reflect this it also has much more substantial notes so I’m just supplying an extract of these: “1,345 views 20 Sept 2022  #JAMALive

Arguably, a clinician’s most important role is providing an accurate and actionable diagnosis for patients. But challenges stand in the way, including tool limitations, inequitable access, and discontinuity of care. In this roundtable Q&A discussion, Urmimala Sarkar, MD, MPH (Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, UCSF), Jonathan H. Chen, MD, PhD (Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research, Stanford University), and Harvey V. Fineberg, MD, PhD (Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation), discuss issues affecting diagnostic excellence, the emergence of artificial intelligence–driven tools, and ways to make the diagnostic process patient-focused. Hosted by JAMA Editor in Chief Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, MD, PhD.

Visit http://jamanetworkvideo.com for more content like this.”

Comments are permitted and the only feedback is relevant and well-thought out, which makes a refreshing change. This also means that there is no feedback from ASMR fans.

The video commences with funky music but thankfully that soon desists. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo starts the video. I’m not sure that Kirsten would be the first choice in terms of voice for ASMR but at least the presentation is not excessively loud.

Sadly, the format which is like a Zoom call (other chat-related softwares exist), does not lend itself to an ASMR supporting video. This one does not belong in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Coronavirus Update With Eric Topol

On the face of it, this is not a subject that is likely to be restful. It is the longest video so far seen in this blog post at a little shy of forty-one minutes. There is a whole medical manual of notes with the video, so here is a brief extract: “19,983 views Streamed live on 23 Jul 2020 #Pandemic #COVID19 #Coronavirus

Eric Topol, MD, Scripps Research EVP and omnivorous science health care and tech commentator, discusses the evolving COVID-19 pandemic.”

There are a number of comments, many of which reflect the concerns surrounding the subject, but no obvious ASMR-related comments.

There is no startup music – heaven be praised, so a nice peaceful start. However, we are again faced with a Teams-call like interface and not a medical examination as such. The presentation starts with Howard Bauchner who actually has quite a reasonable voice. Eric Topol is the person being interviewed who, if anything, has a better voice. Sadly, as before I do not think this is suitable for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The Bedside Manner 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.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

I have been promising for a little while now that I would make some recommendations regarding tracks on Calm that I have used when sleep seems to be avoiding me. In fact, Calm has a whole range of material dedicated to sleep. This seems to be getting updated so regularly that it is hard to point to any one specific track. That said, I did rather enjoy “A Calmling in New York”. Perhaps a little too music-based for my usual relaxation but you may well have a different point of view. You can find it here: https://www.calm.com/app/player/qJEZPZzlDS but a warning, Calm is not free (and I am not trying to encourage you to pay for it).

Of course, if you are really stressed of a night time, it might just be that you want to be as relaxed as possible whilst acknowledging that sleep just isn’t going to happen for you that evening. In which case, some background noise might be just what you need.

I often give up in these situations and switch on the TV, listening with headphones on. It is not infrequently that I wake up a few hours later, a change of location and some background noise being all that it took to knock wakefulness on the head.

However, if it is looking like a few hours of being awake, you might do worse than to launch the Procrastination Pen playlist, set YouTube to shuffle and lie there listening to the various restful tracks that are available.

I have been in the habit recently of reviewing one professional ASMR artist’s video. Just because I’ve been reviewing inadvertent ASMR for over a year now and it is probably time for a change. (Small though it is).

Today’s video comes from LeannaASMR who is featured on the ASMR index here.

ASMR| Comprehensive Abdominal Exam, Full Medical Roleplay (Soft Spoken)

At a little less than twenty minutes it is rather short for a full-length professional ASMR video of this type. I do notice that there is a rising tendency for ASMR artists to publish their videos as “shorts” i.e. something only a few minutes long. Perhaps this video is trying to draw a middle way between the hour-long material we’ve seen and the one-minute shorts that are at the other end of the spectrum.

The video has quite a lot of extraneous noise; clicking noises, crumpling noises, equipment noises, the odd thump, in fact, the noises I have been hoping that inadvertent ASMR material would not contain. I assume that this was included here for effect but it marred it for me. The voice, meanwhile is as perfect as you can imagine for a professional ASMR artist and does not stray into the whispering level, which tends to make such videos completely unbelievable (what medical professional conducts an examination using a whispering tone)?

So, enough of all these distractions back to the overriding purpose of the blog which is to turn up inadvertent ASMR material or, at the very least, videos which are calm and restful (and hopefully without too much in the way of extraneous noises).

Today’s video comes from a channel that I have covered before N Sight has 3.08K subscribers and twenty videos. The proportion of subscribers to quantity of videos is something of an achievement, I think.

The video is this one:

Nails: Demo Exam

It is four- and three-quarter minutes so not long enough to keep you. There are notes “264,441 views 17 Feb 2016

In today’s medical practice, knowing how to spot physical signs of nutritional imbalances during a routine physical examination is an essential diagnostic tool. This nutrition-focused nails exam is conducted by Kara Fitzgerald, ND.

N Sight is presented by the Institute for Functional Medicine.”

But perhaps wisely comments are not permitted.

Sadly, it has startup music and that startup music is a bit peppy to be properly restful. There is background noise but it is not excessive. Kara has a good voice, the “patient” does not get to say a great deal. Some of the included pictures are majorly off-putting and so, if this blog was not focusing on listening, I would be lairy about making it a member of the playlist. My recommendation is to listen and not to watch.

Fortunately N Sight has an entire playlist dedicated to the Nail Exam category and this playlist contains four videos.

 The playlist first featured is, in fact, number two in this playlist. The first video is this one:

Nail Exam: Introduction, Equipment, & Patient Positioning

Again, there are notes: “7,955 views 17 Feb 2016

In today’s medical practice, knowing how to spot physical signs of nutritional imbalances during a routine physical examination is an essential diagnostic tool. This nutrition-focused nails exam introduction is conducted by Kara Fitzgerald, ND. N Sight is presented by the Institute for Functional Medicine.”

The same two participants are featured and again we have funky startup music (sigh). The video is a bit longer than three-and-a-quarter minutes and does not initially start with a medical examination. Kara Fitzgerald starts presenting and as such the vocal is a little louder than in the first video. The patient does not appear until the two- and three-quarter minute mark, it is interposed with yet more funky music and I find that quite distracting.

The second video is the one we came in with, and the third video in the playlist is this one:

Nails: Teaching Exam

This is much more substantial at a little less than seventeen and a half minutes. There are notes again “43,265 views 17 Feb 2016

In today’s medical practice, knowing how to spot physical signs of nutritional imbalances during a routine physical examination is an essential diagnostic tool. This nutrition-focused nails exam is conducted by Kara Fitzgerald, ND.

N Sight is presented by the Institute for Functional Medicine.”

And the same two participants. The far too energetic music tops and tails the video, as before.

This time we are into the meat and potatoes of an examination. Here, Kara’s voice is much more measured and I would say is pretty good from our perspective. It is not too loud or energetic.

I would say (music excepting) this is a pretty good candidate for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The final video is merely a wrap up. It is this one:

Nails: Conclusion

it is only slightly more than a minute. Same startup (and concluding) music. No medical exam this time and just like that it is all over.

The N Sight 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.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

Welcome readers to another article of the Procrastination Pen. Just for a change, we will be looking at videos designed to encourage ASMR symptoms (if you want to receive ASMR symptoms, that is).

Yet again, I am temporarily going to review the video from a professional ASMR artist as a slight distraction from the main aim, which is to review inadvertent ASMR material.

In this case, the video under review is this one:

ASMR Cranial Nerve Exam – Roleplay

This is from the channel Starling ASMR a channel having 532K subscribers and three hundred and seventeen videos which is pretty high productivity, I’m sure that you will agree. There are a few playlists dedicated to medical exams which has been bread and butter for this blog for over a year now.

Starling ASMR also features on the ASMR index.

As I have concluded previously about other ASMR artists, Valentina is of attractive appearance and continues to confirm my suspicion that a number of ASMR fans don’t attend these videos because of the way that they sound.

The video is inclined towards the whispery and so I do not think that it is designed to fool anyone. I do not think any medical professional would conduct an exam whispering to this extent.

It contains some noises which I suspect are supposed to be stimulating, but to me rubber glove noises, clicks and crumpling noises are not what I’m interested in. In addition, the somewhat loud vibrations roughly half way through the video are, to me, distracting.

Given how popular the video is however, I think I am in a group of one here.

The voice is, of course, first class and distracting noises aside, I can hear what people are listening for.

I think it is worthy of review and so I have added it into the Sweetie Jar playlist.

Of course, the purpose of this blog has not been to review professional ASMR artists and so we return to the inadvertent ASMR that is its core material.

Today we are back on a channel that I did promise I would revisit after a moderately successful first review of it.

The video features a different “patient” to the last time we were here, and we may have some success sticking with that “patient” in terms of the videos that we review on this occasion.

The channel is Farsight Channel and will be familiar to regular readers.

The video is this one:

Macleod’s examination of the cardiovascular system

As we have previously established Macleod’s appears to be a medical tome of great worthiness in that a number of people seem to be reading it, following these videos, commenting on it and so on. Sadly, with all the medical knowledge of a person with no medical knowledge I have no idea if all that attention is justified. I will take it that it is.

As we saw the last time, all of these videos are professionally produced and a well-established clue to this is the presence of a great many notes. The notes with this video are as follows: “2,047,718 views 5 Jul 2013 New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition

This video demonstrates clinical examination techniques as described in Macleod’s Clinical Examination. The textbook with access to the full set of videos is available at http://www.elsevierhealth.co.uk/macleod

More information about the director www.iainhennessey.com”.

Comments are (bravely in my view) permitted, and are the usual rag-tag of rare affirming statements, demands for attention of one variety or another and the occasional off-the-wall comment, which makes you wonder.

The video is a little less than thirteen minutes and almost amazingly has no startup music at all (hurrah). Like before, we have two participants who could easily be computer rendered. The tone is wrong, the pacing is wrong and the voices occasionally don’t seem to fit what is happening. It is as if we have two participants and two other people’s voices have been dubbed over the top. This is less apparent, however if you don’t actually watch the video. Just listen to it. This is what I recommend anyway, after all the purpose of the blog is to help you get to sleep and it is hard to do that with your eyes open.

The video is largely narrated in any case. The narrator is not as restful voice wise as the participants who (artificial or not) have moderately quiet voices. The narrator is a little louder, but not sufficiently so to eliminate the video from the Procrastination Pen playlist, I think.

Given the channel has fifty-nine videos I think we will follow the technique used in the former article and search for videos where the same “patient” features. This gives us the following:

Macleod’s examination of the thoracic and lumbar spine

At a little less than five and a half minutes. It has notes: “9,840 views 6 Jul 2013 New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition

This video demonstrates clinical examination techniques as described in Macleod’s Clinical Examination. The textbook with access to the full set of videos is available at http://www.elsevierhealth.co.uk/macleod

More info about the author www.iainhennessey.com

Again, it starts silently. The participants seem to be speaking in a strange way, but they are more restful than the narrator. However, this remains consistent with the last one which is something we often find with professionally produced videos i.e. find one good one and the entire channel might well be a source of other good videos.

At least in this one the patient shows some emotion (smiling), so it is decidedly less robotic than the previous one.

Definition:

Dimples of Venus, a picture seemed best for this:

Dimples of Venus while seated (with arrows)

Macleod’s examination of the respiratory system

This is just under thirteen minutes and again it has notes: “2,851,650 views 5 Jul 2013 New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition

This video demonstrates clinical examination techniques as described in Macleod’s Clinical Examination. The textbook with access to the full set of videos is available at http://www.elsevierhealth.co.uk/macleod

More information about the director http://www.iainhennessey.com”

We’re used to the format by now. So, we are expecting the participants to be a bit robotic but nonetheless for the video to be a reasonable one for our purposes.

We have Omar and Amy in this one and both we have seen before with Amy featuring in the previous article on this channel.

There is silence to start and that strange impression that the people featured and the voices somehow do not belong together. The actual examination is quiet and measured and the whole video would be approaching ideal sound wise if it were not for the narration over the top of it. However, the narrator never quite gets as far as objectionable such that I could find cause to dismiss the video from the Procrastination Pen playlist altogether.

He has the benefit of good intonation and never straying into excessive volume.

Definition:

Thoracotomy – surgery to open the chest.

Macleod’s examination of the shoulder

Notes: “82,387 views 5 Jul 2013 New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition

This video demonstrates clinical examination techniques as described in Macleod’s Clinical Examination. The textbook with access to the full set of videos is available at www.elsevierhealth.co.uk/macleod

This is Ben and Omar, so a change of medical personnel. The video is a little under five minutes so isn’t going to waylay any of us for long. If anything, the narration with this one is slightly more muted which makes it more suitable for us.

Definition: Serratus Anterior

A picture is best for this:

Serratus anterior

The responses are abrupt as we have seen previously with videos featured from this channel. However, the way the medical professional handles the examination is gentle and considered.

Deltoid

1119 Muscles that Move the Humerus b

At intervals (whilst the narration is occurring), the medical professional is speaking but nothing can be heard.

At this point I realise that the blog post is likely to be an excessively long one. So As before I’m going to halt the review of videos and carry some onto a future blog post on the same channel.

The Farsight 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.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

Recently I have been including a cameo role for a professional ASMR artist. I’ve limited my adventurings to videos where they are playing a medical professional to fit in with the ongoing blog theme, which has focused on medical-themed ASMR videos for well over a year now.

Once a person strays into this area though, you very quickly realise that there are a huge number of medical-themed ASMR videos and the scope for spending hours on really quite unsuitable videos is commensurately high.

After trying a few, I also happened upon another hazard which is that the first several minutes of the video is given over to the junk the sponsor of the video wants to sell. Quite a lot of heinous-instantly-disposables in such videos. It convinces me that any video organised this way is unlikely to get much space on this blog. There is quite enough intrusive time given over to advertising as it is, without it forming a part of the video itself.

This one seems to escape some of these problems:

ASMR Head to Toe Assessment 2024 [Full Body Medical Examination] | ‘Unintentional Style’ Roleplay

Sadly, there is the ever-present air conditioning noise which I would think a professional ASMR artist could ensure was dispensed with. There are also some equipment noises, including some loudish beeps, whirring equipment and clunks from moving equipment around. This is rather like many of the genuine medical videos we have reviewed. There is the sound of rubber gloves which is quite off-putting. The video is a little over forty minutes so quite substantial and as expected the tone of the presentation is nigh on perfect. In this case two recognised ASMR artists are collaborating so in a sense it is two for one in that both voices here are excellent (if they weren’t then the number of subscribers would be something of a surprise).

The channel is Ivy B ASMR it has 350K subscribers and 1.9K videos so someone deeply loves this ASMR artist (or rather quite a number of someones).

So, well worthy of consideration, I think. I will place it into the sweetie jar list. However, bear in mind this list does not receive anything like the attention of the main Procrastination Pen playlist as it has not been the focus of this blog (at least so far).

So, after that brief sojourn into videos created deliberately for ASMR, back to the inadvertent ASMR video and, perhaps the slightly more difficult task of finding a video with potentially relaxing effects amongst the large number of videos which are unsuitable.

Today, we return to Stanford, which has been a rich well of restful videos.

Venous Testing

This is just a little over five minutes in length, so blink and it is already gone. It is a professional video and so, as we would expect, there are notes. “4 Jul 2012

Visit: stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu

This video is from the Stanford Medicine 25: an initiative to enhance the culture of bedside medicine and physical diagnosis. Visit our website to learn more. The ankle brachial index is one of our “25” diagnostic techniques that we teach.”

There are no ASMR-related comments and quite frequently this means it isn’t a desperately great video.

It starts with the standard Stanford musical intro (boo hiss). The medical professional is John Cooke MD and John has an excellent voice. There is a slight background hiss which is unfortunate, but nothing as bad as some of the air conditioning we have heard.

There is a doppler device in use which some people might find off-putting. The noises from this device seem to get louder and more explosive as the video goes on. There is also the standard Stanford end music as well.

We have visited the Stanford Medicine 25 channel prior to this and we know that the videos tend to be divided into playlists.

This video comes from the playlist Stanford Medicine 25: Ankle Brachial Index. There is only one other video in this playlist, and it is this one:

Ankle Brachial Index (ABI) Test: How to Perform

The notes do not introduce anything substantially new. This one is also presented by John; this time the video is seven- and three-quarter minutes long. There are comments and this time, the odd one might be ASMR-related (the comments as usual are variable). John continues to have a great voice in this video. But we know what is coming when the doppler device is produced again.

The doppler device does produce the odd distracting noise. This is a shame because I do like John’s voice and the pacing of the presentation. It is only because of this that I am considering running with these two in the playlist to begin with. Sadly it is quite likely that both will ultimately get culled for the archive list.

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.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

For a little while, I have been reviewing a professional ASMR artist with the understanding that as they have set themselves up to produce ASMR material, that material had better be top notch. That is, I am disposed to be more critical of such videos than I would be of a similar inadvertent ASMR video.

This one caught my eye because it is seeking to emulate the very type of video that I habitually review i.e. the inadvertent ASMR video:

ASMR Head to Toe Medical Exam | Cranial Nerves, Physical Assessment | “Unintentional” Style

It is not completely quiet I notice; there are equipment noises, background noises, noises from participants moving around and using medical equipment. In all, not as quiet as I would expect for a professional video. The voices are of course as close to perfect as you can achieve and we’d expect that. It is setting its stall by the ASMR flag after all.

It is odd to find the participants whispering, but not unwelcome in the scheme of things. It does make the occasional noise seem louder than it would do otherwise.

The video is just under forty four minutes and so quite long compared to a lot of the inadvertent ASMR material we have been reviewing of late.

There are notes “308,882 views 16 Nov 2024 #asmrunintentional #asmrmedical #asmrheadtotoe

Let me know if you can spot the surprise towards the end!!! ASMR Head To Toe Medical Exam | Cranial Nerves, Physical Assessment | “Unintentional” Style

SUBSCRIBE FOR DAILY VIDEOS https://bit.ly/Subscribe2MadP

my personal insta:  / just_madspam 

asmr insta:   / madpasmr 

For collaborations: madpasmr@gmail.com

Wear Headphones

This is an ASMR medical role-play, I’m not a real doctor and if you have a medical condition please consult with your physician. This video does not display accurate information therefore none of the information should be taken as accurate/truthful facts.

#asmrheadtotoe  #asmrunintentional #asmrmedical”

The channel is MAD P ASMR. This has 603K subscribers and 940 videos (no one need say that ASMR is not popular).

I found that MAD P ASMR also has an online review. It is good to see that there are other bloggers involved in a similar area.

As with other professional ASMR artists we have so far seen, the attractiveness of the participants tends to be towards the well above average level and so I remain unclear if it is the quality of the sound that is the main appeal (and quite probably it is not).

There are comments, of course, and surprisingly they predominantly are positive. MAD P ASMR is obviously a well-respected contributor.

As we have seen before in a video of this length, YouTube is going to hammer in advertising as frequently as it can get away with and quite a lot of that advertising is not going to be restful. This is a major downside of using YouTube for this kind of material.

Around the twenty-seven-minute mark the video continues but one of the participants has left and a new one has joined. That seems odd and usually I would have thought this the perfect cue to start a whole new video.

I’ll refer to this as the second half of the video (although it’s more like the final seventeen minutes) and it seemed to me to start a little louder. However, this, for me, makes it seem a bit more realistic as all the whispering did not seem the kind of thing your average medical professional commonly engages in. The voices are still muted and probably still much too whispery to be considered a model of real life medical professional behaviour.

At least the part where the patient is talking but the medical professional is just typing into a computer seems representative of real life. (I’m not certain the typing noises are exactly what I would call restful though).

There are various unwrapping noises, which perhaps some people will find appealing. They don’t really appeal to me that much. There also seems to be a quite elevated set of blood pressure instrument noises. The sound of palpating the back sounded more like someone hitting a drum, so I am not sure how the microphone was set up for this.

In the final moments the medical professional starts spraying the back of the “patient” with something which appears to have a glitter-like substance in it. A bit surreal for a medical exam.

In all though, this just adds up to my being extra critical because this is a professional ASMR video after all. I still think it is worthy of review and I am going to add it into the Sweetie Jar list.

Well, that has been a somewhat lengthy diversion from the real meat-and-potatoes work of this blog which is to find inadvertent ASMR videos. (i.e. real videos which may have some relaxing effects rather than ASMR professionals playing doctors and nurses).

Today’s material follows on from an earlier blog post. In this, I introduced the Geeky Medics channel and we got to see videos featuring Dr James Lower and Dr Andrew Pugh.

My preferred method for refining which videos we would review from the channel was to look for videos that featured James.

This led to a very long blog post and enough extra videos for several more blog posts besides. I arbitrarily divided them up for part 1 and this is part 2.

Hip Joint Examination – OSCE Guide (Latest)

There is startup music but different startup music to the videos we saw in the last article. James is in for another examination with Andrew. This time all kinds of leg manipulations are seen but what we hear is similarly quiet and methodical to all those videos that went before.

As we saw in the previous article there are notes – but I won’t repeat them here. Comments are permitted and as before some of those comments are not fully helpful.

This video is just over four and a half minutes. It is so speedy that it is hardly there at all. There is of course background (air conditioning) noise. It is almost rude to have a video without it. Although when it does happen, it is so – so welcome.

Knee Joint Examination – OSCE Guide (Latest)

The video is six and three quarter minutes this time and if you read the previous article, this video will be familiar. (Some elements of the video are obviously just repetitions of filming completed for other videos).

Selecting James as a method of thinning out videos has resulted in a sample of a good percentage of the videos on the website. Overall, this will bulk out the playlist (which really wasn’t the aim).

In order not to tax your reading patience, I think six videos is going to be sufficient for this article.

Dix-Hallpike Test & Epley Manoeuvre – OSCE Guide

This is just under two and a half minutes so it is not hanging around this one. Andrew and James appear again but James appears different and the video is posted much more recently up to now the videos have been six years old but this one is a slimline five years ago.

The new startup music is firmly established and dogging the start of the videos. Andrew’s voice seems to be at a higher volume for some reason and the background hiss a little more established.

Here we have Mr Ben Cosway as ENT Registrar for the first time in the credits at the end of the video as “Reviewer”.

Lymphoreticular Examination – OSCE Guide (lymph node, spleen and liver examination)

This one is a little over four- and three-quarter minutes in length. Startup music, tick, Andrew and James, tick, hissing background noise, tick, initial pre-amble, tick, move onto actual examination, tick, (of which a fair amount is actually in silence – heaven be praised no background noises). In summary, it is just like those we have already seen.

This time the reviewer is Dr Adam Gibb Clinical research fellow in Lymphoma, he seems to be at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust which is in Manchester.

Subcutaneous Injection (SC injection) – OSCE Guide

This one is not brilliant if injections are really not your thing (don’t watch!) It is just two- and three-quarter minutes in length. Andrew and James continue their merry dance across the screen. (To be fair it has all been relaxing so far, apart from the odd extraneous noise in videos which we can afford to dismiss from the playlist, given the resource of videos on this channel is just so large).

Otoscopy and Hearing Assessment | Ear Examination | Rinne’s & Weber’s test | OSCE Guide

I’ll make this the last video in this blog article but there are quite a few more for a future article or articles. It is slightly more than three-and-a-quarter minutes so none of the videos today will waylay you for very extortionate periods of time. It features Andrew and James again, the Morecombe and Wise of medical examinations. There is whispering, so I take it all back, medical examinations really do feature whispering, but perhaps not for the entire length of the examination.

There are a few disturbing ear related images, but as you will be listening rather than watching, you should be well placed.

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 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.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

For those who have stuck with this blog, well done and thank-you. You will be aware of the format that this blog has followed for over a year now and I thought that just for a treat we would have a change. Instead of focusing on inadvertent ASMR videos from YouTube as, by-and-large, I have done for a long time now, what if in between I take a look at a video from a professional ASMR artist and consider whether it is worthwhile.

The drive remains a mechanism for getting some sleep. The difference is that someone is deliberately setting out to be relaxing, so we should be disposed to have extremely high expectations.

Searching YouTube for ASMR material yields up a bewildering array of videos and quite a lot of them look unsuitable before I even give them a review.

However, this one:

ASMR Medical ROLE PLAY | Cranial Nerve Exam (personal attention for relaxation and sleep)

is by an artist who has been around for some time and who has her own entry in the online ASMR index.

This is one of many by Isabel on a medical theme and given this is just a diversion I am not going to explore the others here. This is just a taster.

Not unexpectedly, Isabel has a truckload of followers and enough videos to restock Netflix on a Friday evening.

This particular video is a little over thirty eight minutes in length and for me it’s a little on the breathy side. (But I imagine some ASMR fans rather like that).

There are also some jarring beeps at intervals which would not dispose me towards snooziness, I must confess.

I’m also not a fan of the scratchy noises. However, I imagine for some people they are the main appeal.

It has notes but given a lot of professional artists focus on the merchandising, I won’t repeat them here.

Comments are permitted and, boy, are there a lot of those. A quick review though indicates that they are predominantly positive which is unusual in comparison to the video comments we have become used to.

I’m always a little concerned by professional ASMR videos in that predominantly the artists featured are, shall we say, a little too attractive to be considered average. In such cases I am suspicious that fans are attending not because of the quality of the sound…

The sound quality (as we would expect) is sublime with no weird background noises, no loud equipment noises and it just shows the incredibly high bar that an inadvertent ASMR video is aiming for (and habitually misses).

In any case, as this is a diversion, I am currently not disposed to set up an Isabel playlist on the Procrastination Pen (unless there is call for such a thing).

I will instead add such videos to the Sweetie Jar playlist on the assumption that a subset of readers might use such material to fall asleep to (as opposed to the inadvertent ASMR videos which have been the focus of this blog to date).

So returning to the main theme.

Today we go back to a channel which has been an old favourite which is the University of Leicester

Regular readers will know that we have been here before and whilst the videos on this channel may not be quite the ASMR standard of Isabel it has consistently delivered some restful videos.

The video featured today is this one:

Respiratory Examination – Demonstration

Again it is a professional video and so as we expect it has some notes:

“257,959 views 14 Dec 2011

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

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

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

Presented by Dr Jonathan Bennett MD FRCP Consultant Respiratory Physician. Produced and Directed by Dr Irene Peat FRCR FRCP, Dr Nicholas Port MBChB BSc and Jon Shears.

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

This leads us to suspect that there are more videos out there on a similar theme and so it is worth taking a while to try and identify them.

This one is a little over six minutes and so it barely has time to take a run up before it is all over.

There are comments and as usual a number of the comments are as helpful as a leg iron.

This though may help us identify the others in this series:

“@UniversityLeicester

12 years ago

There is a second video in which the Doctor does explain the procedure. All the videos in this series can be found in the Clinical Examinations Playlist on the University of Leicester Channel.”

The video starts without music, how delightful, but it does have the constant background accompaniment of air conditioning, sadly. The pace and tone are both ideal, there is an absence of offensive noises and even some light humour. What is not to like.

The “patient” is Mr Jackson, the medical professional is introduced only in the notes Dr Jonathan Bennett MD FRCP Consultant Respiratory Physician.

This is a great Procrastination Pen playlist candidate.

The Clinical Examinations playlist mentioned in those comments appears to be this one:

Looking at that playlist, there would appear to be only one other video which features the same “patient” and the same medical professional, and it would be this one:

Respiratory Examination – Explanation

This one is hardly enormous as it is only just over ten minutes in length.

There are, as expected, notes “482,017 views 28 May 2012

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

There is no music to start and, again, the presentation is calm and quiet. I also love how polite everyone is in this video.

Some of the explanations are a little on the off-putting side. (I’m not sure that discussions of sputum pots are that restful).

By and large though, this one is as delightful as the last one.

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

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop 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 Akshat Vats on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

I am still surprised that it is feasible to keep on writing a weekly blog on one specific subject and, thus far, to have not run out of material to base it on.

In fact, I am getting to the stage now where the overall playlist is getting so large that I will shortly have to make decisions about starting all over again.

It is already so large that playing it will take quite a bit longer than any average person would be resting for.

That was not the intention when commencing.

I also notice that I have been on the subject of medical examination videos for well over a year now, and whilst there have been no complaints, I have not appeared in the years top ten most interesting bloggers either.

I think there will need to be some changes, but for the moment, let’s not fix something that is not broken.

Today we are once again in the environs of videos created by students to satisfy some sort of course requirement. I am entirely thankful that colleges and universities keep demanding this of their students, and that the students then forget to take the videos down again long after their course has concluded.

Today’s follow the head-to-toe format that we have seen again-and-again on this blog but is none the worse for that.

PART TWO HEAD TO TOE

At a little over eight and a half minutes it isn’t going to hang around for long. It starts without startup music which is a rare and welcome situation. There is air conditioning noise and it is actually pretty loud, if not ultimately that distracting. The medical professional has a nice quiet voice; however, the presentation at least initially is a little on the fast side. Perhaps as a consequence of in front of camera nerves. The format is landscape which is rather welcome for one of these but, as I often comment, makes no difference at all if you are using the video to get to sleep.

The location appears to be domestic, in fact a bedroom, with a chest of drawers. One of the items that are probably not regularly found in a medical establishment.

The identity of the participants is not given and there is no clue as to the location of the institute for which the video was made. There are no notes and we can see it was posted 05/04/2023 (April) so it is conceivable that the course it is for is still running.

There are few comments ranging from the unhelpful to the ASMR fan. ASMR fans as is usual having tracked this one down way before I ever have.

Part way through we discover that the “patient” is called Amber (that may not be the spelling). We also find out that the instruction heel-to-toe is not necessarily as descriptive an instruction as it needs to be.

The channel is Kristin Colton and despite only having two videos it has one hundred and sixty-four subscribers which does not seem to be at all bad for that small number of videos.

The remaining video is a little more substantial at fifteen minutes and looking at it I can see that I have reviewed them in the reverse order.

PART ONE HEAD TO TOE

It starts with a yapping dog which is a bit off-putting. We now find that the “patient” is Amber Colton and so, in all likelihood, sister. The start is similar in other respects to the previous video – air conditioning providing the background, the voice is great but the presentation a little fast.

No startup music.

Like before it settles down and is quite calm. This time there are no helpful comments, but I think we can be certain if an ASMR fan found part two in this set, they absolutely certainly have found part one.

The presentation (if a little fast) is quite methodical. I tried the playback speed adjustment, it stands up well at 0.75, perhaps a little less so at 0.5, but you may find that it is worth a try as well. For me a little slower play speed certainly helped things.

There are some sounds of a child and people talking in an adjacent room. This is fairly normal for student videos as we have found before.

Kristin appears to have no other YouTube presence (another channel for example) so I’m afraid that’s it for Kristin and indeed for today’s blog post. Should give you time to catch your favourite television programme.

Definitions:

TMJ Temporomandibular joint

Gray309-en Gray310

TMD a soreness in the Jaw that usually clears up on its own.

The Kristin Colton Playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

If you find yourself tired in front of the TV, but by the time you’ve got into bed somehow circumstances have conspired to leave you wide awake, it can mean that you lie there looking at the ceiling and feeling a sense of frustration and panic as the minutes and hours pass and still you are not getting the rest you hoped for.

In these circumstances I find it useful to distract myself with some other activity and of late, the restful video has proven to be relatively useful. Not a panacea, but one tool in the toolbox to help get off to sleep.

Today’s video comes from a channel we have explored before of which more in a minute.

The video is this one:

Respiratory Examination – OSCE Guide (Latest)

and at nine and a half minutes definitely not the longest such video we have reviewed.

As a professionally produced video it has notes (oh, what a lot of notes)

“26 Feb 2018 Clinical Examination (OSCE) Guides

We’ve just released a collection of 500+ OSCE Stations! 🙌 https://geekymedics.com/osce-stations/ See the written guide alongside the video here https://geekymedics.com/respiratory-e…

This video provides a guide to respiratory examination, including real-time auscultation sounds of common pathology such as:

– Coarse crackles

– Fine crackles

– Wheeze

– Stridor

The ability to carry out a thorough respiratory examination is something every medic needs to master. This video aims to give you an idea of what’s required in the OSCE and you can then customise the examination to suit your own personal style.

Special thanks to http://www.easyauscultation.com and Andy Howes for providing some of the respiratory sounds.

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.”

In fact, I edited the notes down a bit or they would comprise a fair amount of the entire blog article.

Interesting that a channel dedicated to medical examination tuition should mention ASMR in that way and quite unusual. The comments indicate that ASMR fans are just lapping this up, so it all bodes well.

Fortunately, the start-up music is very muted. The participants are Andrew, a final year medical student and James Alexander D.o.B. 13/12/1989 (that’s December if you use a dating system other than that used in the UK).

Straight away, Andrew has a very good voice and has a relaxing style of presentation. The pace is measured (unlike the frenetic approach of some nursing student videos). Sadly, this means that YouTube gets the opportunity to slot in a few of its noisier and more obtrusive adverts which hopefully will not be happening to you as you’re watching/listening to this.

There are some rather unpleasant lung-related sounds which are unwelcome for our purposes, but may well be useful in the educational context which, let’s face it, is what this video is intended for.

The channel (as you suspected, I bet) is:

Geeky Medics https://www.youtube.com/@geekymedics.

This has two hundred and eighteen videos as at the date I am checking it and I will not be reviewing all of those anytime soon. It appears that the Andrew and James combination appear in a fair subset of them as well.

In this case, I decided to explore the channel using the term “respiratory” to determine what else we could find. We start out with some YouTube shorts, which by their nature don’t run for long, and so I am a little averse to them for the purpose which we are attempting to put them to. It won’t stop me using a really good one though.

Respiratory Exam OSCE Tips

This sounds a bit like Sammy in “Over the Hedge”, it is at two hundred miles per hour. I’m sure it is designed to get a ton of information into a tiny amount of time but heck it is as restful as Piccadilly Circus. It’s a shame too, because the participant would appear to have a good voice.

Respiratory Exam OSCE Tips

The same participant, the same format and the same comments as for the previous video.

Respiratory Examination Signs in COPD – OSCE Guide

Oh no background music, in fact entirely background music. The comments are presented on the screen rather than spoken. This makes this video not desperately useful for our purposes.

Lung sounds (respiratory auscultation sounds)

At under one and one quarter minutes this is not hanging about and it contains some very unpleasant sounds as well. Not one I’m going to use in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Respiratory History Taking – OSCE Guide

This time a bit over eighteen minutes so a more substantial video. No obvious ASMR related comments (which might be bad news). Very brief startup music (thankfully). It is narrated by Dr Chris Jefferies who has a good voice.

Sadly, it does not include a medical examination as such and so it is a bit marginal for our purposes.

It is a bit of a presentation-format and as such not that fascinating I suspect for anyone not directly studying this subject area.

It is probably tolerable for the Procrastination Pen playlist but may suffer a future weeding activity.

Lung sounds made easy

Back to another YouTube short which includes some rather unpleasant sounds on it. I don’t think this one is much use to us.

Percussion & Auscultation of the Lungs – OSCE Guide | Clip

This one is four minutes long, so not huge by any means. It has the brief startup music still and has the slow measured approach of the first video we considered in this blog article. However, it also includes all the unpleasant lung-related noises so I am going to discount this from the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Respiratory Examination – OSCE Guide (Old Version)

This is just under eight and a half minutes. Posted nine years ago at the time I am looking at it. Andrew Pugh features again. There is startup music which is way too funky. The “patient” this time is Dan Page (I believe.) I’m sure I get the names wrong a good deal of the time when relying upon listening alone). His D.o.B is 01/01/1995 (which is January whichever dating system you’re currently using).

Andrew continues to have a good voice although this has a distinct echoey sound as if they have not yet ironed out the microphone approach for the recording.

Dan looks like he needed much more sleep recently than he apparently got but as he does not get to say much those people listening are unlikely to notice. The ward area where the recording is taking place is utterly deserted. How they managed to achieve this I do not know. Perhaps the clue is in Dan’s tiredness, 4am on a Sunday recording possibly.

Respiratory Examination – OSCE Guide (Old Version)

This one is a little less than ten minutes. More of the funky music to start. I’m not sure why people consider this a great idea. Andrew Pugh returns. Alan Johnson is the “patient”. Twelve years ago (when the video was posted) Alan was apparently thirty seven although he looks about nineteen.

Andrew remains on form voice wise. In fact, where the video lacks intrusive noises, they have all been good where they feature Andrew (rather like videos featuring Dr James Gill).

Andrew has on a badge which seems to indicate that this is at Newcastle University.

He appears to have studied here 2007-2012 and then again 2014-2015.

Newcastle as expected has its own YouTube channel. The crest associated with that channel looks very like the one on Andrew’s badge which I think confirms this.

Interestingly the closing credits state that Colin Brewster is the patient so Alan Johnson may well not exist.

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 Juan Gomez on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

The further we get into 2025 the more people are becoming obsessed with sleep. This is probably the rectifying of the complete disregard that has been shown to it in previous decades.

I can remember certain public figures boasting that they needed little sleep (as if that was a good thing) and subsequently it being discovered that they were making up that sleep through napping.

What is currently missing is the configuring of work practices to respect sleep. Putting health before GDP would send a very significant message here.

There also seems to be little requirement for taking noise into account when designing and building housing, which has its own consequences. As is usual in such circumstances recommendations are around purchasing noise cancelling technology rather than ensuring houses are not exposed to excessive noise. (For example, before building them in the first place). Putting health before profits would send a significant message here.

If you’re in the, no doubt large, group of people exposed to excessive noise when you’re trying to sleep, I have found that having a noise playing of your own choosing can help. It depends on the noise and when it is happening. For example, a one-off sound at 2am, from a loud car say, can disrupt the rest of your sleep. A consistent noise that you grow used to through exposure may be less disruptive.

In any case, I have found as one gets older sensitivity to noise, when sleeping, seems to increase. The only way to react seems to be to take action yourself. Noise cancelling headphones can help. Although I find frequent use of these really hurts the ears eventually. A back track such as white noise (several generators are available) or, my favourite, a nice relaxing video can also be positive.

Statements that older people need less sleep have not proven correct in my case. I get less sleep, I am more tired, so I wonder how universally such findings apply.

In the drive to provide more relaxing videos for you, here is another blog item on exactly that subject.

Today’s video is already part of a playlist; however, it comes from a channel that I have regularly exploited for material so I have to be careful to avoid duplication in this area. If you spot duplication, do let me know.

The Exam for Ankle & Foot Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

As we have previously established this channel produces videos of consistent quality and as we would expect each video comes with a descriptive set of notes:

“19 Jul 2018 Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam

This video is brought to you by the Stanford Medicine 25 to teach you the common causes of foot and ankle pain and how to diagnose them by the physical exam.

The Stanford Medicine 25 program for bedside medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine aims to promote the culture of bedside medicine to make current and future clinicians and other healthcare provides better at the art of physical diagnosis and more confident at the bedside of their patients.

Visit us:

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

Blog: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.ed…

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordMedi…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanfordMed25

Diagnoses covered in this video:

Lateral Ankle Sprain

Talar Dome Osteochondral Defect

5th Metatarsal Fracture

Achilles Tendinopathy

Interdigital (Morton’s) Neuroma

Stress Fracture of 2nd Metatarsal

Plantar Fasciitis

Hallux Valgus (Bunion)”

Comments are permitted and, as expected, ASMR fans have been here before me. This probably means it is a good choice of video (although some less high-quality ones sometimes pass this test).

It is just less than seven and a half minutes, so not huge in terms of videos we have covered previously.

Of course, there is that bugbear of any ASMR video fan – the musical startup. Someday I will come across the command to dictate the start time of the video and such music will be banished forever.

This one features Dr Brinda Christopher again with whom we are well familiar.

Dr Christopher as we have established before has an excellent voice for such videos. It is great that we are re-acquainting ourselves with her. Chad is the patient (again).

There is some background noise (air conditioning again perhaps).

There are so many medical terms in this one that I am not going to attempt to define them – I’m guessing that you are not here to learn how to perform an ankle examination. If you are what a pleasant surprise and welcome.

The video is part of the  Stanford Medicine 25 channel where there are eighty-five videos. I have no doubt that we will be sampling many more of these in the future.

The video we have just seen is part five of an eight-part playlist. In order to avoid covering areas that I will have covered before, I will limit myself to reviewing the remaining two videos in this playlist. Future blog items will catch up on any missing areas I am certain.

The Exam for Knee Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

There is startup music of course, comments and notes as before and the same two participants – so far, so consistent. At just less than eight minutes it is also of a similar length to the last one.

The great thing about a professional video is that if you liked it you may well like videos from the same provider. Many student videos we have seen can be great, only for the next video from the same source to be totally unsuitable.

The Exam for Shoulder Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

As before, comments indicate ASMR fans are all over this, and we have proven that they have good taste. The only way these could be improved would be to remove startup music and put a bomb in the air conditioning.

But in comparison to some noises we have heard in other videos, this is minor quibble area.

One great aspect is a complete absence of loud equipment clunks, and bangs, which other videos seem unable to avoid. We have the same two participants here and to ensure I do not overlap with material from the same channel covered previously I will make this the last video of this blog item.

This one is a little less than ten and a half minutes so quite a bit longer than the two previous ones. However you may find, like me, that you do not notice the extra time.

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

The Stanford medicine playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Laura Matthews on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Re-reading some sleep advice that I had knocking around, I notice that one is supposed to sleep the same number of hours every night and if you don’t, then there will be a reckoning to come.

Added to this is the requirement that you go to bed at the same time, every night and awaken at the same time, every morning.

That sounds a great discipline and I would love to recommend it. However, I find myself utterly jiggered by close of play on a Friday and I take to bed and sleep till the gods have made off to find another planet (or for a very long time anyway).

I always found that this was my little weekly restorative and I’m sure that for many years it was. However, it does not seem to be as effective any longer and I am moderately convinced that is to do with ageing.

In the absence of changing my sleep pattern completely (and for those of you who also feel unable to do so), I’ll stick to finding restful videos that may encourage you to make the most of whatever sleep you are able to get. If you do find yourself crashing on a Friday night, desperate to make up for any lost time during the week, you now know I will not be judging you.

Today’s video is, again, taken from that deep well of videos which seemingly has no end on YouTube; the student assessment video.

Head-to-Toe Physical Assessment

The medical professional is Vivian and from the start has a very good voice. Vivian has on a top which identifies the college where presumably this is filmed but, sadly, I cannot make out what it says.

There are no notes with the video; there is one unhelpful comment and only two subscribers. This is either a journey to something new or a warning that this is not going to be that useful.

In fact, the sound is quite muted. The air conditioning is ever present (as we are used to by now) the patient is Lindsey Preston (probably misspelled), D.o.B. 03/03/97, whichever date system you use. I make that March.

There are the usual questions officially designed to check the person vs their record, but of course no record exists so it is, as usual, acting.

Lindsey (I’m sticking with that spelling now) announces that she is at Valencia Memorial Hospital (well I’m pretty sure that is what she says – it is a bit quick). Lindsey has a top on with the same appearance as that worn by Vivian it appears to say Valencia College nursing which might confirm that.

The tops worn by the nurses on that website do appear similar if in a different colour.

The college of course has it’s own YouTube channel.

Apart from the air conditioning there are no nasty intrusive noises. Vivian even seems able to move equipment around without the loud clangs that have punctuated some videos now in the Procrastination Pen archive list.

Her approach is methodical and gentle.

The video is just a short one at a little over six minutes.

The channel is Vivian Tran it contains just this one video uploaded in 2018 which is about the same date that it was filmed.

So, I’m sorry people, but that is all for this time.

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 Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash