Inspiration – Page 2 – The Procrastination Pen

Sleeping With ASMR

I’m sure this happens to a number of people who write blog articles. I often find that in reading back through the blog, I am not convinced that I wrote it. Certainly, there seem to be some articles that do not sound like me at all, as if I had on a Hyacinth Bucket accent whilst typing it. In any case, the endeavour is to produce high-quality output of the type that many of you will desire to read on a weekly basis. If you find that to be true do tell all your friends, by the way.

By this time, we are some way into the journey that has been “Sleeping With ASMR” such that many of you will be familiar with how it has worked so far. This is also how it is probably going to continue to work, unless one day I decide to shake things up a bit.

To fill in the gaps for anyone new to the blog, it exists to review YouTube videos. Each week I will find a video and review it to see if it might be helpful in the drive to encourage the restless to restful. I will focus on whether it is sufficiently quiet and whether the participants have a pleasant, relaxing voice. I will also point out the detractors such as loud equipment noises, oppressive air conditioning, background chatter and so on and so fifth.

Many of the videos I find are posted on a YouTube channel containing more than one video. Where this is the case, I will frequently take the opportunity to look at other videos from that channel to determine if any others would be great for relaxation or better still, could produce ASMR symptoms in those lucky enough to have them.

This week a video which is slightly less than fifteen and a quarter minutes in length, which is not lengthy in comparison with some we have seen.

Respiratory Assessment

Immediately the medical professional has a good quiet voice. Even though the style is of a presentation it is not overly loud which makes a nice change.

The video continues quietly and without extraneous noises, which is great to hear (or not hear perhaps). The video cuts at intervals abruptly from one scene to another, but if you are listening you may well not notice.

It does cut to background breathing noises which might be off-putting for some people. Also, the narrator abruptly changes to someone who is a bit louder (but still not overly loud).

I think I’ll put this in the Procrastination Pen playlist, but it might be subject to weeding in the future.

The channel is:

University of Manitoba Nursing Skills, there are eighty videos and 55K subscribers.

The University of Manitoba turns out to be a university in Western Canada.

Of course, it has its own channel with 1.2K videos as at today’s date. However, experience tells us that these will be predominantly about promoting the university and little to do with ASMR (unless it is quite exceptional).

The medical professional in the video chosen above appears in quite a number of the others. This makes slimming down those eighty videos to a number that can be comfortably reviewed in one blog post less straightforward.

However, as luck would have it the video selected occurs in an existing playlist:

Health Assessment

I will focus on the videos in this playlist, but I may well return to this channel in the future.

There are four further videos in this playlist as follows:

Abdominal Assessment

This video is a little under seven and a quarter minutes. It starts quietly again. There remains no clue as to the participants. The approach is gentle and considered.

This one is a substantial improvement on the first one selected in that there are no intrusive breathing noises added. No doubt for their educational rather than restful value (that is the point of the video after all).

CVS & PVS Assessment

This one is just less than seventeen and a half minutes so the longest we have seen so far and in fact the longest of the five videos in the playlist. At odds with other professional videos we have seen this one has no associated notes. But at least comments are denied (We’ve seen enough bizarre and rude comments to last a long time).

The presenter’s voice is really excellent and if it were not for the odd equipment noise or inserted sound track these videos would be up there with some of the better ones reviewed so far. As it is I will put them all to protracted listening review and if those extraneous noises prove off-putting, I will consign them to the archive list.

This one starts as beautifully quiet as the others. However, there are inserted heart beat sounds which may be off-putting to some people, they are louder than the medical professional for example. There is also a set of pulse sounds and associated crackles which are not fantastic either.

Neurological Assessment

This one is less than seven and a half minutes and as before it starts quietly. We discover that the “patient” is called Justin but still no means of determining who the presenter is. It is consistently quiet and so quite possibly the best one of the set so far.

Integumentary System Assessment

This is the shortest one of the videos featured in this article at just over six and a quarter minutes. It has the same approach as the others and so is equally quiet and well presented. I also like the intonation that the presenter uses, your mileage may vary. The medical professional is very gentle in approach and the video appears to be to be relaxing. Thankfully this one does not have any added noises. That is welcome given so many of the others do have this.

Overall this is a good playlist. I will add them to the Procrastination Pen playlist but some of them, I have a suspicion, will be weeded in the future.

The University of Manitoba Nursing Skills 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

On The Procrastination Pen there is the occasional foray into sites purposefully created for ASMR videos, but it is not the main purpose of these blog posts (well not so far anyway).

Occasionally, it is so much easier to just review a video from one of these sites as they’ve been selected previously for ASMR. So I do not have to find one from amidst the many noisy and poorly recorded videos out there.

However ASMR symptoms seem to be stimulated by many different triggers, such that many of these sites cater to people who are looking for a very different kind of video to the ones I would find restful.

Today, I am once again on a channel whose purpose in life is stated right up front “ASMR Sandwich Breath” is the channel. We’ve covered “sandwich breath” before. The whole ASMR world is now like a giant clique with its own terms and ideas (only a very few of which I understand).

The channel has forty eight videos. Fortunately for us all on a medical theme which is an area this blog has largely been focused on (although I do occasionally stray). Unfortunately a number of them have been covered before as they are still available on the original sites.

For that reason I am a bit nervous about today’s video, as I guarantee in a short while I am going to find it wherever it originally came from and will then feature it again.

This is today’s video:

Health Assessment Unintentional ASMR

It seems to be one amongst the rich seam of student videos which has been mined for material on this blog of late.

This one does not have the greatest sound, which makes me wonder why a curated selection of this sort would have nominated it, as we know absolute gems like the Vicki Scott video are out there. However I have chosen to run with it as well, so there must be aspects to it worthy of listening to.

The sound is far too muted, but the approach is gentle and calm which makes a positive difference. I’d be interested in finding the original if it is still out there as I do like to feature original videos (where they still exist).

As usual, where comments are permitted, a smattering of unwarranted nasty comments. I am getting in favour of videos that don’t permit comments for this reason.

The patient “Bernie” (probably misspelled) and the medical professional “Caitlyn” (also likely misspelled), not quite enough for me to go searching independently for the video.

There are playlists on ASMR Sandwich Breath and I could use them to guide selection of videos for this blog article. However, we are in danger of covering videos already featured elsewhere in this blog.

I think I will go for the tested technique of selecting videos which feature the same “patient” or the same medical professional.

I have to make some guesses, but I am pretty certain the following have the same medical professional:

HEENT Exam Unintentional ASMR

As with the previous video the sound is still a bit muted. However the approach remains calm and gentle.

This also features Bernie and Caitlyn – the spellings are fixed now until someone corrects me…

Musculoskeletal Exam Unintentional ASMR

Bernie and Caitlyn again. I notice that they even share nail polish colour (which might be coincidental, but I would have thought indicates this is more likely two students involved in an assessment video).

One of the commentators refers to a participant as “Brittany” so possibly I may have misheard the name here.

Neuro Exam Unintentional ASMR

From the comments, others have been looking for the original videos for this set and not been successful in finding them. So I am a bit reassured in featuring videos from a site designed to curate ASMR videos – it’s doubtful we would find them elsewhere.

We’re now thoroughly used to the approach of this exam. Some people could probably repeat the steps themselves from the sheer number of times they’ve seen videos of this type.

I think these are consistent enough to be in The Procrastination Pen Playlist

In deference to the commentator, I’ve labelled the playlist on The Procrastination Pen “Brittany and Caitlyn” it is here:

The Procrastination Pen playlist (featuring all videos covered so far on this blog) is here:

A number of videos, that were once in that overall playlist, became tiresome to listen to over a period of time. This is usually due to excessive noise of one type or another. All such videos are in the Archive Playlist here:

I only keep this list at all in case I weed out a video that is somebody’s favourite.

I hope you find the videos restful and that they help you to grab what sleep you are able to.

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

Photo by Shona Macrae.

Sleeping With ASMR

For those of you who have been following the blog the subject matter will not come as any surprise or the purpose of this writing. For everyone else welcome to the blog. It exists purely to review unintentional ASMR videos, to locate the best ones and to create a playlist of those videos.

The aim is to find the most relaxing videos on YouTube (or occasionally from elsewhere) which can be used to help you drift off to sleep, get back to sleep when you wake up in the middle of the night, and to completely fail to disrupt your sleep due to loud music, loud equipment noises or strange contributions from the air conditioning.

This week, a video which seems to fit into the range of student assessment videos, of which, we have seen more than a few already.

The entire Channel contains fifteen videos which is way more than I usually review at one sitting. However, as you can see the longest of these is less than seven minutes, such that I may make an exception in this case.

The video is this one:

Head, Face, and Neck

It is barely longer than three minutes so it isn’t going to take long to listen to. The medical professional is Leah and it is safe to assume that it is she who owns the channel (as we shall see).

The volume track is muted and sounds distant as if being recorded under water. There is the ever-present sound of air conditioning (which we’ve heard often before).

The approach is gentle and methodical. However, there is the noise of people apparently talking in the background. This is heavily muted though and so in this specific case, is none too intrusive.

The video has no comments and it looks like it is unlikely that we will find out where it was filmed. Although posted in 2023, of course, it could have been filmed at any time.

The channel is Leah Barlow and has eighty five subscribers – which isn’t a huge number in comparison to some we have seen.

There are fifteen videos which is a large number for any single blog post. However, in overview it appears that Leah appears with a different “patient” in several of these videos. Therefore, if we stick with Leah and the patient featured in this video, we have a much more restrictive list (we can return to Leah in a future blog post).

Musculoskeletal Exam Practice

This is slightly longer at five- and three-quarter minutes but still not particularly taxing in terms of attention. It is almost identical in terms of sound with the last one. I think the patient states her name as Mackenzie and d.o.b. 2/15/01 which for those of us in the UK is 15/02/2001. However, I had a hard time making that out and the spelling is probably incorrect in any case.

Again, the presentation is muted in comparison to the background noise which includes a healthy amount of chatter coming through from adjacent rooms.

There are loud noises as footwear drops to the floor, which may cause this one to ultimately be dropped from the Procrastination Pen playlist. (Off-putting noises are the commonest reason for dropping videos into the archive list). It is not the first time I have wished that I could alter a video in order to eliminate such noises, given that a number of videos are excellent in part, and dire in another part.

At intervals there are raised (even excited) voices from an adjacent room and this proves to be quite distracting.

There are also noises from the equipment as the “patient” moves around.

Neuro Exam Practice

Just over six and a half minutes and if anything, the background noise is trying for a starring role. The video proceeds as for the two we have already reviewed. It is gentle, methodical and, background noise allowing, relatively quiet. If there was a God of air conditioning then a few sacrifices need to be made to appease him or her. There are loud equipment noises and some hilarity about the loud equipment noises. (This will probably see it dropped into the archive list). Mackenzie seems to have developed a cold as there is much snivelling and coughing.

This one is really too loud, including some quite energised chatter from an adjacent room.

There is also entertainment due to the fact that Mackenzie proves to be ticklish.

Cardiac Exam

A bit over four and a quarter minutes. There is loud knocking to start with. Mackenzie seems to say that her surname is Delavaso, but it probably isn’t that at all. The air conditioning has started playing drums for Motorhead but thankfully the background chatter has settled to the level of irritating that can be safely ignored (I think).

Thorax and Lungs Exam

Four minutes long. Loud knocking to start, as before. More loud equipment noises more air conditioning noises, but the conversationalists have decided all the loud discussions of previous videos were dreadfully rude and so a background murmur is all that can be heard.

It would be truly quite a good video if the clunks and clangs of the equipment didn’t attend every movement of Mackenzie. Not the first time equipment noises have proved to be a deal breaker for this blog though.

Cardiac Practice

A little under five minutes and the microphone is now officially inside the air conditioning outlet. The voices in this are heavily masked by the sound of forced air.

This really isn’t suitable for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Ear exam

Less than two and a half minutes, in other respects similar to previous videos. Leah has a good voice but the extraneous noises are at intervals off-putting or irritating.

I’m inclined to include this one, if only because it is so short.

Nose, mouth, throat exam

A bit more than four and a quarter minutes. The knocking at the start seems a little more muted but the background conversation has reasserted itself, somewhat irritatingly.

Mackenzie has an identity badge which could have told us where this is being filmed but sadly it is out of focus so I can’t make it out.

Leah seems much more hesitant in this one than the others we have seen here. There seems to be much hilarity again, so presumably both participants are uncomfortable with the process.

That’s it for this item, but I think we will be revisiting Leah in the future.

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

Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than excessive background noise.

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 Tatyana Eremina on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

This week, for a change, I thought we’d look at a medical teaching video in the hope of finding some relaxing material. Actually, that’s no change at all as we have covered this channel and this institution in a previous blog post.

In that blog post I concluded that the sound quality really wasn’t all there. I limited the post to just five videos, concluding that a number of them were not going to make it to the Procrastination Pen playlist.

However, there was the matter of the remaining videos to review, so I thought I’d give the channel a second chance, in the hope that there is a diamond in the rough as it were.

As previously indicated the tutor is Justine Ward who desperately needs a better microphone and quieter surroundings to get the best sound on her videos. Sadly she has neither here.

The channel is Dominican College. The purpose of this set of videos is not completely clear. I do not think they were designed with audio quality in mind.

In which case I think I will limit myself to reviewing just five videos on this occasion as well.

September 22, 2019

A bit longer than the last (previous blog post) at four and three-quarter minutes.

It shares the same limitations as the others reviewed so far, in that the voice of the teaching professional seems to be at the end of a long tunnel.

One thing that does come across is how gentle she is with the “patient” in this. It is also the first time I have come across a video in which a person with restricted motion is reviewed (left shoulder).

Again, the video ends abruptly (this has become somewhat of a theme).

This appears to be a duplicate of the video called “C-spine and UE ROM screen 9/22/19”. We only need one in the playlist so I’ll drop this one.

September 22, 2019

Definitions again

Goniometer a device used to measure an angle.

Nares the nostrils.

Occiput the back of the skull.

Acromion the upper part of the shoulder.

It is interesting that the focus is on reimbursement based upon Insurance Companies. This is strange to a person in an NHS system that money payment for treatment is a contingent process, like stage payments on a mortgage. Health obviously having a very definite value in such a system.

It appears to be a duplicate of the one entitled “C-spine goniometry 9/22/19” we only need one in the playlist so I’ll drop this one.

September 22, 2019

Again, we see the extreme care taken in manipulating. With feedback felt about where rotation should cease. Any pressure on joints is applied with care.

September 22, 2019

Definitions:

Lateral epicondyle: the rounded bit on the outside of the elbow.

C-Spine and UE ROM screen 9/22/19

We can probably rattle through these barring any surprises because they are consistent in terms of sound quality.

C-spine Goniometry 9/22/19

We covered this above as the second September 22, 2019 video.

The Dominican College 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:

Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than excessive background noise.

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

Another week and onwards towards a longer playlist and another set of videos (from YouTube) to review.

Today we have another set from a student, presumably this was originally created as part of an assessment process.

As is typical for this type of channel, the last update was some time ago and now the channel is not maintained. We have already seen that some videos can be taken down and these could become the same, so my advice is “get ‘em while you can”.

The channel is Jordynlee21 and the updates are nine years ago (2015). There are four videos, which as you will see, have pretty much the same title but feature different “patients”.

There are no playlists available on the channel so, in no particular order, this is the first one.

Head to toe Ashley Brehmer- South University

The camera pans the room in the most disconcerting way. The initial verbal description is a bit drony, as if it is narrated by someone who is just going through the motions.

There is an ever-present background noise (probably air conditioning). This is a situation with which we are now well familiar.

South University appears to be located in Savannah Georgia as we’d expect it has its own YouTube channel.

As is usual, the channel for South University does not include medical examination videos.

I’m always fascinated by the terms used by those using a stethoscope such as “Intercostal Space”, this gives a good definition:

“2nd intercostal space (i.e., the space between the second and third ribs).

3rd intercostal space (i.e., the space between the third and fourth ribs).

4th intercostal space (i.e., the space between the fourth and fifth ribs).

5th intercostal space (i.e. the space between the fifth and sixth ribs).”

At intervals the presentation does settle down to be more gentle and is more the kind of video that we’re looking for (or “hearing for” if that could be a term).

In this case the medical professional is Ashley, I am not clear who Jordyn Lee (the name of the channel) is. The channel has been around since 2009 so considerably before the video.

Callie Donnay head to toe- South University

Again, with the maniacal whirling of the camera about the room, presumably to demonstrate that there are no prompts in the room for the student. However, I would have thought it straightforward to pan the room initially and then introduce material subsequently, but maybe I’m over thinking this.

The medical professional is Callie Donnay, again, the video is posted nine years ago. The air conditioning noise remains ever present. The “patient” here is the medical professional from the previous video i.e. Ashley Brehmer.

Sensibly there are no comments permitted; we’ve seen negative comments against such videos before.

Eventually the video settles down and gets reasonably quiet. I wonder if initial nerves in such videos is the reason that they often set off loud and settle down later.

There is the occasional clatter as equipment is moved around. This is distracting but not massively off-putting.

Alana Haas head to toe- South University

Alana Haas is the medical professional. Again, the camera pans the room. The “patient” confirms it is actually a hospital and not a domestic setting as we have often seen before. The patient states her name as Jordyn Hutchinson. The surname isn’t Lee – so perhaps she is not the owner of the channel. The patient states the date as 2013 so the video is posted somewhat later than that (which seems a bit odd if it is part of an assessment process).

Like the previous videos, the voice isn’t spot on for ASMR and the background noise is always present. However, there are periods of calm. Again, there are clattering noises which are only marginally distracting.

Jordyn Hutchinson head to toe- South University

Here, Jordyn becomes the medical professional. I’m not sure how common the spelling Jordyn is seen (I’m more used to Jordan). However, it is conceivable that Jordyn married and took the name Lee and hence the channel belongs to the self-same Jordyn.

I’m not sure how that could be verified as the videos lack any notes.

As before the camera sweeps the room and the medical professional starts off loud, so far, so familiar.

The patient is Alana Haas who appears in the previous video.

It settles down and is moderately quiet. I do often hope for another Hollie Berry but I think these videos are adequate for getting to sleep.

They’re going into the playlist and I’ll rely on the review process to sweep them into the archive list if they cease to be appealing.

The Jordyn Lee 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:

Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than unwelcome loud equipment 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 Jennifer Uppendahl on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

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

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

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

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

Macleod’s Examination of the Hand

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

However:

Crepitus noises occurring on movement of a joint.

Sinovitus – swelling of the joint.

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

The channel is called Farsight Channel.

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

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

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

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

and

New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition

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

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

Macleod’s Gastrointestinal Examination

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

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

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

More info about the director www.iainhennessey.com”

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

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

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

Definitions again

Palmar erythema: Redness of the palm of the hand.

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

Xiphisternum lowest part of the breastbone.

Ascites – accumulation of fluid in the abdomen.

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

Hypoalbuminemia – low levels of albumin in the blood.

Macleod’s Knee Examination

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

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

More information about the director www.iainhennessey.com”

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

Definitions:

Genu valgum – knee misalignment.

Tibial Tuberosity – an image is best for this one:

Macleod’s examination of the Hands (joints)

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

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

More information about the director www.iainhennessey.com”

Definition:

Vasculitis – inflammation of the blood vessels.

Rheumatoid nodule – swelling normally near a joint.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Macleod’s Thyroid examination

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

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

Thyroid examination from Macleod’s clinical examination

More information about the director www.iainhennessey.com”

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

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

The Procrastination Pen playlist for Farsight is here:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

Today marks one year since I started blogging on ASMR. To celebrate I thought we would both have a treat and get some ASMR from a recognised ASMR professional.

This is like a kiddie being found with a hand in the sweetie jar. This is not at all in the theme of medical examinations. It has been assembled by a famous ASMR artist (so definitely fabricated). At 4.59 million subscribers (as I am looking at it) this is a channel that is fantastically popular.

I have strayed from the true path of the blog with this video but we will return to unintentional ASMR in due course. However, if this kind of post turns out to be popular, I may consider professional ASMR artists in the future.

YouTube has some algorithms in it. When you (as I have) start exploring items that have an ASMR theme, other items get recommended as the next video to view. This is one of those recommendations and I have to confess I really like this one.

Gibi ASMR is so famous that she has a Wikipedia entry.

I did not know about her prior to finding this channel. As you’d imagine the Gibi ASMR channel has quite a few videos, so many I have no idea how to count them all.

There are forty-seven playlists, some of them with a very large number of videos in.

Todays’ video is this one:

ASMR | Professional Worry Removal

As expected, this is professional, polished, great intonation, great voice but then I’m cheating and we’d be kind of upset if a professional ASMR artist could not do that, wouldn’t we?

As it turns out one of the Gibi ASMR playlists is Gibi ASMR | Worry Removals of which this is the first video.

There are seven videos in total and just for a change we’re not finding any hidden ones.

I suspect there are many advantages with just going with a professional ASMR artist and judging by the comments Gibi ASMR has many loyal fans.

I think as I am starting into review of professional ASMR artists (of which this is perhaps the only one – dependent upon how this is received) I am going to create a new Procrastination Pen playlist called “Sweetie Jar” for all such videos. These videos can be placed in that list without guilt that I am diluting the Procrastination Pen playlist which is designated for videos which contain inadvertent ASMR content.

Given the first one is so excellent what are we going to find with video two?

ASMR | Another Professional Worry Removal

As before the character is spot on in my opinion. Sybil is just right in terms of the way she speaks. No doubt this is the outcome of a great deal of time making ASMR videos.

ASMR | Professional Worry Removal & Spa Double Relaxation Treatment [1 Hour]

I really didn’t like the Luna character here. Given there is so much great material with Sybil, I don’t see the point in including it in the playlist.

ASMR | Sybil Gives You a Soothing Manicure

Sybil comes in at three and a half minutes into the video. Three and a half minutes of advertising to start the video. It is bad enough dismissing the YouTube adverts outside of the video itself without the sponsors messages in the video itself. I can’t put this one in the playlist either.

ASMR | Professional Worry Removal for the New Year

This is good; however, it is only going to be valid at the New Year. I’m not certain that isn’t going to be jarring at other times of year. However, the presentation is still great so on balance I think it should be included. (I can always weed jarring videos to the archive in the future.)

ASMR | Professionally Removing Your Anxiety & Stress in 2023

This applies in 2023 only, and as I am posting this in 2024 I am sure it also should not be in the playlist.

You may have noticed that I rushed through this blog entry. I am a bit guilty about straying from the norm of medical exams. However, having heard how good some of these are I thought I should at least cover them.

I will try to avoid coming back to professional ASMR for a while unless there is demand for it.

The Gibi playlist on The Procrastination Pen is here:

The new “Sweetie Jar” playlist for professional ASMR videos is here:

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

I am not adding “Sweetie Jar” videos to this overall playlist as they are off-topic for the theme of the blog posts so far.

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 Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Recently I have noticed that the videos available in The Procrastination Pen playlist have started to reduce. I haven’t commenced any new weeding activity so the videos have not been jettisoned into the Procrastination Pen archive playlist. Nonetheless the number of videos is going down.

Looking at the Procrastination Pen playlist, I find that ten unavailable videos are hidden at the current moment. It is tempting to conclude that because an extra spotlight has been shone on them by The Procrastination Pen blog, people have rushed to hide them from view. More realistically, I think this is the natural process of attrition. Two of the videos are now showing as marked private and eight have been deleted.

It would appear there is a race on to getting the material listed on this blog before the featured video disappears.

It would be great to create an archive of ASMR videos so that they would be permanently available. However, I am no legal expert and I suspect that there maybe a whole argument about original ownership of videos, permissions, fees and so on. The upshot is that unless the blog keeps on rolling forwards, the playlist is going to continue to diminish in terms of the number of videos it contains.

It also means that you need to get listening to the featured videos soon after I publish the blog article, as videos are obviously being removed and you may be left with a small subset of those featured.

Another undesirable outcome is that some of the blog items are going to have blank spaces where videos used to be. I can’t see how to avoid that, other than to keep deleting old blog items. That may, ultimately, be the approach that I have to take.

I’ll keep rolling forwards with articles, unless it becomes obvious that simply by documenting videos in this blog causes the videos to be removed. In which case, the blog will have become a Jonah of ASMR and I will desist with it. (However, given the statistics on this blog I think that is unlikely and extremely unlucky if it turns out to be the case.)

And so, to today’s video:

The Full Neurological Examination

This begins with the kind of funky music that we have become used to. How much nicer it is when we find a video that does not employ music. This one is narrated and the narrator has a good voice. Immediately it seems that we are in safe hands.

Definition:

Romberg’s test – a test of balance involving a person standing with feet together and eyes closed.

The voice of the medical professional, which we hear briefly at intervals, is also a good voice and better still there is little background noise.

Just examining the comments, reveals that a number of other listeners have discovered its relaxing effects.

The channel is UCL Clinical Skills which as at today’s date includes thirty-nine videos. That is quite a few to document in one blog post (and I’m sure that you’re in a hurry to get to the Procrastination Pen playlist).

There are no playlists on this channel, so the habitual mechanism of thinning down the number of videos to a size that can be readily dealt with in one post by focusing on a playlist on the channel is not going to work.

The backup method is to look for videos where the same medical professional is involved or the same patient.

In this case, there is more than one video involving the same patient. I’ll focus on just those videos this time.

Abdominal examination (basic for Y1 & Y2 students).

There is more funky start up music (oh dear) and a different narrator. The sound quality is not so great but no less relaxing. There is now evidence of background noise on some of the narration tracks.

There is also a variability in volume which is undesirable when listening and trying to get to sleep.

However, it is still a good one to include in The Procrastination Pen playlist, I think.

Neurological sensory examination of the lower limb (basic for Y1 & 2 students).

Here we have the same narrator as in the last video and the same start up music. It would be great to edit that startup music out.

The volume of the narrator seems to be lower which will make inter-video volume an issue if you are listening to the playlist. The background noise in the examination parts of the video seems a bit higher. There are hardly any comments, so it is possible that this is not getting as much ASMR listening time as the previous videos (let’s hope The Procrastination Pen can change that).

Neurological motor examination of the lower limbs (basic for Year 1 & 2 students).

The self-same intro and narrator. The narrator used in the first video (who had a better voice) has obviously packed his bags and headed for the beach which is a shame for us but probably great for him.

Definition

Clonus a rhythmic stretch reflex.

An introduction to examining the cardiovascular system; Y1 & Y2

We’re now well used to the start-up music. The narration sound quality is not that amazing on this video. It sounds like the narrator is at some distance from the microphone (or the microphone hails from 1958).

Definition:

Peripheral cyanosis: extremities having a blue colour.

An Introduction to the Abdominal Examination – Y1 and Y2

We are ringing the changes with the narrator here although not with the introductory music. It would be delightful if that music would just go for a walk somewhere rather than play at the start of a relaxing video. The narrator’s voice is really too deep in this video to be properly relaxing and comes as a bit of a shock after what has gone before.

However, it is not sufficiently off-putting to deny it membership of the Procrastination Pen playlist. (Although it may be weeded out in the future).

Fortunately, the delivery is well paced and spaced. Which soon allows relaxation to return, although this isn’t a top ASMR candidate by any means.

Definition

Epigastrium upper area of the abdomen.

Cardiovascular Examination

We’re back to the peppy music. This time the narrator sets off as if she has to speak to an auditorium, loud and a bit clipped. Perhaps that auditorium is full of misbehaving children.

It is not a relaxing presentation.

Although we have the same patient it is not as chilled as previous videos in this set. I do not think that it can sneak into The Procrastination Pen playlist.

This set of videos must be excellent for instruction, I’ve seen a few medical examination videos now but I am still learning a great deal by watching. However, that is not the purpose of this set of blog posts.

Abdominal Examination

We’re back to the deep voice we heard in “An Introduction to the Abdominal Examination – Y1 and Y2” above. It isn’t marvellous ASMR-wise however not enough to discount it from the Procrastination Pen playlist. It might be dropped on future review though.

Definitions

Glossitis

Inflammation of the tongue

GALS Screen (Gait Arms Legs Spine) examination – real time

There is no narration on this one which is actually rather refreshing. The medical professional is relatively quiet. In fact, this is a great video for ASMR purposes. His tone is good and his approach methodical, everything that we have been looking for thus far.

Some of the videos do repeat some of the material from previous videos in the same series. I am assuming that this will not be too off-putting of you follow my advice to play the playlist on shuffle so that you do not just get them one after the other.

That’s it for now.

However, the channel has been good for us so I intend to return here to look at some of the other videos it contains.

The UCL Clinical Skills playlist on The Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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 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

The first thing that strikes me about today’s video is the very quiet start. What a change to some of the canned music that usual precedes videos on YouTube. There is also the absence of oppressive air conditioning noises that plague so many of these.

The patient “Natalie” (possibly misspelled) announces that she was born 10/15/98 and the medical professional states “so you’re 20”. 10/15/98 is 15/10/1998 (UK Format i.e. October). We can assume that this is filmed 2018 which given it was posted four years ago seems to indicate that it was filmed and posted around the same time.

Head to Toe Health Assessment

The patient states that she attends Colby Sawyer college https://colby-sawyer.edu/ which is a school of nursing and so potentially where this video was filmed. Colby Sawyer, as expected, has its own YouTube channel with one hundred and thirty-eight videos, four hundred and one subscribers and three playlists. A brief check seems to indicate that sporting videos are quite important on this channel but, probably unsurprisingly, these turn out not to be videos suitable for a blog about ASMR.

For today’s video the channel is Marissa Nance and consists of this one video and no playlists.

I’ll make the assumption that this was for an assessment in that year and I’ll assume the medical professional here was Marissa.

It remains wonderfully calm and, judging by the comments, I am not the only one to think so. Many ASMR fans have checked this one out previously. Although sadly, the negative not to say nasty, comments are here as we have seen in the past.

This one is distinguished in that both Natalie and Marissa have calm voices, that is a rare (if not unique so far) find.

It seems over rather too soon, given there are no alarming noises throughout the entire video (something we have not always been able to say).

So that’s it, just the one for you today but I am certain more will be coming very soon. The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:

(and now it includes the Marissa 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

Following on from the previous blog items featuring an osteopath here is a new one. To me the voice is not a natural ASMR one however the examination is quite relaxing and missing the clunks, clicks, and exclamations that we have seen before.

Pelvis & Sacrum Palpatory Landmarks for Physical Examination and Osteopathic Structural Exam

Fortunately, this is lacking obtrusive background noise. There is also a helpful set of notes (which we can probably now take to be a sign of a professionally released video). This tells us that it was all filmed at the North Texas Health Science Center Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (UNTHSC – TCOM) Medical Education Training (MET) facilities.

It is also lacks the borderline nasty comments which we have occasionally seen before.

All of these are good signs. However, the voice is no Shane Brun – but hey this is not what the video was produced for.

The channel is Osteopathic Clinical Skills there are extensive notes on the channel but none of these details who is doing the presenting. There are ninety-seven videos as at today’s date. As usual I will select a relevant playlist to slim this down to something more manageable for a blogpost. There are ten playlists and as luck would have it our first selected video is a member of this one:

Landmark Palpation

Six videos including the one that we have already covered above.

The videos are:

Common Palpatory Landmarks for Physical Examination and Osteopathic Structural Examination

Again it is calm, no Dr James Gill but far better than some of the student videos we have seen in the past.

The background noise (air conditioning again) is not excessive here unlike some that have been reviewed of late.

Standing Postural Examination – Osteopathic Structural Exam (OSE) Screening

The length of the videos starts to slope off a bit with this one, just in excess of six and a half minutes. The quality though still remains consistent. It is more relaxing than true ASMR. As such, I still think that these are going to make it to the Procrastination Pen playlist, although I reserve the right to archive any that don’t stand up to continued review.

Upper Extremity Palpatory Landmarks for Physical Examination and Osteopathic Structural Examination

The video we started with in this blog post occurs after this one in the playlist. There is very little variance in terms of presentation with the videos we have already seen in this post. Assuming no terrible surprises, I think all of these will be in the Procrastination Pen playlist (at least for a while). I use the playlist myself so it gets continuous evaluation for effectiveness. So far, my favourite remains Hollie Berry, but it is always possible something even more marvellous will make itself known soon.

Somatic Dysfunction: Tissue Texture Assessment (TART) – Thoracic, Lumbar

Interesting how much a person has to be informed of, so that they are able to consent to the procedure. This seems a fairly recent development or maybe it is a regional one. This video remains consistent with the others. This has been a good set with no outlandish noises or strange behaviours. Not true ASMR but relaxing enough to be in the Procrastination Pen playlist I contend (subject to future review).

The Osteopathic Clinical Skills playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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 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 Chris Wong on Unsplash