Tag: Foot

Sleeping With ASMR

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

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

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

In which case, you have my sympathies.

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

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

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

Daily Jay

Chase the Future You

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

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

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

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

Today’s selected professional ASMR video is this one:

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

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

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

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

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

Disclaimer:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The video is this one:

Approach to Nevi (Moles) – Stanford Medicine 25

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

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

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

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

The related webpage is this one.

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

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

The video ends with yet more music.

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

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

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

Diagnosing Acne vs. Rosacea (Stanford Medicine 25)

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

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

The Stanford Medicine 25 program for bedside medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine aims to promote the culture of bedside medicine to make current and future clinicians and other healthcare provides better at the art of physical diagnosis and more confident at the bedside of their patients.”

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

Approach to the Dermatology Exam (Stanford Medicine 25)

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

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

The Stanford Medicine 25 program for bedside medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine aims to promote the culture of bedside medicine to make current and future clinicians and other healthcare provides better at the art of physical diagnosis and more confident at the bedside of their patients.”

This one is just less than eight minutes in length.

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

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

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

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

Approach to Multiple Rashes (Stanford Medicine 25)

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

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

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

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

The Stanford Medicine playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

A bit of shock this week. Fresh from a recent Procrastination Pen article discussing Melatonin as a sleep aid, an article describing the concerns about it and why it is not available off-prescription in the UK.

Daytime drowsiness is certainly something I have found, but I reasoned that compared to a night with minimal sleep it was not that terrible a side effect.

I leave it up to you to do your own personal risk-assessment, no doubt taking into account how badly your insomnia is affecting you.

Today’s Calm track is again, taken from the Calm Dailies rather than from tracks dedicated to sleep. That will probably continue for a while. Quite a lot of the material that organisations seem to think assist with sleep do not seem to work for me at all. That might be why I often find myself on the sofa watching dirge TV in the early hours rather than listening to “restful” music tracks.

The Calm track is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/Wi1C26rnLi

Daily Calm

Bird by Bird

NARRATOR

Tamara Levitt

AUTHOR

Tamara Levitt

It is an excellent guide to taking each thing in its time. It comes from one of my favourite voices on Calm, Tamara Levitt. It seems certainly worth the few minutes it takes on the assumption that you have a Calm subscription, that is.

On the day I am looking at it, Calm seems to be priced at £39.99 a year (in the UK anyway). I can’t argue it is good value; indeed, I would not try to sell it to you. If it fits with the kind of material you would normally listen to, I leave it up to you to assess whether you want to spend that.

Established readers will know that for a little while (in the history of blog articles on the Procrastination Pen) I break off now to review a professional ASMR artist and to subject them to laser-focused critique. After all, they are setting themselves up as the pinnacle that ASMR can achieve.

Of late it has been a little disappointing, as I am finding the genuine ASMR artist’s videos have the shortcomings of the inadvertent ASMR videos. In addition, there will be a great deal of self-promotion and advertising thrown in.

I’m sure that I just haven’t found the real quality material yet and, any day now, an artist of truly awesome ability will dumbfound me.

Well, I live in hope.

Today’s video is this one:

ASMR POV You Visit the Sleep Clinic – Medical Exam for Insomnia

It is a little over thirty four minutes and so quite substantial, but we have noted of late that these professional ASMR artists do tend to produce videos of a healthy length.

Of course it has notes: “40,406 views 15 Aug 2025 #ASMR

🔔 *Don’t forget to subscribe* for more ASMR roleplays and relaxation content! Hit the notification bell to stay updated on our latest videos.

Thank you for watching, and I hope this ASMR experience brings you peace and comfort! 🥰

#ASMR

⤖ INSTAGRAM   / sophiemichellegoodall 

BUSINESS ENQUIRES: sophiemichelle_asmr@outlook.com

Lots of love x”

Refreshingly short notes there, and for a change it does not try to sell me anything.

It is from the channel SophieMichelle ASMR, this has seven hundred and three videos and 645K subscribers – crikey.

I am no longer commenting on attractiveness of artists, I’ll let you know if I come across someone of average appearance.

Of course, this channel features on the ASMR Index. I realise I am giving that site a mass of free promotion, feel free to ignore this…

It starts with music, but this is so subdued I think that you’ll barely notice it. The voice as you would expect is perfect, although as we have come to anticipate, veers a little too closely to whispery to be really believable (in a realistic medical context in any case).

There are comments and, given this is an ASMR artist, these have the halo of pleasantness so infrequently found elsewhere on YouTube.

I am not into rubber glove noises, I don’t find clucking sounds that appealing, and I find beeping from equipment to be off-putting. Against that, there is no air conditioning noise, noises from an adjacent road, or people talking in nearby rooms. There are, in addition, no noises from the moving of heavy equipment. I wouldn’t expect any of these in a professional ASMR video but sadly, some of them have decided to include one or more of those sounds.

There are crackling/crinkly noises, noises from paper/page turning and from the rustling of clothing. There are tapping noises, which I find wake me up if anything.  I suspect some ASMR devotees are rather fond of one or more of these sounds. I am about the voice. This one is excellent. It does make me wonder how much of a medical-themed video this is. I have wondered this in connection with hair brushing in other videos, which seemed out of place other than to maximise ASMR “triggers”. I have the same suspicion here too.

Moving on to inadvertent ASMR videos (mostly medical videos – at least so far).

This week we are back to a channel that has featured multiple times on this blog here, here, here and also here.  It is Geeky Medics. The videos so far have featured Dr James Lower and Dr Andrew Pugh and so below.

The dedication to this site has been because the videos there seem to be of a reasonably consistent quality (given that they are inadvertent ASMR videos in any case).

Of course, some readers will not have read the previous articles so I should mention that Dr Lewis Potter is the founder of Geeky Medics. The videos will all have notes that are similar (this has been established in those past blog articles). However, in order to cover the notes for new readers I will give a precis version with the first video.

How to Feel a Pulse | Radial & Brachial Pulses – OSCE Guide

A sample of the notes with the video: “120,381 views  16 Jul 2022  Cardiovascular OSCE Guides | UKMLA | CPSA | PLAB | MRCS

This video demonstrates how to assess upper limb pulses in an OSCE station including:

    Introduction 00:00

    Radial pulse 00:06

    Brachial pulse 00:30

You can read our guide to peripheral vascular examination here: https://geekymedics.com/peripheral-va…

Check out our other awesome clinical skills resources including:

• 🔥 Geeky Medics Bundles (discounted products): https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

• ✨ 1000+ OSCE Stations: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

• 🏥 Geeky Medics OSCE Revision Book: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

• 📝 150+ PDF OSCE Checklists: https://geekymedics.com/pdf-osce-chec…

• 🗂️ 3000+ OSCE Flashcards: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

• 📱 Geeky Medics OSCE App: https://geekymedics.com/geeky-medics-..

• 🩺 Medical Finals SBA Question Pack: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

• 💊 PSA Question Pack: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…

Subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to know about our latest content: https://geekymedics.com/newsletter/ ✉️”

This video is a little less than one and a half minutes and yet sadly, it still finds time to squeeze in some startup music. It seems to be one of a sequence of short guides taken from earlier videos. I suppose that in some cases the advantage is that it avoids some of the less desirable noises.

The presentation is quiet, apart from a constant background hiss. The voice is nicely measured and calm.

Sadly, it concludes with more obtrusive music…

Lower Limb Pulses – OSCE Guide

I won’t put the notes in again, they are all similar. This is a little over two minutes and again has the same two participants. All of these videos would be improved by the removal of the music, of course. This is another short guide and I would say it is taken from a much longer video. (In fact, most probably one I have already reviewed – see the above blog articles for details). It is a lovely slow presentation and the voice is as good as in the previous video. The background noise is as before, and I think I’d be safe in saying it is going to be present in every one of these videos.

Neck Lump Examination – OSCE Guide

This one is nearly four minutes long. This time I do not think I have seen the content before. The background noise is, if anything worse than before. There are lots of on-screen sentences which provide guidance for medical students but, of course, these are not of interest to us in the slightest.

I would say that without the music, a string of these shorter videos chained together would be excellent night time – fall-asleep – material. Sadly though what with music and inter-video adverts, I am including them in the Procrastination Pen playlist under strict review. I maybe binning them in the future if they prove to be excessively intrusive.

I think I will make the next one the last one, to prevent this blog post stretching on too long.

It is this one:

Percussion & Auscultation of the Lungs – OSCE Guide | Clip

I am pretty certain this is a subsection of an earlier video. It is four minutes long and it contains breathing noises. These are intrusive and unwelcome and I think this means it can be discounted from the Procrastination Pen playlist.

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

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 DeepAI

Sleeping with ASMR

This week I found a podcast episode which I am going to use to supplant my usual Calm track recommendation. I feel a bit easier about this, given the podcast episode is free to listen to and the Calm site/app requires a paid-for subscription. However, in the end I decided I would include it and details of a Calm track. So, it is a two-for-one deal this week.

This is the podcast:

Inner Safety and Sleep with Dr Nerina Ramlakhan

It’s from Action for Happiness, which, if you have not become familiar with their work by now, certainly is an organisation worthy of some familiarity. This latest is on a relevant subject – sleep. However, there are many engaging subjects worthy of listening via podcast channel or YouTube.

This is just under an hour long and, of course, has notes:

“In this enlightening episode of the Action for Happiness podcast, host Mark Williamson engages in a thought-provoking conversation with Dr. Nerina, a renowned physiologist and sleep therapist. With over 25 years of experience and several acclaimed books to her name, Dr. Nerina shares her expertise on how feeling safe can significantly improve sleep quality. The discussion explores the vital role of the autonomic nervous system, introducing listeners to concepts such as neuroception and interoception, and the science behind creating a safe internal environment.

The episode delves into practical techniques for cultivating inner safety, which not only enhance sleep but also overall well-being. Listeners are guided through exercises like the soothing Havening technique and reminded of the powerful effects of love and gratitude on the nervous system. With a focus on realistic sleep expectations and a compassionate approach to self-care, this episode provides valuable insights for anyone looking to improve their sleep and lead a more balanced, happier life.”

Hopefully you will find that it is of assistance with your sleep-related struggles.

The Calm track this week is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/YEvPMJC9wh

Daily Jay

Crossroads

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

I’m not certain that Jay is the most restful voice on Calm. I would say for me, at the moment, that is Tamara Levitt. However, Jay seems to cover such interesting material that you find yourself distracted from whatever was on your mind. I am still finding that the short Calm-daily material is more restful for me than the longer material dedicated to sleep. It would be great though, if Calm allowed you to setup a playlist of all these shorter tracks, as it would then mean you would have an advert-free playlist. Kind of like YouTube, but without the disadvantages (well other than the cost anyway).

It is less than eight minutes so isn’t going to take you very long. This one is about evaluating options and choosing the best way forwards.

I am still doing a brief foray into professional ASMR review with the following:

[ASMR] Real Person Head to Toe Physical Assessment with ‪@ediyasmr| Soft Spoken Medical Roleplay Exam

It is from channel Semide ASMR. This channel has 341K subscribers, two hundred and ninety-three videos and eighteen playlists. Wow, this is a hard-working ASMR artist. As expected, it is also found on the ASMR Index.

The video has notes, of course, mostly given over to self-promotion (as is usual for a professional ASMR artist), so here is a brief selection from those:

“5,292,031 views 4 Jul 2020

Assessing my cousin @ediyasmr “Head To Toe” with a skin exam, scalp check, eyes, ears, nose and throat exam, respiratory, cardiac, abdominal exams and more! Enjoy and be sure to check out her channel as well! 🙏🏼🙏🏼 Some exams were adapted for Ediya’s comfort. Technique and information is not accurate so please don’t study from it! Also, please excuse my bare feet 😂 (English subtitles are available for this video)”

As you can see it has been around a long time, but for some reason only today popped up in my recommendations. Fortunately, now it’s in this blog, you know about it, and you don’t have to wait as long as I did.

Comments are permitted. Oh, such a lot of comments. They are, thankfully, predominantly positive.

The video is a little less than three quarters of an hour so reasonably extensive. There is no startup music – hurrah, but there is a fair amount of background noise. The participants are not whispering though, so they can be heard reasonably well above what must be air-conditioning noises. It is calm, measured and, as you would expect the vocal tone is more-or-less perfect.

The setting is a little odd – I would say domestic – with the “patient” on a sofa, I think, and not the variety of sofa with which Freud would have been familiar… (more the watching television variety).

The manual blood pressure bulb is a bit loud and there is a sound like passing traffic in the background which is a tad unwelcome. I’m not that keen on rubber glove noises (other ASMR listeners seem to be) and I don’t personally get any joy from hair-related noises (again, others do seem to get ASMR “triggers” from this). There are noises from equipment, from opening packaging, from the participants moving around, and the rustling of clothing. There is humour (one of the participants starts to drift off). There are loud tapping noises when the chest is percussed. Some of those maybe just what some ASMR devotees are looking for in a video.  

I do like the voices however, and I can certainly see that if the focus of this blog was professional ASMR artists then this would be one ASMR channel I would come back to again.

One of the disadvantages of working for this long on blog postings is that you cannot tell where you have effectively written the same subject twice. I have had some near misses already and a few discarded articles where it just got too close. There is no trail for me to verify that that video has been covered. I rely on a file listing already published items. I’ve found that reliance on memory is not that bright a move.

I appeal to your observation skills therefore. If you do spot that I am covering the same video over and over (and there seems no logical reason why I would do so) do point it out. At the very least, I can pull the video from the playlist as I am sure it is annoying to have the same video play more than once as you are trying to sleep. I suspect with the playlist growing every week that it might take me a while to spot duplicates.

My main weeding criteria are based around noises I find irritating whilst trying to sleep, so I may never weed out duplicates. (I tend to play a randomised order using the YouTube shuffle function).

As at today’s date, I also find that YouTube has pulled twenty videos from the main Procrastination Pen playlist so some duplication is obviously self-healing. One channel disappears with all of its videos, another channel starts up, often with many of the same videos. Many of the channels list the same videos sometimes with minor tweaks – a different start image here, a different title there. Just enough to confuse the unwary.

I’ve written duplicate articles (same videos written at different times and often with quite different commentary) at least twice already, but in each case, I spotted it and removed the articles before publication.

Today’s video comes from a channel I cannot remember seeing before and so I think we are on safe ground (elderly memory permitting).

Health Assessment – Midterm check offs

It is very brief at just shy of four- and three-quarter minutes. The health professional is Patrick (a nurse) and Patrick has a lovely quiet voice – almost too quiet, the microphone seems to be struggling with volume a little here. His “patient” is not introduced. Patrick is not slow in his approach sadly; he seems very much on the hurry up. Perhaps these assessments require something in the way of time efficiency.

However, given how great his voice is and the very muted background noise I think this one is a good video for us.

The notes are informative: “10 Jul 2013

Demonstration of the Midterm check off used at Palm Beach Atlantic University School of Nursing.  Covers skin, respiratory, cardiovascular, and abdomen.

http://www.patheyman.com/nursing/heal…”

The URL leads here which has links out to other relevant videos.

Palm beach of course has its own YouTube channel with thirty-four videos which might be worth a view on another occasion.

There are a few equipment noises as the “patient” changes position. There is a very loud conclusion which I’d love to cut off altogether, but I am currently unclear how.

The channel is Patrick Heyman Zhuravel with one hundred and four videos and 8.6K subscribers – so a fair amount to get through.

I suggest that in order to limit the videos covered by this one blog post, we go back to that URL and examine the videos therein. There is the video above and two more.

Health Assessment – Final Check Off – Head to Toe

This starts a bit loud and then settles down. It is a bit less than fourteen minutes and descends into laughter quite quickly. All of this does not help in its use for getting some sleep. There are a couple of false starts (which it would be great to eliminate).

However, once Patrick gets into his stride, it is a lot quieter. The angle suffers a bit if you choose to watch instead of listen, as they appear some way from the camera (unlike the first video above).

There are more equipment noises and a certain amount of presenting (presumably to a class off camera).

Health Assessment – Bed Assessment

This is just less than six and a half minutes and heck, the air conditioning has decided to have a starring part in this one. Patrick is a lot louder here.

The camera position is better than video two above but is fighting for focus. Not that I imagine many of you will be watching.

There are some quite loud equipment noises.

These three videos are covered in this playlist

(This is also linked to from the above website.)

The Patrick Zhuravel 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.

Photo by DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

With articles clamouring about the necessity of getting more sleep to avoid dementia, one can hardly ignore the warnings about insomnia. Get to sleep on time day in day out. Sleep a good eight hours. Do not wake up in the early hours of the morning…

Scant succour to anyone who struggles to get the allotted sleep hours and seems to have an internal clock that wages war against the working day. If you are such a person, welcome. Even if you bounce into bed and fall instantly to sleep, welcome. Perhaps you can provide a contrast to any that are suffering for sleep.

The Procrastination Pen is a resource for those that find ASMR useful as a relaxation aid and potentially a sleep aid as well. For quite a while now it has focused on YouTube as a source of free YouTube videos. Indeed, within YouTube, there are a number of playlists linked to the Procrastination Pen, some of which are designed to assist in this regard.

There is also a weekly article which attempts to find a further video which may prove useful in this respect. This is one such article.

I have also taken out a Calm subscription in the hope that some of the material there might be useful for sleep. (Some of it is helpful, but that doesn’t mean you should all hammer over to the Calm website and lay down your spending loot).

I have also found that a number of audiobooks are helpful if you find yourself lying awake. I personally have enjoyed some of the Miss Marple recordings on CD. This is just because I prefer this approach to a subscription (because I am old). I also am getting tired of the nature of adverts online, in that they have become so intrusive that they now detract from the actual material.

Script blockers are helpful against some of them. A pi-hole (should you be so disposed) can help against others. So far, there is no assistance that I have found with YouTube adverts (I am told that they are incorporated into the stream and so cannot be separated from the videos themselves). However, technology keeps improving so I am certain that someone will crack that problem one of these days…

Meantime, you can subscribe to YouTube if you feel it to be of sufficient value. I’m not sure to what extent it obviates intrusive adverts. One would hope, absolutely.

Alternatively (and I’m sure that it is heavily frowned upon, so I dare not recommend it). I see that certain YouTube downloading softwares will download an entire playlist locally enabling you to bypass the adverts in their entirety. Again, I don’t recommend it. Given it affects a company’s revenue, I can guarantee somebody official in a very expensive suit will be quite upset if I did recommend anything of the sort, so I don’t.

However, if you decide to ignore my advice and download the entire Procrastination Pen playlist, then do feedback what it sounded like and any improvements you would like to hear.

Calm today was very inspirational; it was in fact so energising that I am not clear whether it will be soporific-inducing. I’ll risk it as I rather like Jay Shetty, and I enjoyed the material.

Daily Jay

Chase the Future You

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

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

If you have a Calm subscription, give it a spin and see what you think.

I have been, recently, evaluating a professional ASMR artist in these articles, rather as a counterfoil to the inadvertent ASMR material that I prefer. Today we have:

ASMR Head to Toe Exam [Real Person] Medical Assessment | Cranial Nerve, Feet, Scalp, Abdomen Tingles 

This is a little less than forty minutes. One thing we have found with professional ASMR artists is that one tends to get a substantial video. This can be great, but sadly sometimes just means that it seems to go on, and on, and on…

KatieASMR is the channel and this has 415K subscribers (which is a fine achievement I’m sure you will agree). Of course, KatieASMR features in the ASMR Index. We can almost take that as a given nowadays. That ASMR Index site seems to do sterling work, this little blog could aspire so high…

The video has notes: “91,191 views 24 Apr 2025 #relax #asmr #asmrvideo

In this video I give Joyce a head-to-toe exam!  This real person role play includes soft spoken tingles to help you relax and sleep. Please enjoy and consider being a patron ❤️‍🔥

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/user?u=80985362

TikTok:   / katieasmr00 

For Business Inquiries: ilovekatieasmr@gmail.com”

Brave putting an email address down I would have thought, as is the decision to permit comments against the video. That said, professional ASMR artists seem to have great loyalty in the comments department and so here. A definite absence of negative and downright nasty.

Of course, again, the participants are attractive in fact it is so common it is barely worth mentioning. If I come across a video with an unattractive guy in his fifties doing ASMR a) it will probably be me b) the comments will most likely be of a calibre that would dissolve rust.

As usual we find that there is background noise, in this video it is rather loud too. An interesting choice for a professional ASMR video. There are also noises coming from outside of the room, potentially from a nearby road.

As we’ve come to expect the participants are vying towards the whispery style of presentation. I suspect that this makes for great ASMR but poor believability. Although if my GP whispers at me the next time I visit, I will at least know that he reads the Procrastination Pen.

As the video advances the background noise drops off, and we get the time to admire the cute dog who is remarkably quiet. There are various intestinal noises, and I’m not convinced featuring them was intentional. It does however, make the presentation a bit more realistic.

Also realistic is the inability of the “patient” to pass the smell test. I have wondered how people manage to distinguish certain smells when challenged. This just proves the test is not as easy as some other videos would have us believe.

The combing (of hair) section I am now convinced appeals to ASMR aficionados that get their ASMR sensations from the sound that comes from combing hair. I’ve come across it before and it never seems to belong in the video. I therefore think it must be included through popular demand…

Sadly, the video is interposed with adverts which appear to pop in at five-minute intervals and, as usual, YouTube does not seem to be selecting them for their restful content, quite the opposite in fact.

The personal attention, of course, is exact. The pace is more or less perfect. I got to like the whispered approach in this one as well.

Anyway, it is worthy of a review I think. Give it a try and tell me what you think.

Moving on to the part of the blog that started the review process all those months ago; the locating of, and the review of inadvertent ASMR videos and to date this has mainly consisted of videos on a medical theme.

This week we are back to a channel that has featured multiple times on this blog here and here and indeed here.  It is of course Geeky Medics. The videos so far have featured Dr James Lower and Dr Andrew Pugh.

However, at this point the videos are more recently posted and hence there have been some changes. The first such video is this one:

Peripheral Vascular Examination – OSCE Guide (Latest)

The video notes are all pretty much the same but given some people may not have read those earlier blog posts, I’ll feature the ones associated with this video in precis form, in any case, so that you get an idea:

“444,692 views 14 Jun 2022 Cardiovascular OSCE Guides | UKMLA | CPSA | PLAB | MRCS

This video provides a demonstration of how to perform a peripheral vascular examination in an OSCE station including assessment of key pulses (e.g. radial, brachial, femoral, posterior tibial, dorsalis pedis). Read our guide alongside the video here: https://geekymedics.com/peripheral-va… Check out our other awesome clinical skills resources including: • 🔥 Geeky Medics Bundles (discounted products): https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/… • ✨ 1000+ OSCE Stations: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/… • 🏥 Geeky Medics OSCE Revision Book: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/… • 📝 150+ PDF OSCE Checklists: https://geekymedics.com/pdf-osce-chec… • 🗂️ 3000+ OSCE Flashcards: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/… • 📱 Geeky Medics OSCE App: https://geekymedics.com/geeky-medics-… • 🩺 Medical Finals SBA Question Pack: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/… • 💊 PSA Question Pack: https://app.geekymedics.com/purchase/…”

The startup music on this video is different to that in the videos reviewed in the earlier blog posts. However, it is equally loud and equally unwelcome. The participants seem identical to those in the previous blog posts – I mean in appearance as well as identity. It is as if no time had elapsed between those videos posted some time previously and the more up to date ones featured here. I’ll make a guess that earlier videos have been sampled to create shorter videos focused on a specific subject. Perhaps this is a posting of some left-over older footage.

This video is just over seven minutes in length and so is not huge. However, it is a more substantial video than some we have featured from this channel.

Comments are permitted and we know what that means by now. The commentators are beginning to notice that this pairing has been around for a while.  Cue some comments about age and believability. However, surprisingly comments are predominantly positive.

Either there is a great resource of older material which they can keep plundering or James and Andrew are the most diligent pair I’ve encountered in a long time.

Dr Lewis Potter is the founder of Geeky Medics. He is at Newcastle University and it seems sensible therefore to conclude that the filming was completed there. So, we have a where, and a who, but not necessarily a when. However, I think Poirot can safely go back to bed.

There is background noise – I would say it is more the level of a recording hiss than of air conditioning. In my opinion Andrew has the better voice in this one. It is a good voice too (it must be why I keep returning to this channel then).

The examination is calm and well-paced and it takes mere moments to feel relaxed. Shame about that startup music though and the fact that the music comes again at the end of the video. Perhaps surprisingly, the seven minutes were not interrupted by random adverts whilst I was watching. YouTube made up for it as soon as the video concluded though.

Diabetic Foot Examination – OSCE Guide (Latest)

There seems to have been a surge of posting of videos on Geeky medics in 2022. This is another one from that year. As I mentioned there is no point in reiterating the notes here. James and Andrew feature again and I am pretty sure this is a rehash of some older material. The commentators are convinced of that as well. A number of comments focusing on the apparent Peter Pan nature of the participants.

This video is just over five minutes in length and the format is exactly as before (except for the startup music). By now we are used to periods of absolute silence in the video– it is quite a restful approach. We are now used to the voices and remain on safe ground in terms of level, presentation and pace. In this one the background hiss seems more intermittent. There are periods when it actually seems quite a bit quieter.

Sadly, there is still concluding music – shame it doesn’t avoid music altogether.

Measuring Jugular Venous Pressure (JVP) – OSCE Guide (Clip)

This one is just one and a quarter minutes, long so don’t blink. There are various negative comments – so far so normal YouTube, including this time I notice some dissent about the use of the term “tummy”. Crikey, people are fascinated by details.

It features James and Andrew and by now we are used to how it goes. Despite the shortness of the video they still find time to slot in startup music – grrr. Then they go and finish with music as well. Still, that was the perfect introduction to a very loud advert in my case.

Rinne & Weber Test – OSCE Guide (Clip)

This one is a little over two minutes long and has the same two participants as before. I have many more videos on this channel to review but I think I will stop it here for fear of posting a humongous long post. Given how consistent this channel has proven to be I think that I will be back here again (perhaps on several occasions). Notes remain similar, comments remain similar including the fact that people are noticing that Andrew should have aged a good deal more by now (In the comments). It isn’t long enough to provide much in the way of material of course (in common with several other videos on this channel).

It still has startup music of course more’s the pity. I think Andrew has a great voice and I assume someone will chain these together without music and put it up on YouTube somewhere. I don’t usually like such videos but in this case I might be prepared to give it a try if I come across it.

They also publish a guide to these tests if it is of interest. (I’m assuming most people reading this blog are not medical students so I would guess not…

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 article why not subscribe to this blog:

Photo by DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

It is easy to go away with the idea that everything is ticking along hunky dory because there is no news or feedback. I hope that my regular readers out there are still doing well and, by all means, let me know if you would like a particular item of content.

Recently I am finding that my clock is swinging about all over the place, with some days feeling like I could sleep for the gods at 15:00 but as awake as a lark at 22:00. In such times I find it best to just relax with what is. The normal clock will eventually reassert itself I am confident.

I continue with a selection from Calm and yet again, it features the voice that I have grown to like which is Jeff Warren.

https://www.calm.com/app/player/7KADquOnx1

The Momentum of Thinking, Jeff Warren

As before, it is not designed for encouraging sleep, but I am finding these short presentations to be somewhat more effective than those dedicated to sleep.

I will spend some time listening to other material/by other people. However, I repeat my warning of a few blog items now. Calm content is not free. I am not sponsored by Calm (or by anybody), so I am not trying to sell you a Calm subscription. However, if you already have such a subscription, the above might be interesting.

Repeating the theme that I have followed for a few weeks now. Let’s take a look at some content by a professional ASMR artist (if only to determine how it stands up against any inadvertent ASMR content that I have located).

Today’s video in this vein is this one:

ASMR School Nurse Lice Check (Scalp Inspection, Soft Spoken) ✨Intense Tingles✨

it is from a channel called Sister Sister ASMR this has forty-six videos and 52.4K subscribers. That is a whopping success rate of subscriber per video ratio, and so it bodes well for the quality of the above video. There are four playlists, but none of these are obviously on a medical theme. We have rather fallen into the rut of medical themed ASMR videos and, at the moment I am not trying to fix something that wasn’t broken to start with.

As expected Sister Sister ASMR appears on the ASMR index.

There are notes with the video which are not that interesting, other than the fact that the participants in this video each have separate channels in addition to this one:

“Emily’s channel: ‪@emvyASMR

Katie’s channel:  ‪@xokatieASMR

Email: Emily.katieasmr@gmail.com”

Comments are permitted (which seems to be a theme with professional ASMR artists), and as is usual for such artists, the predominant comments seem to be positive. There must be a halo effect for such videos, in that they seem to avoid some of the more bizarre or downright derogatory comments which we have otherwise seen.

The video is thirty-three and a half minutes and so is moderately substantial. As I have commented before, the participants in professional ASMR videos are attractive and this seems more or less a pre requisite. I’m assuming that some ASMR afficionados are not ASMR afficionados as such, given they are more motivated by appearance rather than sound.

The tone seems to avoid whispering, which makes it slightly more believable than the more whispery videos that I have reviewed. I don’t remember a school nurse whispering at me but then it was a very – very long time ago.

That is not to say that the tone is not magnificent because (in common with other ASMR professionals) it is spot on.

There is background noise and this might well be air conditioning, and again, I am surprised it was decided to include this. I can only assume that realism is an important feature but I am continually searching for videos which do not have background noise. The occasional such gem is habitually peaceful, and reaffirms my belief that eliminating background noise is a worthwhile endeavour.

I suppose, given the length, I should have concluded in advance that this is one heck of a nit scan. I do not remember any school nurse taking thirty-three minutes on anyone’s head. I don’t remember the use of a set of size zero knitting needles either. I have a strong feeling that some ASMR devotees get their tingles from the sound of hair. Quite possibly, that sound is amplified by the needles being passed through it.

I am more interested in the voice.

So, in the end this turns into more of a personal attention video with an extensive section given over to hair brushing. It is doubtful a nit nurse would perform that service either. But I can kinda see why it was done. The last minute is dedicated to errors in the video making process, which for me distracts from the rest of it. Overall, I think the quality of presentation means that this one is deserving of recommendation. I do not really have a playlist for professional ASMR artists but I will add this one into the Sweetie Jar playlist in case you’re interested in listening for yourself.

So, tearing ourselves away from that, we move onto the purpose of the blog which is to review videos established for some medical purpose but which, nonetheless, turn out to be restful.

Today’s video is this one:

Primary Care Provider Physical Examination: Foot and Ankle

A little less than twenty-two minutes so it will not keep us for long.

There are notes, such as they are: “55,239 views 7 May 2021

David S. Levine, MD, demonstrates a foot and ankle examination.

David S. Levine, MD Profile│https://www.hss.edu/physicians_levine…

For CME credit and other courses visit│https://www.eacademy.hss.edu/”

Comments are (wisely in my view) not permitted. Although that does mean we have no idea if ASMR fans are watching this one.

It comes from the channel Orthopaedic Surgical Videos this has an amazing three hundred and seventeen videos and 48.1K subscribers. There are fourteen playlists, the largest of which has one hundred and four videos in it – I don’t think we’ll be reviewing all of those today.

The video starts without music and it has negligible background noise (air conditioning), so an excellent start. David it turns out has a calm voice, although I couldn’t say it was quiet. Nonetheless, one is placed at ease feeling that vocally we are in capable hands, as it were.

So, given the large number of videos on this channel, how to limit the subject of further review to a workable level. I thought in this case I would search for videos that feature David Levine.

There aren’t many, in fact only one further video featuring David occurs on this channel.

Obesity TKA

It is age restricted – regular readers will know my thoughts on age-restricted videos – I do not bother watching them.

I’ve only included the link in case you are interested.

In this case, it is not clear why the search retrieved this video, as I cannot see that David features in it at all. The notes are: “2,290 views  28 Jul 2023

Fred D. Cushner, MD, performs an obesity TKA.

Fred D. Cushner, MD Profile│https://www.hss.edu/physicians_cushne…

For CME credit and other courses visit│https://www.eacademy.hss.edu/

Chapter Points: coming soon…”

It is fifteen and a quarter minutes in length, Fred it turns out has a very loud voice, initially he starts out in an apparent hurry. There is no startup music and the background noise (air conditioning) is moderately loud.

It features some fairly upsetting (to many people) operation procedures. These have loud associated noises. There are jarring equipment noises and loud suction noises as well. Narration during the procedure is also loud. Background noises also seem to be, if anything, even louder.

There are loud drilling noises which could probably wake the dead.

This is just not a suitable video from our perspective.

So just one video this week.

Perhaps time for a bit of pre-sleep relaxation instead.

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

I had been stockpiling blog articles and had built up quite a number, to the extent that for several months I simply stopped writing. There was every danger that videos would be taken down from YouTube before the article ever saw the light of day and hence any evaluation of the videos would have been a waste of time.

I am happy to report that the backlog is now so tiny that I am danger of running out of material for the blog altogether. I am sure that regular readers would be delighted deeply concerned in case that happened.

Perhaps this is now a good time to start bringing some changes, in order to inject a little more life into the blog, but without the drama of a revolution. To this end I thought I would review at least one video on a medical theme that comes from a professional ASMR artist. If this proves to be a popular change, perhaps I will make it permanent.

Moonlight Cottage ASMR has 1.39M subscribers at the time I am looking at the channel. Some details of Moonlight Cottage have been recorded online., So obviously Moonlight Cottage is a professional ASMR artist (and a very successful one). The channel has one hundred and twenty nine videos and so there is space there for many videos which are not on a medical theme. So far so good.

However, I have self-elected to stick to a medical theme for the moment, so I have selected the following video:

The Shelter | ASMR Sci-Fi Roleplay (medical & skin exam, soft spoken)

It is a little over half an hour and so substantial enough in length and, given it is a professional ASMR video, we are setting the standard very high in terms of review.

It starts with an ocean which is that great standby of relaxing tracks but sadly also with music… It isn’t particularly oppressive music, but I was expecting something spoken or even whispered. It is beautifully constructed in the manner of a professional film, good costumes, effects, scenery but that isn’t why we are here. What does it sound like?

There are a number of distractions in terms of triggering sounds that work for some ASMR fans but sadly not for me: rustling noises, scraping noises, beeping noises. If one of these is your trigger then fill your boots.

As expected, the person participating has an excellent voice and is exactly the correct tone. I am guessing if this was not the case then 1.39M subscribers would be subscribing elsewhere.

However (and no doubt due to the science fiction theme) there are a number of less welcome noises as well. Clicks, beeps and whirring noises crop up sufficiently often to be distracting. There is also a constant background hum as if the video was shot in an area with air conditioning, but I suspect was added to improve the perception of the video being shot inside of a spaceship or similar. Usually I hope to get videos entirely without such background noises but I can see why it was done in this case. There are clunks from equipment, and further sounds from it being dragged – the sort of noises I have avoided in inadvertent ASMR videos.

The tail end of the video contains no speech at all, but more of the beeps, sliding noises, background air conditioning noises i.e. the parts that were less impressive about the rest of the video.

All that said, the bar was set very high, precisely because this is a professional ASMR video and I do think you could do worse than listen to the video for yourself. I’ll add it to the Sweetie Jar list which currently is the only one I have for such professional videos.

That may change if this aspect of the blog proves to be more popular.

So, now we have dispensed with the additional extra video, what about the meat and potatoes of this blog i.e. an inadvertent ASMR video.

Today’s video comes from a site which regular readers will well recognise:

University of Leicester

So it must have something going for it.

The video is this one:

Cardiovascular Examination – Demonstration

It is only five- and three-quarter minutes long and has a little of the straight-to-video quality about it. The patient is Mr Jackson. The notes tell us something about the participants “Presented by Dr Adrian Stanley PhD FRCP Consultant in Cardiovascular Medicine. Produced and Directed by Dr Irene Peat FRCR FRCP, Dr Nicholas Port MBChB BSc and Jon Shears.”

Fortunately for us Dr Stanley has a great voice. The video is not hampered by startup music but it is by the constant background noise, presumably from air conditioning. The pace is good rather than excellent. But it is quite relaxing, I think. 

This forms part of the Clinical Examinations playlist which is ten videos long – perhaps a little long for us today.

However, the University of Leicester does have another Cardiovascular based video worth examining, which is this one:

Cardiovascular Examination – Explanation

This one is nearly thirteen minutes long and shares many of the attributes of the last one, only more so, obviously. There are a few more noises as Mr Jackson gets to undress at the beginning, but Dr Stanley still has a great voice and in this longer video the pace seems much more measured (that might purely be personal perception). There are heart sounds included in this one but these are not excessively loud or off-putting.

The University of Leicester Playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop my listening 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

Recently I have been thinking about the various ways that I have tried to assist sleep over the years. Some of those have, of course, been chemical and only one of those was truly effective.

For the briefest of occasions, I did receive genuine-prescribed-by-a-doctor sleeping pills. These definitely work and I seemed to have none of the side effects detailed in the included pieces of paper. However, I suspect they are addictive as the prescription covered a bare few days and then it was back to one’s own devices.

The night before days in the office, I commonly have problems sleeping. For that I have often taken Nytol. Nytol is odd stuff. Some nights I take it and I barely make it upstairs before my eyes are closing. Then I am zonko. Some nights it is as if I have taken a sugar pill and I am laid there counting the marks on the ceiling. I have often wondered if there is some circulation problem in the manufacturing plant and the odd pill has zero active ingredient in it. No doubt the manufacturers of Nytol would have a completely different take on it.

Some years ago, I saw a YouTube presentation by a UK sleep expert who recommended popping a melatonin pill about half an hour before sleep and there would be no need for counting sheep.

The problem being it is almost impossible to get in the UK. I have taken some when travelling in either North or South America (where it is widely available). I found it rather like the Nytol. Sometimes it is as if the doors of sleep have wanged shut all of a sudden and somedays it is as if I had an unhealthy caffeine habit. It has been recommended to take it in association with 5-HTP and I did try that. I’d say the efficacy is improved but marginally in my experience.

I have tried standard Kalms and night-time Kalms, Bach Rescue Remedy and the herbal version of Nytol. These seem to have limited effects other than sometimes the nature of my nightmares were much more vivid and therefore more nightmarish… (However, if you love a good nightmare, it is as nothing compared to St John’s Wort which could win records).

The issue with all such remedies to my mind (and was not shared by the genuine sleeping pills) is that they get you to sleep but do not keep you there. Marvellous being in zzzs land at 9pm. Not so marvellous when you spring wide awake at 3am despite feeling that you have done so from the bed of a river. Worse that, having thus sprung awake, no other remedy is available to get you back off to sleep before the inevitable alarm at 5am.

It was for this reason that I went in search of a soothing backtrack. If I have to lie awake in the early hours of the morning, better to do so calmly and in as relaxed state as I can possibly accomplish than to lie fretting about all the sleep I am not getting.

Most recently I have been using Calm, for this to a greater or lesser degree of efficiency. I am going to start making recommendations from there. I have hesitated only because it is a paid-for option and I hate to leverage people into paying for anything. I am no salesperson and have no ambitions to become one.

Of late, I am making the odd foray into professional ASMR artists in these articles, if only to contrast with the inadvertent ASMR that this blog has specialised in for so long. I haven’t been featuring the many that are frankly awful. (There seem to be a fair few of these). I have the bias that if you set yourself up as a professional ASMR artist, then your offerings should be excellent. At the very least, they should be consistently restful.

Of course, YouTube now has adverts shoehorned into every corner and most of them are about as restful as a thoroughgoing slap.

This video is a foray away from the medical theme that I have stuck with for a long time. Mainly because I am having trouble finding a good one on the medical theme. I thought the tone of this video rather good; you may not share my opinion on it.

ASMR | Night massage with gua sha, herbs, natural oils (soft spoken)

I am always nervous about anything massage in case that is a euphemism for some other kind of video (which hopefully I don’t need to define). Both participants have clothing, excessive skin does not seem to be exposed and there are no offers to see more on an OnlyFans site somewhere.

This is a bit breathy for me but at least it does not seem to involve fingernails on fabric, strange vocal intonations into a microphone or bizarre squelching noises coming from who knows where.

It eschews music (hurrah) but there are some noises coming from brushing hair. (Perhaps that is even your thing, who knows).

Itsblitzz is the channel and it has 840K subscribers and three hundred and eighty videos. I see that there are three playlists. However, beware, some of these videos actively promote certain products. I have made this an attribute which embargoes a video from featuring in this blog. They will start with “the sponsor of the video this week…”. At which point I just move on.

The video is a little over forty-two minutes in length (hopefully enough to get you nodding off) and contains notes:

“29 Jan 2019 #guasha #massage #ASMR

In tonight’s video, I have brought back one of my favorite humans to experiment with some new techniques and tools (our other video can be found here:  ASMR | Head massage and energy healin…  ). This was a spur of the moment session, and I am happy that Elizabeth was free to come over. She is such an easy person to be around, and everything felt very natural and relaxed. I use some gua sha tools in our session as well as some natural sprays and oils. Gua sha is a skin scraping technique used in traditional East Asian medicine that can also be performed with a spoon or other smooth object. Typically, it leaves marks (petechiae) but tonight I will just be using the tools to aid in massage. I am using light to medium pressure to avoid abrasions. I will demonstrate and discuss other gua sha techniques in the very near future on my channel.”

There are of course comments, and as we have noted, where comments are permitted there shall ye find less than helpful comments. So here too.

Anyway, that was the distraction of the week, onto the main feature which takes us back to the world of YouTube medical videos.

MRCP Paces: Station 1, Neurology section (Upper Limbs)

This is fifteen- and three-quarter minutes long and surprisingly for a video from a hospital has no notes. Less surprisingly it has no comments either. I can probably by now guarantee that if it has ASMR content then ASMR fans have already discovered it.

It features Dr Shuja Punekar who straight away has a good voice. It also features air conditioning noises which are less welcome. It does not have start up music which is great.

The feedback section of the video which occurs at eleven minutes has air conditioning noises akin to the sound of the M25 at rush hour. It is actually loud and would have discounted the video had it been there from the start of the video. It also serves to partially mask the voices of the participants.

This one is from Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust YouTube channel. There are five hundred and fourteen videos, twenty-six playlists (one with one hundred and eight videos in it). So, there is hope that this channel might be an ASMR resource for us for a lengthy period of time.

MRCP Paces History

Again, this features Dr Punekar and is very similar at the start as the last video. If anything the background noise is higher and the voices of the participants sound more distant than in the previous video.

There are various background noises which sound rather like doors opening and closing (possibly in an adjacent room).

The participants voices are calm and measured, with just the air conditioning for company.

This time the post-mortem phase in which progress of the student is discussed does not appear to have any higher participation by the air conditioning.

MRCP Paces Station 4: Communication and Ethics

This is a bit over nineteen and a quarter minutes and features Dr Punekar again. Again, the introduction is calm and quiet. The air conditioning’s participation is not excessive.

However, this is really quite stressful, not the kind of video that I think we will want in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

There are a lot of videos in the MRCP Paces series and so I use this as a whet your appetite introduction and we can return in the future and hopefully do a few more.

The Blackpool Teaching Hospitals 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

For those who have stuck with this blog, well done and thank-you. You will be aware of the format that this blog has followed for over a year now and I thought that just for a treat we would have a change. Instead of focusing on inadvertent ASMR videos from YouTube as, by-and-large, I have done for a long time now, what if in between I take a look at a video from a professional ASMR artist and consider whether it is worthwhile.

The drive remains a mechanism for getting some sleep. The difference is that someone is deliberately setting out to be relaxing, so we should be disposed to have extremely high expectations.

Searching YouTube for ASMR material yields up a bewildering array of videos and quite a lot of them look unsuitable before I even give them a review.

However, this one:

ASMR Medical ROLE PLAY | Cranial Nerve Exam (personal attention for relaxation and sleep)

is by an artist who has been around for some time and who has her own entry in the online ASMR index.

This is one of many by Isabel on a medical theme and given this is just a diversion I am not going to explore the others here. This is just a taster.

Not unexpectedly, Isabel has a truckload of followers and enough videos to restock Netflix on a Friday evening.

This particular video is a little over thirty eight minutes in length and for me it’s a little on the breathy side. (But I imagine some ASMR fans rather like that).

There are also some jarring beeps at intervals which would not dispose me towards snooziness, I must confess.

I’m also not a fan of the scratchy noises. However, I imagine for some people they are the main appeal.

It has notes but given a lot of professional artists focus on the merchandising, I won’t repeat them here.

Comments are permitted and, boy, are there a lot of those. A quick review though indicates that they are predominantly positive which is unusual in comparison to the video comments we have become used to.

I’m always a little concerned by professional ASMR videos in that predominantly the artists featured are, shall we say, a little too attractive to be considered average. In such cases I am suspicious that fans are attending not because of the quality of the sound…

The sound quality (as we would expect) is sublime with no weird background noises, no loud equipment noises and it just shows the incredibly high bar that an inadvertent ASMR video is aiming for (and habitually misses).

In any case, as this is a diversion, I am currently not disposed to set up an Isabel playlist on the Procrastination Pen (unless there is call for such a thing).

I will instead add such videos to the Sweetie Jar playlist on the assumption that a subset of readers might use such material to fall asleep to (as opposed to the inadvertent ASMR videos which have been the focus of this blog to date).

So returning to the main theme.

Today we go back to a channel which has been an old favourite which is the University of Leicester

Regular readers will know that we have been here before and whilst the videos on this channel may not be quite the ASMR standard of Isabel it has consistently delivered some restful videos.

The video featured today is this one:

Respiratory Examination – Demonstration

Again it is a professional video and so as we expect it has some notes:

“257,959 views 14 Dec 2011

A second more detailed video can be found at; http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/msce…

This is a real-time demonstration illustrating technique and patient interaction involved in the Respiratory Examination.

The film was produced by practising clinicians to aid the teaching of clinical examination skills. It starts at the point when the clinician has finished taking the medical history and begins the clinical examination.

Presented by Dr Jonathan Bennett MD FRCP Consultant Respiratory Physician. Produced and Directed by Dr Irene Peat FRCR FRCP, Dr Nicholas Port MBChB BSc and Jon Shears.

More Clinical Examination materials can be found at; http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/msce…”

This leads us to suspect that there are more videos out there on a similar theme and so it is worth taking a while to try and identify them.

This one is a little over six minutes and so it barely has time to take a run up before it is all over.

There are comments and as usual a number of the comments are as helpful as a leg iron.

This though may help us identify the others in this series:

“@UniversityLeicester

12 years ago

There is a second video in which the Doctor does explain the procedure. All the videos in this series can be found in the Clinical Examinations Playlist on the University of Leicester Channel.”

The video starts without music, how delightful, but it does have the constant background accompaniment of air conditioning, sadly. The pace and tone are both ideal, there is an absence of offensive noises and even some light humour. What is not to like.

The “patient” is Mr Jackson, the medical professional is introduced only in the notes Dr Jonathan Bennett MD FRCP Consultant Respiratory Physician.

This is a great Procrastination Pen playlist candidate.

The Clinical Examinations playlist mentioned in those comments appears to be this one:

Looking at that playlist, there would appear to be only one other video which features the same “patient” and the same medical professional, and it would be this one:

Respiratory Examination – Explanation

This one is hardly enormous as it is only just over ten minutes in length.

There are, as expected, notes “482,017 views 28 May 2012

This is a detailed explanation of the Respiratory Examination illustrating technique and patient interaction. The film was produced by practising clinicians to aid the teaching of clinical examination skills. It starts at the point when the clinician has finished taking the medical history and begins the clinical examination. Presented by Dr Jonathan Bennett MD FRCP Consultant Respiratory Physician. Produced and Directed by Dr Irene Peat FRCR FRCP, Dr Nicholas Port MBChB BSc and Jon Shears. More Clinical Examination materials can be found at; http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/msce…”

There is no music to start and, again, the presentation is calm and quiet. I also love how polite everyone is in this video.

Some of the explanations are a little on the off-putting side. (I’m not sure that discussions of sputum pots are that restful).

By and large though, this one is as delightful as the last one.

The University of Leicester Playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop my listening 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 Akshat Vats on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Recently, I have noticed that YouTube is just not cracking it on the nights when I am really fearsomely awake. In fact, it is just wise on those nights to get up again, pad downstairs, and watch some late-night nonsense whilst listening with the headphones.

Fortunately, TV now seems well supplied with some barely-watchable early morning viewing. (It’s almost as if they realise that a group of insomniacs are the only people awake in the early hours and that the last thing such people need is something actually interesting).

Sadly, those who turn their channels over to teleshopping are not so enlightened. My advice (if you are forced to resort to similar tactics due to sleeplessness) is to avoid at all costs surfing channels. There is a real risk that you will you happen upon channels trying to keep you awake in order to drive the purchases of mattresses, power washes or strange pruning devices.

You may also wish to give thought to the shape of your spine. For, if you do happen to drop off to some 1980s B movie, it is likely that the sofa will not turn out to be the most comfortable of resting places.

If you are intending to persist with the YouTube playlist as the source of restfulness however, I think I can be confident that you have come to the right place.

Regular readers will recognise the channel N Sight, because of course we have been here before.

Today’s video has a set of notes which are thankfully brief but which indicate that this is a professionally-produced video.

“13,274 views 2 Feb 2017

Michael Stone, MD demonstrates correct technique for blood pressure measurement with automatic and manual BP cuffs, and when to use each type of cuff. He also demonstrates simultaneous BP measurement (to assess autonomic dysfunction), and supine arm and leg BPs (for the ankle-arm index). N Sight is presented by the Institute for Functional Medicine. Learn more at nsight.org.”

Comments are thankfully not permitted – no requests for free medical advice, no disparaging remarks about the participants but sadly no indication as to whether other ASMR fans have been here before.

I would guess that they have.

The video is this one:

Blood Pressure: Demo Exam, Part 1

It is a little shy of eleven minutes long and so it is not going to be your nighttime companion for very long.

Sadly, it starts with some loud and rather too energetic music – so far, so normal, we have found. Sigh.

The patient is introduced as “Steve” the medical professional is not introduced (well outside of those notes anyway). However, we do find that he (the medical professional) has a great voice, very calming and measured.

Today was the first time I tried the transcript facility in YouTube, and it is so very useful for me. Now I can get a visual check for things like the spelling of people’s names, which I am often convinced I have got wrong.

The medical professional seems quite happy with a reading of 128 (systolic) when I was pretty certain that 128 was pretty high…

The video then repeats the blood pressure test but this time manually, rather than with a machine. It is a little quieter but sadly, it means there is yet more music (as an introduction to this section). Comparatively the cuff looks like something unearthed from a Victorian sanitorium but as you’ll be lying down trying to get some sleep I very much doubt that you will notice this.

Yet more upbeat music and then there is a blood pressure test in both arms simultaneously (this is a test I have never seen). This time the automatic machines are in use and so there is the sound of the cuffs being inflated.

Upbeat music again and back to the manual cuff. I do prefer the sound of this being manually pumped vs the electric pump sound on the automatic machine. However, your preference might vary.

Yet more upbeat music and this time the blood pressure cuff is around Steve’s leg. Again, I have never seen this in use before this.

More upbeat music and then the video concludes. And cues straight into the next video which is this one:

Blood Pressure: Demo Exam, Part 2

There are notes “6,172 views 2 Feb 2017

Michael Stone, MD, demonstrates the correct techniques for measuring the ankle-arm index, dorsalis pedis & posterior tibial pulses. He then performs the raised leg oxygen saturation test, followed by carotid and radial pulse comparison. Finally, he concludes with the appropriate orthostatic hypotension exam. N Sight is presented by the Institute for Functional Medicine. Learn more at nsight.org.”

This follows the same scheme of the previous one, same music, same participants. It is a little shorter at just less than nine and a half minutes. The sound of the doppler at the start of this video may be a little off-putting to some people (I didn’t find it so).

Straight into funky music again and this time the pulse is checked in Steve’s feet.

More music, then a check on the carotid pulse.

Music again, then a check inside the mouth. With emphasis on strong dental hygiene.

Music, and a check as Steve changes position from lying down to standing up. And onto tail end music again.

These two form part of a playlist on N Sight Blood Pressure Exam.

They appear mid-way through the playlist which consists of six videos in total.

The first video is this one:

Blood Pressure: Introduction, Equipment, and Patient Positioning

In which we find that the medical professional is Dr Michael Stone. Initially it is not a medical examination as such but a monologue. Despite this his voice is not elevated. Some people in this situation become a tad “shouty” as if projecting to a room. Dr Michael Stone does not fall into this trap.

The video is a little over sixteen and a half minutes so the longest we have seen so far.

However, the chance to punctuate the video with the same music track is not to be missed apparently. perhaps they paid a lot for it and want to feature it as frequently as possible.

It’s a shame as Dr Stone really has a very good voice for our purposes.

The notes have follow the same theme as the others: “3,422 views  2 Feb 2017

Michael Stone, MD, introduces this blood pressure measurement series, including key nutritional considerations for treating patients with abnormal blood pressure. He describes the necessary equipment, calibration needs, and changes in BP measurement over time. He then demonstrates appropriate patient positioning for sitting and supine blood pressure exams.

N Sight is presented by the Institute for Functional Medicine. Learn more at nsight.org.”

As we are not learning to take blood pressure, I will discontinue including them as I’m sure they are of partial interest.

Blood Pressure: Demo Exam, Part 1

Blood Pressure: Demo Exam, Part 2

These two are where we came in.

Blood Pressure: Teaching Exam, Part 1

Like a number of professionally produced videos these turn out to be consistent. This can be great if the first one is marvellous. Less great if it was less than perfect. In this case it means continuation of that annoying music. Set against this, it means the continued exposure to the great intonation and measured delivery of Dr Michael Stone. Not for the first time I am lamenting that I cannot isolate this and remove the little musical interludes.

This one is just under sixteen and a half minutes, so one of the longer ones we’ve seen and in all other respects is similar, same doctor, same patient, same approach, similar notes, same approach to comments and so on.

Definition:

Insufflation: is the act of blowing something (such as a gas, powder, or vapor) into a body cavity

Blood Pressure: Teaching Exam, Part 2

Consistent with those we have seen, nuclear blast needed for the music track, embrace needed for the quiet voice of Dr Michael Stone. This one is nearly twenty minutes in length which is the longest so far. It has some unsettling doppler noises which might be off-putting to some people. There are also some loud car-related sounds indicating that a nearby road can’t be far outside of the building where this was recorded (or someone has a really loud exhaust). Long videos are also an excuse for YouTube to insert an annoying advert and they seem to have made good use of that facility here.

Blood Pressure: Nutritional Factors and Conclusion

This one is a bit less than six minutes and otherwise has little to distinguish it from those that have gone before. I just wish that Dr Michael Stone could produce a music-free version of each of these videos. That and drop some of the louder doppler noises. However, I still maintain that these are all worthwhile trialling in the Procrastination Pen playlist. (However, as you know, every once in a while I’ll get tired of the ones with irritating noises and drop them into the archive list. There is some chance one, some, or all of these may suffer that fate.

The N Sight Playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others 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 Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

I am still surprised that it is feasible to keep on writing a weekly blog on one specific subject and, thus far, to have not run out of material to base it on.

In fact, I am getting to the stage now where the overall playlist is getting so large that I will shortly have to make decisions about starting all over again.

It is already so large that playing it will take quite a bit longer than any average person would be resting for.

That was not the intention when commencing.

I also notice that I have been on the subject of medical examination videos for well over a year now, and whilst there have been no complaints, I have not appeared in the years top ten most interesting bloggers either.

I think there will need to be some changes, but for the moment, let’s not fix something that is not broken.

Today we are once again in the environs of videos created by students to satisfy some sort of course requirement. I am entirely thankful that colleges and universities keep demanding this of their students, and that the students then forget to take the videos down again long after their course has concluded.

Today’s follow the head-to-toe format that we have seen again-and-again on this blog but is none the worse for that.

PART TWO HEAD TO TOE

At a little over eight and a half minutes it isn’t going to hang around for long. It starts without startup music which is a rare and welcome situation. There is air conditioning noise and it is actually pretty loud, if not ultimately that distracting. The medical professional has a nice quiet voice; however, the presentation at least initially is a little on the fast side. Perhaps as a consequence of in front of camera nerves. The format is landscape which is rather welcome for one of these but, as I often comment, makes no difference at all if you are using the video to get to sleep.

The location appears to be domestic, in fact a bedroom, with a chest of drawers. One of the items that are probably not regularly found in a medical establishment.

The identity of the participants is not given and there is no clue as to the location of the institute for which the video was made. There are no notes and we can see it was posted 05/04/2023 (April) so it is conceivable that the course it is for is still running.

There are few comments ranging from the unhelpful to the ASMR fan. ASMR fans as is usual having tracked this one down way before I ever have.

Part way through we discover that the “patient” is called Amber (that may not be the spelling). We also find out that the instruction heel-to-toe is not necessarily as descriptive an instruction as it needs to be.

The channel is Kristin Colton and despite only having two videos it has one hundred and sixty-four subscribers which does not seem to be at all bad for that small number of videos.

The remaining video is a little more substantial at fifteen minutes and looking at it I can see that I have reviewed them in the reverse order.

PART ONE HEAD TO TOE

It starts with a yapping dog which is a bit off-putting. We now find that the “patient” is Amber Colton and so, in all likelihood, sister. The start is similar in other respects to the previous video – air conditioning providing the background, the voice is great but the presentation a little fast.

No startup music.

Like before it settles down and is quite calm. This time there are no helpful comments, but I think we can be certain if an ASMR fan found part two in this set, they absolutely certainly have found part one.

The presentation (if a little fast) is quite methodical. I tried the playback speed adjustment, it stands up well at 0.75, perhaps a little less so at 0.5, but you may find that it is worth a try as well. For me a little slower play speed certainly helped things.

There are some sounds of a child and people talking in an adjacent room. This is fairly normal for student videos as we have found before.

Kristin appears to have no other YouTube presence (another channel for example) so I’m afraid that’s it for Kristin and indeed for today’s blog post. Should give you time to catch your favourite television programme.

Definitions:

TMJ Temporomandibular joint

Gray309-en Gray310

TMD a soreness in the Jaw that usually clears up on its own.

The Kristin Colton 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 Shona Macrae