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 there…
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 🇮🇹🩺 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 you’re doing okay. 🇮🇹🩺🤍
In today’s relaxing ASMR medical roleplay, I’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.
You’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. 🌙
Triggers include:
🩺 Medical examination
❤️ Vital signs check
👀 Close-up visual examination
🤍 Personal attention
👐 Gentle hand movements
💤 Whispering & relaxing medical sounds
I hope your Italian nurse can make you feel a little more relaxed tonight.
Now just rest… I’ll take care of everything. 🤍
—————————
🍎 Welcome to AppleWhispers ASMR!
Hi, I’m Elena! 🤍
I’m so happy you’re here.
My goal is to help you relax, unwind and fall asleep through gentle whispers, personal attention and immersive ASMR roleplays.
If you enjoy my videos, don’t forget to like, subscribe and turn on notifications so you won’t miss future uploads!
🌙 Sweet dreams!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🇮🇹 Looking for ASMR in Italian?
Visit my Italian channel:
/ @appletinglesasmr
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💌 Business Inquiries
appletingles95@gmail.com
🎥 Personalized ASMR Videos
If you’d like to request a custom ASMR video, feel free to contact me via email.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
❤️ 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! 🤍
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📱 Follow me
Italian ASMR : / @appletinglesasmr
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🎧 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 – 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 – 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 articles…
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 – 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.
That’s it on this occasion, more next time.
See you again next week.
The David Bull playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.
Until next time.
Photo by Deep.ai
