Head-To-Toe Assessment – The Procrastination Pen

Sleeping With ASMR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Macleod’s examination of the cervical spine

This is very brief at just over 2 minutes.

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

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

“New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition

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

Comments are permitted but there are few of them.

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

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

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

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

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

Macleod’s examination of the shoulder

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

Macleod’s examination of the hip

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

This one is a little over six minutes.

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

Definition:

Lumbar lordosis inward curve of the lower back.

Macleod’s examination of the thoracic and lumbar spine

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

Definition:

Lipoma a fatty lump growing under the skin.

Dimples of Venus, a picture seems best for this:

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

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

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

I recommend you choose the shuffle option.

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

Definition:

Clonus – condition causing involuntary muscle contractions.

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

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

The Farsight playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The Procrastination Pen playlist (which is no-doubt what you have all been reading this in order to locate) is found here:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

The search for ASMR related content (mostly on YouTube, to date anyway) goes on today and this time no deviations into other subjects.

Those who read this blog frequently will now be aware that each one of these articles reviews another YouTube video for its suitability. If it turns out to be relaxing (or preferably it can produce ASMR effects), it gets added to the Procrastination Pen playlist. If it turns out to be noisy or distracting, well, there just won’t be an article about it at all.

As part of the process, I explore the YouTube channel where the video was located and determine if there are other great videos in there. If the other videos on that channel are noisy or distracting, they get a passport out of the playlist, forever to be forgotten. If they are also relaxing, they get added to the playlist as well.

Over time I keep reviewing the existing playlist and some that do not stand the test of time get removed and added to an archive playlist (in case any readers rather liked them and want to hear them again).

Hence the Procrastination Pen playlist grows only slowly but one hopes it retains its quality.

That being the background, onto today’s video which continues the theme of medical examination videos. So far, I have rarely strayed into professional ASMR territory. Therefore, most of these blog articles focus on videos that were produced for another purpose but just happen to be relaxing as well (commonly where one of the people featured in the video has a great, relaxing voice).

In this case, we have mined the rich seam which is medical student videos. These have been featured before and are distinctly variable in sound quality (commonly the voice is accompanied by background air conditioning, equipment noises and even people wandering into the room where filming is taking place).

However, every once in a while, a good one pops up, so I keep on checking them.

Head -to -toe assessment

There are few subscribers, three hundred and thirty-five as at today’s date. Many of the channels we have been looking at had substantially more. Although comments are allowed there are few of them. As is usual in YouTube, comments (those that are there) are not all helpful.

In common with most student videos there are no notes with the video, so we get no clues for example as to where this is filmed. It is posted in January 2018 and so we can guess that this is an assessment video, somewhere, perhaps in the final year of a nursing qualification so probably a course that ended in 2018 then.

Tamara introduces herself as the student nurse. The patient is Caitlyn (I think). That could easily be misspelled.

Caitlyn (I’m sticking with that spelling now) appears to have the better voice (very quiet indeed). However, sadly, Caitlyn does not get a lot of speaking opportunity.

Thankfully, there is no roaring air conditioning accompaniment, no nasty clanging noises, crashes or onset of Beethoven at one hundred and forty decibels.

It isn’t “top of the pops” in terms of ASMR, but in my view is suitably relaxing so it is going forwards to the playlist.

The channel is Tamara Nosa which has eight videos in it as at today’s date. Two videos are posted ten years ago and five of them five years ago. One video is a “short” – so far there have been no reviews of shorts on this blog.

There is a single playlist entitled “Favourites” which includes videos external to the channel so it isn’t going to be useful to us. The playlist was updated more recently in 2022.

The short which is entitled:

IV Vitamins Infusion. We have 10 different IV cocktails for which your body will thank you!!!

Is loud funky and about as relaxing as having needles poked in somewhere sensitive. So we’ll move on.

The older videos are entitled in a different character set:

Вітання українських дітей в Палатайні ч.1

The character set appears to be Russian and the translation via Google translate is “Vetting of Ukrainian children in the Palatine part 1”

It is very home video-y and no doubt is of interest to the parents of said children, less so in terms of ASMR I think.

Вітання українських дітей в Палатайні ч.2

“Vetting of Ukrainian children in the Palatine part 2”

The same comments apply as to the previous video – this also will not be in the playlist.

Both of these videos are posted to the channel ten years ago.

Head – to – toe assessment

The patient appears to be Jessie (probably misspelled). She does not appear to be delighted to be in a video. There are no comments, no notes, no clues about the institution. In this way it is very like the first video in this article. This is potentially a theme starting.

It is posted in 2017 which appears to be the same year it was filmed (according to Jessie anyway).

Tamara seems to be keen to follow a script. There are comments, by Jessie, which Tamara seems to rush past. So far, so normal assessment video.

At intervals this is a bit chattier than the first video featured in this article. This is unwelcome (for us rather than for Jessie) but I do not think it is excessive.

Foley insertion

This is strange in the extreme and does not strike me as conducive to sleep for a number of people watching. There are no comments and no notes but I’m not putting it in the Procrastination Pen playlist in any case.

Subcutaneous injection

This is very brief. There is no patient as such, no notes, no comments, someone wanders across the camera repeatedly. All in all, not really at the level for the Procrastination Pen playlist so it’s not going to be in there.

One video appears to be hidden as eight videos are listed but only seven appear, therefore this next is the last video on this channel:

Head-to-Toe Assessment

Olga is the patient in this one. This one actually has some comments and thankfully not of the trolling variety.

From this we get that it was filmed in Chicago. That is helpful

We therefore obtain that Tamara was in South University in 2020 and in Dominican University in 2018 (the date of the first video we featured).

South University is in Savannah.

Dominican University is in Illinois.

As expected both have their own YouTube channels https://www.youtube.com/@southuniversity and https://www.youtube.com/@DominicanUniversity perhaps these will be worthy of further examination in the future.

The process is similar to the previous head to toe videos featured in this blog post.

I will include it in the Procrastination Pen playlist (but it maybe subject to future weeding). The Tamara Nosa playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The Procrastination Pen playlist (which is no-doubt what you have all been reading this in order to locate) is found here:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

Continuing in our search for medical videos which may induce ASMR in some listeners (or at the very least induce enough relaxation to see you napping) we have today’s video:

Hip Extension and Hip Abduction MMT

This one is from the channel Dominican College which has just seven hundred and three subscribers as at today’s date (this seems a little low for a college). There are one hundred and ninety-four videos at the time I’m looking at it. This is a tad too many for any single blog post. There are seven playlists but many of these have a high number of videos in them. So in this case using playlists to narrow the field may not be effective. This is thirty-eighth in a thirty-nine video playlist “PT541 Basics of PT (2022)”

I do not think that we will be covering thirty-nine videos in any single blog post even though some of them are quite short.

Today’s video is obviously filmed in a classroom setting, there is a general hubbub happening as for people chatting in the background. The sound is quite muted and the background noise is prevalent (I’d guess air conditioning again). It ends rather abruptly as well which might be off-putting.

It is marginal in terms of the purpose that we wish to put it to (engendering restfulness). This is no Hollie Berry or Vicki Scott. I’ll let it sneak into the Procrastination Pen playlist but it might be subject to future weeding.

The channel tells me very little about the college itself – merely that the channel was established in 2018.

Checking for Dominican College online I find that it has been rebranded to Dominican University now. I think I’ve found the correct one as it offers a PT programme (which is the subject of the playlist).

It is located in New York and has an interesting history.

Whilst we’re in the playlist let’s see if there are any others worthy of examination.

Given the large number of videos in this playlist I think we’ll need to arbitrarily cut the number. I’m going to choose five and then revisit on another occasion.

Gross UE ROM Screen

I wonder if the small number of subscribers is because it was posted for a specific reason, say a class during a time of Covid or something similar.

The tutor is Justine Ward. Sadly there is no channel for Justine, there might have been a chance to find something with better audio quality.

The sound quality is no better on this video and given it is less than three minutes it isn’t worth adding to The Procrastination Pen playlist.

Assessment of knee flexion end feel

A short video at just over a minute. Sadly the sound quality does not improve, the teaching professional really needs a lapel mic. Given it is so short, again, I don’t see the point in adding it to The Procrastination Pen playlist (it might have sneaked in had the sound quality been better).

The theme of these videos is they all seem to end abruptly which is even less great given it gives the opportunity for a loud YouTube advert to kick in immediately afterwards.

UE strength screen

This is two minutes long and the sound quality is not great. There is however no classroom banter in this one which helps. Someone does clear his throat part way through (I assume the person holding the camera).

There is a repeat of the “don’t let me move you” phrase we’ve encountered before. Again, I don’t think this will make it to The Procrastination Pen playlist.

Assessing ankle DF and elbow ext end feel

This is very short at just over one and a half minutes and the noise quality is not the greatest here. It’s noisy to begin with, slightly better as it settles down later on.

It’s also unnerving in places. I’m sure if some of the manipulations were tried on my elbow for example, I’d be nursing it for a long time afterwards.

It doesn’t belong in The Procrastination Pen playlist.

There is only one candidate video this time. As a consequence I will not create a playlist on The Procrastination Pen for Dominican College.

However, the playlist for all videos covered on The Procrastination Pen so far is here:

I recommend you view it on YouTube (rather than on this blog) then you will be able to use the shuffle function so that the videos play in a random order.

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after repeated review not to make the grade, is here:

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 trying to relax in order to log on, this interrupts the listening 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.

I hope you find the playlist relaxing, any feedback is welcome.

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

It came to me today that this series has been going on so long that I should provide an ongoing introduction to these articles, so that any newcomers will know what is happening. This needs to be brief enough though, so that the stalwart reader doesn’t get bored.

The aim of this particular blog series is to explore the use of ASMR videos for sleep. Specifically, to be helpful in the getting off to sleep and getting back to sleep when you awake in the middle of the night.

I’m assuming you have a device that can attach to the Internet somewhere near to your bed. On this device that you can open YouTube, browse to The Procrastination Pen playlist, click on shuffle, lie back and listen to the rest in peace. (This might require some kind of sleep-friendly headphones or similar).

My focus so far has mainly been on ASMR videos which have ASMR effects despite being designed for something else (most commonly medical exams so far). These are so-called “unintentional ASMR” videos. There are quite a number of these so I doubt we are going to run out of these any time soon. However, I do occasionally stray into the professional ASMR arena and select one of those videos that appeals.

Each article reviews a video or videos that came up on YouTube. These frequently are found through recommendation by YouTube. I then determine whether the ongoing playlist needs to be enhanced by addition of the reviewed video or that the video needs to be rejected. (In which case the video will still be clickable from the article itself – if you decide you rather like it).

You are free to recommend videos that you feel fit the bill or to disagree with my choices (I may even change the playlist in response to contributions).

At intervals, I review the playlist and pull out the less-successful videos into an archive list of those that seemed to make the grade but over time have not proven to be quite so restful. I use the Procrastination Pen playlist myself so I have a reasonably constant interaction with it.

Today’s video appears to have once been on YouTube on a different channel but was taken down for some reason. The comments indicate that it is a very welcome restoration.

The channel is ASMR Archivist and the notes state that its mission is “an archive for lost AMSR videos” (I assume that’s ASMR). This seems like the kind of place that we could enjoy.

That said, on exploring ASMR Archivist we find just one video (today’s video) and zero playlists.

So today’s article is going to feature just the one video.

Cate Darnell – Head to Toe Assessment

It is so popular that we find that it has an entry in the Internet Archive.

This indicates that it was deleted in 2020, but sadly not where it was deleted from – i.e. where its original home was.

As a consequence of being so popular we find that a similar thing has happened to this video as for the Vicki Scott video covered previously That is, the video is now posted in several places on YouTube. For example here:

On a channel called Sleep ASMR (which seems appropriate)

Our video is just shy of twenty-six minutes long so not the longest we’ve seen. It seems to start with “Miss Spagboll” (I’m sure I heard that incorrectly).

The badge on the patient is just not discernible enough to make it out however it could be Honors College which resolves as The University of Alabama in Huntsville. This has a channel UAH Admissions. This channel has forty-three videos and seven playlists but it appears this is all about marketing the university rather than medical examinations.

Possibly the Cate Darnell video once came from a Cate Darnell channel which has now gone.

Our video looks like an assessment video for a nursing university. We’ve seen these before of course. There is the normal level of background noise, air conditioning again, I think.

Cate has a brilliant accent and talks very quietly, just the sort of thing we are looking for in a video.

As usual the odd definition may help (well they do me – as I have no medical background) in this case bruit is an abnormal sound generated by a turbulent flow of blood.

I have no idea what Cate did next but for our purposes it is a shame that she did not produce a whole wealth of videos à la Dr James Gill.

The comments as usual are very helpful, one points out that details of Cate are online and that the video is over a decade old.

As many commentators state this is an excellent ASMR video. Definitely one for the playlist.

Sadly there will be no playlist for ASMR Archivist on the Procrastination Pen (there is only one video)

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

(and now it includes the Cate Darnell video).

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after repeated review not to make the grade, is here:

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 experience to log on, this interrupts the listening 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

In writing this it is all too easy to assume that you have made the journey thus far with me and have some idea what this blog is for. However, it is to be hoped that people are meandering into the blog, from some search engine or other, all the time. If you have done that, this article may be your point of entry.

If so welcome.

I hope that those who have been reading (and subscribing) for a period of time will have patience whilst I tell you what you’re looking at.

The purpose is to generate a playlist – simply that. A great long playlist of videos from YouTube. Videos which, after careful listening and review have been found good for ASMR (or at the very least to be restful and relaxing, sufficient to nestle a person off to sleep when they have a stressful day to come and desperately need the rest).

The writing is actually the review process and I assume that a lot of people will just scroll to the end of the article and pick up the playlist.

Some people may take an interest in the review and take a moment to read and reflect on it or to vehemently disagree and to leave comments.

At intervals I will further edit the playlist to try to ensure that only the more restful videos are included.

This time we are starting with a video on a much more official sounding channel than some of our recent dalliances have been. No professional ASMR curation here.

The Exam for Shoulder Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

A rather nice piece of introductory music this time, although what it will sound like once you’ve heard it a few dozen times in the dead of night and you’re tired, irritable and have an important meeting in the morning, I’m afraid I can’t predict.

The medical professional this time is properly announced in the video Dr. Brinda Christopher Sports Medicine Physician FFSEM MRCP BSc MBBS. A rather dazzling array of qualifications there. The patient isn’t introduced.

But how does her voice sound and is the video very relaxing is what we have come to find out (well I have and I assume you have too as you’re reading this).

Certainly, Brinda has a very quiet voice, sufficiently quiet that the background aircon is quite apparent in this video.

The comments are quite enlightening with some comments from people seeking instruction for exams and some from those coming to this channel for ASMR videos. (I am not the first to find this video for ASMR purposes).

Although it is quiet it isn’t tops for ASMR with me. It is worthy of a review though and probably worthy of the Procrastination Pen playlist. (It might fall victim to a subsequent weeding, we’ll see).

The channel is Stanford Medicine 25. There are two hundred and forty-four subscribers at the time I’m looking at it. There are eighty-five videos as at today’s date and thirteen playlists. This video occurs in a playlist called Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam.

This playlist consists of eight videos of which the above one is the very last in the set. Dr Christopher only features in three (of which the above is one).

The other two featuring Dr Christopher are:

The Exam for Knee Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

As usual with institutional videos (see the ones from Warwick) these are of a brand i.e. the same introductory images and the same image bottom right-hand side. (This last presumably in an attempt to preserve copyright of the entire video).

You might be intrigued (as I was) by the term crepitus, which is a noise coming from the joints on movement.

I’m not sure what the “patient” is called here, I thought that Brinda thanked “Chad” but it might just be my ears.

The last video with Dr Christopher in this playlist is:

The Exam for Ankle & Foot Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

In this we establish that the patient here is “Chad” the same patient in all three videos covered in this article. From the accent I would guess Chad is an American person. That’s in keeping with the institution location but is in quite a contrast to the more English accent of Dr Christopher.

These three videos obviously belong together, the same medical professional, the same “patient” the other five in the set (contained in the Musculoskeletal Exam playlist) less so.

Therefore, I think I’ll call this article at an end here and resolve to follow on with the rest of that playlist (and the channel) in future blog items.

The Stanford Medicine playlist on The Procrastination Pen is here:

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

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after lengthy review not to make the grade, is here:

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 dislike these as they expect me to login to verify my age. This interrupts the listening experience in my view. You may be happy with this interruption 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 Heyphotoshoot on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

We are back to fairly safe ground this time. Firstly, this video is not found in a channel dedicated to ASMR (this blog focuses on unintentional ASMR videos for review material). Secondly, we are back to a Cranial Nerve exam which has featured before.

Neuro PACES is the channel and it is fairly easy to cover as it contains in total five videos none of which is longer than ten minutes (in fact all are quite a bit shorter than that).

The Cranial Nerve Examination is this one:

Cranial Nerve Examination Example

A nice calm start but progress through the video does seem to be quite hurried. Dr Michael is the medical professional, Mr Foot is the “patient”

I would guess that in order to get the entire exam completed within five minutes Dr Michael really needs to be motoring along.

The video is quite a bit different to the Vicki Scott one in this respect.

As the video progresses, if anything, it gets even quieter but the pace never seems to slow down much. To me that is not too distracting and it is a good video for the Procrastination Pen playlist I think.

The patient here states that the sensation in his face is unequal. This is the first time we have come across this in any of the videos covered so far. Surprisingly there is no mechanism here for noting that concern, that seems unusual. In addition, the medical professional here does not echo back the concern. Reflecting the concern has been more typical in the videos we have covered so far.

The link at the end of the video links back to Liverpool university neurosciences research.

A number of the videos seem to have been set up specifically for the neuropaces course organised by:

Professor Benedict Michael, Professor in Neuroscience, MRC Clinician Scientist and Honorary Consultant Neurologist

Professor Tom Solomon, Chair of Neurological Science and Honorary Consultant Neurologist

Dr Viraj Bharambe, Neurology Consultant

Dr Rosie Heartshorne, Neurology Registrar

I’ll make a guess that Dr Michael and Professor Michael are the same person.

Investigating the rest of the Neuro PACES channel we find that there are no playlists. Without a playlist order to guide the sequence of videos to review let’s begin with those videos dedicated to medical examination:

Lower Limb Examination Example

This features Dr Michael again, this time with Mr Jamieson. Again, this is a very gentle presentation. This one is pretty nigh ideal for our purposes and is a definite candidate for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The patient here seems to be really struggling, the first time I’ve seen this featured in a medical examination video. The videos reviewed to date have always featured healthy people. I’m guessing these are usually student volunteers. This is quite a good vindication of what the process is supposed to be for i.e., verifying an unwell person’s condition.

For our purposes though it is a good ASMR candidate and like the previous one merely five minutes long. I’d say Dr Michael is as good here ASMR-wise as Dr James Gill which is quite a statement to make.

Neurology Lower Limb Examination for MRCP PACES. NeuroPACES.mov

https://youtu.be/zSqczy8Km2M

The patient isn’t introduced in this video and Dr Michael starts off in much more robust fashion than in the previous two videos, (it’s quite a bit louder, as if he is trying to enunciate for a distant audience). There is a consistent background hubbub as if it is being filmed in a public area.

However, it still has its quiet and attentive moments which brings it back into a candidate for the Procrastination Pen playlist for me. It is still not quite as good as Shane Brun though.

In common with the other videos in this article it really motors though and is all over in five minutes. Overall therefore this one is not a great Procrastination Pen playlist candidate.

The Solomon System- NeuroPACES

This time the medical professional is flagged at the beginning Professor Tom Solomon PhD. FRCP of the Walton Neuro Centre NHS Foundation Trust & University of Liverpool

The “patient” is quite quickly introduced as Simon.

This is a longer video at eight minutes fifty seconds (though that is still not long in terms of the many videos we’ve reviewed in the past).

Professor Solomon has not got quite such a calm voice as Dr Michael sadly. I think again the problem is that he is presenting to a wider audience so his voice is louder. But at least there isn’t the background hubbub in this video.

There is quite a good description as to why some of the tests are actually performed and how to do these tests in the minimal time.

I’m not going to add this one to the Procrastination Pen playlist though.

NeuroPACES: The Walton Centre Neurology MRCP PACES Course

Another calm start, however it is just an intro video to the neuro PACES course. We get promotional material including funky music. This is not the kind of thing you want when you’re attempting to doze off.

This one is not going into the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The NeuroPaces playlist on the Procrastination Pen channel is here:

The overall Procrastination Pen Checklist (featuring all videos covered in the blog so far) is here:

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after lengthy review not to make the grade, is here:

I keep this in case people have personal favourites that they want to hear.

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I dislike these as they require me to stop listening and login to verify my age. You may find that you have more patience than I do in which case this list is for you.

I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of relaxation as a result.

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

Till next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

As before, I should provide a brief introduction for those who do not know anything about:

a) this blog

b) this subject.

I’ve written on this before and it might be worthwhile reviewing that post for details.

In brief though, this section of the blog involves reviewing ASMR videos, or indeed any video that could be relaxing enough that when you are desperate for sleep it might encourage you to get some.

The result is a playlist of such videos and the opportunity to feedback as to whether my choices were appropriate that week.

The YouTube Channel this time does not have many subscribers two hundred and seventy subscribers in fact, so it is almost an unknown channel. Is this an ASMR find? Possibly…

The video is:

Head to Toe

This has a reasonably high level of background noise, possibly an open space perhaps (although the part we get to see is enclosed by curtains). The nurse is Keisha whose channel this is (more of that in a moment). The “patient” does announce her name which I think is “Mallory Myers” – that looks wrong to me but it is what it sounds like.

The comments as usual are a bit off the wall, even brutal, but fortunately if you came for the sleep then you will not be reading those (or even watching the video). It is all about the sound.

The video has the hallmarks of one of those we’ve seen previously i.e. created as part of an assessment process. For example this one includes the fake washing of hands and the insistence on drawing curtains for privacy that are already drawn.

I’ve concluded that somewhere there is a checklist that student assessment videos are unthinkingly adhering to.

These videos have a feeling of being “busy” i.e. trying to cram everything in that the assessor wants to see. This includes a number of technical terms I imagine very few patients would be bothered to hear about.

There’s also a long period of more-or-less nothing at the end when Keisha is doing the paperwork, presumably this is again a requirement.

The examination is lovely and calm, the background noise quickly stops being distracting. There are moments of shared humour and there seems to be reasonable rapport. This is a good Procrastination Pen playlist candidate.

It may have been recorded at Valdosta State University – the nurse’s shoulder badge at one stage appears to indicate this location. This university of course has a YouTube channel, with three hundred and four videos as at today’s date but it does not include any of those listed on Keisha’s channel.

The channel is Keisha CoxKelly.

There are seven videos as at today’s date with the above one being the most obvious candidate for ASMR. There are no playlists. However, with only seven videos we can probably take the time to review them all. (Well I can, and you can scroll to the end to listen to the playlist).

There are no videos posted more recently than eight years ago presumably that is how long ago Keisha was a student.

NG Tube

One thing that we can be absolutely clear about here is that there will be zero patient interaction. The patient appears to be plastic.

There is background noise, more insistence on fake privacy and cleanliness measures.

It is quite surreal watching the one-sided interactions in this video.

The notes state it is VSU college of nursing which seems to confirm my earlier guess about the location.

Nonetheless Keisha retains the quiet voice of the previous video and the procedures appear calm and measured. Even if it is apparent that a plastic model cannot actually swallow a tube.

There’s also an amusing point where the person videoing films their own fingers.

This video is a bit borderline. I’ll add it to the Procrastination Pen playlist but it may fall victim to a future weeding process.

FOLEY Cath insertion/removal

This time the video notes confirm that it is Valdosta State University College of Nursing. There was no need to go investigating shoulder badges after all.

The background noise seems worse because Keisha seems very quiet on this. The microphone is presumably not fully up to the task.

The “patient” has no legs which is almost as distracting as people talking and laughing in the background. The patient is plastic, which is a bit of a relief given the subject area. (I’d probably get some kind of YouTube content warning otherwise).

The camera-holding person is a bit of a fidget but given we’re here to listen (and to sleep) that is not such a concern. The sound isn’t amazing but it is unlikely to cause you to wake up in a hurry at 3am (unlike some YouTube adverts I can mention). Therefore, on-balance I think we can include it in the Procrastination Pen playlist (with the emphasis on potential future weeding activity).

Insulin Mixing

This also suffers from low volume. However, I am not so clear this will matter late at night when, necessarily, the volume will be way down in any case. (To ensure that you are not woken by the very playlist you were using to fall asleep in the first place). There is no patient in this video so it does not really qualify as an exam as such.

Keisha seems to be admirably measured in approach. I’m sure there must be classes on Zen meditation or something similar happening in the background to generate so many medical trainees this calm.

I’ll put this one in the Procrastination Pen playlist (even if only temporarily).

Wound Care

The one-sided conversation is nearly as surreal as the virtual door which you can neither knock upon nor close to “provide privacy”. The sound is slightly better apart from the traffic noise which makes itself felt. Once again this includes a plastic “patient”. At least he/she isn’t loud.

The snapping gloves noises are a bit of a wake-up though.

At nearly thirteen minutes it is amazingly long for a one-way interaction but I suppose the great thing about it is that it is quiet. Another video that’s on the Procrastination Pen playlist (possibly pending a future cull).

IM and SQ injections

I would guess this features two student nurses, our favourite, Keisha, and what sounds like “Sky Voss” but probably isn’t. This is filmed in a public area with minimal screening. So far so normal student assessment video.

At just over seven minutes it doesn’t hang around. As injections are not my favourite thing I’ll be watching from behind the sofa.

There is fake privacy and cleanliness again. There is also quite a lot of technical terminology, (as we saw previously). I’m presuming no standard patient would comprehend, let alone request this.

Fracturing the ampule was a bit of a shock (it is loud) but not as bad as the gloves snapping in the previous video. I’ll feature this video on the Procrastination Pen playlist for now.

I’ll schedule a playlist review shortly and remove any that no longer seem up to the desired quality.

IV administration

This is positively whacky; on this occasion the “patient” is a plastic arm.

The sound quality starts bad and seems to get a lot worse. It is like someone is trying to record the video with the microphone actually inside their pocket. There is almost no reception of what Keisha is saying. The presentation could be excellent but sadly it can’t be heard.

Hence this one needs to be rejected from the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The playlist for Keisha is here:

The overall playlist of every video that made the grade after a review on this blog is here:

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after lengthy review not to make the grade, is here:

I keep this in case people have personal favourites that they want to hear.

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I dislike these as they require me to stop and login to verify my age. You may find that you have more patience than I do and so are prepared to give it a listen.

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

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

Till next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

As promised in a previous blog post we are back again at the Merck Manuals channel. Last time we were covering the Ortho Exam playlist.

Relevant videos from this playlist/channel have already been added to the Merck Manuals playlist on The Procrastination Pen YouTube channel.

And into the overall The Procrastination Pen playlist:

There are twenty-two playlists in this channel some of which are extremely large. (The “Merck Manual Consumer Version” contains ninety videos for example. If I attempted to cover all of those it would not be not so much a blog post as a book on ASMR).

Since my last blog post they have changed elements of the Merck Manuals channel to state that it is not available outside the United States.

I hope it wasn’t something that I said.

If like me you’re not in the United States I am afraid that you are left with whatever remaining crumbs there are in terms of videos that are still available.

Parts of some playlists remain accessible.

The playlist:

The Neuro Exam – Merck Manual Professional Version

Contains seven videos which are still visible outside of the US. (Who knows how long you’ll be able to see even these. I suggest you go listen to them before it is too late).

How to do the Mental Status Exam | Merck Manual Professional Version

https://youtu.be/14s9jMf4vR8

This is another video with funky start up music. I mean, really, don’t they know I’m trying to sleep?

The narrator here is way too loud sadly. Fortunately, that doesn’t last very long. The “patient” states that she is in Philadelphia in the Einstein Medical Centre. It’s not your standard ASMR stuff in that it is a little bit loud even in the medical exam portion.

I also notice that the medical professional asks how many nickels there are in a dollar and I realised that I did not know (in case you’re also not located in the US the answer is twenty apparently).

Some of these tests are a bit tough. It made me wonder about my own memory as I’m not sure I’d be able to pass such tests.

The video is just a bit loud I think and not great ASMR material so not one for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

How to do the Cranial Nerve Examination | Merck Manual Professional Version

It looks like startup funky music for videos in this playlist is going to be a theme.

Here the narrator is more muted and much more in keeping with what we’re looking for, I think. The video is designed to be for teaching/instruction so although there is an examination of a patient the actually dialogue between medical professional and “patient” does not feature in the video.

However, I think this one will make it to the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Cerebellar Examination: How to Assess Gait, Stance, and Coordination | Merck Manual

There is music at the start as before. Maybe eventually I will find a way to edit videos for their ASMR effects but that currently is not the purpose of this blog/playlist.

The narrator has learned his lesson after the somewhat loud presentation of the first video in this list. He is quite calm and reasonably quiet.

The exam proper appears without audio – the narrator is filling in what the stages in the exam mean. It is an instruction video that is also quite good for ASMR. This video will also be in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

How to do the Motor Examination | Merck Manual Professional Version

I notice that comments for these videos are turned off. Turning off comments stops some of the crazier contributions that we’ve seen of late but it also stops us working out if others are using these videos for their ASMR effects.

To me they seem a good find, this one included.

How to do the Sensory Exam | Merck Manual Professional Version

This is the longest video of the set, but it follows the format of the other videos seen so far. We’re entirely reliant upon the quality of the narrator here (especially to distract us from the music interludes). Fortunately, he has a good voice.

There are intrusions of parts of the genuine exam here. The only distraction with these interludes is the background noise. This is almost certainly the air-conditioning noise which we have become used to from other videos.

In this playlist whilst the medical professionals have changed between videos the “patient” remains the same.

Another good video for the Procrastination Pen playlist, I think.

How to Test Reflexes | Merck Manual Professional Version

Apart from the first video these have been consistent. Quite a good find this series and this particular video is worth making part of the Procrastination Pen playlist.

How to do a 4-Minute Neurologic Exam | Merck Manual Professional Version

https://youtu.be/5UuQV-0o4CE

This is exactly the same format as the other videos covered in this article. They were all posted six years ago. I notice that the notes tell me something about the Merck Manual:

“First published in 1899 as a small reference book for physicians and pharmacists, The Merck Manual grew in size and scope to become one of the world’s most widely used comprehensive medical resources for professionals and consumers. As The Manual evolved, it continually expanded the reach and depth of its offerings to reflect the mission of providing the best medical information to a wide cross-section of users, including medical professionals and students, veterinarians and veterinary students, and consumers. • Merck Manual Professional Version: http://www.MerckManuals.com/Professional”

I’m guessing that there is some financial consideration involved in its use. If it produces videos of this quality, I’m in favour (well until they totally remove my ability to see the videos in any case).

However, if the video recording guys are reading, please quieten down the funky music at the beginning (or better still go for a silent intro).

This is another one for the Procrastination Pen playlist, I think.

The Merck Manuals playlist has been updated with these videos.

The overall playlist containing all the videos featured so far is here.

The above playlist has now grown quite large so I have started to weed out some of the less effective ones. However I realise that some people may consider them favourites so I have added the removed videos to an archive playlist.

However, if people who post videos keep taking those videos down again, or making them unavailable to a person writing a blog in the UK, then I may find the weeding is being done for me behind the scenes.

There is also the playlist for the small number of videos I have covered that require age verification. There has been limited demand for these so I doubt I will cover many more (unless I do so by accident).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5WRzP-r5mY&list=PLoNk1vXn1i4E3Lj_4mYQlX1QvGafeFLPg&pp=gAQBiAQB

I hope that you find them restful (and that you get some great sleep).

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

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

As promised in an earlier blog item, I decided to follow up on “ROM and MMT” as a search term. This results in a great many videos with the kind of unpleasant noises in them which prove to be distracting.

There are however, a multiplicity of videos on this theme. It is a matter of persistence to find one which doesn’t have the air conditioning pretending it is a steel band.

UE Evaluation Review

The title is: “UE Functional Assessment ROM & MMT Screening Pinch & Grip, Edema & Pain”.

(I was pretty sure that was oedema – but obviously not.)

Janey is the medical professional in this one, Lisa is the “patient”. It is not as relaxing as Vicki Scott but is pretty calming. At only seven minutes thirty-nine seconds it is quite a good length for a medical exam. Fortunately, it lacks much in the way of obtrusive background noise.

Janey Detommaso is the channel. There is nothing posted here more recently than four years ago. This video is the shortest one. There are four videos and Lisa only features in this one.

With only four videos and none of these any longer than fourteen minutes thirty-four seconds, it’s worthwhile running through the others to see if they are any good ASMR-wise.

Shoulder & Elbow ROM and MMT

The title at the start of the video is “Range of Motion & Manual Muscle Testing ROM of the Shoulder, Elbow and Forearm” which is handy as that fits with the search term I was originally using.

In this one Janey is a bit loud from the start. The camera angle is a bit odd. It is probably just propped on a table somewhere. But it isn’t the visual aspect of the video that is the reason for us being here. At intervals, Janey tones it down a bit and actually gets to quiet. It is a shame she doesn’t do this the whole way through the video because when Janey chooses to do this she has a great voice.

Subsequently the filming switches to a bedroom – which leads me to suspect the whole video is part of some student assessment process. I would guess that otherwise it would be filmed in a medical establishment.

At fourteen minutes thirty-four seconds this is the longest of the four videos on this channel. There are twenty-three subscribers but no comments. It is conceivable (though not probable) that no one in the ASMR community has yet reviewed this one.

Midterm practicum: NDT, PNF, Rood, & Brunnstrom techniques

The sound on this one is really poor. It seems to have been filmed in a group situation in which people are paired off.

Other people are talking away in the background. It is difficult to distinguish the main track in this video. This really wrecks it for ASMR sadly.

This is not one for the playlist then.

The badge on Janey’s top seems to indicate it is at an establishment with the acronym TWU. This is potentially Texas Women’s University who seem to offer occupational health courses at Dallas and Houston locations.

It is a shame about that sound quality.

Hand & Wrist ROM/MMT

This video is twelve minutes fifteen seconds so it is the second longest video on this channel (and the final one available). Mr Hernandez crops up again (we saw him in the “Shoulder & Elbow ROM and MMT” video earlier).

Again, the interior appears domestic rather than medical. At the start of the video there is a strange flickering light behind the window Mr Hernandez is sat in front of. This is distracting, but only if you’re watching. As we’re all about the listening experience here, I’m ignoring it.

The sound is quite good, there is no background noise and Janey seems at her most calm here compared to any of the videos covered in this article.

This one seems well worthy of the Procrastination Pen playlist as it is quite relaxing.

The playlist for Janey Detommaso is here:

The overall playlist for all videos covered so far in this blog is here:

The archive list of videos that once made it into the overall playlist but upon reflection did not make the grade is here:

That list only exists in case I remove someone’s favourite video.

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

Warning this list will cause you to stop in order to log on to verify your age. If you’re happy with that then this playlist is for you. Personally I just ceased watching any material that requires that logon.

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

Photo by nine koepfer on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

For newbies to the blog, a quick guide. As an old codger I am finding it increasingly difficult to sleep. After messing about for a while with different solutions, I found that a number of YouTube videos were relaxing. Even if I could not get off to sleep, they distracted me from the anxiety of realising I would be tired in the morning.

Sometimes this was enough to get to sleep. Sometimes if I woke up in the night, it was enough to get back off to sleep again. Sometimes I could content myself with lying there just watching the video.

I came across the “unintentional ASMR” category whilst searching YouTube and discovered there is a whole resource of videos which engender ASMR effects in those who are fortunate enough to feel them.

This started an idea, what if I went in search of videos that might be suitable for ASMR or at the very least be relaxing enough for sleep. What if I tried to find videos that did not appear to be listed on existing ASMR channels. I would then have a long playlist of relaxing videos and maybe some of them would not have been found by some people looking for ASMR videos.

I thought that my research may help other people – those who perhaps do not want to spend time finding relaxing videos but just want to get some sleep for goodness sake.

As I come across more videos I review them, post them up here and add the good ones to an ever-expanding playlist. Every so often I review the playlist and archive those that have not stood the test of time. Hopefully, eventually, the playlist will just consist of quality ASMR videos. I always welcome suggestions for membership/deletions.

Today’s was covered previously but in that case consisted of a compilation video (which was the following three videos somehow welded up into one. I usually dismiss these compilation videos but in this case the join was largely unrecognisable so I let it pass. After this blog article I may well be weeding out the compilation video in favour of the following (On the assumption that they are any good of course)).

NEU_General Exam – Part 1

Those who read the previous blog article will be familiar with the participants. If you haven’t read the previous blog article, I’m pleased that you are a new reader and why not go take a look.

As usual we look at the video and we look at the YouTube channel where it is found (in the hope other juicy ASMR videos might be discovered).

The channel is redbreadproductions it has fifteen videos as at today’s date and it would appear that we have snaffled the only three worthy of greater attention. Yay us and onto the review.

This video is Part One of a three-part video series

The intro helpfully tells us it is the Northeastern Physician Assistant Program 2010, which appears to be this one.

Northeastern has its own channel replete with the kind of self-promotional videos which regular readers will now be familiar with.

However I was amazed to find this one amongst them:

It is not exactly a positive endorsement but hey it is early days yet – some ASMR videos have only been up for 5 years for example.

Our video has a rather too funky intro music track – it’s a shame but not the first time we have seen this.

The intro then goes on to say “The General Physical Examination”.

The whole video is only six minutes and twenty seven seconds.

It suffers with a humongous amount of background hubbub. It seems to be extremely loud and the weighing scales even more so. Clang, bang wallop and so on.

It sounds like the examination is next to a staff canteen in which some truly hot gossip item is doing the rounds. The kind of thing where it would be tempting to open the door and yell “shut up” quite offensively only the lull would last all of half a second and then resume even more loudly.

In any case, for our purposes, this is a tad distracting especially when the background discussion descends into laughter.

The rapport between medical professional and patient is excellent so the associated noise is even more distressing.

NEU_General Exam – Part 2

Thank (pick deity of choice) the background gossiping has abated – perhaps between videos the participants went out with some duct tape and taped their mouths up. The video is just over nine minutes, so a bit longer than previously, and is so much quieter and more attentive it is like we’ve started a whole new series.

The aircon is of course a constant companion but it is almost welcome after the unwelcome additional noise of that first video.

I also like the noise of the tuning fork in this one which I have never noted before despite watching a large number of similar videos.

NEU_General Exam – Part 3

Some of the conversation has returned – a little more muted like a room full of children a fraction of a second after an adult has really screamed at them. (Just like that event – expect the noise to build and build).

However, the medical professional’s voice is truly excellent. It would be great to find further instructional videos in which she features (preferably in a quieter room). However, I have not been able to do so.

I notice she says “doing good”. I assume this must be correct although I would have thought “doing good” was being saintly and in this context I would have thought it was “doing well” i.e. in good health. I am obviously too awake whilst writing this else I would not notice things like that.

Right at the end we get thanks to Rebecca Scott, Ph.D, PA-C (I assume she was the medical professional) and Rebekah Saunders, PA-SI (I assume she was the patient)

That’s all folks. A brief one this time, so you can get back to work and stop procrastinating. More next time.

These three just barely squeeze into the playlist as the quality isn’t amazing – they may well be subject to a future weeding process.

I’ve created a NorthEastern playlist for them here:

The overall playlist of videos covered so far in this blog is here:

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after lengthy review not to make the grade, is here:

I keep this in case people have personal favourites that they want to hear.

The playlist of videos regarding age verification is here:

I dislike these as they require me to stop and verify my age, I cannot be bothered to do this when I am trying to sleep. You may differ, in which case this playlist is for you.

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

Photo by Joe Cleary on Unsplash