Respiratory Examination – The Procrastination Pen

Sleeping With ASMR

A bit of shock this week. Fresh from a recent Procrastination Pen article discussing Melatonin as a sleep aid, an article describing the concerns about it and why it is not available off-prescription in the UK.

Daytime drowsiness is certainly something I have found, but I reasoned that compared to a night with minimal sleep it was not that terrible a side effect.

I leave it up to you to do your own personal risk-assessment, no doubt taking into account how badly your insomnia is affecting you.

Today’s Calm track is again, taken from the Calm Dailies rather than from tracks dedicated to sleep. That will probably continue for a while. Quite a lot of the material that organisations seem to think assist with sleep do not seem to work for me at all. That might be why I often find myself on the sofa watching dirge TV in the early hours rather than listening to “restful” music tracks.

The Calm track is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/Wi1C26rnLi

Daily Calm

Bird by Bird

NARRATOR

Tamara Levitt

AUTHOR

Tamara Levitt

It is an excellent guide to taking each thing in its time. It comes from one of my favourite voices on Calm, Tamara Levitt. It seems certainly worth the few minutes it takes on the assumption that you have a Calm subscription, that is.

On the day I am looking at it, Calm seems to be priced at £39.99 a year (in the UK anyway). I can’t argue it is good value; indeed, I would not try to sell it to you. If it fits with the kind of material you would normally listen to, I leave it up to you to assess whether you want to spend that.

Established readers will know that for a little while (in the history of blog articles on the Procrastination Pen) I break off now to review a professional ASMR artist and to subject them to laser-focused critique. After all, they are setting themselves up as the pinnacle that ASMR can achieve.

Of late it has been a little disappointing, as I am finding the genuine ASMR artist’s videos have the shortcomings of the inadvertent ASMR videos. In addition, there will be a great deal of self-promotion and advertising thrown in.

I’m sure that I just haven’t found the real quality material yet and, any day now, an artist of truly awesome ability will dumbfound me.

Well, I live in hope.

Today’s video is this one:

ASMR POV You Visit the Sleep Clinic – Medical Exam for Insomnia

It is a little over thirty four minutes and so quite substantial, but we have noted of late that these professional ASMR artists do tend to produce videos of a healthy length.

Of course it has notes: “40,406 views 15 Aug 2025 #ASMR

🔔 *Don’t forget to subscribe* for more ASMR roleplays and relaxation content! Hit the notification bell to stay updated on our latest videos.

Thank you for watching, and I hope this ASMR experience brings you peace and comfort! 🥰

#ASMR

⤖ INSTAGRAM / sophiemichellegoodall

BUSINESS ENQUIRES: sophiemichelle_asmr@outlook.com

Lots of love x”

Refreshingly short notes there, and for a change it does not try to sell me anything.

It is from the channel SophieMichelle ASMR, this has seven hundred and three videos and 645K subscribers – crikey.

I am no longer commenting on attractiveness of artists, I’ll let you know if I come across someone of average appearance.

Of course, this channel features on the ASMR Index. I realise I am giving that site a mass of free promotion, feel free to ignore this…

It starts with music, but this is so subdued I think that you’ll barely notice it. The voice as you would expect is perfect, although as we have come to anticipate, veers a little too closely to whispery to be really believable (in a realistic medical context in any case).

There are comments and, given this is an ASMR artist, these have the halo of pleasantness so infrequently found elsewhere on YouTube.

I am not into rubber glove noises, I don’t find clucking sounds that appealing, and I find beeping from equipment to be off-putting. Against that, there is no air conditioning noise, noises from an adjacent road, or people talking in nearby rooms. There are, in addition, no noises from the moving of heavy equipment. I wouldn’t expect any of these in a professional ASMR video but sadly, some of them have decided to include one or more of those sounds.

There are crackling/crinkly noises, noises from paper/page turning and from the rustling of clothing. There are tapping noises, which I find wake me up if anything. I suspect some ASMR devotees are rather fond of one or more of these sounds. I am about the voice. This one is excellent. It does make me wonder how much of a medical-themed video this is. I have wondered this in connection with hair brushing in other videos, which seemed out of place other than to maximise ASMR “triggers”. I have the same suspicion here too.

Moving on to inadvertent ASMR videos (mostly medical videos – at least so far).

This week we are back to a channel that has featured multiple times on this blog here, here, here and also here. It is Geeky Medics. The videos so far have featured Dr James Lower and Dr Andrew Pugh and so below.

The dedication to this site has been because the videos there seem to be of a reasonably consistent quality (given that they are inadvertent ASMR videos in any case).

Of course, some readers will not have read the previous articles so I should mention that Dr Lewis Potter is the founder of Geeky Medics. The videos will all have notes that are similar (this has been established in those past blog articles). However, in order to cover the notes for new readers I will give a precis version with the first video.

How to Feel a Pulse | Radial & Brachial Pulses – OSCE Guide

A sample of the notes with the video: “120,381 views 16 Jul 2022 Cardiovascular OSCE Guides | UKMLA | CPSA | PLAB | MRCS

This video demonstrates how to assess upper limb pulses in an OSCE station including:

Introduction 00:00

Radial pulse 00:06

Brachial pulse 00:30

You can read our guide to peripheral vascular examination here: https://geekymedics.com/peripheral-va…

Check out our other awesome clinical skills resources including:

• 🔥 Geeky Medics Bundles (discounted products): https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

• ✨ 1000+ OSCE Stations: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

• 🏥 Geeky Medics OSCE Revision Book: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

• 📝 150+ PDF OSCE Checklists: https://geekymedics.com/pdf-osce-chec…

• 🗂️ 3000+ OSCE Flashcards: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

• 📱 Geeky Medics OSCE App: https://geekymedics.com/geeky-medics-..

• 🩺 Medical Finals SBA Question Pack: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

• 💊 PSA Question Pack: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

Subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to know about our latest content: https://geekymedics.com/newsletter/ ✉️”

This video is a little less than one and a half minutes and yet sadly, it still finds time to squeeze in some startup music. It seems to be one of a sequence of short guides taken from earlier videos. I suppose that in some cases the advantage is that it avoids some of the less desirable noises.

The presentation is quiet, apart from a constant background hiss. The voice is nicely measured and calm.

Sadly, it concludes with more obtrusive music…

Lower Limb Pulses – OSCE Guide

I won’t put the notes in again, they are all similar. This is a little over two minutes and again has the same two participants. All of these videos would be improved by the removal of the music, of course. This is another short guide and I would say it is taken from a much longer video. (In fact, most probably one I have already reviewed – see the above blog articles for details). It is a lovely slow presentation and the voice is as good as in the previous video. The background noise is as before, and I think I’d be safe in saying it is going to be present in every one of these videos.

Neck Lump Examination – OSCE Guide

This one is nearly four minutes long. This time I do not think I have seen the content before. The background noise is, if anything worse than before. There are lots of on-screen sentences which provide guidance for medical students but, of course, these are not of interest to us in the slightest.

I would say that without the music, a string of these shorter videos chained together would be excellent night time – fall-asleep – material. Sadly though what with music and inter-video adverts, I am including them in the Procrastination Pen playlist under strict review. I maybe binning them in the future if they prove to be excessively intrusive.

I think I will make the next one the last one, to prevent this blog post stretching on too long.

It is this one:

Percussion & Auscultation of the Lungs – OSCE Guide | Clip

I am pretty certain this is a subsection of an earlier video. It is four minutes long and it contains breathing noises. These are intrusive and unwelcome and I think this means it can be discounted from the Procrastination Pen playlist.

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

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 DeepAI

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

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

If you’ve been reading the Procrastination Pen for a while you will have come across the theory that people have a much more gentle and quiet approach to examinations when dealing with small people.

What could be better to test if this is consistent or just an occasional occurrence than to occasionally feature an examination with a small person and to observe whether such videos are better in terms of volume and method.

Universities have so far been pretty good for videos but they are also often a huge source of self-promotional material involving MGM style soundtracks and Saachi and Saachi motivational messages. There is, therefore, a mass of material to look at and quite a lot of it is unsuitable for us.

The University of Leicester though, in common with Warwick University, who we saw before, has a number of teaching videos and some of those are very good. Today’s video is sadly very brief at just shy of five minutes in duration.

Paediatric Clinical Examinations – The Abdomen

It includes comments and as expected a number of the comments are not helpful. Reading between the lines though, I think ASMR fans are here well before I am. This is something that we have come to expect now.

It is a professional video and so of course it has notes associated with it:

“30 Jul 2014

This is a real-time demonstration illustrating the technique and parent and child interaction involved in the examination of the abdominal system of a child.

The film was produced by a paediatrician to aid the teaching of clinical examination skills. It starts where the history has been taken, and the clinical examination is about to commence.

Written and presented by Dr Elaine Carter, Emeritus Consultant Paediatrician, MA, MB ChB, MRCP, FRCPCH, MMedSci.

This film was produced by External Relations, University of Leicester.

Filmed & Edited by Carl Vivian

Written & Produced by Elaine Carter”

There is no – I mean zero – music at the start of the video – Warwick take note. This is such a welcome difference.

We are introduced to mum Sophie and her son Alex, who, it has to be said, looks suitably anxious. There is limited background noise; no obvious air conditioning noises for example.

The presentation is lovely and gentle. So far, the theory about small people is vindicated yet again.

I never expected a child to be this calm when having his abdomen probed in such a deep manner. Perhaps the presentation is just a little loud but that is a minor criticism and is only possible because other aspects of the video are so right.

Interestingly, I found the video is now in the Internet Archive the first time I have ever found that to be the case.

The video is posted eight years ago to this channel: University of Leicester.

This channel is simply huge, 1.3K videos at the date I am looking at it. Eighty-seven playlists and few of these are anything that we could use.

However searching the Internet Archive, discovered earlier, we find that Elaine is also involved in another video of a similar type.

This video, as luck would have it, is also present on YouTube:

Paediatric Clinical Examinations – The Respiratory System

This one seems to have been filmed before the previous one in that this is the first time we are introduced to Alex.

Again, there are notes: “30 Jul 2014

This is a real-time demonstration illustrating the technique and parent and child interaction involved in the examination of the respiratory system of a child.

The film was produced by a paediatrician to aid the teaching of clinical examination skills. It starts where the history has been taken, and the clinical examination is about to commence.

Written and presented by Dr Elaine Carter, Emeritus Consultant Paediatrician, MA, MB ChB, MRCP, FRCPCH, MMedSci.

This film was produced by External Relations, University of Leicester.

Filmed & Edited by Carl Vivian

Written & produced by Elaine Carter”

As before there is no startup music. If it wasn’t the fact that there would be so little material to work with, I would only select videos that lacked startup music (and tail end music as well for that).

We are also introduced to Ellie, Alex’s sister, Alex looks suitably bored, possibly because his sister is the focus of attention in this video.

It is another brief one at just less than six- and three-quarter minutes.

The presentation style here, if anything, is quieter than with the previous video. Ellie seems calm, even happy at intervals.

The comments are variable as always but again reading between the lines this is also already known to the ASMR community.

That’s it for this time.

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

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop 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 Mikhail Tyrsyna on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

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

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

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

Today’s video is this one:

Lung Examination – Jessica Nishikawa

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The next video to feature Makana is this one:

JVP Exam – Jessica Nishikawa

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

Jessica Nishikawa demonstrates the JVP examination.

Subscribe at / jessicanishikawa

Twitter @JessNishi”

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

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

Heart Exam – Jessica Nishikawa

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

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

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

The Jessica Nishikawa playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

By this point in the blogging process, the amount of research in pursuit of possible ASMR videos far exceeds the number of articles that have been produced. One finding has been that medical students produce a great huge amount of video output in connection with their courses. Unfortunately, the majority of that output is just not going to be of much use to us.

Sadly, it appears that students just do not have access to the recording facilities needed to reliably produce a relaxing video. Many of these videos suffer from excessive background noise, strange behind the camera noises, and loud extraneous sounds from the medical equipment that they are using.

It is without much expectation, therefore, that I take a look at today’s video which is this one:

General survey

This features Sandra who initially seems a bit loud for the standard relaxing video. As is usual, there is fake input – sanitising of the hands in this case. The patient appears to be “Avery” (although that is almost certainly a misspelling). The sound is not terrible in terms of one of these videos. But you can tell that the microphone is some distance from the medical professional.

The patient tells us it is 23^rd September 2016, Avery also tells us which hospital, although I can’t make out what she says. In any case the surroundings lead me to suspect that this is more domestic than professional medical (flat screen TV on chimney breast, pot plants on a raised piece of furniture, painting on wall behind).

It is quite brief at just over two-and-a-quarter minutes and is marginal in terms of inclusion in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The channel is MGA Nursing. This has forty-three videos at the time I am looking at it and forty subscribers. The notes against the channel tell me “These are videos for assignments in the course.” This tells me it is for college consumption only, after all, how would anyone else know which course we are talking about.

Middle George State University appears to have a nursing programme at the MGA campus. It is potentially possible this is the course that is being referred to.

They (of course) have a YouTube Channel with one hundred and eleven videos.

From the forty-three videos on the MGA nursing channel there is the usual need to refine down the number such that this does not turn into a huge blog article. Some of the videos include the participant’s names in the title but I notice some do not and yet, by appearance, the same people are participating. Therefore, I’m going to select videos by the apparent participants involved.

I selected the following video thinking that it might also feature Avery, but it turns out not so much.

Peripheral Vascular System

Maureen Bolmgren RN is the medical professional, the “patient” here is Margaret (I can’t hear the surname). We find that she is born 28^th January 1996, but the advantage (for this article) is that there appear to be a few videos in which Margaret appears. We should be able to make those the focus of this blog article therefore.

Maureen has a tunic on with Maureen Bolmgren, RN embroidered on it. Maureen attended MGA, graduating in 2017, which fits as the video was posted in 2017.

The setting appears to be domestic as with the previous video in this article.

The strange thing I notice in this video is that Maureen appears to be reading from a pre-prepared script. That’s something I have not seen before.

Maureen seems a little loud initially for a true ASMR video. Margaret has a better voice but of course she gets to have a lot less to say.

Maureen seems quite hesitant, probably unsurprising given this is an assessment video. The advantage for us is that she settles down, becomes a lot calmer and quieter.

Heart and Neck Vessels

From this it is feasible to hear that Margaret is Margaret Taylor. It is otherwise consistent with the last one. Maureen reads from a script again. The sound isn’t as great as a professional video but at least it lacks background noises. The setting is the same as for the last video.

Again, Margaret seems to have the better voice but it might be because she does not say a lot.

Maureen seems to be looking at a prompt off camera for some of the video. Not that you’ll notice if you are using this to get to sleep. The approach is quite gentle but as before Maureen does not have your typical ASMR voice. It is quiet enough to be restful though, I think.

Neurologic Assessment-Maureen Bolmgren

As I said before, some of the videos include the participant’s names in the title, in this case of the medical professional. But there is no consistency in this naming convention so I cannot rely on it.

This is the Maureen – Margaret partnership again. By now the location and process are quite familiar. I’m not sure if I am now used to her voice, but Maureen seems less loud to me in this one. Margaret still seems to have a better voice.

One more Maureen – Margaret combo video remains. However, the MGA Nursing channel may be worth another visit to sample some of the remaining videos.

Last, but by no means least, we have this one:

thorax and lungs-Maureen B.

This seems familiar as if I have reviewed it before, so it is to be hoped I have not entered a duplicate video. I’m sure regular readers will let me know pretty swiftly if so.

There is the odd intrusive noise (including what sounds like a clock at one stage) but I think this is still worthy of inclusion.

The Procrastination Pen playlist is reviewed frequently so some of the less worthy videos get dropped to the archive list at intervals. Those with intrusive noises are ones that are most likely to get chosen for this “demotion”. The archive list only exists in case I remove somebody’s favourite.

The MGA Nursing playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The Procrastination Pen playlist (which is no-doubt what you have all been reading this in order to locate) is found here:

I have been listening to that playlist most nights and some of the videos that were members have now been removed. If any of your favourites are missing from that main playlist you can find them here in the archive list:

Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than occasional intrusive noises.

The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function), usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night, is here:

I hope that you find the playlists restful and that you get a good night’s sleep.

Hope to see you again back here for the next blog article.

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

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

I’m sure this happens to a number of people who write blog articles. I often find that in reading back through the blog, I am not convinced that I wrote it. Certainly, there seem to be some articles that do not sound like me at all, as if I had on a Hyacinth Bucket accent whilst typing it. In any case, the endeavour is to produce high-quality output of the type that many of you will desire to read on a weekly basis. If you find that to be true do tell all your friends, by the way.

By this time, we are some way into the journey that has been “Sleeping With ASMR” such that many of you will be familiar with how it has worked so far. This is also how it is probably going to continue to work, unless one day I decide to shake things up a bit.

To fill in the gaps for anyone new to the blog, it exists to review YouTube videos. Each week I will find a video and review it to see if it might be helpful in the drive to encourage the restless to restful. I will focus on whether it is sufficiently quiet and whether the participants have a pleasant, relaxing voice. I will also point out the detractors such as loud equipment noises, oppressive air conditioning, background chatter and so on and so fifth.

Many of the videos I find are posted on a YouTube channel containing more than one video. Where this is the case, I will frequently take the opportunity to look at other videos from that channel to determine if any others would be great for relaxation or better still, could produce ASMR symptoms in those lucky enough to have them.

This week a video which is slightly less than fifteen and a quarter minutes in length, which is not lengthy in comparison with some we have seen.

Respiratory Assessment

Immediately the medical professional has a good quiet voice. Even though the style is of a presentation it is not overly loud which makes a nice change.

The video continues quietly and without extraneous noises, which is great to hear (or not hear perhaps). The video cuts at intervals abruptly from one scene to another, but if you are listening you may well not notice.

It does cut to background breathing noises which might be off-putting for some people. Also, the narrator abruptly changes to someone who is a bit louder (but still not overly loud).

I think I’ll put this in the Procrastination Pen playlist, but it might be subject to weeding in the future.

The channel is:

University of Manitoba Nursing Skills, there are eighty videos and 55K subscribers.

The University of Manitoba turns out to be a university in Western Canada.

Of course, it has its own channel with 1.2K videos as at today’s date. However, experience tells us that these will be predominantly about promoting the university and little to do with ASMR (unless it is quite exceptional).

The medical professional in the video chosen above appears in quite a number of the others. This makes slimming down those eighty videos to a number that can be comfortably reviewed in one blog post less straightforward.

However, as luck would have it the video selected occurs in an existing playlist:

Health Assessment

I will focus on the videos in this playlist, but I may well return to this channel in the future.

There are four further videos in this playlist as follows:

Abdominal Assessment

This video is a little under seven and a quarter minutes. It starts quietly again. There remains no clue as to the participants. The approach is gentle and considered.

This one is a substantial improvement on the first one selected in that there are no intrusive breathing noises added. No doubt for their educational rather than restful value (that is the point of the video after all).

CVS & PVS Assessment

This one is just less than seventeen and a half minutes so the longest we have seen so far and in fact the longest of the five videos in the playlist. At odds with other professional videos we have seen this one has no associated notes. But at least comments are denied (We’ve seen enough bizarre and rude comments to last a long time).

The presenter’s voice is really excellent and if it were not for the odd equipment noise or inserted sound track these videos would be up there with some of the better ones reviewed so far. As it is I will put them all to protracted listening review and if those extraneous noises prove off-putting, I will consign them to the archive list.

This one starts as beautifully quiet as the others. However, there are inserted heart beat sounds which may be off-putting to some people, they are louder than the medical professional for example. There is also a set of pulse sounds and associated crackles which are not fantastic either.

Neurological Assessment

This one is less than seven and a half minutes and as before it starts quietly. We discover that the “patient” is called Justin but still no means of determining who the presenter is. It is consistently quiet and so quite possibly the best one of the set so far.

Integumentary System Assessment

This is the shortest one of the videos featured in this article at just over six and a quarter minutes. It has the same approach as the others and so is equally quiet and well presented. I also like the intonation that the presenter uses, your mileage may vary. The medical professional is very gentle in approach and the video appears to be to be relaxing. Thankfully this one does not have any added noises. That is welcome given so many of the others do have this.

Overall this is a good playlist. I will add them to the Procrastination Pen playlist but some of them, I have a suspicion, will be weeded in the future.

The University of Manitoba Nursing Skills playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The Procrastination Pen playlist (which is no-doubt what you have all been reading this in order to locate) is found here:

Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than occasional intrusive noises.

The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function), usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night, is here:

I hope that you find the playlists restful and that you get a good night’s sleep.

Hope to see you again back here for the next blog article.

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

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

For those of you who have been following the blog the subject matter will not come as any surprise or the purpose of this writing. For everyone else welcome to the blog. It exists purely to review unintentional ASMR videos, to locate the best ones and to create a playlist of those videos.

The aim is to find the most relaxing videos on YouTube (or occasionally from elsewhere) which can be used to help you drift off to sleep, get back to sleep when you wake up in the middle of the night, and to completely fail to disrupt your sleep due to loud music, loud equipment noises or strange contributions from the air conditioning.

This week, a video which seems to fit into the range of student assessment videos, of which, we have seen more than a few already.

The entire Channel contains fifteen videos which is way more than I usually review at one sitting. However, as you can see the longest of these is less than seven minutes, such that I may make an exception in this case.

The video is this one:

Head, Face, and Neck

It is barely longer than three minutes so it isn’t going to take long to listen to. The medical professional is Leah and it is safe to assume that it is she who owns the channel (as we shall see).

The volume track is muted and sounds distant as if being recorded under water. There is the ever-present sound of air conditioning (which we’ve heard often before).

The approach is gentle and methodical. However, there is the noise of people apparently talking in the background. This is heavily muted though and so in this specific case, is none too intrusive.

The video has no comments and it looks like it is unlikely that we will find out where it was filmed. Although posted in 2023, of course, it could have been filmed at any time.

The channel is Leah Barlow and has eighty five subscribers – which isn’t a huge number in comparison to some we have seen.

There are fifteen videos which is a large number for any single blog post. However, in overview it appears that Leah appears with a different “patient” in several of these videos. Therefore, if we stick with Leah and the patient featured in this video, we have a much more restrictive list (we can return to Leah in a future blog post).

Musculoskeletal Exam Practice

This is slightly longer at five- and three-quarter minutes but still not particularly taxing in terms of attention. It is almost identical in terms of sound with the last one. I think the patient states her name as Mackenzie and d.o.b. 2/15/01 which for those of us in the UK is 15/02/2001. However, I had a hard time making that out and the spelling is probably incorrect in any case.

Again, the presentation is muted in comparison to the background noise which includes a healthy amount of chatter coming through from adjacent rooms.

There are loud noises as footwear drops to the floor, which may cause this one to ultimately be dropped from the Procrastination Pen playlist. (Off-putting noises are the commonest reason for dropping videos into the archive list). It is not the first time I have wished that I could alter a video in order to eliminate such noises, given that a number of videos are excellent in part, and dire in another part.

At intervals there are raised (even excited) voices from an adjacent room and this proves to be quite distracting.

There are also noises from the equipment as the “patient” moves around.

Neuro Exam Practice

Just over six and a half minutes and if anything, the background noise is trying for a starring role. The video proceeds as for the two we have already reviewed. It is gentle, methodical and, background noise allowing, relatively quiet. If there was a God of air conditioning then a few sacrifices need to be made to appease him or her. There are loud equipment noises and some hilarity about the loud equipment noises. (This will probably see it dropped into the archive list). Mackenzie seems to have developed a cold as there is much snivelling and coughing.

This one is really too loud, including some quite energised chatter from an adjacent room.

There is also entertainment due to the fact that Mackenzie proves to be ticklish.

Cardiac Exam

A bit over four and a quarter minutes. There is loud knocking to start with. Mackenzie seems to say that her surname is Delavaso, but it probably isn’t that at all. The air conditioning has started playing drums for Motorhead but thankfully the background chatter has settled to the level of irritating that can be safely ignored (I think).

Thorax and Lungs Exam

Four minutes long. Loud knocking to start, as before. More loud equipment noises more air conditioning noises, but the conversationalists have decided all the loud discussions of previous videos were dreadfully rude and so a background murmur is all that can be heard.

It would be truly quite a good video if the clunks and clangs of the equipment didn’t attend every movement of Mackenzie. Not the first time equipment noises have proved to be a deal breaker for this blog though.

Cardiac Practice

A little under five minutes and the microphone is now officially inside the air conditioning outlet. The voices in this are heavily masked by the sound of forced air.

This really isn’t suitable for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Ear exam

Less than two and a half minutes, in other respects similar to previous videos. Leah has a good voice but the extraneous noises are at intervals off-putting or irritating.

I’m inclined to include this one, if only because it is so short.

Nose, mouth, throat exam

A bit more than four and a quarter minutes. The knocking at the start seems a little more muted but the background conversation has reasserted itself, somewhat irritatingly.

Mackenzie has an identity badge which could have told us where this is being filmed but sadly it is out of focus so I can’t make it out.

Leah seems much more hesitant in this one than the others we have seen here. There seems to be much hilarity again, so presumably both participants are uncomfortable with the process.

That’s it for this item, but I think we will be revisiting Leah in the future.

The Leah Barlow playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The Procrastination Pen playlist (which is no-doubt what you have all been reading this in order to locate) is found here:

I have been working through that playlist repeatedly and some of the videos that were members have now fallen from favour. If any of your favourites are in there you can find them here in the archive list:

Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than excessive background noise.

The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function), usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night, is here:

I hope that you find the playlists restful and that you get a good night’s sleep.

Hope to see you again back here for the next blog article.

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

Until next time.

Photo by Tatyana Eremina on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Recently I have noticed that the videos available in The Procrastination Pen playlist have started to reduce. I haven’t commenced any new weeding activity so the videos have not been jettisoned into the Procrastination Pen archive playlist. Nonetheless the number of videos is going down.

Looking at the Procrastination Pen playlist, I find that ten unavailable videos are hidden at the current moment. It is tempting to conclude that because an extra spotlight has been shone on them by The Procrastination Pen blog, people have rushed to hide them from view. More realistically, I think this is the natural process of attrition. Two of the videos are now showing as marked private and eight have been deleted.

It would appear there is a race on to getting the material listed on this blog before the featured video disappears.

It would be great to create an archive of ASMR videos so that they would be permanently available. However, I am no legal expert and I suspect that there maybe a whole argument about original ownership of videos, permissions, fees and so on. The upshot is that unless the blog keeps on rolling forwards, the playlist is going to continue to diminish in terms of the number of videos it contains.

It also means that you need to get listening to the featured videos soon after I publish the blog article, as videos are obviously being removed and you may be left with a small subset of those featured.

Another undesirable outcome is that some of the blog items are going to have blank spaces where videos used to be. I can’t see how to avoid that, other than to keep deleting old blog items. That may, ultimately, be the approach that I have to take.

I’ll keep rolling forwards with articles, unless it becomes obvious that simply by documenting videos in this blog causes the videos to be removed. In which case, the blog will have become a Jonah of ASMR and I will desist with it. (However, given the statistics on this blog I think that is unlikely and extremely unlucky if it turns out to be the case.)

And so, to today’s video:

The Full Neurological Examination

This begins with the kind of funky music that we have become used to. How much nicer it is when we find a video that does not employ music. This one is narrated and the narrator has a good voice. Immediately it seems that we are in safe hands.

Definition:

Romberg’s test – a test of balance involving a person standing with feet together and eyes closed.

The voice of the medical professional, which we hear briefly at intervals, is also a good voice and better still there is little background noise.

Just examining the comments, reveals that a number of other listeners have discovered its relaxing effects.

The channel is UCL Clinical Skills which as at today’s date includes thirty-nine videos. That is quite a few to document in one blog post (and I’m sure that you’re in a hurry to get to the Procrastination Pen playlist).

There are no playlists on this channel, so the habitual mechanism of thinning down the number of videos to a size that can be readily dealt with in one post by focusing on a playlist on the channel is not going to work.

The backup method is to look for videos where the same medical professional is involved or the same patient.

In this case, there is more than one video involving the same patient. I’ll focus on just those videos this time.

Abdominal examination (basic for Y1 & Y2 students).

There is more funky start up music (oh dear) and a different narrator. The sound quality is not so great but no less relaxing. There is now evidence of background noise on some of the narration tracks.

There is also a variability in volume which is undesirable when listening and trying to get to sleep.

However, it is still a good one to include in The Procrastination Pen playlist, I think.

Neurological sensory examination of the lower limb (basic for Y1 & 2 students).

Here we have the same narrator as in the last video and the same start up music. It would be great to edit that startup music out.

The volume of the narrator seems to be lower which will make inter-video volume an issue if you are listening to the playlist. The background noise in the examination parts of the video seems a bit higher. There are hardly any comments, so it is possible that this is not getting as much ASMR listening time as the previous videos (let’s hope The Procrastination Pen can change that).

Neurological motor examination of the lower limbs (basic for Year 1 & 2 students).

The self-same intro and narrator. The narrator used in the first video (who had a better voice) has obviously packed his bags and headed for the beach which is a shame for us but probably great for him.

Definition

Clonus a rhythmic stretch reflex.

An introduction to examining the cardiovascular system; Y1 & Y2

We’re now well used to the start-up music. The narration sound quality is not that amazing on this video. It sounds like the narrator is at some distance from the microphone (or the microphone hails from 1958).

Definition:

Peripheral cyanosis: extremities having a blue colour.

An Introduction to the Abdominal Examination – Y1 and Y2

We are ringing the changes with the narrator here although not with the introductory music. It would be delightful if that music would just go for a walk somewhere rather than play at the start of a relaxing video. The narrator’s voice is really too deep in this video to be properly relaxing and comes as a bit of a shock after what has gone before.

However, it is not sufficiently off-putting to deny it membership of the Procrastination Pen playlist. (Although it may be weeded out in the future).

Fortunately, the delivery is well paced and spaced. Which soon allows relaxation to return, although this isn’t a top ASMR candidate by any means.

Definition

Epigastrium upper area of the abdomen.

Cardiovascular Examination

We’re back to the peppy music. This time the narrator sets off as if she has to speak to an auditorium, loud and a bit clipped. Perhaps that auditorium is full of misbehaving children.

It is not a relaxing presentation.

Although we have the same patient it is not as chilled as previous videos in this set. I do not think that it can sneak into The Procrastination Pen playlist.

This set of videos must be excellent for instruction, I’ve seen a few medical examination videos now but I am still learning a great deal by watching. However, that is not the purpose of this set of blog posts.

Abdominal Examination

We’re back to the deep voice we heard in “An Introduction to the Abdominal Examination – Y1 and Y2” above. It isn’t marvellous ASMR-wise however not enough to discount it from the Procrastination Pen playlist. It might be dropped on future review though.

Definitions

Glossitis

Inflammation of the tongue

GALS Screen (Gait Arms Legs Spine) examination – real time

There is no narration on this one which is actually rather refreshing. The medical professional is relatively quiet. In fact, this is a great video for ASMR purposes. His tone is good and his approach methodical, everything that we have been looking for thus far.

Some of the videos do repeat some of the material from previous videos in the same series. I am assuming that this will not be too off-putting of you follow my advice to play the playlist on shuffle so that you do not just get them one after the other.

That’s it for now.

However, the channel has been good for us so I intend to return here to look at some of the other videos it contains.

The UCL Clinical Skills playlist on The Procrastination Pen is here:

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

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after repeated review not to make the grade, is here:

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop my listening experience to log on, this interrupts the listening experience. You may not mind 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

Recently, I am finding some variability around the efficacy of using just the ASMR videos to get some sleep. Some nights very effective, some nights a distraction, and some nights just not effective at all.

On such nights, I tend to lie on the sofa and tune into the dreariness that is late night television (dreariness is probably advisable as really compelling television is only going to keep you awake for longer).

However, there are other things to try, for example, there are free online meditation resources. Some people I am told find the discipline of meditation really diverting. I have until recently found focusing on meditation to be one more thing I do not want to do when I am tired and I want to sleep.

However, never say never, I recently have received a gift subscription to Calm and I am giving some of the meditations a try. So far without positive outcome, but you never know.

Meantime I am back to finding more ASMR videos. I am trying to stay ahead as I notice that some of my blog posts already have blank spaces where videos used to be. Videos are obviously being taken down.

Previously, we have dealt with the Sterling Freeman part of this partnership.

Now we have Olivia Rabone and, as we saw in that previous blog post, this looks like it is a video designed as part of an assessment.

Head-to-toe physical assessment-Olivia Rabone and Sterling Freeman

As we have heard before, the ever-present air conditioning to provide an audio background for us. In this, Sterling Freeman is the “patient”.

Sterling is currently a Registered Nurse at Martin County Hospital District Texas. She attended Howard College

Olivia Rabone attended Howard College Texas until 2022

Howard College has (as we’ve come to expect) has its own channel.

However, the badge on the shoulder of Sterling does not look anything like that on the Howard College Channel.

Sterling also studied at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

This college also has a YouTube channel. However, the badge is not like that on the uniform.

Sterling early in the video confirms that they are both at Howard College, Big Spring Texas. (Perhaps the college has subsequently changed its branding).

We also get the confirmation that this is 2019, which was very likely Sterling’s final year there (although Olivia appears to have attended for longer than that).

I always find it amusing that in these videos the students provide privacy by drawing an invisible curtain. We have seen this before of course.

I’ve seen a few applications of a blood pressure cuff in these videos. Given how far Olivia has to wrap that cuff around Sterling’s arm I think it might be bit on the large side.

The assessment proceeds at the pace of an express train. This makes me wonder if trainee health professionals are under the cosh to get things accomplished in the smallest amount of time possible.

Olivia seems to be reciting from a mental script as the empathy quotient in this video is not obviously high.

Against that, the tone is really pleasant; it is not excessively loud. It makes a good Procrastination Pen playlist candidate.

The channel, unsurprisingly, is called Olivia Rabone. It has eight videos on it, which is a number I think I can cover here without over stretching your attention. (The Procrastination Pen playlist is at the end of this article if you want to skip to that point, simply scroll down to find it).

The remaining seven videos are:

Head-to-toe physical assessment- Sunny Kuykendall & Olivia Rabone

Although Olivia hosts this one on her channel the medical professional here is Sunny and the “patient” is Olivia.

Sunny has her own channel which might be worthy of a future review.

Judging by Sunny’s shoulder badge (which is the same as Sterling’s in the previous video) this is also filmed at Howard College.

We have the constant drone of force-driven air to keep the ears entertained. In this case the medical professional’s volume is not aligned with this background noise. It is quite difficult to hear what Sunny is actually saying. This might be ok if the air conditioning noise was more restful but I do not find that it is.

The camera appears to be a huge distance from the two participants. This is unusual for videos of this type. However, given we are mainly here for the listening experience I cannot judge this video solely on that basis.

Sunny at intervals seems to be distracted. Potentially she is trying to follow some standard assessment checklist.

This does make it a little difficult to relax into the experience (and fall asleep to it for example).

Overall, I think the sound quality discounts this video from the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Head-to-toe physical assessment- Olivia Rabone & Stacy Kuykendall

This continues in the vein of the last video, with a high background noise in relation to the main spoken audio track.

Stacy Kuykendall is a remarkably common name in Texas it turns out (including one woman whose children were killed). The upshot of which is that I have been unable to determine if Stacy has a YouTube channel.

To be honest given this is set up exactly like the last one it didn’t stand a chance from the outset so I will not be adding it to the Procrastination Pen playlist.

CNs, Musculoskeletal, & Neurovascular Assessments-Olivia Rabone

The background noise on this is really intrusive, including what sounds like a whole flock of rock doves trying to outcompete one another.

There are a number of non-medical and non-ASMR comments with this video. But none of these have any interest to us.

There is the noise of overflying planes. At one point Olivia starts laughing, which given the challenges involved in filming here, is probably unsurprising.

If you’re watching as well as listening, there are also some strange artefacts coming from sunlight across the lens.

As before, there are occasional gaps as Olivia consults a checklist so it is a little staccato in approach.

It just isn’t there in terms of ASMR, so it will not be into the Procrastination Pen playlist.

CN’s & Musculoskeletal-Olivia Rabone and Sterling Freeman

Here we are straight back to the partnership that we started this blog item with. Although the partnership is the same, it appears that someone stuck the microphone actually inside the air conditioning outlet.

The audio track is nearly completely occluded by the constant whirr that is going on.

It is a shame because in all other respects this is the equal of the video that we started with in this article, but I don’t think it can really go through to the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Respiratory & Cardiac assessment-Olivia Rabone and Sterling Freeman

Yet again the background noise is high. However, I think this is just acceptable. It is very calm and considerably more methodical than some others featured in this blog post. However, it may well suffer an early weeding if it proves to be distracting on subsequent review.

A louder vocal track would have compensated for the air conditioning. Perhaps YouTube videos of the future will incorporate an air conditioning filter designed to eliminate all that excess noise.

HEENT assessment-Olivia Rabone and Sterling Freeman

This seems to start a bit louder, but so does the air conditioning. I could probably provide a good service to listeners if I could somehow process all the sound tracks to eliminate background noise. Sadly, however I am no sound engineer.

There are relatively few comments but just shy of seven and a half thousand views, which sounds remarkable.

To be honest, I’m not certain it is a great Procrastination Pen playlist candidate.

NG tube/EN/PN discussion

This is so much quieter than the others which must be down to the change of venue. This is filmed inside someone’s house. The start of the video though is not restful. It is almost in the format of a lecture with the delivery a tad hesitant.

Someone off camera starts coughing and Olivia is merely reading from a script.

This one isn’t for the Procrastination Pen playlist either.

The Olivia Rabone playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The Procrastination Pen playlist (which is no-doubt what you have all been reading this in order to locate) is found here:

Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than occasional intrusive noises.

The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function), usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night, is here:

I hope that you find the playlists restful and that you get a good night’s sleep.

Hope to see you again back here for the next blog article.

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Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae