Tag: Dharma Seed

Sleeping With ASMR

This week I discovered a possible resource which may assist those of my readers who seek other resources for sleep outside of The Procrastination Pen. In this case I have come across a podcast dedicated to the kind of material that Procrastination Pen readers should be able to make use of i.e. a podcast dedicated to sleep:

The title is ” Bedtime stories to help grown-ups fall asleep in the deep, dark night.”

Home

It is a person reading a story that is designed to help someone fall asleep. I have not listened end to end (the episode I was listening to was in excess of two hours in length). The voice isn’t the most restful I have ever heard and the introduction was on the long side of rambly. However, one thing I have discovered with all of my reviewing activity is that people have as many opinions as there are people. So, I am certain that some people will just lap this up.

I did say that I would try to find resources that did not rely on YouTube. I’m time constrained in terms of finding new content. However, I do remember that on the long drives in to a college some years ago, I used to listen to a person called Diana Winston. How I found her is lost in the mists of my failing memory. However, I do recall that I very much liked her voice. Diana is the director of mindfulness education at UCLA. At one stage I seem to remember there was a podcast, a website where I could download MP3s, and so on.

There are, of course, numerous YouTube videos. For example:

However, I am supposed to be getting away from YouTube so what else can we make use of.

Well, there are a very large number of downloads available here: https://www.uclahealth.org/uclamindful/guided-meditations

(including many in different languages).

There are also a set of the weekly mindfulness sessions available for download here: https://www.uclahealth.org/uclamindful/weekly-meditations-talks

I hope that you, like me, find Diana to have an excellent voice.

At this point, I tend to look at a Calm track. This week let’s go with Jeff Warren, a voice which I rather like and who often has interesting subjects in his material as well:

Daily Trip

A Secret to Better Boundaries

https://www.calm.com/player/Z0HEmm1mXV

NARRATOR

Jeff Warren

AUTHOR

Jeff Warren

It’s just nine minutes so not enough sleep-time material by itself. Perhaps you could listen before cracking open the full fat Procrastination Pen playlist.

This is about trying to survive being around other humans. Part of that is maintaining boundaries. I hope that you find Jeff’s stuff as interesting as I do (assuming that you have a Calm subscription, in any case). In the assumption that is a minor subset of anyone who might wander onto this site, I’ll move swiftly along.

At this stage, for some months now, I have been reviewing a single video from a professional ASMR artist. These have ranged from the near silent to the blinking loud. I have not yet though found an artist that I consistently like. That’s a bit sad, as with videos purportedly at this quality, I would have expected to do so.

This week’s one is a bit of a different video for us in that it is a professional ASMR channel posting an inadvertent ASMR video. Grist to our mill in fact…

This is from the channel ASMR Beauty Treatments https://www.youtube.com/@asmr_beauty, it has four hundred and seven videos 145k subscribers, seventy playlists a great number of these playlists are on a medical theme such as:

and

and

and

and

and probably a fair few more that I didn’t spot.

This is another hard-working channel.

Today’s video is this one:

Real ASMR Eye Exam in Leicester (Unintentional, Real Person ASMR)

Because it is a professional ASMR artist, of course, it has notes:

” 1,039,383 views 1 Nov 2022 #asmreyeexam #unintentionalasmr #medicalasmr

This week’s ASMR video is an eye exam! Christian’s eye exam was so detailed and precise and I really hope you all enjoy watching it! So much was checked in this session including my vision, eye health, peripheral vision, retinal photographs and even my general health! I really hope this video can work as both an educational tool and also a tool for relaxation!

👁Details are as follows: 👁

Website: https://consultingoptometrist.co.uk

Location: 60 Main Street, Kibworth Harcourt, Leicester, LE8 0NQ

Treatment: Comprehensive eye exam

Email: christian@consultingoptometrist.co.uk

If you’d like to support my work, please consider donating to my Ko-fi! (https://ko-fi.com/asmrbeauty) Any amount is much appreciated! ❤️

‼️All of my unintentional ASMR content is footage of real sessions and experiences I have had in London or in other parts of the UK. I upload these real person ASMR sessions with the intention to help people destress, relax and learn‼️

#asmr #asmreyeexam #medicalasmr #unintentionalasmr #asmrbeauty”

Which are refreshingly short, as professional ASMR artist video notes go. Comments are permitted and as usual they’re pretty nigh universally positive.

The video is one hour and seventeen minutes in length. This is whopping, for a video of this type. The voices are great as we would expect. Background noise is muted. However, at the beginning, the video does dot about a bit as if the best bits of the examination have been sampled and then stapled together. Then it settles down into examination proper. There is no whispery presentation. The person receiving the exam is more your classic ASMR voice. In many ways though, I preferred the voice of the person giving the eye test. I am probably massively out of step with most people viewing the video.

For me, at intervals, the video does feel a little long. Although as a mechanism for promoting sleep this may very well work in our favour. There are occasional noises from moving around on a chair which are surprisingly loud, and probably emphasises how quiet the rest of it is. There are some louder equipment noises following the eye chart section – I didn’t find them excessively distracting but your mileage may vary. There are some louder clicking noises towards the tail end of the video, which is a shame.

I found it surprising that, despite the fact I have had innumerable eye tests myself, I still learned a few things from watching this one. However, that is not why we are here.

I think this one is well worth a review, why not give it a try for yourself.

The inadvertent ASMR video this week is this one:

Head to toe physical assessment

It has zero notes, (which goes some way to show it is not a professional ASMR video). The comments are suitably various and occasionally off-the-wall, which also seems to fit with a non-professional ASMR video.

However, there are 1.3 million views, which is something extraordinary.

Immediately, you get the impression that this is another student assessment video. It comes from the site Emma Weekly, this has forty five videos, two shorts, no playlists. A number of the videos would appear to be on a medical theme and connected with a course. Medical-themed videos apparently commencing in 2021. There are 9.63K subscribers which seems a lot for an amateur channel connected with a medical student.

This week’s video starts very quietly – no startup music here. It is quite a long one, at in excess of fifty-one minutes. Emma seems to have a fairly good voice, not ASMR-y I would say, but at least quiet and level in intonation.

The video itself is rather quiet which I think is a limitation of the recording equipment, because background noises are rather pronounced on this one. It is typical of student assessment videos we have seen, in that it seems students have to get as many medical terms as feasible crammed into the video presentation.

There is no indication as to the medical establishment and the “patient” is also not introduced. At least we are not subjected to strange illusory knocking or “privacy” acts that often are the commencement to such videos.

Emma seems to find the process somewhat tiring as, no doubt, it is and the “patient” seems properly bored, which given the person is just sitting there, she most probably is.  There are other people in the background – various conversational noises can just be heard above the background drone (presumably air conditioning).

At intervals the delivery is a little hesitant and I got the impression it is either highly stressful or a little too much effort, as a great deal of sighing is going on. There are also the more expected student related pauses as Emma mentally searches for the relevant medical content (presumably to satisfy the requirements of the course).

There are noises from moving the chair around but, compared to background, these are hardly loud. Emma suffers from the typical student issue of a lack of equipment; in this case there is no reflex hammer. I can remember one medical video where the student employed a fork from the cafeteria rather than a tuning fork. As expected, it did not really work. Here, the absence of a reflex hammer means that testing reflexes is just as ineffective.

This, I think, is suitable for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

On that basis, just one video on this occasion.

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 am getting the opportunity recently to converse with people who are a generation older than I am, and the news for people reading this blog is not very settling. I’m afraid the interruptions to sleep get worse. The length of sleep gets shorter. The feelings of tiredness persist. It therefore seems to me that there is some value in The Procrastination Pen, in that this blog keeps pursuing restful sounds that can assist a person into sleep.

I have been exploring audiobooks of late (there seems a rather vast amount of Agatha Christie on CD, for instance). Those so disposed can probably get something similar from Spotify or some similar subscription service. I am actually finding that a story droning away in the background can be quite restful. However, it is a good idea to miss out on books that might include elevated, dramatic noises. A sudden loud noise probably having completely the opposite effect to that which one desired, by listening to such a thing at bedtime, in any case.

I notice that Calm is pushing its sleep app. I have found the material in the Calm App dedicated to sleep a bit variable. I find much of the material dedicated to sleep actually has no such effect on me. Regular readers will have noted that where I do make recommendations from Calm, it tends to be the Daily Calm meditations that I draw from. I find these superior in sound content, but sadly they are designed to be around ten minutes in length. That is probably an insufficient length to drop off to and, so far, I have not found a method to chunk then together into a vast long playlist.

I have now subscribed to the regular Calm email in the hope that it will produce great material, and I notice that this one has been in this email of late:

Rainy Day on the Farm

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

This is thirty minutes in length but on a loop, so it appears everlasting. No artist is given. I do not really find rainy backdrops to be that restful. However, a number of people seem to do so. There are a number of offerings on YouTube in the same vein.

For example, this one:

It is all a bit noisy and stressful in my opinion to be really conducive to sleep. However, if this is your thing, by all means, fill your boots.

I have been trying to find material that does not depend upon YouTube (because I’ve decided that I do not like the adverts). This is purely an addition to the YouTube-based material because, for the moment, there is little else that is free and has a ready supply of sound-based material which you can use to distract the mind addicted to wakefulness.

I remember that during lockdown I used to receive emails from a site called Mindful on which a number of people published meditations. Sadly, this does not line up into a playlist and, from memory, they did not offer a download option. So, it may be of only passing interest. I also know that I followed specific artists at the time and one of these was Elaine Smookler. It turns out that Elaine does a few twelve-minute meditations such as this one:

https://www.mindful.org/a-12-minute-meditation-for-embracing-your-inner-mountain/

and this one:

https://www.mindful.org/a-12-minute-meditation-for-navigating-grief-anniversaries/

and of course there is a great deal of material on YouTube:

and I also see that MP3s can be obtained from here:

https://player.fm/series/the-mindful-podcast/gratitude-practice-savor-the-moment-by-tapping-into-your-senses-with-elaine-smookler

As expected, if you choose that route you will need to download the MP3s and assemble into some kind of playlist yourself. The advantage being that you can normalise the inter-MP3 volume so you don’t get any mid-sleep nasty surprises.

At this point, for some weeks, I have been reviewing professional ASMR videos. Akin to the mindful material I can remember, some videos that I have listened to in the distant past including this one:

🌿 Relaxing Naturopath Visit 🌿 ASMR 🌿 Doctor RP

Gentle Whispering ASMR

2.41m subscribers

Gentle Whispering ASMR is one of those powerhouses of professional ASMR artists. there are 2.41m subscribers and eight hundred and twenty six videos, there are fourteen playlists of which the odd one is on theme for material we have been covering of late. For example:

and

This week’s video is an oldie as you can tell by the notes:

“8,059,900 views 16 Jan 2018

Hello sweetheart! 🙂 Today I welcome you to my naturopathic medicine practice 🌿 I will shortly give you an overview of your visit then at 03:00 I will perform a check-up of your hair, your ears 06:30 , I’ll put on my gloves and examine your skin 08:50 , your sinuses 11:25 , your lymph nodes 13:03 , neck muscles check 14:10 , I’ll gently test your eyes reflexes with a flashlight 16:56 , I’ll tell you about Eyeology 19:29 and check your eyes 22:26 , then I will perform a check of your tongue 29:55 after I explain how you can read your health by your tongue 27:47 ,  I’ll tell you a bit about tension headache that you’ve been experiencing and how to deal with it 32:32 ,  I’ll recommend you some essential oils 34:34 , and herbal supplements 36:16 that even sound good and at the end I will relax you deeper with gentle hand movements to help you doze off 38:29 . Enjoy ♥ Thank you for watching! 🙂

Email: MariaGentlewhispering@gmail.com

Gentle Whispering ASMR

2.41m subscribers”

So the standard professional ASMR huge set of notes then. As usual I have trincated these a whole lot as they really are very long. In this case comments are not only permitted the first comment is also from GentleWhisperingASMR:

However this comment simply replicates a good deal of the notes so I will not repeat it here.

There are literally thousands of comments and a number of these are the standard YouTube level of strange. A number of them are the standard professional ASMR artist level of sycophantic. We are on familiar ground here.

The video is forty-one and a half minutes long, so of a reasonable length. There is no startup music and the presentation is the now familiar professional ASMR artist level of whispery. I would not say this was my favourite voice, but it is restful. There are of course extraneous noises, rustling, equipment noises, writing noises, keyboard noises, clothes brushing against other clothes, breath across the microphone noises, mouth clicking noises, glove-related noises, paper-related noises, rattling noises.

It gets a bit breathy and there are those mouth-clicking noises I have noticed some similar videos using before. I don’t find a need for them but you may love this sort of thing (close to two and a half million people obviously do so). I would say that this one requires a small increase in the volume, when listening. Another one where the disgruntled listener is rolling over and thumbing the volume up button. I’m also not that certain how well it works without the video content. Obviously, you don’t want to be watching if you’re also trying to close your eyes. There are also a few close-to-microphone moments where the sound seems more abrupt and louder and I would think that might not be a pleasant surprise if you are already snoozing.

I’d say that this one is certainly worthy of a review.

This week’s inadvertent ASMR video is this one:

HEENT Assessment Part 1: Head, Face, and Neck

Straight away we can see that this forms part of a series. Even though this blog post is already on the long side, I therefore feel I’d better review all four of the videos in this series.

It comes from the channel NursingYOU 2.0 this has 3.7K subscribers nineteen videos zero playlists. It is not the hugest channel we have ever reviewed. The channel description is: “NursingYOU 2.0

Description

This is a nursing education channel led by a Masters prepared Nurse Educator. This channel offers videos on health assessment, skills, lecture series, and NCLEX test taking strategy. The videos presented by NursingYOU 2.0 are intended only for education of healthcare professionals.  Previously called Nursing YOUniversity.  See the updates!!  Enjoy.

More info

http://www.youtube.com/@nursingyou2.073

Joined 5 Jul 2017

3.7k subscribers

19 videos

1,126,488 views”

A quick scan indicates that all of these videos were posted eight years ago. So, it also appears to be a channel that is no longer maintained. Grab your video views while ye may.

The video itself has notes: “319,367 views 5 Jul 2017

In this video, the head, face, and neck are assessed on an adult client.  This video is part 1 of 4 for the Head Ears Eyes Nose and Throat (HEENT) system of a complete health assessment.”

The comments are, as usual, of various types including the off-the-wall. Some ASMR fans are here way before me, though I notice.

The video is just slightly less than six minutes in length. It starts with no startup music but an absolute ton of background noise. Also, the presentation is pretty loud as well. Currently I am less than clear why ASMR fans have been listening to this. I would say that this is not classically ASMR. For example, there is a fair amount of background chatter going on. Simply turning down the volume is not going to eliminate that. There is also the sound of paper being rustled throughout (although I know this is a sound that some ASMR fans go in search of). There are sounds from motion – the participants moving around. There is, at one point, the sound of a prop driven aircraft passing over head. For me this is all a bit busy to be that relaxing.

Onto part 2:

HEENT Assessment Part 2: Nose, Mouth, and Throat

The notes are similar to the last set of notes so I won’t go into them here. The comments are the usual level of unhelpful and no ASMR-related comments this time, which is not uncommonly a bad sign. It is five minutes in length and starts without music. The background noise remains but at least the background conversations seem to have abated. Again, it is a bit loud for me. The voice of the medical professional isn’t ASMR-y from my perspective. However, I would say that this one is a slight improvement on the previous video in this series. Part way through the background noise gets substantially worse, as if the air conditioning has been switched into turbo mode, this obscures the voice to some extent and is moderately distracting.

HEENT Assessment Part 3: Ears

Three and a third minutes so quite a bit shorter than the two previous ones. This one starts with the level of background noise where the previous one left off i.e. quite substantial. The medical professional now sounds to be at some distance from the microphone as if the entire video was shot in a tube station. In fact, I think it is an open area within a hospital, a hospital with very powerful air conditioning.

The noise is now getting quite distracting. This one has minor and brief equipment noises.

HEENT Assessment Part 4: Eyes

The last one in the series and, at just less than six and a half minutes, the longest video as well. The voice is now quite subdued and distant in relation to the background noise. This really does sound like the medical professional is at the end of a long tunnel. If you get your feeling of restfulness from air conditioning noises this is definitely the video for you. This time you can hear background chatter at a reasonably elevated level. This is quite distracting as well. There are equipment noises as the “patient” moves around. Due to the muting of the entire soundtrack these are not excessively loud.

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

See you again next week.

The Nursing You playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

I was recently lying awake, as I often do, watching rubbish TV in the hope it will tempt the sleep fairies out from hiding. I came across something which was a TV programme covering TikTok videos. The concept seemed sufficiently low rent that it was bound to drive any idea of wakefulness screaming for the hills. I discovered that there had been a TikTok video in which there was a person who had decided that a specific individual was the one for her. He was going to have to be working in finance, physically he had to be six foot five inches and he had to have blue eyes.

The idea that selection on such a basis was the concept that would lead to a successful relationship rather appalled. But then I found that the video had been viral, had spawned a music video, a collaboration with a famous musician, and an income of several hundred thousand pounds.

This seemed to indicate a general consensus that selecting a partner for a relationship on the basis of appearance and income was, all in all, a generally good idea.

I then thought of people I found intriguing, those who gave up their lives to save the pangolin for instance. Those who worked hard to make a relationship work with much less obviously appealing material. Those who endured a difficult situation with failing health, failing resources and so on.

I realised that perhaps the reason sleep is not as much a friend is that I have found myself out of step with the zeitgeist. But then I reassured myself that, on the basis of current information, I probably always have been.

If you find that the world seems to be moving along in a direction that you no longer feel a part of, perhaps it may not be a terrible idea to distract yourself with a restful video, a music file, perhaps even a meditation. The Procrastination Pen is here to help with that.

I came across an older podcast recently on the subject of ASMR. It appealed because the artist describes ASMR in the way that I understand it. A pleasurable experience that is non sexual but can assist with sleep. It turns out that this podcast is so old that the website it linked to for the artist is no longer available. Because it was a podcast, I have no idea what Melinda Lauw looks like which I imagine makes the locating of any ASMR by Melinda slightly more exciting. However, I need not have worried because there is an entire YouTube video dedicated to her here:

which helpfully links to the relevant website.

And it would appear that Melinda is now also producing YouTube videos of her own, for example:

ASMR | Face Measurement Exercise (Personal Attention, Math Tools)

I think this week I shall use Whisperlodge ASMR as the professional ASMR artist. Even though this will make the order of this article somewhat out of step with how I have been previously doing things. (Perhaps being out of step is somewhat the message for this week.)

There are nineteen videos here and 4.29K subscribers which is a pretty healthy figure I’m sure you agree. There are four playlists, none of them on an obviously medical theme and indeed the selected video this week is a little peripheral in that respect.

The video is from a professional artist and so of course it has associated notes: “49,339 views 24 May 2020

Hi everyone, I’m finally starting to make videos!! This time, I’m using old school math tools for a little face measurement exercise. While this isn’t perfect, I know I’ll get better with more practice! A few of our Whisperlodge guides will also be contributing their videos here! More to come!

https://whisperlodge.nyc/”

Comments are permitted and, as usual, are the premium level of sycophancy that we typically find associated with professional ASMR artists. Whatever they have it should be bottled. But maybe it secures them a tall blue-eyed partner who works in finance…

The video is fifteen and a half minutes long and hence is properly short for a professional ASMR artist. It starts without music (heaven be praised) and definitely is on the quiet side of whispery. I got the impression that whispery was not the natural volume for this as if it was a little strained but that may just be me.

You may need to roll over and turn up the volume a bit to get much from this at all. For me, it is therefore not the greatest voice I have heard. However at least there are no offensive noises. A lot of ASMR videos (professional or otherwise) could learn a lot from that. Even with the volume turned way up I found it a bit quiet for me (but I do have old ears). Be aware though with the volume up when the inevitable intrusive YouTube advert kicks in, you are very likely to lift vertically off the bed in stunned surprise. Not for the first time I wish I owned the video such that I could amplify it a bit to make it more listenable.

That said, I found it enjoyable. I would return to the channel to take another look only there is precious little material to draw upon. Perhaps the future will bring more. Maybe it will even be on a genuine medical theme, I can hope…

I found the presentation relaxing and really would like to see more. Let us hope that Whisperlodge is reading The Procrastination Pen.

Slightly in reverse order this week, the habitual Calm offering (usually I write about this before the professional ASMR artist). A small subset of people may find this appealing (in that you have to pay for a Calm subscription before you can listen to the full track).

https://www.calm.com/app/player/ZChWn_-1Bl

Daily Jay

Become the Lake

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

This is about one’s mindset and how to widen perspective. As usual with Jay the content is interesting and challenging, but perhaps this one is not enough by itself to comfortably get you off to sleep.

I’ve discovered a recommendation online for some miracle pillows. Miracle anything is a bit like pixie dust; it would be incredibly useful but seems exhaustingly difficult to find. So it is with some trepidation that I put down the money. The service was excellent but the pillows smell a bit like the inside of a factory at the moment so I haven’t actually laid my head on one. I’m leaving them to acclimatise in a quiet area and they may need a spray of lavender oil before I start using them.

However, I’m not going to feedback on what they are like until they actually start living up to their claims (the leaflets in the packaging state at least fourteen days before judging). Given my partner accuses me of sounding like a hog at the trough when I sleep, it will be interesting to see if it makes any difference.

Meantime the ASMR video search continues apace. Sometimes the videos are very effective in lulling me off to sleep, but sadly, unlike pixie dust, they aren’t universally effective and sometimes there is a night of much tossing and turning and relatively little sleep. (The noise cancelling headphones are a terrific help and I recommend them).

Today’s video is this one:

Alana Haas head to toe- south university

Again, it has come up in my YouTube recommendations so frequently that I am not clear that I haven’t covered it before, but a quick search of the blog does not reveal any trace of it.

It is just less than fourteen minutes and comes to us as part of the gift that keeps on giving – the student assessment video. These are by part manna from heaven and by part noisy, irritating, and a source of many discarded videos.

Initially you will see that the video is in portrait mode and this tends to produce the more “Blair Witch” style of videos – i.e. shaky and with intrusive noises. Possibly because it is frequently a mobile phone that is in use to film it.

The medical professional is Alana Haas i.e. the person in the title and she announces that she is at South University.

South University of course has its own YouTube channel with one hundred and seventy-seven videos on the day I’m looking at it and 2.8K subscribers.

These seem to be (as is typical for such channels) material promoting the University rather than suitable ASMR material.

Back to the video, Alana does not have a typical voice for us and it starts a bit loud. We find that the filming date is 2013, and the “patient” is Jordyn Hutchinson (I’m basing the spelling on the name of the channel). The surname is less than clear and it isn’t the same as the surname in the channel as you’ll see in a short while.

The video gets into its stride and quietens down but this is no Hollie Berry. There are equipment noises but air conditioning noises are not too obtrusive for a video of this type.

The channel is Jordynlee21. I’ll make the assumption that Jordyn met a Mr Lee after college sometime, but it is feasible that the channel goes back to when she was Lee and she is now Hutchinson.

The channel has only four videos yet 3.36K subscribers (which is frankly amazing).

Given how few videos there are it is well worth our time reviewing the other three.

Jordyn Hutchinson head to toe- South university

Here the former “patient” is now the medical professional. The former medical professional is now the “patient”.

It is filmed in the same manner as the previous one and, as before, no notes and no comments. Given the nature of some of the comments that is frankly a relief and, given the number of subscribers, I think we can assume that the ASMR community has set up a tent, a fifty inch plasma screen and a seven speaker surround system around this channel.

This video is twelve and a half minutes so it looks like they are going to be much of a muchness in terms of length (I expect the remaining two to be similar).

There is knocking and a door closing at the beginning which isn’t the most restful. The air conditioning, for some reason, is more intrusive. Jordyn doesn’t have an amazing ASMR voice. Which might be a theme for this set of videos.

There are equipment noises. Some of the conversation sounds designed to fulfil a brief rather than the empathy that perhaps you might expect. It quietens down but still no Vicki Scott.

Callie Donnay head to toe- South university

This is just over fourteen minutes so assumptions about video length seem warranted (they’re all about the same length, well, within a couple minutes). Callie is the medical professional. Straight away Callie seems to have a better voice. The patient is Ashley Brehmer. The air conditioning, though, is building up to full Shakespearian drama. (this is a constant hazard with such videos)

Ashley seems a bit noisy in this one but she isn’t the main player.

There are equipment noises, some of them are really quite loud. Obviously, a video that would profit from some healthy editing, if I was disposed to steal someone else’s video, (which I’m not). Part way through Callie begins to sound a bit tired of proceedings, or nerves are setting in, one way or the other.

Ashley seems quite amused by it all and there is the odd mouthed comment which I cannot make out, probably my elderly hearing equipment.

Head to toe Ashley Brehmer- South University

Again, a reversal of roles Ashley Brehmer the medical professional here and Callie Donnay the “patient”. This is just over twelve and a quarter minutes.

By now we are familiar with the format. Door noises at start – tick, air conditioning ramping up its role – tick – lack of real empathy – tick.

It settles down to become almost muted, barring the inevitable equipment noises of course. There is a sense that at intervals the participants are just going through the motions. Who knows how early or late this is being filmed. However, everyone participating could just be very tired (that or a rather energetic night in the bar the previous night, let’s hope it was the latter for their sake).

I suspect that this video is likely to be the one that more fully stands the test of time in the Procrastination Pen playlist, notably because obtrusive noises are less in this one. (sometimes one clang is enough to wake me from sleep and that condemns the video from that point onwards).

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

The Jordyn Lee playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

The moments when sleep provides relief have to be truly given thanks for. So easy it is to take the things in life which are most meaningful for granted. The ability to make tears, the ability to see well. The ability to hear well, particularly in a crowded room. Moving with ease and without pain. Falling asleep easily and staying asleep once you get there.

All of these things, and many more besides cannot be taken for granted as, for many, they are not gifted for a lifetime but only for a swift few decades.

I’m afraid I cannot help you if you live in pain. However, I do hope to provide some assistance if you are struggling for sleep. This blog reviews material for its relevance, calmness, relaxation potential and as a bonus, occasionally I find some material that may be of use to people who get ASMR symptoms.

Habitually I have reviewed YouTube videos because they embed well in this page and make the blog look pretty. However, it turns out that YouTube has to make a living like the rest of us and part of that is ensuring that we pay attention to each and every advert that pops onto the screen.

This is distracting enough in the daytime but, I have found, very deleterious when trying to get to sleep.

Hence, I have been wracking my brains of late for the material that I used to use before I started to explore the world of YouTube. In the days when MP3 players had no screen and the best you could hope in the darkened room is a restful voice crackling through a set of cheap headphones.

One of the people that came to mind is someone called Martyn whose MP3 material I used to download from a retreat called Moulin (the clue is that it is in France, I think).

Armed with that information I realised that the site is this https://www.moulindechaves.org/. The name of the place is Moulin de Chaves and the name of the man is Martin Aylward. Sadly, my exploration did not reveal any MP3 files though. In all probability, over the elapsed time, the site has changed beyond recognition.

However, I did find some at https://dharmaseed.org/retreats/5369/. It is a meditation retreat so expect some Buddhist content and some of it might be challenging. If you find that off-putting, scroll on down as there is more material reviewed below. However, if you do not find it off-putting then I’m sure you’ll agree that Martin has an excellent voice.

Regular readers will have noted by now that I habitually review something from Calm. Calm is not free but it is free of adverts.

https://www.calm.com/app/player/-B5yiokpfS

Daily Jay

A Full Life

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

Which, unsurprisingly, is on how to live a full life. As usual an interesting subject from Jay. Certainly, worth a review, I think, if you have a Calm subscription that is.

OK, and so habitually I now review a professional ASMR artist, and I’ve been doing this for a while. Mainly to see if you get more relaxation per minute than with an inadvertent ASMR video. Of late, I have not found that to be the case.

This week’s video is this one:

ASMR EAR NOSE & THROAT DOCTOR | tingly medical exam role-play

It is from the channel GwenGwiz ASMR, this has 497k subscribers, twenty eight videos and eleven playlists. One of these playlists is on a medical theme and so is in line with the focus of this blog for the last few months:

The video is a little over thirty four minutes in length, so not one of the longer ones that we have reviewed.

It has a vast long set of notes so here are the edited highlights: “154,308 views 16 Apr 2025 #ASMRForSleep #asmr

Welcome to the clinic! Relax as Dr. Gwen conducts a thorough examination of your ear, nose and throat. There’s lots of tingly #asmr triggers in this video including: personal attention, inaudible whispers, latex gloves, keyboard typing, light visual triggers and more! Hope you enjoy XOX Oh and sorry for the background sounds, it was a veryyyyy windy night!

✩ get exclusive videos and support the channel:   / gwengwizasmr  

WEBSITE: https://www.gwengwiz.com”

Comments are permitted but there are not the usual terrific huge number of these. As is usual for a professional ASMR artist, the comments seem to be predominantly positive.

The video commences without startup music, which is excellent. Personally, I think the presentation errs a bit on the slow side as if the person is deliberately slowing down the intonation of each and every word. Not off-putting, just a little unusual. Presumably with this number of viewers most people do not agree with me. It does tend to vie towards the whispery, which is something we are used to hearing with professional ASMR artists. Judging by the feedback this is also what ASMR fans are demanding. It is all a bit breathy, which again, is not untypical for a video of this type.

There are, of course, other noises; glove noises, that strange mouth clucking come clicking noise that seems to be popular with ASMR afficionados. There are clicking noises from equipment and keyboard noises. Despite the warning in the notes though I would not say that the background noise is at all excessive. I was either tired or this is very effective because I found myself nodding to this one. Definitely worthy of a review, I would say.

You may recall a previous post in which I mentioned a URL which linked to thirty two videos. The URL is this one:

Medical Training Videos

It has thirty-two videos (discounting the introductory one). Last time we managed to review just seven of these, so there is a fair few left to look at..

The next one in the series is this:

Intramuscular and Subcutaneous Injections – Clinical Skills

This is seven and a quarter-minutes. The notes are: “1,527,565 views 29 Nov 2012 Most Popular

This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School in conjunction with the faculty – demonstrates the principles and techniques underlying intramuscular and subcutaneous injections. It is part of a series of videos covering clinical skills and is linked to Oxford Medical Education (www.oxfordmedicaleducation.com)

This video was produced in collaboration with Oxford Medical Illustration – a department of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. For more information, please visit www.oxfordmi.nhs.uk”

Again, the start is with an introduction but this time the narrator has a louder voice. Despite this I think it would be suitable for the playlist. The demonstration itself is silent, which actually makes it quite a relaxing video. (If you do not like needles for goodness’ sake do not watch – just listen).

Blood Transfusion and Intravenous Infusion – Clinical Skills

A little under twelve minutes in length. The notes are: “520,998 views 29 Nov 2012 Most Popular

This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School in conjunction with the faculty – demonstrates the principles and techniques underlying intravenous infusion of fluids and the safe transfusion of blood. It is part of a series of videos covering clinical skills and is linked to Oxford Medical Education (www.oxfordmedicaleducation.com)

This video was produced in collaboration with Oxford Medical Illustration – a department of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. For more information, please visit www.oxfordmi.nhs.uk”

It starts with a narrator again and the narrator has a pretty reasonable voice for us. The actual examination involves a medical professional with another fairly good voice for us. The patient has very little to say. This video is suitable for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Wound Care – Clinical Skills

Just over eight and a half minutes the notes are: “245,926 views 29 Nov 2012 Nursing Skills

This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School in conjunction with the faculty – demonstrates the principles and techniques underlying basic wound care. It is part of a series of videos covering clinical skills and is linked to Oxford Medical Education (www.oxfordmedicaleducation.com)

This video was produced in collaboration with Oxford Medical Illustration – a department of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. For more information, please visit www.oxfordmi.nhs.uk”

It has a nice quiet introduction by a narrator with a good voice for us. The narration is nicely quiet and not over fast.

Shoulder Examination – Orthopaedics

Just over nine and a half minutes in length. The notes are: “604,900 views 28 Nov 2012 Clinical Examinations

This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School in conjunction with the faculty – demonstrates how to perform an Orthopaedic examination of the shoulder joint. It is part of a series of videos covering Orthopaedic examinations and is linked to Oxford Medical Education (www.oxfordmedicaleducation.com)

This video was produced in collaboration with Oxford Medical Illustration – a department of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. For more information, please visit www.oxfordmi.nhs.uk”

Again, it is introduced. The voice is perhaps not quite as good as the last video but still reasonable enough for the playlist, I think. During the medical examination we find that the voice of the medical professional is also reasonable for our purposes (if anything slightly better than that of the narrator here).

I think that I will conclude the blog post at this one and continue in another post. Failing that this blog post would become really large indeed, to the point of boredom, I imagine.

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

The Oxford Medical Education playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by DeepAI