Elsevier Health – The Procrastination Pen

Sleeping With ASMR

Hello and welcome to the Procrastination Pen. This week like last week, and the previous week… I am reviewing YouTube videos for their potential as an aid for restful sleep. To assist in getting from awake to asleep and in getting back to sleep when you wake up in the early hours of the morning. Most importantly, to avoid any noises that are likely to wake you up if the video keeps playing after you have dosed off. In the latter I’m afraid I cannot take account of YouTube adverts which are frequently up tempo, loud, intrusive and take no account of the time of day in terms of how quiet or restful they are.

Before we move onto the normal activity, which is the review of inadvertent ASMR videos, I have, of late, been reviewing one professional ASMR video as a change, and in case anyone liked the idea.

This week I am looking at this one:

“Let Your Destiny Unfold” Rainy Soft Spoken & Personal Attention Healing (ASMR REIKI)‪@ReikiwithAnna

It is on the channel Reiki with Anna which has 156K subscribers and five hundred and seventy videos. Where do these ASMR artists find the time?

In line with all ASMR artists I have reviewed so far, Reiki with Anna is suspiciously attractive. Surely if it is the quality of one’s voice that was critical then this would not be necessary?

In common with many ASMR artists Reiki with Anna also occurs on the ASMR Index.

Today’s video is just over forty and a half minutes and so is a reasonable length. Immediately we see why such videos are easier to listen to than inadvertent ASMR videos. There is no startup music and the artist has, as expected, an exceptional voice. The tone is great. The rain is unnecessary for me but I believe some people find such noises restful.

There are lots of additional noises: taps, clicks, a light background music, noises from equipment, even the sound of jewellery rattling. The latter stemming from the movements that are happening in the video. These distractions are not what I am listening for; I’m just here for the vocals.

The video does seem to be a bit “new age” for my taste but I cannot criticise the voice.

Sadly, YouTube will be YouTube and my listening was regularly punctuated by loud, irrelevant adverts. Hopefully your listening will not be so punctuated. Of course, these professional ASMR videos do not really have a playlist on the Procrastination Pen. I will add this one to the Sweetie Jar playlist which has become the repository for those I have reviewed thus far.

Of course, this video is not the meat and potatoes of this blog, which has always been to cover inadvertent ASMR (or at the very least restful) videos.

Today we return to a channel that I did promise I would revisit after a moderately successful first review of it.

The channel is Farsight Channel and will be familiar to regular readers.

The video is this one:

Macleod’s examination of the sensory system of the lower limbs

A bit less than three and a half minutes. The notes state: “235,864 views 5 Jul 2013 New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition

This video demonstrates clinical examination techniques as described in Macleod’s Clinical Examination. The textbook with access to the full set of videos is available at www.elsevierhealth.co.uk/macleod”

One of the comments indicates that the voiceover is AI generated. If this is actually what was done, I wonder why anyone would choose to do it. It results in a very unrealistic presentation.

This is Omar and Amy as we saw in the previous blog article, we are now used to that pairing. The actual examination is quieter than the narration track, even though the voices are a little stilted.

Macleod’s examination of the motor system of the lower limbs

This is just less than five and a quarter minutes long. Ben and Omar who we have also seen before. The notes state “674,799 views 5 Jul 2013 New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition

These videos are consistent with one another and there is rarely a difference worthy of additional comment.

Definition: Clonus: involuntary muscle contractions.

Plantar Response:

Macleod’s examining for meningeal irritation

“214,625 views 5 Jul 2013 New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition

This is just over a minute, so barely there at all. It features Omar and Amy. Again. Amy has a quieter voice than the narrator. However, there is still that uneasy sense that the voices are not the actual voices of the participants.

Macleod’s examination of the hip

The notes will come as no surprise if you have read the previous blog articles: “63,188 views 5 Jul 2013 New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition

It is a little over six and a half minutes long. Omar and Ben are the participants. Here, if anything, Ben is a little louder than the narrator. However, I do not think he is excessively loud for our purposes.

Definition:

Trochanter – a picture is probably best for this:

Although there is plenty of moving of equipment, there are none of the associated noises which we commonly hear.

Macleod’s examination of the cardiovascular system

Amy and Omar feature, and this time the video is a more substantial length. This is almost thirteen minutes long. I think we have an idea what the notes are likely to say by this stage, such that I will avoid further reference to them unless something moderately interesting comes up.

Again, Amy’s voice (artificial or not) is the best one here. Omar’s is completely flat and the narrator’s is a bit on the loud side.

Definition:

Endocarditis inflammation of the inner layer of the heart.

Ischemia a restriction in blood supply

Macleod’s examination of the motor system of the upper limbs

A little over six minutes long, Ben and Omar are participating. It is consistent with the previous video containing these two participants.

Definition:

Fasciculation a muscle twitch.

And that is probably about as much of that as you can tolerate in one blog post. I will revisit this at a future date. The Farsight Channel continuing to provide a rich source of suitable videos.

The Farsight 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.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

As at today’s date the Procrastination Pen playlist has one hundred and sixty two videos and, of late, I have not felt the need to migrate any of them to the archive list due to strange noises, background buzzes or sudden alarming thuds of equipment.

I probably need to be a great deal more critical of this list. However, I always welcome feedback so if you find the playlist to contain items that it should not contain, by all means, tell me. I might even agree and make the changes.

Welcome to the Procrastination Pen. For several months now the site where reviews of “inadvertent ASMR” videos happens. I have been focused mainly on YouTube (because that’s where the playlist is). The idea is to create a playlist of videos that you can listen to when you desperately need to sleep and when no sleep is coming.

If you’re a person who gets ASMR feelings from videos, then welcome. If you don’t get such feelings, welcome too. The idea is that the videos should be relaxing enough that anyone can use them to relax to.

The mission so far has been to find videos that were not designed for the relaxing content but cause relaxation despite their original intent. This has meant that the majority of videos covered so far have been to do with medical examinations. People undergoing medical training seem to be as gentle, careful and thoughtful as they are reputed to be. This greatly helps when you’re looking for an ASMR video.

However, there are other avenues out there and I will always take suggestions, anything that appears sensible I may even try and see how it fits.

I’ve been reviewing ASMR YouTube videos for a while now and given I have predominantly been on one subject (inadvertent ASMR deriving from videos designed for medical tuition) one hazard is that I start to re-review videos that I have reviewed previously.

This has happened once or twice. In one case, I prepared two articles on the same video and they got all the way through editing before I realised my mistake.

Today’s video has the worrying feel of familiarity about it. If anyone spots that I’ve prepared something on this one before please let me know.

Macleod’s examination of the cervical spine

This is very brief at just over 2 minutes.

The introduction screen states “Video taken from Macleod’s Clinical Examination 13^th Edition By Graham Douglas, Fiona Nicol & Colin Robertson.”

Given this is a professional video it also has some notes associated with it:

“New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition

Comments are permitted but there are few of them.

The two participants communicate in a very stilted manner and I think this might be a video in which the audio is machine generated, possibly the video as well. Alternatively, the audio of the participants was dubbed on afterwards without much reference to the video itself. The commentary is the main feature of the video and this starts a little loud.

The Channel is Farsight Channel and we have encountered this one before.

There are fifty-nine videos and five playlists. The playlist: “New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition” contains twenty-four videos. The safest way to narrow these down to the number we can cover in one blog article is to select them based upon the participants in the video. In this case, the “patient” occurs in a number of the videos and so does the medical professional.

Therefore, I will select videos where both the medical professional and “patient” appear.

The patient is “Omar” but in a number of videos he is examined by another medical professional (perhaps we’ll come back to those in a future blog post). The medical professional in the above video is “Ben”. There are relatively few videos in which both Ben and Omar appear.

Macleod’s examination of the shoulder

Another brief video, just less than five minutes. The audio of the participants is again a bit strange. The narration is quieter and more suitable to the purpose we are looking for, i.e., getting some rest.

Macleod’s examination of the hip

The theme with this set is that they are all brief. They all have a stilted strange feel to the interaction style between the participants.

This one is a little over six minutes.

The narrator sounds a lot more like a normal human being. It’s hard to describe the problem. The intonation and the timing seems all wrong as if created artificially rather than recorded from an actual interaction.

Definition:

Lumbar lordosis inward curve of the lower back.

Macleod’s examination of the thoracic and lumbar spine

This one is a little under five and a half minutes.

Definition:

Lipoma a fatty lump growing under the skin.

Dimples of Venus, a picture seems best for this:

Macleod’s examination of the motor system of the upper limbs

The one advantage of videos prepared professionally is that they are quite consistent. In this case there is no background noise, no people wandering across the camera and no noises coming from the camera operator.

This video is again brief at just a little over six minutes. This seems to be a feature with this particular set. The advantage is that when watching on YouTube and using the shuffle option you will not get a continuous repetition of videos with similar content (which otherwise might get a little trying). The disadvantage comes if you do not choose this option in which case these occur one after the other in the Procrastination Pen Playlist. It may quietly drive you mad.

I recommend you choose the shuffle option.

Macleod’s examination of the motor system of the lower limbs

Definition:

Clonus – condition causing involuntary muscle contractions.

Here we end the videos featuring “Ben” and “Omar”

The channel seems fairly uniform in terms of quality so I’ll be back in the future with another set of videos from this channel.

The Farsight 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 that playlist most nights and some of the videos that were members have now been removed. If any of your favourites are missing from that main playlist you can find them here in the archive list:

Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than occasional intrusive noises.

The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function), usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night, is here:

I hope that you find the playlists restful and that you get a good night’s sleep.

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

If you’ve been following the blog for a while by now, you know the drill. I browse around YouTube and find a video which might cause ASMR symptoms in those lucky enough to feel such symptoms. For others, I hope it proves relaxing enough that, if you were listening to it and trying to sleep, it might prove to be helpful.

If you’re new to the blog, welcome, as an explanation the outcome of each one of these articles is a review of the video (and possibly some associated videos) and ultimately a playlist that contains the best ones.

Each week I also review and weed the playlist, so that some of the videos that have not stood the test of time are removed from that playlist. But in case you miss them, I have an archive list of such videos to enable you to find them again.

This week the video commences with an image of a textbook so I think it safe to assume it is all about education. It appears the basis of study is going to be a textbook called Macleod’s which is probably some kind of medical bible to those in the know about such things.

Macleod’s Examination of the Hand

This is just over six minutes long so it isn’t going to be hanging about. We have been used to videos which are substantially longer.

There is a title telling us all about it: “Video taken from Macleod’s Clinical Examination 13^th edition By Graham Douglas, Fiona Nicol & Colin Robertson”

One key to the professional nature of the presentation is a nice comprehensive set of notes: “New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition

This video demonstrates clinical examination techniques, as described in Macleod’s Clinical Examination. The textbook with access to the full set of videos is available at http://www.elsevierhealth.co.uk/macleod More info about the director www.iainhennessey.com”

It is possible that Elsevier Health may be worthy of a future review.

The video itself is a bit strange. I get the sense that the voices don’t actually belong to the participants, either that or it is just subtly out of sync. The first time I saw the beginning, I was convinced that they were artificially generated images rather than real people. But given we will not be watching, but lying there worrying about that meeting first thing and distracting ourselves with the soundtrack, that will almost certainly go unnoticed.

It is a video designed for education and therefore is heavily narrated. Fortunately, the narrator has quite a good voice. Not as good as Shane Brun, but pretty good nonetheless.

Part way through the sound abruptly cuts off as if the narrator intended to continue and there is instead a few seconds silence. It has the feel of a bad edit.

There are way too many terms in here for me to attempt definition of them all – in any case this isn’t a medical blog.

However:

Crepitus noises occurring on movement of a joint.

Sinovitus – swelling of the joint.

The custom with this blog (once the one video has been viewed) is to take a look at the channel which it is from, and determine if there is other ASMR-y (official term) material available there.

The channel is called Farsight Channel.

It contains fifty-nine videos and five playlists as at today’s date.

With this quantity of videos, it has now become customary to choose one playlist and to stick with it. However, the playlists which might be of interest are twenty-four videos long. That seems a bit much and will most probably test your patience.

Therefore, the established route is to find videos featuring the same medical professional or the same “patient”.

This, still leaves us with a long list. In this case I think we can choose between two playlists:Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition

and

New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition

and then focus on the patient (who only appears in a subset of the videos).

Taking the first playlist, we find the patient occurs in the following:

Macleod’s Gastrointestinal Examination

Here we establish that the medical professional is “Ben”. Although given the strange “dubbed” nature of the soundtrack, he could be anyone at all and for our purposes I do not suppose that it matters.

The notes state “Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition

Sample of DVD content available with Macleod’s Clinical Examination 12th edition. A further 24 DVD quality clinical examinations available with the textbook and on student consult. The 13th edition has just been released and its content found at New! Macleod’s Cl…

More info about the director www.iainhennessey.com”

There is also a comment on the channel: “The character of the bowel sounds is unlikely to be changed by palpation. Bruits will also not change. Hutchisons, Tally, Ford and Macleod’s textbooks examine in this order and it is standard exam convention (in the UK). However, tailor your examination to local practices for exam purposes”

It is quite remarkable for a professional video series that comments are permitted at all (we have seen how brutal comments can be).

From the comments we can see that other ASMR fans have found this one before.

Definitions again

Palmar erythema: Redness of the palm of the hand.

Spider Naevi – enlarged blood vessels in the skin with the appearance of a spider.

Xiphisternum lowest part of the breastbone.

Ascites – accumulation of fluid in the abdomen.

Gastroparesis – slower than usual passing of food through the stomach.

Hypoalbuminemia – low levels of albumin in the blood.

Macleod’s Knee Examination

The notes state “Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition

Sample of DVD content available with Macleod’s Clinical Examination 12th Edition. Further videos are available with purchase of the textbook or online at student consult.

More information about the director www.iainhennessey.com”

Now we discover that the patient is called “Abby” (I imagine that there are many spellings of that name and I have probably selected the wrong one). As pointed out previously given the nature of the video this is in all probability not the “patient’s” real name in any case.

Definitions:

Genu valgum – knee misalignment.

Tibial Tuberosity – an image is best for this one:

Macleod’s examination of the Hands (joints)

The notes are: “Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition

Sample of DVD content available with Macleod’s Clinical Examination 12th Edition. Further videos are available with purchase of the textbook or online at student consult.

More information about the director www.iainhennessey.com”

Definition:

Vasculitis – inflammation of the blood vessels.

Rheumatoid nodule – swelling normally near a joint.

Bouchard’s nodes – hard bony growths associated with arthritis.

It’s probably wise to let the medical terminology wash right over you or it may be easy to convince yourself that you have all kinds of nasty conditions. The odd comment with some of these videos seems to indicate the occasional viewer is heading down just such a rabbit hole.

Macleod’s examination of cranial nerves 2,3,4 and 6

The dubbed soundtrack is definitely off with the way the people are behaving in the video, it’s as if they are artificial people. But that surrealness only comes across if you are actually watching it. Here we have a medical professional “Amy”, who like “Ben” is probably not Amy because the desire from such videos presumably is anonymity. Perhaps the voice has been electronically masked to the same end, at points it is so clipped that the participants seem abrupt or as one commentator states – robotic.

The notes with the video state “Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition

Macleod’s Clinical Examination video. Demonstrating clinical examination technique as described in Macleod’s clinical examination. Textbook and accompanying video available in full quality at http://www.amazon.com/Macleods-Clinic…”

The comments indicate that the narration is “boring”, however, in terms of relaxing for sleep, I think the narration track is actually pretty good. Obviously every video should be the quality of Dr James Gill in an ideal world, but I’d say this set has been consistent so far and I see no reason to exclude any of them from The Procrastination Pen playlist.

Macleod’s Thyroid examination

The final video for this post and a very brief one at two and a quarter minutes. The channel has been a consistent resource so we will be back, I think.

The notes state “Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition

Thyroid examination from Macleod’s clinical examination

More information about the director www.iainhennessey.com”

I am almost convinced now that the people in these videos are artificially generated, the only way you’ll spot this when drifting off to sleep is the odd intonation of the voice and the very clipped interactive manner which to a real person would probably be deemed to be rude.

In terms of sleep though I think it is consistent – almost monotonal – and relaxing. After all, you will not be actually watching, unless sleep really isn’t happening for you and you need something to distract you from the fact that you’re lying awake and you’re in the office in only three hours’ time…

The Procrastination Pen playlist for Farsight is here:

The overall playlist for all videos featured on the blog so far is here:

I have been working through that playlist repeatedly and some of the videos that were members have now fallen from favour. If any of your favourites are in there you can find them here in the archive list:

Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than occasional equipment noises which can get irritating on repeated listening.

The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function), usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night, is here:

I hope that you find the playlists restful and that you get a good night’s sleep.

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae