In my opinion the first of these is the best in terms of ASMR-i-ness (if such a term could be said to exist). Yet again a change of direction as we look away from standard medical examinations and move to eye-related exams instead.
The channel comes from the Moran Eye Centre at the University of Utah.
Moran CORE (for such is the channel) provide a number of ophthalmic-related videos, but the best from an ASMR perspective is this one:
The Neuro-ophthalmology Exam: Neuro
The key to this I think is probably the interactions between Judith Warner, ophthalmologist and the “patient” Megan (who turns up in other videos in the series). Megan seems to have the most naturally restful voice here I think.
Moran CORE has so many videos that I gave up counting them and so it is critical to limit the videos that I present here. (Both for my typing fingers and your no doubt tired eyes).
Sadly Moran CORE does not present any helpful playlists that include this particular video so the obvious approach is to filter on videos “starring” the same ophthalmologist or featuring the same “patient” (Megan).
What leaps out scanning the videos is that a number of them feature the same “patient”.
Sticking to videos initially that feature the same “patient” we have this one:
The Orbital Exam
Which is with Tom Oberg instead of Judith Warner. Tom actually has a good voice ASMR-wise but again Megan’s is better. The approach is calm and de-stressing. Both Tom and Judith have been encouraging and patient – the kind of person that you want if someone is going to be examining you.
The Ophthalmic Exam: Retina and Posterior Segment
This is with Andrew Davis, who is technically brilliant I’m sure, but sadly does not have a great voice for ASMR. In this one Megan seems to say very little. So it’s a washout for us sadly and will not be added to the playlist.
The Neuro-ophthalmology Exam: Pupils; Color; Eye Movements; Prism
This is Laura Hanson with the “patient” Megan again. Laura doesn’t have the greatest ASMR voice but Megan here gets more of a speaking role which compensates to an extent.
However as before I do not think this makes the grade for the playlist.
Indirect Ophthalmoscopy with Scleral Depression
This is James Zimmerman with Megan. James’ voice is actually quite good here. But I don’t think it is going to be good enough sadly. This isn’t going to make the grade for the playlist.
How to Instill Topical Anesthetics
Lloyd B Williams with Megan. Lloyd also has a good voice. But again I don’t think this one will graduate to the playlist.
The Neuro-ophthalmology Exam: Eyelids
Laura Hanson again, as far as I can tell the last video featuring Megan and so the last of this blog item. This is slightly better than the earlier Laura video I think. However I still don’t think it is going to make the playlist.
Filtering the videos by the “patient” is an arbitrary method for limiting the videos. However Moran CORE has so many videos and they are so varied that I suspect we will be mining this resource in the future.
The Moran CORE Playlist is here:
The playlist of all videos so far covered in this blog is here:
This time have one which appears to be verifiably from a medical school – Warwick Medical School in fact.
I did not find the introductory music particularly restful. It is not the first time I have wished that I could edit videos on YouTube (so that I only get the nice bits). (The music quits at nine seconds – in case you want to forward it).
Dr Gill turns up a lot on YouTube and I have no doubt will crop up again in another blog item. He has a very restful voice (well in the videos, I don’t know him personally you understand.)
Respiratory Examination
Not unexpectedly Warwick Medical School has quite a number of such videos. Not all of which are spectacular from the ASMR point of view (it was not their purpose in life let’s face it).
Roughly one hundred and nineteen videos as at today – too many I think to cover in one blog item (unless you’re reading this in order to get some sleep in which case I’m sure that it would have been ideal. I’m sorry to disappoint.)
Fortunately they have been considerate enough to provide their own playlist for this purpose:
Here:
This is still forty three videos long however – perhaps sufficient for a whole series of blog items (now there’s a thought).
I notice that of the forty three – nineteen are actually on the YouTube channel of Dr James Gill himself rather than that of Warwick Medical School – well that’s convenient.
As Dr James Gill has a good voice and his own channel, I suspect we will be returning to him at a future date and so we can discount the videos on his channel for the current moment.
One of the forty three videos comes up flagged as private so we have forty two less nineteen to look at.
That will make this a very long blog post.
If you just want your ASMR kicks scroll right to the end where you will find the playlist details.
Clinical Examination
This is also part of the cranial nerve exam videos – a subject which appears to be very popular on YouTube amongst ASMR devotees.
Clinical Examination
Dr Gill again – obviously a prolific supplier of YouTube videos. I look forward to exploring his channel in a later blog article. This is also a further video in the cranial nerve series, which is proving as popular as the reflex hammer videos about which entire compilations have been put together. (I am not a great fan of compilation videos unless the source videos just cannot be found.)
Clinical Examination
I’m pretty sure this does not qualify under the current category of medical examination as it is more of an instruction video. Actually it is rather good, so I’ll make an exception and add it to the playlist in any case.
Clinical Skills
Dr Gill again, although it is also an instruction video I’m also well-disposed to it and so it is going into the playlist (also it has the benefit of lacking any additional peppy music).
Clinical Examination
Here we see Aden again (as the patient). He seems to crop up in a few of these.
Clinical Examination
Aden crops up again but here he is the medical student in the doctor role. Actually the video is rather good – perhaps a large number of medical students are naturally softly spoken.
Annotated – Clinical Examination
Dr Gill again in another early video – if you’ve stuck with this you’ll recognise the patient as well.
Clinical Examination of – The Shoulder
And yet more Dr Gill (I said he was prolific).
Hip Clinical Examination
I love the fact that Dr Gill asks the “patient” to show him his umbilicus as if this was a reasonably well known term. I had to look it up – it’s your belly button by the way.
Clinical Skills Tutorial
There is something wrong with the sound on this one – it is significantly quieter than the others here. So I think I will drop this one from the playlist.
Clinical History Example
For me the voices in this one are less relaxing so this too I’ll discount from the playlist.
Warwick Approach to Clinical History Taking
Again, not really an ASMR inducer so this one isn’t on the playlist.
Breast Clinical Examination
Not what you’d expect. The person involved is wearing a plastic pair – which I think means I can include it without causing offence. Let me know if offended and I’ll delete it from the playlist.
Breast Examination Models
These are obviously the same as the plastic pair the person was wearing in the video above. Not desperately marvellous from an ASMR point of view though so I will not include it in the playlist.
The Shoulder
Again this voice isn’t quite right for me, so I won’t include it in the playlist. I include these videos only for completeness as different people react differently.
Spine Clinical Examination
Dr James Gill again, the start music is a bit bright but at least it is brief. Not quite as good as the first one but still worthy of inclusion in the playlist I think.
Hand Clinical Examination
What comes home to me in a lot of these ASMR videos is the huge distance between the date of birth of the participants and my own date of birth. In this case 30 years. Fortunately when I am trying to sleep my brain is unlikely to be alert enough to take in what this means for my age – which must be alike to Methuselah now.
Knee Clinical Examination
Dr Gill again – who is starting to seem a significant ASMR asset, the videos in which he appears are quite consistent in terms of relaxing.
Clinical Examination
Dr Gill this time a clinical examination of the respiratory system. Again with the stimulating initial music – it must be some kind of Warwick Medical School brand.
The whole experience conveys an atmosphere of stillness. I can imagine that being treated by Dr Gill is quite destressing.
Thyroid Clinical Examination
Freakily out of focus at the beginning. However that isn’t going to influence any ASMR symptoms. This one features Abbey again (we saw her in the hand clinical examination earlier). This one is really technical in places, I just let it wash over. Let me know if it bothers you and I’ll delete it from the playlist.
The subject of bruit comes up in several of these videos – an audible swishing sound – usually an abnormal one.
Thyroid Examination Demonstration
Dr Gill and Abbey again, who must be the most reliable volunteer in this set so far. If anything this one appears to be more relaxing than some that have gone before in this blog item.
Abdominal System Examination
Dr Gill, and again it starts with the camera fighting for focus. Here Dr Gill is examining David (who I don’t think we’ve seen before). As before a beautifully calm presentation.
Again I’ve created a playlist of these (the longest of this blog so far) which is here:
I’ve updated the complete playlist to reflect the new videos as well
For some time I was simply going into YouTube and filtering by ASMR, searching and finding thousands of videos. This method led me to find squishing sounds, clicking, scratching noises, even purring cats (actually the purring cats are rather good).
However as I stated in the first blog item on ASMR I find it works best when it is someone that is talking quietly and calmly.
Recently therefore I have started to focus on medical exam videos. There appear to be a wealth of these. Several of them feature excited or at least energetic presenters (with a mission, presumably, to motivate their viewers). However as I use ASMR as an insomnia cure there isn’t great mileage in continuing with these.
Some are quite obviously designed to educate an up-and-coming population of medical students and start delving into confusing medical terminology. However, occasionally I will come across one that fits the bill quite well. Today’s video is this one:
Focused Shoulder Clinical Examination
It’s a little disconcerting when it loads as in my browser I get just a grey cassette image – I did wonder if I had the incorrect video, however when played there is some preliminary material stating it is “Associate Professor Shane Brun” at the “Clinical Skills Unit, School of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, Australia”.
Having found this video, I thought it would be worthwhile checking out Anthony Bender (for the video occurs in a YouTube channel of that name) and determine if there are any more of the videos in this channel that are also worthy of watching.
I found that there were five videos available the one above and these four:
However I did not find this very relaxing ASMR-wise and so I have not added it to the playlist. – I’ve included it in this blog so that you can review it for yourself (ASMR effects seem to be highly individual).
Ottawa Knee Rules Australian Version
I have also not added this to the playlist for the same reason.
I’ve again created a playlist which is here:
There is also a Global playlist which incorporates all the videos covered in the blog so far:
Please feedback if they are effective for you or if you have any further ASMR material which would be worth considering.
Sadly these videos no longer work for me so I am looking for new material, which I will shortly publish here.
One of the consequences of entering the fifth decade of being alive (which no one seemed to warn me about when I was somewhat younger) is that it is almost impossible to get to sleep. And having got there, to stay in that state for any period of time.
I have tried various hacks for this over the last years, to varying degrees of success, and by chance I happened upon the fact that ASMR works for me.
The little reading I’ve managed to do seems to indicate that only some people are affected.
It also appears that different people have preferences for different sounds.
For me, the most potent trigger is a person speaking quietly and calmly.
Sadly though the effect soon wears off, and over time the same person – with the same speech – stops working.
This means that I am more-or-less constantly looking for new material, which may be of some merit for this blog and for people who react in a similar way.
For some time I have avoided revealing that I find ASMR helpful in that a number of commentators respond to it as if it is akin to some kind of sexual perversion.
However for me it feels more of the kind of attention I would see on a David Attenborough programme in which one monkey is grooming another and both monkeys are more relaxed as a result.
As science progresses it appears that there is more acceptance that relaxing to ASMR is not necessarily a sexual experience.
Hence it is moderately safe to give some recommendations around ASMR that I have found work for me.
I am also getting some playlists together on YouTube for those who do not have the time to look around for ASMR videos.
(Most of the ASMR material I find on YouTube at the moment – although other ASMR resources exist.)
Recently I came across an article for a Welsh stone carver who has been an ASMR discovery after he published some YouTube videos about his stone carving.
There are only three and I found them effective. Three is a suitably short number to start with to see if you feel the same way.
The Procrastination Pen 