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:
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.
I seem to have meandered into the world of ASMR YouTube channels more recently. It will not be a permanent move. My intention is to get right back to genuine medical videos.
Today’s channel is ASMR Sandwich Breath, as mentioned before sandwich breath is a bit of an insider ASMR joke. People either know of the sandwich breath video or they do not. Afficionados of ASMR videos are expected to understand the inside jokes (I only get a few of them as there are a great many such videos).
Today’s video is this one:
Physical Medical Exam Unintentional ASMR
The video starts with the title PE for TOPE Student Demonstration
Ross here the “patient” and Jessica the medical professional. Jessica states this is the University of Washington and that she is a registered nurse. The comments state that the original of this video has now been deleted. Assuming that we can trust that, this is possibly the only place we will encounter this video.
The University of Washington has its own channel of course, 757 videos on that channel and 12 playlists. The upshot of which is that some playlists are composed of over 100 videos.
Ross does not seem the happiest patient, or taking a more positive view he could be half asleep.
Jessica enunciates the medical terms here in such a clear way, possibly the best I have heard so far.
I also notice a great deal of time taken to explain what is coming next. Perhaps this thoroughness explains why the video is in excess of thirty-four minutes.
This is very quiet. Jessica at intervals is on a par with Vicki Scott which is quite a statement, the result is a video which is a good playlist candidate.
The video concludes with a healthy amount of information Jessica Burke-Lazarus BSN, RN Midwifery-DNP student was the medical professional. Jessica, it turns out, graduated in 2013 and now works in Seattle.
The “patient” was Rosson Wiebe PMHNP-DNP Student Ross also graduated in 2013 and went on to work in Florida.
It also tells us that it was filmed December 9 2011 in the Center for Excellence in Nursing Education at the University of Washington.
ASMR Sandwich breath has forty-eight videos as at today’s date, that is a fair few videos to attempt to motor through. A quick scan of them reveals some old favourites which we have covered before.
The usual approach is to reduce the number to be covered by selecting a suitable playlist from the channel.
There are five playlists on here but some of them are a little on the long side.
Recently, as happens in everyone’s life, things have been stressful. Habitually in the past, this would mean that I would achieve substantially less sleep. However, the addition of some Bose QuietComfort headphones (a company with which I am affiliated in no sense) and the Procrastination Pen playlist has really helped in this respect. The sleep isn’t super refreshing, don’t get me wrong, but there is at least more of it than I might have expected in similar circumstances in the past.
I hope that you find the playlist is helpful in your pursuit of sleep, no matter the headphones that you choose to employ to listen to it.
Today is another one from an old favourite channel which regular readers will instantly recognise. I also think, if anything, this video is superior in terms of restfulness than the last video I featured for this particular channel.
The video is this one:
Examination of the Cranial Nerves – Demonstration
At just over seven minutes it’s not huge in length and the comments lead me to suspect that the ASMR community has thoroughly taken to this one, adopted it and gone out for walks with it in the park on Sundays.
As a professionally produced video it, of course, has notes and the notes in this case are very helpful:
This is a real-time demonstration illustrating technique and patient interaction involved in the Examination of the Cranial Nerves.
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 Richard Abbott MD FRCP Consultant Neurologist. Produced and Directed by Dr Irene Peat FRCR FRCP, Dr Nicholas Port MBChB BSc and Jon Shears.
The video starts without introductory music – wow!
It begins quietly, it continues perfectly. The medical professional and the “patient” both have excellent voices. All-in-all a video one could wish would go on for better than forty five minutes.
But it is a brief one, so we must console ourselves (like the Hollie Berry material) that at least it exists and is on a University channel (and so may exist for a while yet).
Hopefully it (the channel) sticks around. Some of the pure ASMR channels have disappeared of late and I do wonder if some channel owners fall foul of copyright action (although I have no evidence for this of course).
However, there is another in the same series (sadly only the one more) and as I prefer to get the videos from original sources, if I can, I’ll go with that video.
(I have used pure ASMR channels before this, but I do try to implement the more po-faced approach of locating unintentional ASMR videos the old-fashioned way i.e. by watching a lot of normal videos and trying to locate any restful ones).
Examination of the Cranial Nerves – Explanation
This is just less than sixteen and a quarter minutes long. There is again no startup music, thankyou video recording persons for this (and other such persons take note).
It starts again quietly, it continues quietly, in my view it is every bit as good as the previous one.
The comments indicate the ASMR community love this, with many cross references to other ASMR videos known to those “in the know”. By this stage I imagine that you are all familiar with them as well. There being no mystery to them, other than the need to watch far too much potential ASMR material.
This is a detailed explanation of the examination of the Cranial Nerves illustrating technique and patient interaction. The film was produced by practising clinicians to aid the teaching of clinical examination skills. It starts at the point when the clinician has finished taking the medical history and begins the clinical examination. Presented by Dr Richard Abbott MD FRCP Consultant Neurologist. 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’m afraid the urls no longer lead to additional material which, given the video was posted in excess of eleven years ago, is probably no surprise.
In addition, the Internet Archive has no record of it (as at today’s date in any case).
Very regrettably that appears to be all Dr Abbott and “Paul” left for us. They enriched the ASMR community with their (sadly brief) presence and we could have but hoped for more.
So back to what you were doing then, but remember to come back in a week’s time.
The University of Leicester playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop 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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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:
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In previous blog posts I have been promisingto 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.
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.
Reassuring for part time bloggers, such as myself, is the understanding that fitting in a bit of blog creation in a rush between other things is not supposed, necessarily, to lessen the quality of the output. (Well, the proof will be in blog items I have created of late, as the time to create them is definitely sandwiched between other demands). You will be the judge and feel free to feedback.
The playlist continues to grow in size and I continue to get more picky about the items in it. Such that the archive list of former members also continues to grow.
However, I have noticed a problem with YouTube. For example, yesterday I was watching the playlist and a set of adverts kicked in, there were a lot of them. After a few minutes the video started and them immediately another set of adverts kicked in. This then continued, I retried over the course of the next few hours with the same result. Of course, this is not conducive to sleep. I could not in all conscience recommend a set of videos if I knew this was going to be the experience.
I am hopeful this was an error on the part of YouTube and not some new revenue generation idea. If it turns out to be permanent, I will shut down the blog as I will not be watching YouTube any longer. I am now some months ahead with generated blog articles so we will see if by the time I get this one released, things have improved (or at least returned to how they were).
Shoulder Examination
This one has notes, now the established marker of a professionally created video:
“31 Jan 2021 RheumTutor MSK Examination Videos
This video was created by Dr. Raj Carmona. It is a step-by-step instructional video for examination of the shoulder. It is designed for medical students, residents and rheumatology fellows, but would also be beneficial to general practitioners and allied health professionals.”
There is also a title page:
“McMaster MSK Examination Series, Shoulder Examination, RheumTutor.com, Raj Carmona, MBBS, FRCPC, Rheumatologist, Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada”
And of course, the university has its own YouTube channel with 1.2K videos as at today’s date. Rather too many for any single review but perhaps a channel for a future visit.
Raj appears to be an associate professor at the university and has been at McMaster nearly fourteen years.
This video at just over seventeen and a half minutes is a decent length for a medical examination video.
Raj has a nice calm voice but the video is rather marred by continuous background noise of the variety we are used to enduring in these kinds of videos.
Helpfully the “patient” here is also identified as Dr Kim Legault MD FRCPC Rheumatology Fellow McMaster University.
As an educational video it seems (to the uninitiated) to be useful. The comments seem to reinforce this view. From our perspective it seems to also be a useful video for relaxing off to sleep.
The video is jam-packed with medical terminology. There is far too much for the odd definition to be helpful. (Although this would be my usual style). If you are watching, some definitions come up on screen, but I’m expecting that you’ll be listening so these will not be of much assistance.
I suggest for this one that you let the terminology wash over you but let me know if you find it frustrating. I always review the Procrastination Pen playlist and this could in the future find itself in the dreaded Procrastination Pen archive list i.e. those videos which do not stand up to long term examination.
Although the video shows as posted to YouTube in 2021, the tail page of the video indicates created in 2011 so it was already old by that time.
Not unexpectedly the channel is RheumTutor, thirty videos and six playlists. The choices are narrowed by the fact that a number of the playlists concern giving injections, which I am not certain would be a restful subject for some readers. The video we first looked at occurs in a playlist called RheumTutor MSK Examination Videos
This consists of seven videos of which this first one is video number six.
Ankle and Foot Exam – McMaster MSK Examination Series
At nearly twenty-three minutes in length this is another chunky video.
Again it has notes: “10 Nov 2019 RheumTutor MSK Examination Videos
This video was created by Dr. Raj Carmona. It is a step-by-step instructional video for examination of the ankle and foot. It is designed for medical students, residents and rheumatology fellows, but would also be beneficial to general practitioners and allied health professionals.”
The title page is similar to the one we saw for the first video reviewed in this post.
The sound is consistent with that first video. Here the “patient” is not identified, possibly because we only see the foot which has been helpfully decorated to indicate some of the internal structures. I would guess the “patient” is male but given there is only one foot to go on that could be way off.
Later in the same video the credit goes to Dr Andrew Duncan MD, Internal Medicine Resident McMaster University. He appears to be the owner of the foot. Andrew appears to have been at McMaster until 2014.
The tail page of the video indicates it was recorded in 2012 which would fit with this time period. Some of the conditions described are a little off-putting to be honest, I think that this is too much for real restfulness. This will not be in the Procrastination Pen playlist.
Back Examination – McMaster MSK Examination Series
Notes again: “10 Nov 2019 RheumTutor MSK Examination Videos
This video was created by Dr. Raj Carmona. It is a step-by-step instructional video for examination of the back. It is designed for medical students, residents and rheumatology fellows, but would also be beneficial to general practitioners and allied health professionals.”
This is just as with the previous videos in terms of approach, voice, presenter, location, noises, structure. This one credits Brendan Flowers MSc Clinical Clerk McMaster University it looks like Brendan attended in 2012 which fits with the filming of the video.
Elbow Examination – McMaster MSK Examination Series
If you have seen one of these videos, then you are going to be at home with the look-feel of the rest. Same layout, same voice, same background noise. If you liked the first one this is a breeze, but not so great if you did not like it.
Again there are notes:
“10 Nov 2019 RheumTutor MSK Examination Videos
This video was created by Dr. Raj Carmona. It is a step-by-step instructional video for examination of the elbow. It is designed for medical students, residents and rheumatology fellows, but would also be beneficial to general practitioners and allied health professionals.”
The format of this will by now also be familiar. The tail page of the video indicates it was filmed in 2012 and it was posted to YouTube in 2019.
The “patient” is credited again this time Dr Arthur Lau MD FRCPC Theumatology Fellow McMaster University. Arthur seems to have been there from 2011 to date so one would imagine a true asset.
It is just over thirteen and a half minutes so a bit shorter than the last one.
The great thing about professional videos is the lack of surprises. The last thing you want when trying to fall asleep is to find that someone thought a brass band backtrack was fantastic in this video whereas the previous two did not include it. The downside is that if you do not like the style it is very unlikely you will find a video in the series that is any different.
For example, thus far the patients do not get a lot of contribution so if this bothers you this particular series is just not for you. I accept feedback if you want to indicate your displeasure about it.
Hip Examination: McMaster MSK Examination Series
Notes: “10 Nov 2019 RheumTutor MSK Examination Videos
This video was created by Dr. Raj Carmona. It is a step-by-step instructional video for examination of the hip. It is designed for medical students, residents and rheumatology fellows, but would also be beneficial to general practitioners and allied health professionals.”
Almost exactly as before.
A return of Dr Kim Legault (who we saw in the first video). By comparison with the other videos a real short one at just over twelve and a half minutes. This one is filmed in 2011 so possibly the earliest one we have seen thus far.
Knee Exam – McMaster MSK Examination Series
notes: “11 Nov 2019 RheumTutor MSK Examination Videos
This video was created by Dr. Raj Carmona. It is a step-by-step instructional video for examination of the knee. It is designed for medical students, residents and rheumatology fellows, but would also be beneficial to general practitioners and allied health professionals.”
Dr Kim Legault is turning into a bit of a favourite it seems as she appears again in this one. This one is just less than fifteen and a half minutes.
The video is consistent with all those we have so far seen (quite an achievement). It is filmed in 2011 so as for the previous video.
Shoulder Examination
This is where we came in.
Hand and Wrist Examination
The final video in this playlist
It starts in a different way. No shot of a seated Dr Carmona in this one. It is quite long for this series at nearly twenty-one and a half minutes.
Back to Brendan Flowers. It was filmed in 2012 and posted to YouTube in 2021.
There are notes: “3 Feb 2021 RheumTutor MSK Examination Videos
This video was created by Dr. Raj Carmona. It is a step-by-step instructional video for examination of the hand and wrist. It is designed for medical students, residents and rheumatology fellows, but would also be beneficial to general practitioners and allied health professionals.”
The breakdown of the video is not as structured as in the previous videos – perhaps the style was evolving at this stage. But presentation in all other respects seems the same.
In summary this is no Dr James Gill but I think all of them deserve a place in the Procrastination Pen playlist. (Assuming YouTube stop deluging me with adverts I’ll keep reviewing that list for less deserving videos.
The RheumTutor 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.
The Procrastination Pen playlist continues to grow in length. I think soon it will be at such a length that even if you leave it playing along in the background whilst you sleep, you will wake up and find that it is still going.
I am weeding the odd video out at intervals that does not seem to be as good as when first I heard it. However, I take suggestions, if you find any of the videos in that playlist just aren’t that helpful in getting some shut eye, let me know and I might remove the ones that you do not like.
As always if you’re too tired to read (and I don’t blame you) the playlist will be at the end of this article, such that you can scroll all the way there and pick it up without reading anything else.
For those who are continuing to read, welcome, and here is the subject of today’s blog post:
Shoulder Exam (Stanford Medicine 25)
This is very brief for the kind of video we usually see on the Procrastination Pen, at only one minute twenty seconds. It is narrated and the narrators voice is not as quiet as I would like. Because it is a professional video it comes with notes: “16 Mar 2014 Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam
This Stanford Medicine 25 video was created in conjunction with Stanford’s AIM lab teaching the examination of the shoulder.
The Stanford Medicine 25 is a Stanford School of Medicine initiative to teach and promote the bedside physical exam. Here you will find videos teaching bedside physical exam techniques.
The notes have done most of the work for me in that is states who it is by and where you can find them.
The video has a little background noise, but strangely this does not sound like air conditioning. This time it sounds more like the audio was recorded onto tape (I guess you need to be a certain age to know what that sounds like).
This has eighty-five videos at the time I am looking at it. Thankfully for the purposes of writing a blog post (of hopefully short length). The videos are organised into playlists and ours is in a suitable playlist i.e.:
This playlist has eight videos in it and just for a change they are all visible.
The one above is the first in this playlist and so we can
cover them in order.
Knee Examination (Stanford Medicine 25)
Again, this is brief at just over one and a half minutes. It is consistent with the first – the same narrator, the same background noise. Indeed, this is often the benefit of professional videos once you have seen one, you have a good idea what it is that you’re going to get. Of course, if the first one is a tad loud, sadly it means that there is little variability in that volume. Still, the approach is methodical and calm which is helpful.
Approach to Low Back Pain Physical Exam – StanfordMedicine 25
This is a more “usual” length at just over eight and a half minutes.
Oh dear, start music, the thing designed to strike wakefulness into the slumbering person.
This is unlike the previous two videos in this set in that the medical professional in the video is the one doing the talking.
The medical professional is Baldeep Singh MD Clinical Professor, Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine.
The professor actually has quite a reasonable voice for our purposes, although due to the instructional nature of the video he isn’t as quiet as we would like. However, he is calm, methodical and even better, the video lacks background noise.
The “patient” is Steve here, sadly, we don’t have any further info about Steve.
The examination looks like something of a torture for anyone who actually has back pain. I imagine on the days I am suffering, there would be screaming involved. Best ignore that when listening to this video and trying to get some kip.
Approach to Hip Region Pain Physical Exam – Stanford Medicine 25
Unfortunately for us, the introductory music now seems to be the standard. Farewell to videos with no introduction hello introduction which is less conducive to sleep. I have heard a great deal worse however.
At least one comment indicates that an ASMR fan has already found this one, which isn’t surprising. From the video comments I’ve seen on YouTube, ASMR fans are even more voracious than I am (and I have made it my mission to write blog articles about it).
Here we have Dr Singh again with our old chum “Steve” as “patient”. Dr Singh starts a little fast but slows right down within seconds. The volume is a little variable. At six- and three-quarter minutes it is of reasonable length for one of these instruction videos.
The best way to watch a set of these from the Procrastination Pen playlist is to watch it on YouTube (rather than use the embedded videos on the blog). Then you can use the shuffle function. Without the shuffle function you will get a number of similar videos one after the other and you may quickly tire of that.
Again, the examination appears, to me, to be designed to elicit pain. I’m sure on the days I have hip pain I would not enjoy my leg being manipulated in the way demonstrated. However, I think as a video to fall asleep to, it actually works. Mainly because of the calm, methodical presentation.
Iliotibial Band Syndrome Physical Exam – Stanford Medicine 25
Definition: Iliotibial Band a thick band of tissue running down the length of the outside of the thigh.
Again the “Noble test” seems designed to cause pain, perhaps these doctors were trained in a torture chamber. Probably wise to ignore the scope for suffering with this one as well. Dr Singh remains consistent as before and Steve remains compliant.
And now the playlist moves onto a different medical professional and a different patient so it seems a good time to end this, we can recommence in a future blog post. Stanford Medicine 25 certainly seems worthy of more attention.
The Stanford 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.
I hope to see you again back here for the next blog article.
If you liked this blog item why not subscribe to this blog.
If you have not been here before, Hi and welcome. This series of blog articles is designed to help you fall asleep. It intends to do this is by the creation of a long list of YouTube videos enclosed in a YouTube playlist in which every one of the videos has been reviewed (some of them several times).
The playlist is always at the end of one of these articles so if you are not keen to do much reading, you can scroll straight to the end and go to the playlist. My advice is always to watch it on YouTube itself because then you can watch in shuffle mode which randomises the order. The videos occur in the order that they are reviewed, which means videos by the same individual tend to occur together. Listening in sequence has the potential to get a bit samey at intervals.
Today, I am reviewing a video that cropped up due to a search using an old favourite “ROM and MMT” search which we have covered before.
This is connected with Occupational Therapy and does tend to produce a range of good ASMR-y (technical term) videos.
Measuring Edema, ROM, MMT
This for us is a fairly lengthy video at just over half an hour. Typically, recently, we have been dealing with shorter videos. But forget the length, how does it measure up?
Unusually for some of the more recent videos we’ve seen this one has notes and they are informative notes. “25 Mar 2021
UE Capstone Assignment for TWU – Masters of Occupational Therapy”. Comments are turned off which is helpful because it keeps the vicious commentators at bay.
There is even a title page to the video “TWU-Houston, ROM, MMT, Edema, Jordan Butler – 03/24/2021”
I was convinced that was spelled “oedema” but obviously not. In any case, March a few years ago is positively yesterday compared to some of the material we have been covering.
There is then a follow up page “ROM, MMT, Edema, Due to scheduling, I used three participants to fill the content of this video. Participants consisted of my spouse, sibling and lab partner. Covid restrictions were upheld for the safety of all individuals.” No clue as to the names of these participants. Although the first “patient” is introduced as “Ashlin” (probably misspelled). I assume Ashlin is the “lab partner” referred to in the second title page.
The video starts reasonably quietly but has the kind of background noise that we have become used to from student videos. (Air conditioning noises, other students talking in the background, furniture noises and so on). This is a shame because it would seem that Jordan has a good calming voice and a methodical approach towards the examination with no sign of hesitation or rushing.
At intervals, at least, the chatter dies down even if the air conditioning is a constant companion.
I notice that cars are passing on the road outside and they appear like small model cars so I assume this is filmed at some elevation. Not that you will notice if you are using this video to get to sleep.
The video then switches to a domestic setting – different setting, different noise level, now we have “Stu” who I assume is the spouse referred to in the second title page.
After a flurry of adverts of a quite distracting volume (when I was watching it anyway) it becomes a lot quieter. The volume really does seem quite a bit down on the start. This might be an issue if you’re lying in stupor and don’t fancy rolling over to push the volume control. However, the approach remains methodical and Jordan still has a good voice so I think I’ll let it pass. This video might get removed from the Procrastination Pen playlist at a future review. (It also has the benefit that all the background noise of the early part of the video is just not there).
By now, people will be used to the “don’t let me move you” prompt. This seems a standard phrase in Occupational Therapy.
But working out what the definitions mean doesn’t necessarily help
• Abductor pollicis longus (APL)
• Extensor pollicis longus (EPL)
• Extensor pollicis brevis (EPB)
• Flexor retinaculum (FR)
• Pronator quadratus (PQ)
The video then goes straight to Megan (which might be misspelled). I assume Megan is the sibling spoken of in the second title page, possibly younger sibling but I am terrible at predicting ages. Jordan was nee Butler so I’d have to guess Megan Butler therefore.
Having the video segue from section to section like this is distracting. I would much prefer it was three separate videos of which the latter two are better because the background noise is absent. The section with Megan is a bit echoey.
Perhaps the room with the TV has a very high ceiling or something. It is domestic again. The clues are large sofa, large TV on cabinet, corner pot plant, rug on floor and so on.
It is possible that this latter section of the video is the better one in ASMR terms. However, part way through there is the noise of someone possibly sneezing in an adjacent room, this seems a hazard with a number of these assessment videos. Presumably it is impossible to tell people to “KEEP IT DOWN” whilst trying to video such things.
There is a dog objecting to being restrained somewhere with what sounds like a chain clanging against a door, that is pretty distracting too.
Eventually someone works out that the dog should be put somewhere else and it settles down.
In ASMR terms it would be better split into three. Perhaps discard the first section altogether and edit the latter two to get rid of the most distracting noises. Of course, we do not get that option. There are many restful moments in the video so I’m going to let the less restful ones slide. It might be that it will join the dreaded Procrastination Pen archive list in the future.
The channel is Jordan Hanigan but we are not going to get our ASMR kicks on the back of it because it contains only two videos.
The above one and this one:
OT Assessment Binder_ Jordan Butler
This is the older video and is not a medical examination as such. It literally seems to be running through a binder of course material. Perhaps it is a way of verifying that the work was actually done. Jordan’s voice is not as restful in this video and the rapid turning of pages is distracting.
I think that this one is not for the Procrastination Pen playlist.
So this time, just the one video. Perhaps you’ll be hungry for more material the next time we meet on this blog.
One video means no Jordan Hanigan playlist on the Procrastination Pen.
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.
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The Procrastination Pen 