Sleeping With ASMR

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

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

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

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

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

It is this one:

Rachel Bridges Head to Toe Assessment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This one is posted in 2018 to the following channel:

Rachel Bridges

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

Looking at the other videos:

September 15, 2017

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

Another very brief video:

January 20, 2023

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

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

The video is this one:

R.Bridges Head to toe assessment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I hope that you continue to find them restful

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

Until next time.

Photo by Anas Belmadani on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

After quite a few blog posts and a rather large number of draft blog items which never saw the light of day, I still remain interested in ASMR videos. I still listen to the Procrastination Pen playlist most days. I rely on it to drop off to sleep, commonly if I wake up stark awake in the early hours of the morning. For this reason I have high hopes that if you are reading this in the hope of getting some insomnia relief, especially if you know that you are susceptible to ASMR symptoms, that at least one of the videos I have found so far will become one of your favourites.

As is now typical the full Procrastination Pen playlist is referenced at the end of this blog item. If you are short of time scroll all the way down to it – hop over to YouTube – hit the shuffle function and get some restful moments.

If instead you’re keen to find out what new video I have happened across in my searches, it is this one:

Skin: Demo Exam

Back to the funky music which we know and are not at all fond of. It starts off a little energetically but it soon settles down.

It’s a professional video and, as we have seen before, it comes with a reasonable set of notes “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 skin exam is conducted by Elizabeth Boham, MD, MS, RD. https://www.drboham.com/

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

Comments are denied (probably wise) so I cannot tell if other ASMR fans are here before me, but with a video like this, the odds are that they have been.

It is just over three minutes so a short one for us but it is calm and measured. Dr Boham has a good voice for us I think and is worthy of checking further – in case she features in other, similar videos.

The channel is N Sight

It has 2710 subscribers and is therefore popular and with twenty videos on the day I’m looking at it that is quite some achievement. (Some sites we have seen have many more videos than that).

There are four playlists and the great thing is that there is one playlist dedicated to Dr Boham – this makes life a great deal easier. The play list Skin Exam

has four videos of which the above one is video two in the set.

At first sight the others look less promising. They appear to be more presenting than medical examination as such. However, it is worth giving them a proper review.

The First video in the playlist is this one:

Skin Exam: Introduction, Equipment, & Patient Positioning

Sadly, there is no relief from the funky start up music, people love their brand even if it keeps other people awake!

This starts out as a presentation by Dr Boham which is not reassuring. However Dr Boham does have a good voice for us. The downside is that at every interval (within what is a very short video at only four and three quarter minutes) the funky music plays again. This gets rather tiresome.

The notes are as follows:

“14,451 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 skin exam introduction is conducted by Elizabeth Boham, MD, MS, RD.

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

However, I have come over all charitable (Dr Boham does have a rather good voice) so I am going to include this in the Procrastination Pen playlist for now (it may be a victim of subsequent weeding).

Skin: Teaching Exam

Notes again: “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 skin exam is conducted by Elizabeth Boham, MD, MS, RD.

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

This is actually video three in the set, video two being the one that we first came in with. Yet again the funky music. Dr Boham starts off a bit energetic in presentation. This is sad given the standard set by the video we started with.

However, I still like Dr Boham’s voice and I’m rather fond of the way in which she pronounces “Capillaries” so I am (at the moment) prepared to let it into the playlist. In any case at just shy of four and a half minutes it is really short. It is a shame I can’t delete the music and make it a decently quiet video.

And so to the final video:

(in this playlist anyway)

Skin: Conclusion

Annoying music – tick, really short video (this one just over one and a half minutes) – tick, duplicated notes from the other videos in this playlist – tick.

In an ideal world the video would have no music at all.

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 are in this archive list:

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop part way through a playlist in order to log on, this interrupts the flow/sleep dependent upon how long you’ve been listening. 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 Marcos Ferrari on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

In the drive to create the perfect night-time companion (I mean the Procrastination Pen playlist rather than any other type of companion that might have sprung to mind), I sometimes weed out so many videos that it all looks like a roadside verge when the strimmer operator has been a little too enthusiastic.

Added to this is a high rate of attrition, which shows that as fast as I write about videos, people are then taking them down. Given that some of them might be being taken down due to legal reasons (such as copyright offences), it would be unwise of me to keep copies of such videos to re-upload them again (or I might find the entire Procrastination Pen YouTube channel quietly disappears).

One day I may tire of maintaining the blog, and the YouTube channel, (and the Facebook page, and so on and so forth) but I’d rather like that decision to be mine, not imposed by a copyright official at YouTube.

I’ve been weeding the playlist recently, such that the Procrastination Pen archive playlist is quite healthy in size and the Procrastination Pen main playlist (the reason we’re all here I assume) is a bit smaller. Quite enough to act as a restful companion, perhaps not quite long enough to sustain many more YouTube video take-downs.

To this end, I need to get ahead and post a few more blog posts and fill that playlist up again. Apologies if on such occasions you are notified of more blog posts than you are keen to read in the timescale. If you are short of time, scroll right to the end of this blog post and find the Procrastination Pen playlist there. Flit over to YouTube, pull up the playlist, engage shuffle, lay back, and relax.

If you’re still reading, this is today’s video:

Abdominal Examination – Explanation

It is from a university and so one assumes a professional video. As such it has notes:

“768,069 views  14 Dec 2011  Clinical Examinations

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

This is a detailed explanation of the abdominal 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 Mr Adam Scott MS FRCS (Edin) FRCS (Eng) Consultant General and Colorectal Surgeon. 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…”

I love it when we get details about participants – it makes the video so much more believable  i.e. less likely the participants are making a professional ASMR video and masquerading as medical professionals to do so.

Mr Adam Scott is referenced in several websites and so unless those ASMR professionals are getting really great at subterfuge we can be very happy that this is the real thing.

Sadly, the URL that purports to lead to further videos leads just to the University of Leicester website so I am guessing the page, where those videos were, has now gone.

The video itself is just less than eight and a half minutes and so not huge in terms of videos that we are used to.

The patient is introduced as “Debbie”. Immediately Mr Scott is quiet, methodical, patient and not overly energetic. All-in-all what we would look for in a presenter of relaxing night-time videos.

There is a background noise (perhaps air conditioning) but not as terrible as some we have heard.

The channel on which this video appears: University of Leicester is huge, it has twelve hundred videos at the time I am looking at it. It seems very unlikely that it will be feasible to ferret out the gold from amongst all the other videos. Those promoting the university, covering other disciplines taught by the university, students wanting to try their hand at video-making, and so on.

I think the approach here is to look for Adam Scott MS FRCS (Edin) FRCS (Eng) Consultant General and Colorectal Surgeon (I would search for “Adam Scott” but sadly this is not an uncommon name).

The results of such a specific search on YouTube is that we have only five videos of which in overview only one more is suitable for our purposes:

Abdominal Examination – Demonstration

This is four- and three-quarter minutes so even shorter than the last one and is pretty much the same in all respects. One of the great things is the lack of introductory music, which is not missed in any sense whatsoever.

It would be even more great if there was an absence of background noise.

There are notes: “1,206,417 views 14 May 2012 Clinical Examinations

This is a real-time demonstration illustrating technique and patient interaction involved in the Abdominal 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 Adam Scott MS FRCS (Edin) FRCS (Eng) Consultant General and Colorectal Surgeon. 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…

The video basically covers much of the ground of the previous video so it isn’t new material.

Then there are three videos whose descriptions lead me to suspect that they are promotional in nature:

Bowel Cancer Signs and Symptoms

This appears on the channel: Spire Leicester Hospital.

This has just twenty subscribers so a lot more niche than we are used to.

The notes here are: “416 views 19 Apr 2018

Spire Leicester Hospital Colorectal surgeon Mr Adam Scott talks about bowel cancer, the signs and symptoms, bowel screening and when to visit your GP. https://www.spirehealthcare.com/spire…

Although this is a presentation, Mr Scott has a great voice and I would be tempted to include this video in the playlist. However, I suspect that people may well find this off-putting (it is a scary subject).

The URL referenced in the notes simply redirects to Spire Leicester Hospital.

The Channel has only five videos and it does not appear to have any material that we can use for night-time relaxation.

The next video (and the one after that) both appear on a channel: PPM Software. This has one subscriber and three videos of which Mr Adam Scott makes up two of those – to me this appears to be promotional material.

The first video is just half a minute:

‘PPM’ Software, Client Testimonial

There is funky music – uuurrrgh.

The recording is loud with loud background music and of course it is very short, not the sort of thing we’re looking for at all.

The next video is more of the same:

‘PPM’ Software, What our Clients say

This repeats the above almost exactly but is twice as long. It is designed to sell a product and I do not think we can make use of it at all. This one isn’t for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

So, two videos for the playlist. Just enough to create a playlist for Leicester University.

However, if the quality is this good, I think we’ll be back with Leicester university again in the near future.

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 experience 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 Vera Barus on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

If you have been reading this for a while then you will notice that this is a return to a channel we’ve been to before and if you haven’t then you’ve been missing out and a whole breadth of reading experience awaits.

As usual I will be reviewing some YouTube videos for their ASMR potential and, if they are considered fitting, they get to go into the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Behind the scenes I continue to review that playlist over time, booting out those which are less brilliant than hoped, so that the main list should continue to be full of the best ones I have found so far.

I welcome suggestions. Any video which was not intended to be an ASMR video but which is effective in that respect and, if I agree that it is a good one, it will turn up in a future blog item.

Today’s video is this one:

The Exam for Ankle & Foot Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

It fits with the medical examination theme which has run through quite a number of these blog items (although I do ring the changes occasionally.

At just under seven and a half minutes it isn’t very long but given it is from a medical school it shares with a number of professional videos we’ve seen the provision of a healthy set of notes which are these:

“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)”

Bravely this video permits comments, but one outcome of which is that I can tell ASMR fans have been here long before me.

By now we are familiar with the format of videos from this channel. Firstly there is the introductory music; not as loud as some we’ve heard but it would be great if it could be dispensed with altogether.

Dr Brinda Christopher is of course familiar to us.

As is the patient for this video “Chad” as well (hopefully I did not misspell that).

Dr Christopher starts a little loud but settles into her stride pretty swiftly. Sadly there is the ever-present background noise which we’ve heard in other videos and may well be air conditioning.

The channel of course is

Stanford Medicine 25 https://www.youtube.com/@StanfordMedicine25

253K subscribers at the date I am looking at it

Surprisingly just eighty-five videos, when even some university promotional channels have more than that.

However eighty five is a few too many to get into a blog post. There are thirteen playlists and ours is in this one:

Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam

However, I think for this post we will stick with Dr Christopher. For this purpose, a standard YouTube search is an approach. This brings up three videos, the one we started with and two further videos.

This is the first one:

The Exam for Shoulder Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

Just under ten and a half minutes, so more substantial in terms of length and it is pretty much like the last one (professionally produced videos have the advantage, or possibly the disadvantage, of being consistent).

The notes are:

“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 shoulder 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:

Rotator Cuff Pathology

Impingement Syndrome

Biceps Tendinopathy

Adhesive Capsulitis (Frozen Shoulder)

Acromioclavicular (AC) Joint Disease

Shoulder Instability

Labral Tears (SLAP Lesions)”

The same medical professional, the same patient. The same approach, the same background noise, the same music and so on.

Again, ASMR fans are way ahead of me – see the comments. The earliest I can see is over a year ago as at today’s date but of course not every ASMR fan is going to fill in the comments.

As before the video gets quieter and therefore more appealing the more it proceeds. If you feel that the start is a little loud it is worthwhile persisting with it.

This is the second one:

The Exam for Knee Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

Notes again:”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 knee 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

Knee Diagnoses Covered in Video:

Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injury

Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL) Injury

Medial & Lateral Collateral Ligament Injury

Medial & Lateral Menisci Injury

Anterior Knee Pain (Patellofemoral Pain)

Bursitis

Inflamed Knee with Effusion

Osteoarthritis (Degenerative Joint Disease)

Stress Fracture of Tibia”

Yet again, comments from ASMR devotees, so it is consistent with the other two.

Just under eight minutes so not huge. Again with the start music, sigh, and then reacquainting ourselves with the background noise. Same medical professional, same “patient”.

This is the last in this set that I can find and the last in this blog item. The comments as for previous videos in this post apply equally to this one.

There is also a lead out set of music and a statement about copyright, either of which might prove to be distracting over time, if so these may ultimately get weeded out

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 experience 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 Tuna on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

In previous blog posts I have been promising to come back to this channel in the future. When we left it, there were a great many videos remaining. However, I did not want to get into a glut of videos as it is a distraction from the unintentional ASMR that this blog has been focusing on. As I’ve previously said, this is a bit of a guilty pleasure as the channel is dedicated to ASMR and therefore all of the curation work has been done. Assuming the channel owner has any taste, I should be able to just sit back and let the ASMR sensations wash over me.

However, it is not unknown for the odd jarring-pick to crop up on these sites and therefore I propose to give each video a formal review much as I would have done had I plucked it from a channel dedicated to medicine or to wood-block printing.

As far as I can tell, the videos remaining number sixteen, so I’ll cover eight more here, and a further eight in one final blog post in the future.

The channel of course is ASMR Exams and regular readers will know that I have given a thorough look at this channel, not once, but twice. Some of the videos do seem to have been worth the effort.

Of the remaining, this one is the first video:

Physical Assessment (ASMR)

This is twenty-one minutes long and has no notes and so no
immediate clues about the video. Comments have been permitted and as expected some of them are properly unhelpful.

Straight away, this is incredibly quiet. I have the volume turned right up and some of the speech still eludes me. However, on the positive side, it is too quiet for any offensive background noises to be heard.

The “patient” appears to be “Bernette” (that could well be an erroneous spelling) and the medical professional is Mary-Beth Robbins.

The location has the appearance of a professional medical establishment but for some reason has artwork on the wall (possibly a famous historical medical figure). Mary-Beth is very calm and gentle, however, Bernette seems quite amused by the process. So far, so student assessment video. It’s just that this one seems to have taken a hit on the volume control.

At the point of the eye test, we get a view of the other patients in the room and it becomes obvious that they are all dummies, in the manner that they are made of plastic, not that they are especially gullible. So far, so student educational establishment.

Mary-Beth has a prominent name tag but I just can’t see it well enough to determine if it identifies the location. However, there is that large “W” which is discernible.

In all quite excellent which is what we would expect from a channel dedicated to ASMR of course.

Physical Examination (ASMR)

This video is a bit longer at a bit over thirty minutes. Again, there are no notes, again there are comments, and again the comments are often unsupportive.

This video starts a bit loud. Lauren the “patient” (possibly misspelled), the medical professional does not introduce herself.

This time the setting appears to be domestic rather than professional.

The volume seems to wander about a bit despite the fact that the two participants remain a consistent distance from the camera/phone used to film it.

The quality of said camera must be off a bit too, if you did decide to watch rather than listen; it appears 1980s VHS quality. The medical professional is wearing a name badge but given the fuzziness of the output I defy anyone to read it. Therefore, there are no clues as to who/where this is.

Later in the video, the dog decides to be a semi-hidden participant by lying under the table on which Lauren is sat. Dogs seem to be natural hams as we have seen. I also notice that the medical professional is wearing carpet slippers (which might now be the standard hospital garb, for all I know).

Neither participant seems to have a natural ASMR voice but at least the soundtrack seems to lack extraneous noises. Lauren in particular seems to have quite a loud voice in fact. Also, at intervals Lauren coughs and that is quite loud in comparison with the ongoing interaction.

The medical professional as well has her loud moments, as if attempting to project to a large room. (Perhaps she is stood in a large room although you would not know to look at it, the camera being focused on one small corner of whichever room they are stood in). The medical professional also seems to be regularly consulting something (perhaps a checklist) but you won’t notice this at all if, as I recommend, you simply listen to this.

This might be a bit marginal in terms of the Procrastination Pen playlist. I will trial it and reserve the right to weed it out in the future.

Physical Examination (ASMR)

This time there are no notes and (thanks be to God) no comments either, no more snide nastiness, we can fast-forward directly to the content.

This one at thirty-four and a half minutes is slightly longer than either of the videos covered thus far. It shares the “is this out of focus?” appearance of the last one, so is obviously trading on the sound rather than the visuals.

It starts amazingly loud, like “ohmigod I was asleep” loud. The “patient” is introduced as Courtney (probably misspelled) the medical professional as “Holly” and unlike the exalted Hollie Berry, sadly, she does not have an ASMR voice, not in any way. More your “oyez, oyez, oyez” kind of voice. At intervals I would label it a shout rather than conversation. Fortunately maintaining that volume appears to be too much of an effort such that it ameliorates a bit. However, the presence of ongoing and easily overheard conversations in neighbouring rooms then becomes a distraction. In addition, we have the presence of continuous background noise like the sound of a 1950s reel-to-reel tape recorder.

It is a great shame but it does go to show that just because a video appears on an ASMR channel does not mean it is actually a great ASMR video. It is worth taking the time to evaluate for yourself; I am sure this happens on the Procrastination Pen equally as much as on ASMR Exams.

This one does not belong in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Chiropractic Adjustment LOOPED (ASMR)

As I have already established I really do not like looped videos.

Several commentators do love this one though. At twenty three and three quarter minutes a bit shorter than the last two.

The medical professional has a great voice, but the marvelousness of that voice is ameliorated to a great extent by the sound of conversations from adjacent rooms. There is also the off-putting sound of the clicks and clunks used in chiropracty (we’ve covered these kind of problems before). There are whirring noises from the equipment being moved accompanied by whistling noises of escaping air which sounds like a dump valve. Perhaps a sound more for car videos than those for ASMR.

All-in-all this one does not belong in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Physical Examination (ASMR)

An absolutely whopping fifty-one and a half minutes (and some change). This is a physical examination going for the truly methodical.

The comments are variable (aren’t they always). The video quality is of the soft-focused variety (and that is being charitable). The background noise is of the intrusive type, air conditioning most likely. The patient is identified as “Kylie”(probably misspelled) and there is a crucifix on the wall which may give a clue to the location.

The medical professional is “Kristen” (again spelling may well be wrong) and she announces that this is a Head-to-Toe assessment. (We are well used to these by now).

Kristen is not the quietest and certainly not a natural ASMR voice. There are thunks from equipment at intervals but thankfully no conversation from adjacent rooms this time.

Definition:

Snellen chart: used to measure visual acuity

See below

Snellen chart

At regular points in the video there are breaks in the recording, as if this huge video were actually an assemblage of shorter videos. In cases like this, I always prefer to have the shorter videos and for you to be able to play them using the YouTube shuffle function.

The shoulder badge on the medical professional appears to be a stylised cross, so good luck determining which medical establishment it is from.

The medical professional at intervals is consulting something (I assume some kind of checklist) which gives this the feel of a student assessment video.

I do not like ASMR videos that have been assembled from other videos and I don’t think that this is of sufficient quality to make an exception, so I will not be adding this one to the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Physical Examination (ASMR)

Twenty-six and three-quarter minutes, comments again and by now we know the kind of content they are likely to have without even checking them.

This begins in a much more thorough fashion in that we have names and location. Monica Barbara a student at the University of South Florida. As we would expect the university has its own YouTube channel dedicated to promotion, there are 655 videos and 11.1K subscribers. There are ten playlists but no obvious candidates for ASMR material.

Of course, “Monica” and indeed “Barbara” might be misheard and misspelled.

The patient is introduced as “Alisha” (again spelling might be off there). The visual quality is of the type as if someone smeared Vaseline all over the lens. There is, again, the constant hum of background noise (probably air conditioning). In addition, this time though, there is a profound echo, as if it is being filmed in a large corridor. I notice that Alisha seems to be perched on a table with a cloth over it so hardly the bespoke medical centre. However, it does not have a feel of the domestic environments we have often seen in student assessment videos.

That echo though does prove to be somewhat distracting. I think Monica would have to be using a profoundly minimal whisper to escape its effects.

In fact, Monica does not have a natural ASMR voice so we have a sound that verges towards the boomy. (Think Bonnie Tyler in an echo chamber).

On balance I do not think this belongs in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Neurological Physical Examination (ASMR)

This one is just under thirty-one minutes. The comments reference some ASMR “In” comments that you will be familiar with now if you have followed this blog for any period of time. I swear some people comment because they can, rather than to say anything meaningful less helpful.

This is filmed against a dark blue curtain as if it was set up purely for filming. The quality of both video and of sound isn’t that great, to be honest. It is about the same as home taping in 1985.

It kicks off with a mental test and it isn’t that quiet. Rather the “patient” is quite quiet but the medical professional has quite a deep voice which he is using to full effect. The patient is Milena Pavlova (almost certainly misspelled) and it was filmed on 25/07/2000, (UK Format so therefore in July). Goodness knows what it was filmed on as I would imagine that the quality produced by equipment was somewhat more advanced than this by then.

The location sounds like something-haven hospital, possibly Shoalhaven, although that hospital is in Australia and neither participant sounds spectacularly Australian.

Given that Milena feels it necessary to tell us that Bulgaria is in South Eastern Europe, one imagines that this was not actually filmed in Europe where a large number of people would already know where the country is.

I notice that a copy of the New York Times is used as an illustration of a newspaper to be used with patients. This indicates that the something-haven hospital is located in New York. The only one I can find is Yale New Haven hospital. Assuming this is correct, they have a YouTube channel with 124 videos, 1.51K subscribers and 16 playlists. No obvious ASMR content though.

It comes to a conclusion rather abruptly which leads me to suspect that there is another longer version out there. I’ll add it to the Procrastination Pen playlist in lieu of finding the full version.

Physical Examination (ASMR)

This is just over thirty-nine minutes and the comments associated with it are somewhat disheartening. It has a healthy amount of background noise and seems to have been videod in a classroom setting – this usually means lots of extraneous noise. The person teaching has a good voice but the air conditioning is properly loud in this. The video quality is also no better than others we have covered in this blog post.

Given the subject matter (breast examination) previous experience tells me that I should now be halted and prompted to log on. But not in this case for some reason.   There is nothing on display but that hasn’t stopped previous login prompts.

There is feedback from the class. The people videoing are visible in mirrors in the classroom. People are coughing and shuffling (as is to be expected in a large group). There is laughter and equipment noises and someone keeps clicking the device that is being used for filming (probably fidgeting with their phone).

As is expected, the voices are a little raised as they need to project to the group rather than any individual. This is a shame as it could actually be quite good (well if someone put a bomb in the air conditioning).

This one also concludes rather abruptly but we have found some classroom-based tuition videos do that.

So, it isn’t the greatest, but I think worth putting in the Procrastination Pen playlist to see if it sits well there. It might get weeded out to the archive list in due course.

In summary, I do not share the taste of the owner of ASMR exams (or indeed of some of the commentators to the videos). However, I hope that means that the quality of the Procrastination Pen playlist is being maintained. I’ll revisit the ASMR exams channel again to attempt to capture the last of the videos. Most seem to have been posted about eight years ago so it should be possible to mop them all up.

The ASMR Exams playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop my listening experience to log on, this interrupts the 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

Sometimes it is hard to remember that there might be someone who happens across this blog who has not been here before. If this is you, I hope that you enjoy it and go on to tell everyone you know about how great it is.

The blog exists purely as a review of ASMR videos. Habitually, it reviews videos that were created with a purpose other than ASMR and quite a few of those have turned out to be medical videos. For some reason a number of medical professionals turn out to have relaxing voices.

Each week there are more videos and each week those videos get added into the Procrastination Pen playlist which, by this time, is getting quite long.

However, I keep listening to the playlist and sometimes find a loud noise I hadn’t noticed before, or that the background noise, I had noticed, now appears a heck of a lot more irritating than I remember. In such cases, the videos are banished to the archive list.

In this way, I hope to drive up the quality of the Procrastination Pen playlist and to continually review videos for their excellence.

This week another medical video, the key voice here is that of the medical professional rather than the narrator. Dr. Alex Henri-Bhargava is the medical professional. The video was posted 28 June 2018 and it is part of a professional channel, of which more in a minute.

Neurology: Clinical Skills – Cranial Nerve Exam

Like previous professional videos we have seen this one comes with a healthy chunk of notes:

“28 Jun 2018 The cranial nerve exam consists of a series of tests and observations designed to assess the function of the twelve cranial nerves.

This video will showcase how to exam these nerves.

Filmed, written, and directed by:

Chris Calvin

Kashi (Siyoung) Lee

Kero (Yue) Yuen

Ge Shi

Supervised by:

Dr. Alex Henri-Bhargava (Department of Neurology, UBC)

Zac Rothman (PRISM)

Edited by:

Stephen Gillis”

Phew, and I have truncated the notes quite a bit. One of the original comments states that very few people have seen the video. However, it has 2,664,040 views as at the time I’m looking at it. It must have taken off a great deal since then. There are no ASMR-connected comments so this might be a discovery for this blog. (Although ASMR fans have ferret noses when it comes to a good ASMR video so that seems distinctly unlikely).

Dr Henri-Bhargava has a great voice from our perspective. It is very relaxing. The narrator is not quite as good, but not as bad as in many of the videos I have watched of late.

The examination is very relaxed and methodical.

The channel is UBC Medicine – Educational Media, this has one hundred and forty-five videos and 194K subscribers which as I’m sure you’ll agree is more than a few.

There are nineteen playlists and as luck would have it our first video is part of a playlist:

UBC Medicine: Learner driven and learner made

This consists of ten videos including the one that we started with.

Cardiology: Re-entry Circuits

This one is designed as a learning experience. As with the previous video there are a healthy set of notes, I’ve truncated them a bit (and I’ll do this from now on):

“14 Feb 2017 A UBC medical student explains his own unique take on Re-Entry Circuits.

Animation and Editing- Paul Milaire

Produced by MedIT at UBC Faculty of Medicine

Executive Producer – Zachary Rothman

Faculty Lead – Dr. Carol Ann Courneya

Produced in 2014, released for 2017 Valentine’s Day.”

Judging by the comments, this is great for a learning experience. Sadly, for us this is not relaxing enough to lull you off to sleep so it will not be in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Cardiology: Wall Stress

The notes state “14 Feb 2017 A UBC medical student gives his unique take on wall stress in the heart.

Animation and Editing by Paul Milaire.

Produced in 2014, released for 2017 Valentine’s Day”

This follows the format of the last one and, like that video, will not be in the playlist.

Cardiology: Action Potential In The Heart

Notes again “14 Feb 2017 Two UBC medical students explain their take on electrical conductivity and action potential within the heart.

Animation and Editing by Paul Milaire.”

This is equally unsuitable for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Neurology: Clinical Skills – Gait & Coordination Exam

The notes state: “28 Jun 2018 Full Gait & Coordination examination video.

Supervised by:

Dr. Alex Henri-Bhargava (Department of Neurology, UBC)

Zac Rothman (MedIT)

Doctor – Dr. Alex Henri-Bhargava

Filmed, written, and directed by:

John Liu

Chris Calvin

Kashi (Siyoung) Lee

Vincent Soh

Kero (Yue) Yuen

Ge Shi

Special thanks to:

Stephen Gillis and Paul Milaire (MedIT – Educational Technology) Faculty of Medicine, UBC”

Here we discover that the “patient “is Paulina. Again the medical professional is Dr Henri-Bhargava. We discover that his voice is consistent, it is also calming in this video.

Neurology: Clinical Skills – Cranial Nerve Exam

This video is the one we started with.

Neurology: Clinical Skills – Motor, Sensory, & Reflex Neurological Exam

The notes state: “28 Jun 2018 This video will cover, in detail, the motor, sensory, reflect components of a neurological examination.

Filmed, written, and directed by:

John Liu

Vincent Soh

Chris Calvin

Kashi (Siyoung) Lee

Kero (Yue) Yuen

Ge Shi

Doctor – Dr. Jason Valerio (Department of Neurology, UBC)

Supervised by:

Dr. Alex Henri-Bhargava (Department of Neurology, UBC)

Zac Rothman (UBC FOM Digital Solutions: Ed Tech)

Edited by:

Stephen Gillis”

Dr Valerio does not have as great a voice as Dr Henri-Bhargava but this is still properly relaxing. This one belongs in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Anatomy: Introduction to your first lab

The notes state: “29 Aug 2019 New to anatomy?  Not sure how to start your first lab? 

One of our med students wanted to provide a simple, step-by-step guide to prep you for your first lab experience.  Perfect for anyone studying anatomy!

Animations, Script, Narration by Maryam Garabedian

With Filming and Technical Support by Zachary Rothman

Subject Matter Expertise by Dr Claudia Krebs”

This is quite off-putting; I can’t imagine getting much sleep after watching this. Others may find it ok for them (the voice is certainly good enough in terms of relaxation) but dissection of a human cadaver is not really the kind of thing I want to sleep to. This will not be in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Introduction to Refugee and Canadian Health Care

The notes state: “22 Mar 2017 Meant for refugees and new arrivals to Canada – an introduction to the Canadian Health Care System.

Written, Animated and Narrated by Maryam Garabedian

Additional Technical Support and Supervision – Zachary Rothman

Subject Matter Expertise

Dr. Mei-Ling Weidmeyer

Barbara Harvey, RN

Stacy Barry, RN

Dr. Videsh Kapoor

Project Support by Jirair Garabedian

Special Thanks to

Refugee Health Initiative

The Bridge Clinic”

This is very helpful in terms of information but is not that great in terms of slipping off to na-na-land. Therefore, it too, will not be in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Heart Functions: Preload, Afterload, and Heart Failure (Part 1)

The notes state: “13 Feb 2014 What do dogs & frogs, rowing and rubber band sound effects have in common?

A fun and informative look deep into the human heart.

‘From Filaments’ is a basic science explanation of how the heart functions, and why it can fail.  A perfect overview for first year medical students!

This podcast was supported by UBC Faculty of Medicine, MedIT Educational Technology with pedagogical support from Dr.Carol Ann Courneya and the participation of Dr. Edwin Moore.

Narration by Tahara Bhate, Carol Ann Courneya, Edwin Moore, Zachary Rothman

Edit, Audio Edit and Visuals by Zachary Rothman”

Sadly, this has a number of distracting sounds which make it unsuitable for the Procrastination Pen playlist. It’s a shame because the person narrating has a great voice. But some of the additional noises would cause a listener to wake up, rather than to start drowsing.

Heart Functions: Preload, Afterload, and Heart Failure (Part 2)

The notes state: “13 Feb 2014 What do dogs & frogs, rowing and rubber band sound effects have in common?

A fun look deep into the human heart.

‘From Filaments’ is a basic science explanation of how the heart functions, and why it can fail.  A perfect overview for first year medical students!

This podcast was supported by UBC Faculty of Medicine, MedIT Educational Technology with pedagogical support from Dr.Carol Ann Courneya and the participation of Dr. Edwin Moore.

Narration by Tahara Bhate, Carol Ann Courneya, Edwin Moore, Zachary Rothman

Edit, Audio Edit and Visuals by Zachary Rothman© 2010-2020 UBC Faculty of Medicine ”

Unfortunately, this is very like the last one and so is also unsuitable for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The UBC Medicine 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 this 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:

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

On The Procrastination Pen there is the occasional foray into sites purposefully created for ASMR videos, but it is not the main purpose of these blog posts (well not so far anyway).

Occasionally, it is so much easier to just review a video from one of these sites as they’ve been selected previously for ASMR. So I do not have to find one from amidst the many noisy and poorly recorded videos out there.

However ASMR symptoms seem to be stimulated by many different triggers, such that many of these sites cater to people who are looking for a very different kind of video to the ones I would find restful.

Today, I am once again on a channel whose purpose in life is stated right up front “ASMR Sandwich Breath” is the channel. We’ve covered “sandwich breath” before. The whole ASMR world is now like a giant clique with its own terms and ideas (only a very few of which I understand).

The channel has forty eight videos. Fortunately for us all on a medical theme which is an area this blog has largely been focused on (although I do occasionally stray). Unfortunately a number of them have been covered before as they are still available on the original sites.

For that reason I am a bit nervous about today’s video, as I guarantee in a short while I am going to find it wherever it originally came from and will then feature it again.

This is today’s video:

Health Assessment Unintentional ASMR

It seems to be one amongst the rich seam of student videos which has been mined for material on this blog of late.

This one does not have the greatest sound, which makes me wonder why a curated selection of this sort would have nominated it, as we know absolute gems like the Vicki Scott video are out there. However I have chosen to run with it as well, so there must be aspects to it worthy of listening to.

The sound is far too muted, but the approach is gentle and calm which makes a positive difference. I’d be interested in finding the original if it is still out there as I do like to feature original videos (where they still exist).

As usual, where comments are permitted, a smattering of unwarranted nasty comments. I am getting in favour of videos that don’t permit comments for this reason.

The patient “Bernie” (probably misspelled) and the medical professional “Caitlyn” (also likely misspelled), not quite enough for me to go searching independently for the video.

There are playlists on ASMR Sandwich Breath and I could use them to guide selection of videos for this blog article. However, we are in danger of covering videos already featured elsewhere in this blog.

I think I will go for the tested technique of selecting videos which feature the same “patient” or the same medical professional.

I have to make some guesses, but I am pretty certain the following have the same medical professional:

HEENT Exam Unintentional ASMR

As with the previous video the sound is still a bit muted. However the approach remains calm and gentle.

This also features Bernie and Caitlyn – the spellings are fixed now until someone corrects me…

Musculoskeletal Exam Unintentional ASMR

Bernie and Caitlyn again. I notice that they even share nail polish colour (which might be coincidental, but I would have thought indicates this is more likely two students involved in an assessment video).

One of the commentators refers to a participant as “Brittany” so possibly I may have misheard the name here.

Neuro Exam Unintentional ASMR

From the comments, others have been looking for the original videos for this set and not been successful in finding them. So I am a bit reassured in featuring videos from a site designed to curate ASMR videos – it’s doubtful we would find them elsewhere.

We’re now thoroughly used to the approach of this exam. Some people could probably repeat the steps themselves from the sheer number of times they’ve seen videos of this type.

I think these are consistent enough to be in The Procrastination Pen Playlist

In deference to the commentator, I’ve labelled the playlist on The Procrastination Pen “Brittany and Caitlyn” it is here:

The Procrastination Pen playlist (featuring all videos covered so far on this blog) is here:

A number of videos, that were once in that overall playlist, became tiresome to listen to over a period of time. This is usually due to excessive noise of one type or another. All such videos are in the Archive Playlist here:

I only keep this list at all in case I weed out a video that is somebody’s favourite.

I hope you find the videos restful and that they help you to grab what sleep you are able to.

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

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

This week, for a change, I thought we’d look at a medical teaching video in the hope of finding some relaxing material. Actually, that’s no change at all as we have covered this channel and this institution in a previous blog post.

In that blog post I concluded that the sound quality really wasn’t all there. I limited the post to just five videos, concluding that a number of them were not going to make it to the Procrastination Pen playlist.

However, there was the matter of the remaining videos to review, so I thought I’d give the channel a second chance, in the hope that there is a diamond in the rough as it were.

As previously indicated the tutor is Justine Ward who desperately needs a better microphone and quieter surroundings to get the best sound on her videos. Sadly she has neither here.

The channel is Dominican College. The purpose of this set of videos is not completely clear. I do not think they were designed with audio quality in mind.

In which case I think I will limit myself to reviewing just five videos on this occasion as well.

September 22, 2019

A bit longer than the last (previous blog post) at four and three-quarter minutes.

It shares the same limitations as the others reviewed so far, in that the voice of the teaching professional seems to be at the end of a long tunnel.

One thing that does come across is how gentle she is with the “patient” in this. It is also the first time I have come across a video in which a person with restricted motion is reviewed (left shoulder).

Again, the video ends abruptly (this has become somewhat of a theme).

This appears to be a duplicate of the video called “C-spine and UE ROM screen 9/22/19”. We only need one in the playlist so I’ll drop this one.

September 22, 2019

Definitions again

Goniometer a device used to measure an angle.

Nares the nostrils.

Occiput the back of the skull.

Acromion the upper part of the shoulder.

It is interesting that the focus is on reimbursement based upon Insurance Companies. This is strange to a person in an NHS system that money payment for treatment is a contingent process, like stage payments on a mortgage. Health obviously having a very definite value in such a system.

It appears to be a duplicate of the one entitled “C-spine goniometry 9/22/19” we only need one in the playlist so I’ll drop this one.

September 22, 2019

Again, we see the extreme care taken in manipulating. With feedback felt about where rotation should cease. Any pressure on joints is applied with care.

September 22, 2019

Definitions:

Lateral epicondyle: the rounded bit on the outside of the elbow.

C-Spine and UE ROM screen 9/22/19

We can probably rattle through these barring any surprises because they are consistent in terms of sound quality.

C-spine Goniometry 9/22/19

We covered this above as the second September 22, 2019 video.

The Dominican College 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 Shona Macrae