Tag: Dermatology

Sleeping With ASMR

This week I came across an article for the perfect sleep routine. I habitually hate these articles as they just seem to be a large stick to beat yourself with. Quite a lot of it seems to involve habit changes which are not easy to execute in a busy working life. Eat earlier, which seems straightforward until there are two of you and collectively you work a very long day; eat as early as you can would probably be more restrained advice although that still may not be particularly early.

Quit using screens is usually in there, but if the evening is your only time to get bills paid, deal with household admin and respond to a backlog of personal emails, I am not sure when you are supposed to schedule all that in. I’m sure any employer is not going to be chuffed if you try to accomplish those tasks during the working day.

I’m also interested in the idea that mouth breathing can be resolved simply by taping the mouth shut. I tried a gum shield once which expected the mouth would remain closed. I had to give up after a few minutes as I found I could just not get enough air. Something about lying in bed specifically too, as it does not affect me if I lie on a hard floor, for example. I imagine I may not be the only person who finds breathing through the nose whilst lying in bed to be difficult (which is putting it mildly).

I’m also fascinated by the use of earplugs. I’ve seen this advice before and it seems a great idea. Until one day I encountered someone with a serious ear infection and the theory was that simply covering his ears regularly for long hours had encouraged that to develop. How much worse if you bung up your ears every single night I wonder.

I’d take all sleep advice with a pinch of salt. It just seems another mechanism of making a person responsible for events that they cannot control. The environment is getting noisier; you need to use earplugs. The working days are getting longer; you need to eat earlier. Every interaction with a company now involves an app or a website; you need to give up screen use.

Things are changing to make getting decent quality sleep more difficult and that is something no individual can control.

On the upside I have found that distraction with sound is one thing that can, occasionally, work and it is for this reason that I started this blog a little while ago. Of course, if you do not live alone, it is likely that you will have to employ headphones for this so your ears are going to be covered… (I have seen pillows with speakers in but I am not convinced, personally, that they will not disturb your night-time companion).

For several weeks I have been reviewing a Daily Calm offering from Calm because I have a subscription to Calm and so why not. I find the Daily Calm items on Calm to be the most appealing. I have tried the longer sleep-related items and hit the problem that the sort of things that apparently make other people sleep really do not work for me. There are downsides to this, of course, Calm Dailies average about ten minutes and if you can successfully fall asleep in ten minutes then I am so grateful that you took the time to read this blog article. The biggest disadvantage though is that Calm requires a payment to listen and I know that for many people that is an absolute no-no.

Today’s suggestion is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/NigHxQgiV7

Daily Trip

==========

Relaxing Tension

—————-

NARRATOR

Jeff Warren

AUTHOR

Jeff Warren

This is about a mechanism for releasing tension, even a quite deep build-up of tension. Which I thought might be highly useful for someone trying to get some sleep.

Recently I started voyaging down a personal memory lane when it came to professional ASMR artists. This does mean that, in the short term I have not been restricting ASMR artists to medical themes. Normal service will be resumed in due course. The aim was to demonstrate what got me started on ASMR many years ago. I’m trying to select quality presentations that I have listened to more than once in the past.

This week I am going back to 2018 to this one:

[ASMR] Fall Asleep in 25 Minutes! (Binaural Sleep Triggers)

Which has the benefit of at least being overtly sleep-related. It has notes (It would be a very unusual professional ASMR video if it did not have notes). “2,521,682 views 14 Jun 2018

https://linktr.ee/tingtingasmr Enjoy this binaural ASMR sleep treatment as I use some of my favourite soft sounding triggers to help you sleep within 25 minutes! Enjoy mic brushing, face touching, ear to ear whispers, book tapping and page turning, fabric sounds, and more!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New uploads every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday! Be sure to come back often ^_^

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you to my lovely Patrons: Hrannar, Jeb, Iris, Nolan, Ben, Claude, Cesar, Scotty, Jared, and Arturo!

~~~Support The Channel~~~

Merch Store: https://teespring.com/stores/tingting

Patreon:   / tingting 

Wishlist: http://a.co/9qgDCxD

Donate: http://paypal.me/TingTing57

~~~Social Media~~~

Instagram:   / tingting57live 

Facebook:   / tingting57live 

Twitter:   / tingting57live “

Compared to some we have seen these are superb in their succinctness. Regular readers will notice that I have returned to a channel that I have covered before and it must have been a bit of a favourite in 2018 as I notice there was more than one video from here that I used to listen to at the time.

The channel of course is Tingting ASMR, there are 2.57m subscribers, eight-hundred-and-ninety two videos and thirteen playlists and there is even a playlist entirely dedicated to sleep:

This, however, I notice, is for members only (the first time I have come across one of those) and so if you want to listen you will need to cough up. On that basis moving swiftly on…

This week’s video is slightly less than twenty-seven minutes, so not a bad size. It starts without music and immediately we can hear that the presentation is going to be on the whispery side of whispery. Which is fairly typical for an ASMR artist. There is a great deal of nail clicking so if this is one of your preferred “triggers”, this will probably be a good one for you.

This is not the only non-vocal sound on the video. Paper stroking features, which is one of many paper-related sounds; that mouth clicking sound, that ASMR artists seem to use so frequently, also features, there are fabric-stroking sounds; microphone-stroking sounds. The use of dual microphones means that any headphone user will perceive the sounds alternating between sides of the head. Clever stuff but I am not clear it is that effective for sleep. There are beanbag related noises which at least has the benefit of being unusual. Plastic container related noises; noises relating to the application of some kind of lotion and probably the odd sound I failed to note.

The pace is very slow, however, for someone trying to sleep I think that is going to be helpful. In fact, I like this video a great deal, probably why I used to listen to it quite so often. I would think it worthwhile to give it a review yourself if you’re looking for a relaxing video suitable for sleep.

Regular Procrastination Pan afficionados will have recognised that I have not yet covered the non-YouTube source of relaxing material. My searches of late seem to be yielding less and less new material so I suspect that soon I will have to go back and cover some individuals over again.

This week I am falling back on material in the Internet Archive and it is for one of the artists that I also used to listen to many years ago. However, I do not think I have encountered this video before this:

https://archive.org/details/isabel-imagination-asmr-2020-06-12-asmr-for-when-you-feel-down-hugs-cuddles-kisses

Isabel Imagination ASMR 2020 06 12 ASMR For When You Feel Down [ Hugs, Cuddles, Kisses & Positive Affirmation] JVu4gmugEPk 497MB [CD99985A]

dn710004.ca.archive.org/0/items/isabel-imagination-asmr-2020-06-12-asmr-for-when-you-feel-down-hugs-cuddles-kisses/Isabel imagination ASMR-2020-06-12-ASMR for when you feel down [ hugs, cuddles, kisses & positive affirmation ]-JVu4gmugEPk-497MB-[CD99985A].mp4

Isabel produces great material on YouTube and that seems to be the former home of this video. I will continue searching and see if there are any other non-YouTube resources that can be located. Although I am beginning to realise that whilst the Internet seems to be a home for much that is free, in actual fact it is a giant marketplace for a lot that needs to be paid for as well.

I hope that you’re able to assemble much of this material into a playlist of your own that you can employ to smooth your transition into sleep.

Now for the material that started this whole period of the Procrastination Pen blog which is the inadvertent ASMR video. Although there is less focus in these blog articles on such videos now, I still feel that this is the bread and butter of ASMR night time sleep material for the Procrastination Pen.

This week I am looking at another medical-themed video. In fact, this one:

Examination of the Arthritic Hip

It comes from the channel Raj Rao this has 1.23k subscribers, seventeen videos, and zero playlists. Not a bad achievement getting that number of subscribers from so little material, I feel. Let us hope that this bodes well for the video. It has notes: “67,669 views 26 Mar 2010

Dr. Edward Nelsen-Freund, Assistant Professor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin”

We can see the video is sixteen years old, but I cannot tell if ASMR fans have been here before me because comments are not permitted. This is probably to offset some of the more whacky feedback that you regularly find on YouTube. The video is only six-and-a-quarter minutes in length and so isn’t going to waylay us for long. Of late I have covered a few short ones. The upside is it’s going into a playlist and so length should not be an issue; the downside is that YouTube do love to insert adverts between videos when you are playing them.

It starts without music – Heaven be praised. We find immediately that Dr Nelsen has an excellent voice. There is very little background noise (a minor hiss only). The initial part of the video is a monologue but despite the presentation aspect it is not excessively loud – would that other videos were like this. The medical examination proper then starts, and, again, the volume does not increase. The presentation speed is nicely paced – not excessively fast and not overly slow either. It ends rather abruptly just as I was getting into the pace of it, and, in my case shot into a rather active advert. Hopefully that will not also be your experience.

And that’s it. I think worthy of inclusion in the Procrastination Pen playlist. In fact I think I will be back to this channel in future.

On that basis, just one, video this time.

That’s it on this occasion, more next time.

See you again next week.

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 DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

This week I wondered if the fact that ASMR fans get ASMR feelings meant that they were more susceptible to other feelings than average. Sadly, it would seem the work has not been done. I did find that people high on the neuroticism scale are more likely to be able to feel ASMR. Not only that, but if you are high on the neuroticism scale and you can feel ASMR symptoms that ASMR might be effective in reducing some of the symptoms.

So, I am going to take that as a positive.

You must be overdue another review of ASMR.

For a long time now, I have been trying to find material that is not on YouTube on the assumption that readers of this blog also get distracted (not to say annoyed) by the choice of adverts that YouTube choose to insert between (or sometimes during) relaxing videos. (Read, loud, energetic and sleep-disturbing).

During lock down I did listen to the odd track by Ghylian Bell. Ghylian, of course, has her own YouTube channel (not exactly helpful in finding a source of non-You-tube material). I did find one on the mindful.org site. I think that this will give you an idea as to why I like Ghylian’s voice.

Usually after I poke around outside of YouTube, I drone on about Calm for a few minutes for no reason other than the fact that I am lucky enough to have a Calm subscription. I know that does not extend to many people reading this article so I will keep this part brief.

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

Daily Jay

What You’re Not

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

To find out what you are, start out by describing what you’re not.

I like Jay, his is probably not the best ASMR voice on Calm – I suspect that is Tamara Levitt. But the material that he covers is so fascinating and insightful. This is not the Calm marketing department however, so I will move right along.

At this stage of the article, for a number of months, I have made it a habit to review a professional ASMR artist. This was really to contrast with the inadvertent ASMR material that has been the purpose of this blog for so long. I did at one stage feel that this would be totally unfair. Surely a professional ASMR artist who set out to calm their audience and thereby to attract subscribers would have to be streets ahead of any inadvertent ASMR material that could be located. I have not found this to be the case.

This week I am back in nostalgia-land as I am again reviewing a video that I used to listen to a long time ago (the posting date of the video will be a strong clue). I am deviating from the medical theme for a while. I’ve been doing this in the hope that I can present some quality ASMR from an ASMR professional so that you can hear what attracted me to it in the first place. However, I am aware that this blog has been medical-ASMR themed for some time and so I will revert to that in due course.

Today’s is from the channel Tingting ASMR. This has 2.57m subscribers, eight hundred and ninety one videos, thirteen playlists of which this playlist would seem to be on the medical theme which this blog has explored for a while now:

The channel, of course, has notes: “Tingting ASMR

Description

Hello, my name is Tingting, welcome to my ASMR channel! I will be creating videos to help you relax, tingle, and sleep. There’s a lot of stress in this world, I hope I can help you reduce some of it. New video every Tuesday and a new short Sunday so check back often!

Links

Find ALL My Socials Here!linktr.ee/tingtingasmr

Patreonpatreon.com/tingting

Merchandiseteespring.com/stores/tingting

Instagraminstagram.com/tingting57live

Twittertwitter.com/tingting57live

Facebookfacebook.com/tingting57live”

Refreshingly brief for an ASMR artist, as regular readers of this blog will already know.

The chosen video is this one:

[ASMR] Chinese Zodiac Calligraphy & Brush Sounds

This is just a fraction less than thirty six and a half minutes – a reasonable length therefore. It too has notes: “462,394 views 11 Jul 2017

https://linktr.ee/tingtingasmr Enjoy this special Chinese Zodiac Calligraphy ASMR with amazing brush sounds and some calming ink grinding on stone sound. This ASMR is completely whispered and you might learn how to write some Chinese zodiac characters too! Which animal are you?

Thank you to my producers: Tony, Eric, and Jeremy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New Uploads every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 10 AM PST!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don’t forget to check out my new Patreon page for bonus content and awesome rewards like being a part of my Chinese name video!

Patreon:   / tingting 

Instagram:   / tingting57live 

Facebook:   / tingting57live 

Twitter:   / tingting57live 

Twitch:   / tingting57 

Amazon Wishlist: http://amzn.to/2ugvsh1“

These are getting towards the length we might expect from a professional ASMR artist. Comments are permitted. There are a lot of these. As we have come to expect, some of these comments border on the surreal. There are a fair number of positive ASMR comments though, so let’s take that as a good sign.

This video is properly quiet. Definitely one where you will be rolling over and thumbing the volume up a bit. It is on the whispery side of whispery, which is quite typical of a professional ASMR artist I find.

I prefer a non-whispery presentation just because whispery gets a bit samey once I have listened to a few videos. There are a number of non-vocal sounds: clicking, tapping, grinding, brushing, paper sounds, a light background noise (perhaps air conditioning), the odd equipment-related noise. It is one of those videos where nail clicking features strongly, which is great if that is a “trigger” that you like. The pace is delightfully slow, if you want to watch rather than just listen, I suspect you will almost feel your mind slowing down to match the progress.

I decided to try taking my blood pressure before watching the video and then take it again as the video was playing, and found it had dropped almost ten points. Perhaps ASMR videos should be prescribed.

Of course, we are looking for videos to assist in dropping off. I suspect in isolation this will be fantastic; however, the volume is set so low that at thirty-six and a half minutes a stupendously loud and frenetic YouTube advert will have you achieve orbit unassisted.

That said, I think this is a very good video and I can now remember why I used to listen to it so frequently.

This week’s inadvertent ASMR is brief in the extreme. It comes from the channel: Arthritis Research Canada this has 16k subscribers, three hundred and thirty-seven videos, twenty playlists. Not unexpectedly a number of these are on a medical theme, however, it is unlikely that a great many are good for ASMR.

The video is:

Effusion Test

and it has notes: “162,903 views 2 Jun 2011

Discover a systematic approach to diagnosing knee osteoarthritis years and make a difference in your patient’s care. This video demonstrates how to perform three standardized knee examinations to diagnose knee osteoarthritis and demonstrates 18 other knee examination techniques commonly used in practice for in-depth knee examination. The content is not provided as a form of self-diagnosis. To learn more visit www.arthritisresearch.ca“

Which, in common with a number of inadvertent ASMR videos are not whoppingly long. Comments are permitted. There are not a great number and there are none from ASMR fans. That is habitually a bad sign. ASMR fans are like ants to spilled jam as far as great ASMR material goes.

The video starts without music – hip-hip hurrah. The voice is not your classical ASMR voice but it is calm and nicely paced in presentation. The video features the same medical professional throughout but different patients, quite an achievement in a video that is only this length.

And there it was gone. I think worthy of inclusion in the playlist; in fact, I think I will be back to this site in future.

On that basis, just one, video this time.

That’s it on this occasion, more next time.

See you again next week.

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 DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

I was watching in amazement this week as a colleague edited together a video for use on Instagram using only his phone. I was recognising why the age of the blog has truly sailed. Although it was obvious that the video editing took skill, and it took time, the output was so easy to consume. I could recognise, instantly, why thousands of followers migrate towards channels which produce video content.

It is quite easy to understand why people who, at one time,

 would have read a manual or would have looked at a diagram, are now watching a YouTube video to try and get the same information. However, I cannot see myself producing YouTube material reviewing material which is also on YouTube.

Luddite I maybe, but I am not yet ready to give up on the idea that there is value in writing things down. Even if by so doing I am missing out on the more skilful operation of my mobile phone.

I hope, if you are reading this, you agree.

I have not changed the format of these posts for a while now (perhaps it is overdue for a change). This week, again, I recommend something from Calm for no better reason than I have a subscription to Calm and I listen with reasonable frequency.

(You should be aware that relatively limited free material exists on Calm and the following isn’t part of that).

https://www.calm.com/app/player/ns0e03Lo4U

Daily Calm

Recreating the Past

NARRATOR

Tamara Levitt

AUTHOR

Tamara Levitt

The tendency to want to re-live perfect memories, attempts to recreate the experience never quite measure up. Comparison of the new experience with the previous one tends to make it less enjoyable. Resisting the urge to compare can improve the involvement in the present by leaving the past behind.

For some time, I have been on the lookout for material outside of YouTube because I would rather like the ability to leave adverts far behind. In practice I have found the results a bit variable. In some ways paying up for a service to get an advert-free experience may be the better approach. But, assuming for whatever reason you do not wish to do that, I remembered that during lockdown I came across a track by Rhonda Magee who I recall had a good voice. However, of course, I could not remember where I had come across Rhonda.

It turns out that Rhonda has a website and that there is a part of the site dedicated to meditations. But sadly, this just redirects to YouTube: https://rhondavmagee.com/meditations/

However, I did find a podcast page with a recording which is quite open to a listen for free:

https://dharmapodcast.libsyn.com/dp-1953_rhonda-magee_metta-in-a-time-of-warmp3

There is a small amount of hiss on the track but I think there is enough material here to get an idea of the quality of the voice.

Recently when I have been reviewing professional YouTube ASMR artists, I have been going back into the past to re-listen to some tracks that I used to listen to years ago. At the time I was not sticking to a medical theme. The idea of reviewing ASMR videos had not even occurred, so the odd one has cropped up which is not even distantly medical. Today’s is like that:

ASMR Back Tracing w/ Scratch, Brushing, Buds & Oil Massage

So not even remotely medical then. Normal service will resume fairly soon.

It is from the channel WhispersRed ASMR. This has 1.12m subscribers, nine hundred and one videos, twenty nine playlists of which none at all seem to be on a medical theme. This could be the reason that WhispersRed has not appeared previously on this blog.

The video has notes (of course it does) and as usual (for a professional ASMR artist) these are extensive:

“10,592,056 views 3 Jun 2018 #whispersred #asmr

An ASMR Back treatment with nail tracing, a back scratch, brushing and oil massage.

Uploaded with love, Emma

Other back pampering videos –

   • Childhood ASMR Triggers – #1 Back Tracing … 

   • ASMR Back Pampering | Brushing, Oil, Massa… 

—————————————————————————————————————- 📚My ASMR Book – Unwind Your Mind: The Life-changing power of ASMR https://campsite.bio/whispersredasmr  Published by Ebury/PenguinRandomHouse in the UK and Harper One in the US and Canada.

🎧 ASMR albums are available to download or stream on all services worldwide Search – WhispersRed ASMR 🎧

Spotify – https://spoti.fi/2EugqJo

Google Play – https://bit.ly/2JwXP34

Itunes – https://apple.co/2qhg6Zb

Amazon Music – https://amzn.to/2Ev7R0E

——————————————————————————————————————————————

💎Crystals & ASMR Gifts – https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/WhispersRed

🌟 Merch –  https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/wh…

🌺Other items from this channel – https://bit.ly/2ICABXR

🎤Live ASMR events – https://whispersredasmr.com/events/

——————————————————————————————————————————————

🌟Please LIKE if you do and SUBSCRIBE if you’d like to! This makes sure that new videos show up in your feed. Click the bell if you would like notifications for new uploads🌟

💜My other Channels💜

❥ Vlog Channel –    / mypurplelife 

❥ Channel intended specifically for younger audience at adult carer discretion – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgL7…

🌟Connect🌟

Website – https://whispersredasmr.com

Facebook –   / whispersredasmr 

Twitter – @WhispersRedASMR

Instagram – whispersred_asmr

Email – emma@whispersredasmr.com

————————————————————————————————————————————–

🌹Contribute translations! – http://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_p…

❥ To reach the UK & Ireland ASMR Community!

Facebook Group – ASMR UK & Ireland –   / asmruk 

———————————————————————————————————————————-

Disclaimer – This video is not intended to replace any medical care, therapy or counselling that might be needed. The benefits of ASMR in terms of a therapy is so far anecdotal and in the early stages of published research. This video is intended for a mature audience for the purposes of mindfulness, relaxation and entertainment.

Product links – These are usually affiliate links. Anything you purchase through them will help in the running of my YouTube channels. However, I only link items I bought myself and/or use regularly.

#asmr #whispersred”

So, we have now discovered that WhispersRed is called Emma. Later on (whilst watching the video) we find that her subject is called Stephanie. Comments are permitted, and there are literally thousands of these. One that stands out for me is one that asks for YouTube to ensure that ASMR videos are not accompanied by loud adverts. A drum which I have been banging for a considerable time now.

The video is in excess of forty three minutes which is long for one we have reviewed of late.

It starts in full-on whisper mode accompanied by that strange mouth clicking sound that ASMR artists love so much. It is not off-putting though.  At intervals it does get a little breathy for me.

There are of course noises not associated with the voice – nail clicking (these seem to go on a bit), hand rubbing, liquid noises, the sound of skin being brushed, squelching noises (I am not a great fan of these in ASMR videos, but I read comments that indicate some ASMR fans come to YouTube for just such content). This comes back to my theory that artists are hammering in every ASMR “trigger” that they have managed to think of in the hope of gathering more fans. I still feel that a video focusing on the gentle voice tone only would be more appealing but 1.12m subscribers seems to indicate that I am in a group of one…

The voice (as we might expect) is properly relaxing and I can hear why it was that I used to listen to this all those years ago. The pace is lovely, even slow in places; the volume is spot on. It is quite old-school now, in that there are not artificial breaks in the video to permit an (objectionably loud) advert to butt-in part way through. For me this makes the experience far more calming.

Around the half hour mark I did feel that I was ready to listen to something else, but then I was reviewing the video rather than trying to fall asleep to it. I’m sure if you’re reviewing it as a sleep aid you will find it is absolutely ideal.

Following the theme of recent blog posts, I will now turn to inadvertent ASMR (which has been the theme of this blog for some while now).

It probably should not be unexpected, but to me is still surprising, when people post medical videos some of the comments are from people who are really looking for a medical diagnosis. Perhaps this points to an area that people could home in on. A whole audience of people whose needs are not being satisfied and I doubt that they can be satisfied by those persons who are posting videos.

As you can probably tell from the above, we are back in the professional medical video category i.e. videos created with a purpose which is unrelated to ASMR. Historically some of these are quite good for ASMR purposes, some are barely adequate, and some are just awful.

But that is the reason this blog exists, to try and identify the odd diamond in all that refuse. Regular readers will have seen videos reviewed, videos trialled in the main Procrastination Pen playlist and videos retired into the Procrastination Pen archive list.

At the same time the video content is itself dynamic. We have seen videos, lauded by ASMR fans, removed on copyright grounds. Channels, apparently with thousands of fans, which disappear and some videos so popular that they disappear (often with their respective channel) only to appear again on another channel sometime later.

This blog will attempt to navigate these changes by maintaining a list of videos that can be played prior to sleep with the intention of allowing you to relax and minimising, as much as is feasible, jarring noises that might disturb that restful state.

Today’s video is listed in the order found, however, it is obvious from the title that it is the third in the series:

Neurology – Topic 3 – Sensory aspects of gait including Romberg’s test

This is a short video at less than four minutes. We seem to have arrived at the point in this review process where short videos have become the norm  but I never know what I will find next, so you may find an hour-long video in the next review.

In common with the majority of professional videos we have seen recently this one has some notes: “20 Dec 2012

Sensory aspects of gait including Romberg’s test”

Not the most comprehensive notes but notes, nonetheless.

The comments, as usual, are a bit variable; I have previously concluded that permitting comments with a video is a brave move indeed.

The video is from University College Dublin and, as we expect, they have a YouTube channel eight hundred and twenty eight videos as at the time of review which is rather too many to examine in one sitting. Habitually such channels are university promotional vehicles which is exactly what we would expect.

The presenter is flagged at the start as Professor Niall Tubridy, Consultant Neurologist

Sadly, the video has startup music. Startup music is the bane of any ASMR video research. In this case it is not as offensive as some. I have, in the past, weeded out videos purely on startup music. I am hoping that in the future YouTube will introduce a function which allows me to add parts of videos to the playlist; in which case a great many will be subjected to top and tail behaviour. i.e., removing any funky music inclusions from these videos.

Professor Niall has a great voice; there is minimal background noise, not your classic ASMR but it should be calm enough to be relaxing (funky startup music allowing). Sadly, there are periods where it gets louder as if Professor Niall is presenting to a lecture theatre. It is quite fascinating, which is not the reason we are here, but causes me to stick with it.

Thankfully there is no tail end music to this particular video. Good enough for the Procrastination Pen playlist I think, although I aways reserve the right to weed it out if after a few reviews it doesn’t stand the test of time. There’s a couple in there right now that I am mulling over with a view to foisting them out.

The channel is UCD Medicine which has one hundred and sixty-three videos. That is a few I’m sure you will agree. Small wonder then that the channel has 52.7K subscribers.

There are five playlists and none of those seem to be connected with Professor Niall or with Neurology.

However, scanning the list of videos there are at least thirty-one videos on this subject and probably a great many more than that. I’m not sure I would feature thirty-one videos at one time in a single blog post even if they were all to feature Hollie Berry. On that basis therefore I’ll select the first five (including number three, which we just reviewed) and the later videos can form the basis of subsequent blog posts.

Neurology – Topic 1 – Brief neuro anatomical background

We are now into classic cranial nerve examination – which has been the subject of several blog posts previously

This is less than three minutes and yet again with the startup music – grr.

This time Professor Niall seems a bit on the loud side. I have the sense that this video captures a presentation to a class.

The location does not seem to assist in this respect I suspect a large room with a slight echo via the microphone. I always wonder why lapel mics are not more frequently in use. But I imagine additional microphones=additional cost.

Neurology – Topic 2 – Brief neuro anatomical background with notes

This is really a re-run of the above with some notes as well – no doubt great for students but it makes no odds for us, I think.

Neurology – Topic 4 – Cerebellar Syndrome Examination

A much more substantial video in that it is nearly nine minutes but still short in terms of some of the videos reviewed previously.

I think we can now take it that all of these will share the irritating startup music. Here again we encounter Professor Niall at his best in terms of his voice. We discover that the patient is “Peter”.

Unfortunately, Professor Niall gets louder. It’s a shame because at the start the video is lovely and quiet. If only I felt empowered to take the video and edit it down but I have no doubt a number of solicitors would be delighted if I tried that and the Procrastination Pen would be added to the channels on YouTube that disappear without trace.

However, there are long periods where Professor Niall settles into what must be his default which is a lovely voice to listen to. Perhaps in the future I will look for other material by Professor Niall as there might be the odd one which is properly quiet throughout.

Now, the assurance that we would cover up to video five was made without understanding how the videos progress on this channel, whilst videos one to four were individual videos there is now video 5a to 5j with some of the videos appearing both with and without notes.

I feel it is fair therefore to split the approach to video 5 I think your attention muscles probably will have had enough if I push too far so I think as far as 5c in this blog item and then pick up a future blog item at 5d.

Neurology – Topic 05a Cranial Nerve 1

Here Professor Niall is obviously presenting to a class, it is loud. Again, there are moments where the voice is excellent. Each one of these videos is tantalising in that it is not quite excellent for ASMR but has the potential to be so.

Neurology – Topic 5a Cranial Nerve 1 with notes

A duplicate of the above video – with notes included.

Neurology – Topic 5b – Cranial Nerve 2

A truly substantial video in excess of eighteen minutes. It starts loud and continues loud. Fair doos, the guy at the back of the class needs to hear what you are saying but it makes it less than gorgeous from an ASMR perspective.

Here the patient, in fact has a better intonation for the purposes of ASMR (well he is quieter). I think his name might be Donnacha (with apologies to Irish readers if I messed that name up).

It is even possible that Donnacha may have a channel all of his own but that is for a future blog item if so.

Neurology – Topic 05b – Cranial Nerve 2 with notes

As before a duplicate video to allow for the addition of notes.

Neurology – Topic 5c – Cranial Nerve 3,4,6

A little over seven minutes in length but sadly no quieter. Shame about that classroom setting. I suppose we can take succour from the fact that there are no infernal air conditioning noises.

Neurology – Topic 5c – Cranial Nerve 3,4,6 with notes

With notes

And that’s it this time, I think I’ll come back and give it another try Professor Niall probably has a few gems to offer.

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 DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

I discovered this week that supplementing magnesium may not just help with sleep but may also assist with attention during the waking moments of the day. From the same source I discovered that supplementing zinc intake could assist in the same way. I have not yet put this to the test (to be honest in search of a benign sleep cure I am getting to the stage of taking so many supplements that I rattle). However, I am going to try this next and will report back as to whether it makes any noticeable difference.

This week a Calm selection which illustrates the reason that I so frequently listen to Jay Shetty, even though he very probably does not have my favourite voice on Calm. This one I found inspirational:

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

Daily Jay

Soul Grow

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

It is about becoming a more extraordinary version of yourself. As part of which Jay explores this letter: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/kurt-vonnegut-xavier-letter_n_4964532.

Today’s professional ASMR offering comes from an artist that I used to listen to all the time. Indeed, the video itself is an oldie but goodie.

The channel is Isabel imagination ASMR this has six hundred and thirty four videos, 379K subscribers thirty three playlists of which the following seems to be on theme for this blog so far:

The video is this one:

ASMR Doctor’s Visit Memory test (soft spoken/whisper/personal attention)

It has notes, and oh, what notes: “428,480 views 28 Sept 2016

Hello! My name is Isabel and I’m Dutch. I’ve been crazy about ASMR for about 4 years now and I am finally posting my very own ASMR videos since the 20th of June 2016! This is video #28. I hope you like it!

I’ve recorded this video with a JVC camera and an audio recorder. Here are the links:

Cam: http://www.videocamerashop.nl/product…

And it’s recorded on to an audio recorder called: Roland R26 portable recorder

Editing program: http://www.magix.com (I used Magix video deluxe 2016)

In this ASMR video Dr. Clarck will examine you because you are forgetting lots of things lately. You will answer some questions, and Dr. Clarck will perform a few memory tests on you and you will have a smelling test and a listen and memorise test. So, lots of personal attention and soft spoken and whispers included! Sleep tight and enjoy the tingles!!!

Instagram (to stay updated on new ASMR projects of mine):

  / isabel_asmr 

This video is meant for relaxation and can also help relieve anxiety, depression or stress, however I am not a psychiatrist, so if you are dealing with severe anxiety, depression or stress I suggest you go to a professional. “

It would not be a professional ASMR artist if they did not feel the need to write a novel with each and every video. Comments are permitted and seem to major in the “odd” feedback rather than sycophantic, which is not unusual for YouTube, but is unusual for a professional ASMR artist. This usually does not bode well, to be honest.

The video is thirty and a half minutes and so is reasonably substantial for videos that we have reviewed of late. It starts with a strange crackling background noise as if it was played on a badly stored vinyl record and straight away it gets into whispering. We’re on fairly well-established ground then. The voice is excellent and indeed the setting of the video itself looks rather professional (not that I expect any readers of this blog will be doing much in the way of watching given that you’re using this material to fall asleep to).

It occasionally gets a bit on the breathy side. It also seems to be falling prey to the “how many triggers can I get into this video” approach to sound recording. There is the stroking of paper, that mouth clicking sound that ASMR artists seem to love so much, nails clicking on a glass jar, but that said we have heard videos where the artist tries to feed in every squelch, tap, and scratching noise that they have heard some ASMR afficionado would rather like. By comparison I’d say that this was a much more measured approach to inserting spurious ASMR triggers and I did not find it obtrusive. However, as I have related before, I am only interested in the quality of the voice personally and additional noises are, for me anyway, merely a distraction.

That said the enunciation is spot on. Quite amazing that a Dutch person speaks English much better than a number of English ASMR artists that I have heard. As some commentators relate, it is interesting that a person from the Netherlands speaks American rather than English but it does mean that Isabel has an interesting accent to listen to in this video. I think I will be coming back to Isabel in the future for any further medical-orientated ASMR videos that come up.

For the ASMR offering which does not involve YouTube, I thought I would try the Internet Archive and see if they had anything for today’s professional ASMR artist. And they do:

Isabel Imagination ASMR 2020 06 12 ASMR For When You Feel Down [ Hugs, Cuddles, Kisses & Positive Affirmation ] JVu4gmugEPk 497MB [CD99985A]

https://archive.org/details/isabel-imagination-asmr-2020-06-12-asmr-for-when-you-feel-down-hugs-cuddles-kisses

Just like professional ASMR videos on YouTube, the person has gone mad with the notes in connection with this one:

“Publication date

    2020-06-12

Topics

    ASMR, female, hugs, kisses, positiveaffirmation, personalattention

Language

    English

Item Size

    618.3M

video_url – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVu4gmugEPk

channel_url – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGfbWCJjPwcAlBNkHT3gQ6w

In this triggering ASMR video, you can sit back and relax with headphones on!

In this relaxing ASMR cuddle & positive affirmation video, you can relax to the sound of my close-up ear to ear breathy whispers and get tingles from the warm hugs. Hopefully this calming video will comfort you for sleep!!

Triggers are: scratching, tracing, brushing, wet mouth sounds, whispering, ramble, mouth sounds, hair sounds, visual triggers, hand movements, tapping, shiny objects, crinkle, deep ear whispers, soft spoken, mouth sounds, tapping, finger flutter, whispering ear to ear, breathy whispers, binaural sounds, personal attention, close up tingles.

What is ASMR? Check out this short explanation video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc-SCxXdI0Y

All my info:

Webshop: https://www.isabelimagination.com/nl/

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/isabel_imagination

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isabel.imagination/

My email address for questions or business deals: info@isabelimagination.com

Patreon (if you’d like to support me, get early access and see patreon exclusive videos) : https://www.patreon.com/Isabelimaginationasmr

Tingles (to avoid advertisement and support me at the same time): https://www.gettingles.com/

The Tingles app is available on IOS and Android!!

For a look behind the scenes visit my other youtube channel “isabel backstage”!! This is the link to my 2nd channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_R9MQkCOSew6FswsZtHOEw

I’m always trying to improve the quality of my video’s, if you’d like to contribute to this purpose, than that’s possible via donations on PayPal. My email is: isabelimaginationasmr@gmail.com

Who am I :

My name is Isabel and I’m Dutch. My approach to ASMR video’s is combining entertainment in a form of imagination and fantasy (almost movie like) with relaxation. All wrapped into one video for you. This way you can enjoy my videos either before you go to bed to drift off easier, or you can just take a moment of relaxation during the day to calm down and relieve stress.

I’ve been posting ASMR video’s since the 20th of June 2016! I hope you like it!”

I’ve edited them a bit as they are really long.

Sadly, it is not on theme for the medical series I have been pursuing, so I’ll leave you to try it out if you so wish.

For the inadvertent ASMR video which really is what this blog has been about since the ASMR reviews began, I am looking this week at this one:

The Dermatology Exam

I have reviewed a number of videos from this channel previously it is Top Hat Tutorials with 67k subscribers, one hundred forty one videos and all three of the playlists are on theme for the material that I have been covering in this blog:

and

and

the notes on the channel convey what it is all about:

“Top Hat Tutorials

Description

Clinical skills videos for medical professionals and students

More info

            http://www.youtube.com/@tophattutorials9113

            Joined 3 Sept 2015

            67k subscribers

            141 videos

            10,408,946 views “

There are also notes with the video although, thankfully, they are not excessively long: “296,857 views 22 Jan 2016

A video of the main points of the Dermatology Exam.

The video was created as part of the Top Hat Tutorials app, a new doctor and student designed guide to the clinical examinations in medicine and surgery.

‘TOP HAT TUTORIALS’ is available in the Apple, Google and Windows app stores today.

Reached number 1 medical app in its first week of launch!

A must have for medical students no matter where they are studying.

Download using the following links:

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/top-h…

Google: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de…

Windows: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store… “

The video permits comments and as with the previous video I find that the comments are more strange than sycophantic. This may not be a great omen of what is to come.

It is another brief video at just over four and a half minutes so it isn’t going to keep us long. It begins with my personal bugbear: startup music which seems even more sacrilege given we have such scant video real estate to begin with. However, once Dr Tom Branigan introduces himself, we realise we have a safe pair of hands. Tom has a great voice. The patient is Dermot (or assuming this examination is located in Ireland more probably Diarmuid). There is some background noise, probably air conditioning. It is very calm and measured, just the kind of thing I like to hear (music excepting). Sadly, we get the music once again at the close of the video.

So, it is a reasonable one but also a rather brief one this week.

On that basis, just one, video this time.

That’s it on this occasion, more next time.

See you again next week.

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 DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

Unfortunately, the available time for writing articles is shrinking. So I have the benefit now of being fully aware what it is to be under stress and to find that there is little time, post work, for the stress level to abate, before it’s time to close the eyes.

Life did not come with an off switch, and I have not yet developed the mental discipline to force the mind into quiescence against its will, as it were.

Still, this does mean that I can tell you that some nights, no amount of ASMR is going to help. You may have to take refuge in a Nytol or similar, and allow for the fact that you’re going to feel like a hibernating bear in the morning.

In which case, you have my sympathies.

For all those other occasions, can I suggest the Procrastination Pen playlist. If that does not work, by all means, feedback.

I was recently reading about the beneficial effects of certain mind-expanding mushrooms but personally I am way too cowardly to try them. Assuming I even knew where to buy such things. I assume I’m not going to find them in Tescos any day soon. Whether, as a result of all that mind expanding, you also can work out how to step through the doorway to sleep on demand was not made clear. However, if it were a reliable outcome there are some evenings I would be sorely tempted…

Today, again, I am making recommendation from Calm. Given a subscription is required, I am not certain just how useful to you this kind of recommendation is. If you find that such recommendations simply remind you of your impecunious circumstances, do feedback. The feedback is free, of course, and I will try to accommodate reasonable (or potentially unreasonable) requests dependent upon what they are.

Daily Jay

Chase the Future You

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

https://www.calm.com/app/player/Ga3PYvH2pG

This is about role models and whether you are able to be one. I find Jay Shetty to be very good at inspirational material. Perhaps, though it isn’t always as great as Tamara Levitt in terms of calming. If you already have a Calm subscription, give it a try.

I have been, recently, evaluating a professional ASMR artist in these articles. I tend to be quite tough on them because they are professional ASMR artists. Where I would give latitude to an inadvertent ASMR video, I will not do so when the video is set up to have ASMR content. So far, I have found that many of the problems I find with inadvertent ASMR videos I also find in professional ASMR videos, and I wonder why this is the case. I also wonder if other people have noted the same thing. Please feedback about your own listening and preferences and what you find are the high points/low points of the current professional ASMR video offering.

Today’s selected professional ASMR video is this one:

The Steampunk Orthopaedist | ASMR Roleplay (medical exam, adjustments, personal attention)

It is just shy of thirty-four minutes in length and given it is from a professional ASMR artist it has notes (with the inevitable self-promotional material). Here is a brief extract: “293,422 views 7 Sept 2025

Welcome to a new doctor’s office! Tonight, we will be examining and treating your shoulder, arm and wrist using both classic and more unusual tools.

No music / no intro version:    • No music | The Steampunk Orthopaedist | AS… 

This video includes lots of personal attention, fabric sounds, unintelligible whispers and writing sounds.

Disclaimer:

This video was created for relaxation / entertainment only. For any serious trouble with sleep, stress etc., please consult your physician.

For more information about ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response), please have a look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonom…”

I rather like the disclaimer. I cannot remember seeing anything similar before.

It is from a well-seasoned channel Moonlight Cottage ASMR with 1.49M subscribers, one hundred and thirty-nine videos, sixteen playlists. I can declare straight away that in the past I have spent quite a while listening to videos from this channel and generally quite liking what I was listening to.

No doubt I will feature the odd-one in the future. That bias declaration out of the way let’s evaluate what this offering is like.

It starts with music which has shades of the Harry Potter about it, or maybe Bucks Fizz circa 1981. You know by now that I do not like startup music. As they go, this one is not the most disturbing I have come across. The video incorporates equipment noises, knocks, rattles, vibrations, paper noises, scribbling noises, rustling noises, clicking noises. These are not my preferred content for a video, but, no doubt, there is an ASMR fan out there that laps up this kind of material.

The voice is very good and for once (mostly) avoids whispering. I find the less whispering, the more believable, but perhaps the more whispering the better the ASMR effect…

That is not to say the voice is not intonated quietly. But then this is what we came here for.

The accent is interesting. I’m not sure where it is from but a quick browse tells me that it is France. I do like the sound and I’m sure I am not the only one. As expected, there are comments, equally expected they are nearly all in paroxysms of adulation over the video. (ASMR artists seem unique in holding at bay the darker comments I otherwise see on YouTube). I am not as easily impressed, but pretty close.

I do like the inclusion of the tuning fork. I’m sure there will be some who disagree. Habitually I am all about the voice, and I would say this is a good one. There has to be a reason for that high number of subscribers after all.

There are various beep noises from steampunk equipment and clunks from heavy objects being moved, none of which I find particularly welcome. No doubt it makes the situation authentic and that was the reason behind including noises of this kind.

If you are watching the video (say you were reading this blog and you’re not ready for bed yet) you will find that the presentation is amazing in its care and detail. Moonlight Cottage ASMR could otherwise double as a film set, every aspect is so carefully prepared. This puts many a video filmed from someone’s sofa to shame.

The steampunk era equipment (for that is where the video purports to be from) is very believable. The layout of the room very minutely detailed to present the theme of a mythical time when all medical procedures were somewhat different than we would expect today.

It was so peaceful in fact that together with the absence of any tail end music (heaven be praised), I had a nasty surprise at the YouTube advert which came up immediately afterwards.

I would say that this one is well worth a review yourself.

After a period of listening to the Procrastination Pen playlist I find that it is easy to get certain favourites in terms of videos and to disregard the others. The temptation is to keep only those few and dispatch the others. However, I suspect if I followed that philosophy after a while, listening to the playlist would be very dull indeed with the same few videos repeating over and over again.

The defence against this seems to be to continue to discover restful videos and to add them to the Procrastination Pen playlist, such that each night time’s playing brings a fresh surprise.

Today, we are back with a channel that we have reviewed before and it seems to consistently bring up restful videos. It is quite likely therefore that we will be back here again in the future.

The video is this one:

Approach to Nevi (Moles) – Stanford Medicine 25

and it is quite a short one at just over four- and three-quarter minutes. It is a professional video rather than, say, a student assessment video as such it has notes: “65,987 views  22 Jan 2016

From our dermatology series, this video covers all the basics you need to accurately describe complex and multiple skin lesions.

Related webpage: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.ed…”

(The notes are considerably longer than this, but I have edited them for length. I doubt you will be interested in spending an extensive period reading notes).

The related webpage is this one.

This informs us that the medical professional in the video is Jennifer Chen there appears no record of who the “patient” in this video is.

The video starts with more than one incidence of music which, as usual, is somewhat unwelcome, but at least it is somewhat muted. Jennifer has a good voice for our purposes but her voice is consistently accompanied by that music. I still have no idea why people recording videos do this, it is distracting.

The video ends with yet more music.

The channel, which regular readers will probably already be aware, is Stanford Medicine 25.

This has eighty-eight videos on the day that I am checking it. The video that we looked at above is the first of a playlist called “Stanford Medicine 25: Dermatology” https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE6bR3gooUQvSTs1iQuK6T5eyMTMf2kWl

This contains four videos and we have already reviewed the first one, so let’s cover the remaining three.

Diagnosing Acne vs. Rosacea (Stanford Medicine 25)

A sample of the notes is: “123,974 views 22 Jan 2016

From our dermatology series, this video covers all the basics you need to accurately differentiate between regular acne and acne rosacea.

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 video is just over three minutes and stars Dr Chen again (the “patient” is not introduced). These videos are certainly fond of their background music, but in this case, Jennifer’s voice seems completely drowned out by it. This is a shame as it is almost the opposite of what we would like to hear. The balance between music and voice is completely off (assuming anyone wanted the music at all). It would have been preferable to delete the background music altogether and just to have Jennifer’s voice here.

Approach to the Dermatology Exam (Stanford Medicine 25)

An extract from the notes is: “154,988 views 22 Jan 2016

From our dermatology series, this video covers all the basics you need to accurately describe and diagnose any skin lesion.

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.”

This one is just less than eight minutes in length.

Comments are permitted and as expected they are somewhat variable, with limited contributions which add very much. There seem to be no comments that are feeding back from ASMR fans and given ASMR fans are like a squirrel in a hazelnut store when it comes to ASMR videos, this may not be a great sign.

Again, with the music, sigh. This time our medical expert is Dr Justin Ko. He is again in competition with ongoing background music. On the plus side he has a good voice – well paced in presentation, nice and calm. On the downside, at intervals, the music wins the competition. Please stop doing this Stanford.

The subject matter is quite off-putting. I can’t imagine skin conditions becoming top of the pops on any ASMR review. I certainly recommend that you don’t spend time watching this video, but only listen to it.

Some of the featured images are so unpleasant that I think, despite the quality of Dr Ko’s voice, this one cannot make it into the playlist. Too many people listening are likely to find it disturbing material, I think.

Approach to Multiple Rashes (Stanford Medicine 25)

This video is a bit over four and a half minutes. The (abbreviated) notes state: “57,958 views 22 Jan 2016

From our dermatology series, this video covers all the basics you need to accurately describe complex and multiple skin lesions.”

The comments do not lead us to suspect that ASMR fans have adopted this one (that might not be good for us). The now expected music at the start and, again, it continues as the medical professional is talking. Bernice Kwong who it turns out has a nice gentle voice (at least in this video).

Had the background music desisted, this could well have been a very good video indeed. There is again the finishing music. I am left with the sense that this set of videos could have been so much better without that music. I’ll trial them in the Procrastination Pen playlist, but I have a suspicion that they are going to get weeded in the future.

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 to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

I’ve mainly been editing older material of late because I had (have) developed quite a backlog of articles on an ASMR theme. It is therefore good to be writing something new for a change.

Welcome to the Procrastination Pen, which for several months now has been the home to a blog about ASMR, ASMR videos and ASMR playlists. However, I appreciate that only some people have any ASMR feelings at all. For this reason, from the outset, my emphasis has been on calming videos that anyone could use to relax and perhaps to drift off to sleep.

I have focused on ASMR videos that were designed to do something entirely different, rather than the ASMR videos produced professionally by ASMR artists. That is not to say that I may not write the odd article about such videos but I have limited experience of them as it stands (and there seem to be a vast great number to choose from).

The outcome of this endeavour has been a large playlist consisting of the videos I have reviewed so far that were worth listening to. There is also a set of playlists relating to each channel I have reviewed (if you like a particular channel).

I always include the details of the latest playlists at the end of each blog article, so if you’re not keen to read about the review process, you can scroll straight to the end and pick them up there.

The theme has tended to be about medical videos mainly because medical professionals seem to take a calm approach to their work and often therefore speak slowly and quietly, which is I believe fundamental to a good voice for ASMR.

This week an institution which we have featured before, and I have no doubt will be featuring again.

At that time, I picked up a video directly from the Stanford Medicine Channel on YouTube. This time I have come across the page in which they embed all of their videos, which is this one:

https://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/videos.html.

As we can see there is a range of videos separated logically into subject areas and all referencing a location on YouTube. However, for our purposes logical is all very well but are they any good ASMR-wise.

Choosing at random we can see that Dermatology Exam is a subject area that has just four videos, which seems a nice small number to review in a concise Blog post, so let’s see what they have to offer.

The first video is this one:

Approach to the Dermatology Exam (Stanford Medicine 25)

which is just shy of eight minutes in length.

In common with a number of professional videos this one has notes, a précis of which is:

“22 Jan 2016

From our dermatology series, this video covers all the basics you need to accurately describe and diagnose any skin lesion.

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.”

From memory of the last article the notes tend to get a bit repetitive, so I will only feature elements which might be of interest.

Bravely they are permitting comments and as expected not all of the comments are positive. There are no obvious comments from ASMR fans which given how effective ASMR fans are at finding videos is possibly not a good sign.

The video starts with the bugbear of any ASMR video devotee, the peppy start up music, applied I’m sure more through branding or marketing considerations than anything to do with quiet relaxation.

The medical professional is Dr Justin Ko, (which the automatic subtitles render as “Justin Cohen”!). Straight away we realise we are not dealing with any Dr James Gill in terms of voice but the introductory piece is relatively muted. However it gets louder, I mean a whole lot louder. In addition the background music continues and persists throughout the rest of the video. In addition the subject matter is a bit distracting.

I think this prohibits this one from becoming a member of the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Approach to Multiple Rashes (Stanford Medicine 25)

The relevant part of the notes are: “22 Jan 2016

From our dermatology series, this video covers all the basics you need to accurately describe complex and multiple skin lesions.”

This is very short at a bit over four and a half minutes. Again, with the music, sigh. This time Bernice Kwong who is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Dermatology.

The video starts quietly and Bernice seems to have quite a good voice, relatively quiet and calm. However, again, the music persists throughout the video – why, why, why? This video is also not useful for us.

Approach to Nevi (Moles) – Stanford Medicine 25

At four and three quarter minutes it still isn’t a long video. The relevant notes are “22 Jan 2016

From our dermatology series, this video covers all the basics you need to accurately describe complex and multiple skin lesions.”

Again, the comments are not at all helpful. So far, so YouTube. The start-up music remains. This time Jennifer Chen is the medical Professional; a Clinical Assistant Professor.

The start is promising, a quiet beginning but again continuous background music – how frustrating. This video is just not for us.

Diagnosing Acne vs. Rosacea (Stanford Medicine 25)

Just over three minutes so the shortest so far and featuring Jennifer Chen as in the previous video. The relevant part of the notes is: “22 Jan 2016

From our dermatology series, this video covers all the basics you need to accurately differentiate between regular acne and acne rosacea.”

The comments are nearly totally irrelevant or unhelpful but there are clues that some of the listeners are ASMR fans. mostly, it turns out, frustrated ASMR fans due to the background music.

So we know what is coming sadly.  Unfortunately, Dermatology is a strike-out ASMR wise despite some great presenters. The decision to have music throughout is really very distracting.

However, all is not lost – there are those other videos to draw on, of course.

I think a visit of the Ankle Brachial Index category is worth a try particularly as it contains only two videos.

Ankle Brachial Index (ABI) Test: How to Perform

For once, the comments appear to be universally upbeat, positive and supportive (wonders will never cease). The video is close to seven- and three-quarter minutes and sadly still incorporates that music at the start. This time the medical Professional is John Cooke who actually seems to have a good voice and a very relaxed style of presentation – heaven be praised.

In addition, the muppet with the music mania has not decorated this with background noises. In fact it is marvellously quiet and calm. Unfortunately, there are some additional noises coming from an handheld doppler device, employed as part of the video. I don’t think these will exclude this video from the Procrastination Pen playlist, but it might mean that the video gets dropped to the archive list on subsequent review.

Venous Testing

This is just over five minutes so not long. It starts with the familiar music (spit spit). John Cooke and again he starts with a good delivery well measured and low toned. The doppler device is heard as before. I’m not certain if that might not prove noisy of a night time. I’ll include the video in the playlist but it may suffer transfer to archive if it proves excessively distracting.

So the Ankle Brachial Index category came to the rescue, (marginally).

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.

Hope to see you again back here for the next blog article.

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Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae