Exercise – The Procrastination Pen

Sleeping With ASMR

I have not been having a lot of luck with the inadvertent ASMR material of late and I feel a bit of weeding of the playlist coming on in the near future. I am considering stopping the focus on medical themed videos. Although there appear to be thousands of videos to choose from out there, the number incorporating someone with a quiet calm voice and lacking much extraneous noise seem to be rather small. We’ll see how things go.

So, the good news is that, apparently, if you do not get the seven to nine hours sleep a night but you are still getting good quality sleep, then that might be good enough. A good sign being that the sleep is refreshing for you.

Sadly, though, the prevalence of insomnia increases as people get older. Particularly if, as you get older, you develop health conditions that impact sleep.

The things that I habitually do or have done to improve sleep, for instance, napping in the day, sleeping longer at weekends (about the only time I do feel refreshed) tend to make things worse. I have not tried drinking alcohol deliberately in order to get to sleep but that isn’t any help either (if you were about to try it). Alcohol makes it seem that it is easier to get to sleep but then goes on to ruin the quality of any sleep that you actually get.

The priority is to develop a sleep habit. Breaking the habit by additional naps or sleeping longer overall disimproves the situation.

There are more helpful techniques, for example, making use of a progressive muscle relaxation exercise to try to relax. It turns out that there are a large number of these on YouTube and just at random here is an example:

There’s even a non-YouTube option:

(it does require that you create an account to listen and it has no download option).

There is also a downloadable (MP3) which does not seem to require an account to access it:

Muscle Relaxation

Another suggested helpful approach which I struggle with is to make sleep a habit. Habits are the things that we thrive on. If you want to keep doing something, make it into a routine thing that you can repeat without thinking.

There are also habits that can detract from sleeping such as reading in bed, watching TV, keeping the phone near the bed (where it proves distracting).

Of course, if you cannot get comfortable then sleeping is made more difficult. The most comfortable sleep I had was once when abroad. I researched the mattress and found it was only available in the United States. Therefore, you have my sympathies if you also find it difficult finding something comfortable to sleep on.

However, reserving the bed for sleep only is important if you are already having trouble sleeping. It might be that if your partner regularly disturbs you during your sleep that you may have to sleep separately for example which some couples are currently exploring.

It’s also important that any preparation for sleep occurs elsewhere than the bedroom. This associates the bedroom solely with sleep.

You can also prepare in advance. For instance, going upstairs sometime before bedtime and drawing curtains and/or dimming the lights.

The entire sleep habit will probably start sometime before bed say two hours before – any reading will occur outside the bedroom; eating will have stopped and some light stretching (but no heavy exercise). Lowering the temperature down to close to eighteen degrees and ensuring your feet stay warm.

The association of the bed with sleep is an important feature of getting to sleep quickly. There are some habits that can break this association such as pursuing other activities in bed, such as reading

Using alcohol may help a person fall asleep but impacts the ability to get sufficient deep sleep. The clue is the feeling of tiredness when you wake up. In addition, commonly after alcohol, you will need to wake up perhaps more than once to go to the bathroom which further disrupts sleep.

The problem is that if you do not currently associate the bed with sleep you are likely to spend time in bed tossing and turning rather than actually sleeping and this further disrupts the association of the bed with sleep. Therefore, if you do not fall asleep within (say) fifteen minutes it is actually better to get up from bed and only return when you feel tired enough to actually drop off to sleep.

Going to bed early in this context may actually be counterproductive. If you are not tired enough to sleep you are more likely to lie awake rather than to sleep. It is not possible to force yourself to sleep in this way so the activity is more likely to disrupt the association of the bed with sleeping.

Exercise is great for sleep and a regular exercise programme pursued during the day will aid in the eventual sleep process. However, exercising too close to sleep time has the opposite effect as it will tend to energise – boosting both energy levels and body temperature, both things that you do not need when you want to get to sleep.

Eating in the evening will tend to deleteriously affect the ability to drop off. Drinking at night will have the tendency to mean that you’ll need to get up to go to the toilet. This will obviously impact the quality of your sleep.

Anyone who has a poor association of the bed with sleeping is going to make that worse by doing anything else in the bed but sleeping. Reading, texting, watching TV all of these can mean that it takes longer than fifteen minutes to fall asleep when in bed.

Frustration in the sleeping process is a good sign that you have a poor association between the bed and sleeping. You will then need to go through a process of reassociating the bed with sleep. You should start the sleep process about fifteen minutes after getting into bed. If you are just lying there and not sleeping it is better to get up and to only return to bed when you are feeling drowsy. Although initially it seems that you are missing out on sleep because you are spending time out of the bedroom, it will bear dividends in that ultimately when you go to bed you will fall asleep within fifteen minutes.

It is important that on moving room you do not engage in stimulating activities (watching TV, eating, using the phone, answering email and so on). The second space you have moved to also needs to be unstimulating. Reading is good for this, preferably under a light that uses a red spectrum bulb.

You can use white noise to mask background noise to help you to sleep.

It turns out that there is (surprise, surprise) white noise on YouTube as well:

(It seems rather loud to me).

There are some freely playable ones here:

https://white-noises.com/#sounds

and some downloadable versions here:

https://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_whitenoise.php

The Calm track this week is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/4McuYeyMYG

Daily Jay

Yes, and…

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

The rules we choose to live by, choosing acceptance and the flow of life. Always say yes. Accept what is offered and work with it. Do not resist. Yes and means you take what is offered and you take action; it is not merely acceptance. We get to decide our next step.

As I may have mentioned Calm is not free. So only check this out if you already have a subscription (or you really want one).

The professional ASMR video this week is from a channel I reviewed recently, BehindTheMoons (I noted) produces videos in both English and in French. Last time I reviewed this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEK1fSO-gUI i.e. the English language version.

However, a link in the notes from the same video tells me that there is a French version of the same thing. i.e. this video:

[subtitled] ASMR in French – Futuristic Hearing Test [The Personal Enhancing Hearing Device ◉]

I want a chance to run a fully independent review of the French version and see if I reach a different conclusion. Same person, same premiss, simply a different language. Does that affect my impression of it.

As I mentioned before BehindTheMoons has 262k subscribers, two hundred and eighty four videos, but only four playlists some of which (obviously) are in French.I covered the channel notes last time (there are a lot of them) so I will not go over them again.

Today’s video also has notes, which are lengthy. Most professional ASMR artists go in for extensive notes:

“1,012,209 views Premiered on 5 Mar 2023 #ASMRfr #ASMR #ASMRFrance

Please use your headphones to get the best experience from this video 🎧

Disclaimer: This is an ASMR video solely made to help you relax and unwind. I am not a medical professional, please get in touch with one if you need to have your hearing checked. Also, the Personal Enhancing Hearing Device ◉ doesn’t exist yet, unfortunately 😦 ____Hi everyone,

Today is the day. Let me onboard you and tell you everything about the Personal Enhancing Hearing Device ◉, as you are about to get yours installed and improve your experience of the world around you.

This device enhances your auditory field, as well as creates bridges between your senses. For example, a visual or olfactory stimulus will create an auditory response. Welcome into the Future.

The ASMR triggers you will get mostly ear to ear soft-spoken voice and close-up whispers, follow the light exercise, all senses exercises, instructions to follow, personal attention, hand movements, additional dreamy visuals and sounds.

In this video I mix your usual cranial nerve exam and well as hearing test with science fiction, I hope you will like it.

The English version is available here: • ASMR – Futuristic Hearing Test [The Person…

Thank you for watching the video and for reading the description. Take care,”

As before I have truncated these. None of us have the time for extensive reading of notes I am certain.

You will have noticed that for some reason the notes are not in French. I have no idea why that is.

The video is a little shorter. The English version was close to thirty minutes and this is a little over twenty-five and a half minutes. There are comments and some of these are not in French. They appear general praising which is all to the good.

There is brief music at the start as there was with the English language version, I therefore presume this is some kind of branding. I am not a fan of music in ASMR videos, it distracts from the ASMR-ish-ness of them. However, at least this music is brief and therefore not overly distracting.

If anything, I would say that the voice of the presenting person is even better in their native language (no surprises, I suppose). It isn’t whispered but it is low and calm and quiet.

I had not realised that French has some of the noises that ASMR artists recreate artificially (presumably because they are triggers for a group of ASMR fans). I can hear an occasional mouth clicking sound, for example.

I have the sense that I prefer this in French. I can sense that perhaps foreign language presentations may start to form a larger part of those videos I review from this point onwards. It has been comparatively rare so far. Although, to be honest, I rarely find them.

This time I tried listening with the headphones on (as recommended in the video notes). I would say that it does make a positive difference, not least when directional affects are implemented. It also helps to filter out some of the household noises. Having a new hearing aid has its downsides.

The muted part of the video and the hearing device calibration is clever but strange. It is not overly distracting. However, I am going to try listening to it when trying to get to sleep and see if that situation remains.

Even with the presentation enunciated in French, the on-screen prompts are still in English which feels a little odd as well. However, if you’re as tired as I am when listening to these videos, I doubt you’ll be doing much in the way of watching, mostly it is just a sleep aid.

As for the previous videos there are clicks, clonks, keyboard sounds, nail clicking sounds, the odd musical tone. Some of these seem to go on for a bit (or I’m more tired than when I reviewed the last one).

I still think that this has the slight edge on the English Language version. Why not take a listen and see what you think.

I realised recently that I have been reviewing ASMR tracks since 2023. You’d think I’d find something grown up to do with my life.

In all that time I focused on inadvertent ASMR videos. Sometimes there have been real gems and sometimes not so much. I have had a fallow period of late I recognise. Let’s see what todays brings.

Today’s video is this one:

Golfer’s & Tennis Elbow Assessment – OSCE Guide | Clip | UKMLA | CPSA | PLAB 2

Here I feel on more solid ground, but mostly it is because it is from a channel where we have reviewed it so often, I must be getting to the stage of nearly having reviewed every video it has.

This is Geeky Medics https://www.youtube.com/@geekymedics, with 1.46m subscribers, three hundred and fifty-four videos, twenty playlists. Well, I’m wrong in that case there is no way I have had the time to individually document three hundred and fifty-four videos. OK, well plenty of scope for the future we can say then.

The problem with all the geeky medics videos I have reviewed thus far is the inclusion of some pretty peppy music which, frankly, is the last thing that you need around snooze time.

This one is scarcely over one and a quarter minutes and you guessed it despite the short length still finds time to cram in some music at the start of it.

There are notes: “82,306 views 26 Sept 2022 Musculoskeletal Examination OSCE Guides | CPSA | UKMLA | PLAB | MRCS

This video demonstrates how to screen for Golfer’s elbow (medial epicondylitis) and Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) in an OSCE station.

You can read our guide to elbow examination here: https://geekymedics.com/elbow-examina…”

Which I am deliberately keeping brief. There are comments, but precious few of these and none from ASMR fans that I can see. Oh dear.

The video though is excellent with the medical professional having an excellent voice and the patient equally so. It is a shame that it is not a longer video to be honest. Of course it has to conclude with yet more music…

On that basis, just one, video this time.

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

See you again next week.

The Geeky Medics 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 Deep.ai

Fifty Special Things – Brampton Wood

When: 30-10-2016

Where: Brampton Wood http://www.visiteastofengland.com/Huntingdon-Brampton-Wood/details/?dms=3&venue=0211398

Price: Free

Review: Not at its best in October; go when it’s warmer

Tip: follow the satnav in this case it makes a better job of finding it.

Brampton wood and the start of many wood visits.

Communing with nature is restorative: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/we-know-nature-makes-us-happier-now-science-says-it-makes-us-kinder-too-20160312.

So to start with this appeared to be a great choice.

The Wildlife Trusts’ guidebook states that they have managed the wood since 1992. They bought it from the Ministry of Defence.

Guidebook: Bedfordshire Cambridgeshire Northamptonshire guide: “Where to See Wildlife in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire”.

I was attending the Bolnhurst Steam Fair http://www.bolnhurstrally.org.uk/ when someone came up and sold me membership. This is not an organisation I would have thought of but I am supportive of any group that puts trees before house building.

They have a good little guide to local woods and also a website worthy of a visit: http://www.wildlifebcn.org/.

Brampton Wood has been a site of Special Scientific Interest since 1954.

But it turns out that spotting wildlife is somewhat more difficult than on some of our trips abroad.

The wood is home to dormice (which were re-introduced in 1992) but so far all we seem to have seen in our woodland visits are species of canine on and off leads.

It is the second largest woodland in Cambridgeshire at 132 hectares (327 acres). The largest is Bedford Purlieus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_Purlieus_NNR. (Which might be the subject of a future visit/blog item).

The Wildlife Trusts organisation have a good leaflet on Brampton Wood: http://data.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/Brampton%20Wood%20Leaflet%202015.pdf.

But the wood majored less on the picturesque and more on the damp and cold the day that I went.

The guidebook states there are more than two miles of wide mown pathways and some minor pathways and follows: “pathways maybe muddy” – read will be very muddy. Take wellies (and a small tractor to drag you out).

Brampton wood appears easy to find. But where it appeared to be on the map was not where the satnav wished us to go. We went with our own judgement, and got lost. (OS Ref is TL 184 698).

If you want to find it Google indicates that it is here:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Brampton+Wood+Nature+Reserve/@52.3166644,-0.2744105,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4877c3cb62522f8f:0x491c3106c976241c!8m2!3d52.3166644!4d-0.2722218.

Directions are: From A1, take A14 exit towards Huntingdon. Take the first exit off A14 to Brampton (B1514). Go straight at the first roundabout then right at the second roundabout. Turn right at the T-junction on to Grafham Road. Follow Grafham Road through the village and over the A1. The reserve is on the north side of the road – 1/2 mile out of Brampton. A brown sign indicates the entrance to the wood. Park in the small car park. (When they say small they are not kidding).

Following the satnav lead to a tiny left-hander off the A1. This looked to need the sort of deceleration which the Beagle Lander attempted on Mars.

As a result we took the circuitous route. This required navigation of a narrow road with enough oncoming traffic to provide diversion. After many wood-related trips we found this was typical.

Being a virgin of wood visits I anticipated a car park devoid of vehicles, our journey punctuated by some kindly gamekeeper (with a discussion of pheasant breeding practices or some such).

But turning into the most bijou of car parks I found it already well inhabited with vehicles which could have labelled modern, shiny, and family.

We squeezed in at the end of a row of these.

Vehicles distinguished by large rear load areas. Every one of those vehicles contained inhabitants which you could call “Rover”.(Second piece of education of the day).

All varieties of fur – caked in material which was going to need more than a small towel to remonstrate with.

Each one of the human car inhabitants turned out to have a species of cheeriness, this associated with bobble-hat, fleece, and large rangy hound.

We had snaffled the last space (or so we thought). Yet another shiny Tonka-toy-thing burbled in behind. The driver did not resort to shouting or fist-waving so I assume found somewhere to slot it.

The ground was that species of compliant which one will be familiar with if embarking-out barefoot on a wet evening and murdering a large slug in darkness with one’s toes as the offensive weapon.

Phil’s recommendation: go when it’s warmer. Although given how popular woods turn out to be with dog walkers you are always going to have a lot of company.

It is a top site for bluebells in the spring so that may well be worth a try. I wouldn’t bother with October. Unless you have a 4×4 and something large with waggy tail which doesn’t smell great when it’s wet.

Fortunately the ground was well furnished with leaves. Rainfall sufficiently far in the past that waders were not a necessity.

The Wildlife Trusts’ booklet informs me that the wood is at least 900 years old. And so had a mention in the Domesday Book.

I’m sure in the summer it is a goodly place. But the day we went it had the kind of sombre air usually reserved for death and religious buildings. (Or some combination of those).

The link above http://www.wildlifebcn.org turns out to be the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire Wildlife trust – check out their website for further details.

We decided to do a circuit (starting at the noticeboards).

The link above http://www.hffs.org.uk is for the Huntingdonshire Fauna and Flora Society – check out their website for further details

And so embarked on a journey around what one imagined to be the circumference – just inside the tree line.

Diverting at intervals to have privacy from the next bobble-hatted group.

In places there were stands of conifers – planted when the Government managed the wood.

These are being removed for the wood to re-establish.

The circuit seemed too brief to me and convinced me that we must have taken the wrong route.

I’d only said good morning to 1/2 dozen people or so and I estimated the population at that time to be several times that. So where had they all gone?

After reviewing the map of the wood we realised that we had only circuited part of it. So there was a lot left to see on future visits.

A little of a good thing convinced me that more of this experience would prove more fulfilling. So decided that this wildlife idea was for me.

Gazing between the trees gave me brief memories of Borneo. It was with sadness I realised that we would see no macaque this trip. (Nor catch our clothes on any rattan).

Back to the car. The surrounding shiny and four wheel drive had swapped about a bit but not reduced in number. So lesson of wood exploration wood=popular=pooches began to form in my mind.

Stately homes seem to be the places where frazzled adults take their small person. Woods however are where red cheeked outdoors people range about with carnivores.

Well there’s a learning point.

Brampton as we found out later was remarkable in its tidiness (i.e. no dog faeces).

Despite the car park it also proved to be unrepresentative in its lack of population. Subsequent woods were to prove much more popular.

Things You Really Will be Doing Now You’re 50 – Part Two

Following on from part one of the things you are going to find when you’re 50.

https://magic-phil.co.uk/2016/12/11/things-you-really-will-be-doing-now-youre-50/

Ten is as many items in a list as I think a person can stand in one sitting; here is the next ten things you’re going to encounter at 50:

Friends insist that exercise is good for you. Flicking through adverts indicates that someone your age should take medical advice before taking up any exercise programme. You can’t imagine trying anything that dangerous.
Neighbourhood watch schemes now seem a fantastic idea, but you’re concerned you would fail the age requirements.
When you wake up you will need a few moments to check out which bits of you no longer have blood in them and which hurt like hell. However you will not remember that you need this time. Mornings feature you collapsing to the floor and/or screaming out.
Elasticated waist trousers have become attractive. You find yourself wearing them more often than not. You can’t believe that they are not a desirable fashion item.
Whilst searching for a radio programme that you can actually listen to, you happen across Radio 4. You can’t imagine why you didn’t find it compelling listening before.
Adverts for pension investments have become fascinating. You find yourself reading pensions statements with avid interest.
Performance cars now seem needlessly difficult to live with. You start reviewing articles on Volvo and Honda; they seem like wonderful cars.
Whenever you get together with people you look around and find you are the oldest person there.
People seem to be dashing around at 5 times your pace. You wonder where they get the drugs from and would they have the same effect on you.
Someone in authority gives you a ticking off. You realise they look younger than that person you babysat 3 decades ago. Somehow this makes it all the more humiliating.

If you missed part one you will find it here:
https://magic-phil.co.uk/2016/12/11/things-you-really-will-be-doing-now-youre-50

Watch out for part three here:
https://magic-phil.co.uk/2016/12/11/things-you-really-will-be-doing-now-youre-50-part-three