Sleeping With ASMR

This week I went for a while with next to no sleep. I just could not get my actual sleep mode to fit with when I needed to be asleep. I was tired when I needed to work. I was awake when I needed to sleep. (I watched quite a lot of television). My partner pointed to the fact that I am making one of the cardinal sins which is that I sit and read in bed before sleeping and a number of articles point out that the bed has to be for sleep only.

The one thing that did come out of it was that when I finally did manage to get a few hours how delicious it all was. So wonderful I could have been tempted to give thanks for every precious second of unconsciousness. My eighteen-year-old self would have looked upon that sentence with incredulity.

I think, of late, that the professional ASMR has been improving and the inadvertent ASMR not quite so much. This is a disappointment. But I always imagined that finding good material might eventually prove difficult. Even that which at first sight appears suitable, often, ultimately, is not quite so much โ€“ as we have found. However, the endeavour persists โ€“ we’ll see what we can find.

I must admit that I am now tiring of some of the approach (I’ve been doing this three years) and I am thinking that another shake up will be required soon. Possibly to start with moving away from a medical theme for a while might make a nice change. I’m off on holliers soon so I’ll see what happens when I come back with a fresh perspective.

This week’s Calm item is this:

Inspiration

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

Daily Jay

Soul Grow

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

Which is about becoming a more extraordinary version of yourself.

Whilst exploring this letter https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/kurt-vonnegut-xavier-letter_n_4964532

Bearing in mind that if you want to listen you also have to buy a subscription (which I imagine will put a few people off).

This week let’s look at a very different kind of professional ASMR video which is this one:

ASMR The Reincarnation Station ๐Ÿ”ƒ Choosing Your Next Life

It is from the channel Cosmo Whispers ASMR which, again, I cannot remember having been to before. It has 172k subscribers, six hundred and fifty one videos, eighteen playlists and it looks bizarre like it is an ASMR version of Sesame Street.

There are notes on the channel:

“Cosmo Whispers ASMR

Description

Hi! Iโ€™m Cosmo! Your friendly neighborhood pink fuzzy monster and this is my ASMR channel!

I make ASMR videos with a little purple goober named Jeremy, a video editor named Lennard, and my close friends to help you relax, have a good laugh, and fall asleep!

I hope you can find comfort and maybe even have a few laughs from my silly little channel.

Much love to you all! ๐Ÿซถ๐Ÿ’–”

And of course, the video also has notes:

“21 Sept 2026 11 products

Remember to leave a LIKE!

Thanks for watching! ๐Ÿ’–

And make sure to subscribe and hit the bell button so you are notified when I release a new video! โ˜บ๏ธ

New to the world of ASMR? Thatโ€™s okay, I was once too! Welcome! โ˜บ๏ธ

What is ASMR?

โ€œASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) or TINGLES are a relaxing, often sedative sensation that begins on the scalp and moves down the body that are triggered by placid sights and sounds such as whispers, accents, and crackles.โ€

I remember my first time experiencing Tingles!

Watching a friend of mine read a book while listening to him flip the pages and lick his finger before doing so.

It made my head feel soooo fuzzy that I fell asleep right in the armchair I was sitting in.

My goal is to help recreate that feeling for some of you!

I also LOVE hearing other peopleโ€™s first experiences with ASMR so drop me a comment or message!

Much love my friend! ๐Ÿซถ”

Which I have heavily edited because they were comprehensive to say the least.

The video is thirty minutes long. It starts with music and some sci-fi sounding noises. It is reasonably quiet and I had to run the sound up a bit for the review. I am not a fan of music in ASMR videos and I am certainly not keen on videos where the music forms an actual part of the video. Some people seem to find music and ASMR fit well together (a number of the sleep-orientated Calm tracks do this for example). I think it is a very unsound marriage and I think ASMR should be voice only. I very rarely get my wish. When the vocal track starts, a background hiss starts at the same time. That is not too distracting. However, it is comfortably masked by the music in any case.

The voice sounds like it is artificially slowed as if the person would prefer to be talking more quickly. However, after a very short while I soon got used to that. There is a strange background crackling noise as if the track was being played on a badly stored vinyl record. I’m not sure why this was done.

I thought the concept of the video a good one. The idea that you are met by an individual once you have died and are offered a series of choices. That sounds a lot more appealing than disappearing into a box with all consciousness snuffed out. I would say it is more a calming experience than actual ASMR as such and I am not convinced, personally, I would find it that conducive to sleep. I bet there are a large number of people think differently.

After a while I decided I liked the voice, either that or the voice settled down and got comfortable in its role. I hankered after a music free version of the same video โ€“ I do not see this option sadly.

Despite my reservations I did find myself nodding to this which must be a good sign. Why not review it for yourself.

I was thinking about blog feedback. I realised that the last (non-spam) feedback comment I had was from Aidan Blunt. A the time I remember thinking it is little moments like this that make the blogging process worthwhile. When someone reaches out from their lives to interact with mine over a small piece of work I completed some months ago.

Given that Hollie Berry was and remains once of my favourite voices since I started reviewing unintentional ASMR videos, it was a high point for me to rival being given permission to use one of Lindisfarneโ€™s album covers back when I restarted blogging.

This appears a long time after I got the comment but I thought I would provide encouragement, to anyone that happens across this little blog, to feed back about what they have read.

The blog has been about ASMR since December 2022 (a bit of a mรฉlange prior to that) and I have (nearly) consistently been focused on unintentional ASMR videos on YouTube. Firstly, because that is still where most of the videos seem to reside. Secondly WordPress offers me the rather nice option of embedding them in the blog post to illustrate a little of what the article is about.

The demand for unintentional ASMR videos seems to continue unabated and I have been keen to try to find as many as I can, assemble them into a great long playlist and then share the playlist so that others with similar tastes can listen to it of a night time. Particularly if they find themselves towards the insomniac side of restfulness.

Today I am back on message with a medical orientated video and one involving an examination so far so back where this all started

It is this one:

02 – Assessment of muscle tone after stroke

At just shy of twelve minutes it is a good length. It starts without startup music (God be praised) and is a lovely muted introduction โ€“ shades of delight creeping in already.

The notes state: โ€œ841,613 views 6 Sept 2017 STARs – Management of Tone & Spasticity After Stroke: A Role for Everyone

This resource is from the Stroke Training and Awareness Resources (STARs) website – http://www.stroketraining.org

Copyright ยฉ Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland and The University of Edinburgh 2017 CC BY-NC-SA

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…โ€

Comments are permitted but thankfully so far the trolls appear to be on holiday. However, there are no ASMR orientated comments which is a surprise I would think that the ASMR fans would be all over this.

Not only is the medical professional excellent in terms of his voice for our purposes even the patient appears to have a great voice as well.

The medical professional is incredibly gentle โ€“ just the sort of approach that we look for in one of these videos and a number of commentators applaud him for this. The patient we find is Alan (possibly misspelled)

Given the title of this video starts 02 we can assume I think there is a 01 and quite possibly a 03 so it is worth determining if they are also worth reviewing.

The channel is Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland and it turns out that our video is one of six contained in this playlist:

STARs – Management of Tone & Spasticity After Stroke: A Role For Everyone

With notes: โ€œthese resources are from the stroke training and awareness resources (stars) website – http://www.stroketraining.org

Copyright ยฉ Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland and The University of Edinburgh 2017 cc by-nc-sa

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Sharealike 4.0 International License.

Https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/โ€

It appears that we might have a gem into terms of video series so letโ€™s take a look at the other 5.

01 – Reflexes After Stroke

This is short itโ€™s only just over one and a half minutes. It is consistent with the first one reviewed in this article โ€“ which is a benefit of professionally produced videos.

It is there for moments and then is gone, but it is so relaxing I think it belongs in the Procrastination Pen playlist. In fact, Iโ€™d be prepared to guess that all six videos in the Management of Tone & Spasticity After Stroke playlist belong there.

03 – Muscle position and stretch

Just over three minutes so we are definitely at the short end of videos that weโ€™ve included in the Procrastination Pen Playlist.

However, this remains an excellent quality video lacking extraneous noise or distractions which have haunted some of the material that we have reviewed (and consigned some of them to the Procrastination Pen Archive list).

04 – On and off bed

A bit over two and a half minutes so not huge in terms of length either. It remains consistent with the previous videos in this playlist.

05 – On and off chair

This is a little less than there and a quarter minutes and it is beautifully calm and quiet, if I have to be treated for a difficult condition this would be the way I would like it to happen.

06 – Walking and tone

Supportive, calm, relaxed, quiet, not only a medical professional but a tutor and caring person. This set of videos has been a thoroughly good set for us and all of them are going into the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The channel Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland has three hundred and fifty-seven videos and 41.8K subscribers which Iโ€™m sure you will agree is a few. There is every incentive therefore to come straying back here in the future in search of more excellent videos at this quality.

It is unusual to find a set of videos in a playlist where every video is suitable both for ASMR and for restfulness as a precursor to sleep but I think this set may well be they. I think we will be back here in due course to determine if Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland have any more material for us.

Thatโ€™s it on this occasion, more next time.

See you again next week.

The Chest Heart and Stroke 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 canโ€™t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Deep.ai

Sleeping With ASMR

I would think that on the days I come in from work so tired I’m amazed I made the journey that the night time would be punctuated only by snores. In practice the experience is a lot more staccato than that. Sometimes the effect is exactly as expected and I hit the pillow with eyes closed and rend the night time with loud snorts and squeakings. Not unusually though I can lie there reading into the early hours or just lie thereโ€ฆ

For this reason, I started some years ago now looking into restful material to act as a distraction and discovered that I rather liked ASMR videos. I’m still reviewing them all this time later. Sometimes I spend my time listening to the Procrastination Pen playlist, sometimes to other material. But I reason that if I review ASMR material each week then at least the ASMR fans get some feedback. If I compile a playlist then at least the insomniacs have some distracting material. At least if I write something then the disgruntled have something to criticise which might even make them feel better. (I’m not adverse to a bit of criticising myself).

I did say I’d be on the lookout for material that was not on YouTube and that was advert free. In 2026 that is quite a big ask. It would seem that most people have worked out how to monetise and are squeezing that lemon till the pips gasp their last.

Occasionally I find people of a religious affiliation who produce material due to some spiritual conviction. I recognise though that some readers are not keen to hear from a Christian, Muslim or Buddhist.

Some people produce material on the assumption that if people listen to the free stuff, then they might pay handsomely for the other stuff they produce which is not free.

Some people seem morally disposed to share their message with others and are not hounding a pay cheque. I am grateful for all such people (and no doubt others who have reasons I have not listed here).

I have been listening off and on to a podcast over some months now which is produced in order to spread a message of happiness and not just that but backs it up with scientific findings. It is not hugely ASMRy but you might like the material as a different distraction (to the Procrastination Pen) playlist. It is “The Happiness Lab Podcast” with Dr. Laurie Santos. It often has some very surprising findings for example a recent episode that tells us winning the lottery is likely to be very bad for you: https://www.drlauriesantos.com/happiness-lab-with-dr-laurie-santos-podcast/episodes/winning-lottery-ruin-life.

Having finished my non-YouTube material, let’s look at this week’s Calm material.

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

Daily Jay

Gossip

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

I am reviewing whether I will continue with Calm, there are so many alternative offerings out there. It’s not likely to be an immediate change. However, do not be surprised if the Calm recommendations ultimately dry up.

I did find today that it is possible to share free links to Calm but the terms and conditions do seem to indicate it is designed for a Calm subscriber (me) to share with the odd friend. Not for them to take a free link and post it on their blog for everyone to use. It sounds like if I did that it might quickly invalidate my subscription. So, I am not going to try it.

This week for the professional ASMR artist I thought that I would try the medical offering from the channel that I reviewed only recently. You might remember that I tried Italian ASMR because I am trying, and failing, to learn Italian. I found that the video was not in Italian. So I failed to stick to the blog theme and failed in the purpose of the diversion.

The same artist I notice has this one:

ASMR Italian Nurse Checks On You ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿฉบ Medical Roleplay & Personal Attention

It is a bit of a fudge in that I have been trying to review videos which are older as these seem to fall out of favour on YouTube. Most people, seemingly wanting a proper bang with their bang up to date. This one, however, is very, very recent so I am, yet again, diverting from the target.

The channel of course is AppleWhispers ASMR, this has 5.33k subscribers from only eight videos which seems to me properly exceptional. This ASMR artist must have something to be getting that kind of loyalty already.

We’ve previously detailed the notes on the channel so I wont rehash things, however, as expected, there are notes associated with the video itself:

“42,323 views 28 Aug 2026 #asmr #sleep #relax

Your Italian nurse is here to check on you and make sure youโ€™re doing okay. ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿฉบ๐Ÿค

In todayโ€™s relaxing ASMR medical roleplay, Iโ€™ll gently check your condition, take your vital signs and give you plenty of close-up personal attention while you rest.

Just get comfortable and let me take care of you for a little while.

Youโ€™ll experience gentle medical checks, soft whispers, close-up attention, soothing hand movements and relaxing examination sounds, all designed to help you switch off, feel cared for and hopefully fall asleep. ๐ŸŒ™

Triggers include:

๐Ÿฉบ Medical examination

โค๏ธ Vital signs check

๐Ÿ‘€ Close-up visual examination

๐Ÿค Personal attention

๐Ÿ‘ Gentle hand movements

๐Ÿ’ค Whispering & relaxing medical sounds

I hope your Italian nurse can make you feel a little more relaxed tonight.

Now just restโ€ฆ Iโ€™ll take care of everything. ๐Ÿค

โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”

๐ŸŽ Welcome to AppleWhispers ASMR!

Hi, I’m Elena! ๐Ÿค

I’m so happy you’re here.

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

If you enjoy my videos, don’t forget to like, subscribe and turn on notifications so you won’t miss future uploads!

๐ŸŒ™ Sweet dreams!

โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น Looking for ASMR in Italian?

Visit my Italian channel:

   / @appletinglesasmr 

โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”

๐Ÿ’Œ Business Inquiries

appletingles95@gmail.com

๐ŸŽฅ Personalized ASMR Videos

If you’d like to request a custom ASMR video, feel free to contact me via email.

โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”

โค๏ธ Support the Channel

If you’d like to support my work, you can leave a donation here:

https://www.paypal.me/AppleTingles

Every contribution helps me create more relaxing content for you. Thank you so much! ๐Ÿค

โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”

๐Ÿ“ฑ Follow me

Italian ASMR :    / @appletinglesasmr 

โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”

๐ŸŽง For relaxation purposes only.

Please do not listen while driving or operating machinery.

#asmr #relax #sleep”

These are the normal (for a professional ASMR artist) level of ludicrously long. For a start who comes to YouTube to read the video notes. The majority of professional ASMR artists seem to double as ghost writers for a re-write of war and peace. Mostly I set about the notes with a hatchet in my blog or it would all get rather tiresome. (Perhaps it does anyway).

There are comments. Comments seem to be allowed by all the professional ASMR artists and, mostly, they seem to be describing how close to a deity the listeners feel the ASMR artist is. So here. Not the usual level of thousands of comments. However, a brief spin through those that there are indicates that AppleWhispersASMR is up there with JC and he who could move mountains.

The video is very slightly under twenty-seven minutes long and so an appreciable enough length in comparison to some that I have reviewed. It starts without music and we get the immediate impression that breathy is going to feature. The accent is enchanting and the level of the voice more or less perfect. This is not a whispered presentation. The enunciation reminds me of the French video I reviewed a little while ago. The clicks and clucks that professional ASMR artists produce (presumably because they act as a “trigger” for someone) here seem to occur naturally as a result of the way the words are pronounced. For those who like the odd mouth click this must be a very satisfying experience. For me I am about the voice, the normal spoken voice, and this is a great one. It is calm and well-paced. It is not loud and there are various pauses rather than the gabbling-on that some presenters seem to focus on.

There is the odd clothing related noise due to the artist being in motion quite a lot during the video. I did not find it distracting, but if you are using this for sleep there is absolutely no need to be watching it. The sound is good enough I find.

There are sounds which purport to be bed linens being moved (not excessively loud). There is the odd clunk (apparently of equipment being moved). In a similar way there is the odd click, rattling sound, fizzing sound, associated liquid noises, the occasional phrase in Italian thrown in for good measure. (I think I really need to review some of this artist’s Italian Language output โ€“ note to self). There are glove-related noises (not my favourite). There are sounds like hands being moved over a surface (these are off camera so who knows).

There is some whispered content (the normal refuge for a professional ASMR artist). There are sounds of gloved fingers being run through hair (I believe some people watch entire videos of that kind of thing but it happens only briefly here).  There are noises like items being removed from a large paper bag (not incredibly loud, but loud enough).

There’s the odd tap from a reflex hammer being employed (quite quiet).

I did find myself nodding to it at intervals so I would imagine that a lot of listeners would find it an effective sleep aid.

Because I was recently reviewing some wood carving videos, of course I receive recommendations of more wood carving videos from the same artist. I am not given to review wood carving videos. I rather think I am supposed to be reviewing medical-themed videos. However, I noticed a playlist. I rather liked what I saw. So this week I am going to segue into wood carving (again) purely because I enjoyed the content I found on this channel previously.

The playlist is this one:

However, I am going to start with the first video rather than do the whole thing. We can come back on a future occasion and take a look at another one.

There are seventeen videos in this playlist and none of them seem to be particularly long, save the ultimate one. So, this will not take long. The playlist is “The Great Wave (making the woodblock print)” and the first video is:

The Great Wave – Part 1

Logically enough I suppose.

The channel, of course is David Bull, I detailed a great deal about this channel in a previous post so I will not go mad this time. Suffice to say that it has 192k subscribers, one hundred and forty-seven videos, seven playlists โ€“ not a one is on a medical theme (it may surprise you to understand).

If the quality is like that in my previous review, I can quite imagine that I will be back to review every single video here (if I am spared). The updates seemed to have slowed a little with the last video (to the channel) being posted eight months ago. I can review a lot faster than that, but then I am not slaving over something that takes quite so long to prepare.

The notes associated with the video are: “189,087 views 5 Jan 2015

This set of videos will document the production of the new reproduction of Hokusai’s ‘The Great Wave’ being made by Dave Bull and his Mokuhankan woodblock print workshop in Tokyo, in early 2015.

The print is being made as a ‘reward’ for backers of the Kickstarter project run in the autumn of 2014 by Mokuhankan to gather support for their new shop in Asakusa, Tokyo.

The print will be carved by Dave, proofed by him once the blocks are ready, and then produced by his printing staff.”

How marvellous to have notes that are not the equivalent length of one of my blog articlesโ€ฆ

The video is just slightly over nine minutes and so is not going to waylay you for long. I like short videos. I do not like that between every video, YouTube inserts an inane advert of no relevance whatsoever to the quiet unobtrusive material that I was just watching.

I’m not certain if you have ever clicked on one of these things. I can remember I mistakenly clicked on an advert โ€“ it was for a revolutionary cooling system just at the time that it was thirty-two degrees outside. I was taken to a website but (fortunately for me) did not order anything. I found out a month later the whole thing was an utter scam and the product was incapable of doing what it purported to do. I am even more lairy of adverts today than I was before then.

Back to the video itself. It starts without music. There is a background hiss, it does not sound like air conditioning. It was a little loud when compared to the professional ASMR video I reviewed just before it. So I thumbed the volume down a little. Once at that level the hiss was muted and the voice sounded much better. The subject (to me) was interesting. The pace was slow; the voice seems calm. However, the video goes outside and it is really very loud. Lots of background voice noises (people chatting). It is not the quietest. At one stage you can hear a child screaming. It’s a shame, the video was well worth reviewing up to this stage.

Just one, video this time.

Thatโ€™s it on this occasion, more next time.

See you again next week.

The David Bull playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Deep.ai