I am poised to go on a trip. As with every trip that anyone takes anywhere, the payment in cash is a mere fraction of the payment that is required. There is the use of time you do not have, for booking, for checking, for verifying, for transferring and/or for communicating.
There is the dedication of additional time in the workplace to prepare for what will be an onslaught of material that you will have been unable to manage during your absence. There is then the consequent impact on sleep, for if your day was already busy (and whose isn’t), where is all that additional time coming from?
If you have a similar experience you may retire in a state of higher “excitement” than is useful for proper sleep. You may have spent longer than recommended on the screen evaluating places to stay or flights to catch. You may have some bad news about some aspect of the trip that has left you disappointed.
You may be concerned that the funds you thought were available are now going to have to be found via credit card, overdraft, or borrowing elsewhere.
Each item in its own way can impact your sleep. So, if you find yourself decorating the nighttime air with expletives over your inability to sleep, perhaps it is time to distract yourself with something restful.
For just such a purpose did this range of blog posts commence, rather a long time ago now. Just occasionally I receive feedback, even more occasionally it isn’t of the scam variety. If you feel the blog has strayed from where you would like it to be by all means feedback about it. I might even do something about it.
Of late, I have been linking to a meditation on Calm. I have a Calm subscription, and I rather like it. The reason I like it particularly is because I am fed up of the loud and intrusive adverts that are thrust into a great deal of web-based browsing. In particular, if you are relying on a playlist of restful videos, the inclusion of intrusive adverts is just not going to help.
The downside of Calm is that you have to pay for it. The slightly more minor downside is that the web-based version has no way of chaining the material together (say, in way of a playlist) and so it is strictly one thing at a time.
Given my recommendations of late have been meditations of no greater than ten minutes then I think (rather like this article) anything I have mentioned from Calm recently would be something of an appetiser. The YouTube content (which is generally longer) very definitely forming the main course.
Here is today’s Calm recommendation:
https://www.calm.com/app/player/kgezKhbBSs
Daily Calm
Thinking
Narrator
Tamara Levitt
Author
Tamara Levitt
Tamara’s voice is one of the voices I prefer on Calm, it is very restful. Some of the other artists produce material that I prefer, but Tamara would be my go-to voice for relaxing most often.
This one is a little less than eleven minutes, so you’ll need to be quick if you’re going to fall asleep to this. It is about obsessive thinking, which maybe something keeping you from sleep and so probably directly of relevance.
I have been, recently, evaluating a professional ASMR artist in these articles, rather as a counterfoil to the inadvertent ASMR material that I prefer. Today we have:
ASMR Roleplay | Your First Therapy Session (help for stress, anxiety, intrusive thoughts)
Straight away we get the impression that is going to be one of the more whispery of offerings. Nothing spectacularly wrong with that. However, I often remark that if this is supposed to be a genuine therapy session I’d be quite surprised if anyone providing therapy did so by whispering at me. But I live to be surprised and Whispering Bob’s therapists could turn out to be a genuine thing.
It is nearly forty-six minutes long, so substantial amongst videos we have recently reviewed. And it has notes: “996,903 views 15 Dec 2022
Hi guys! This is a roleplay I’ve been wanting to do for a while now! It’s a therapist roleplay in which I whisper, type, ask lots of questions, calm you down, give you mental health tips, light a candle, do breathing exercises, flip through a workbook with you, write notes, demonstrate EFT tapping, and much more. 💜
Please note that this ASMR video is a *roleplay* – I’m not a mental health professional. I did try to recreate how my first ever therapy appointment went though. 🙂
Until next time!
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As is usual for a professional ASMR video, a healthy set of notes and a healthy set of self-promotion. So far, so expected. Comments are permitted and as you’ll know (if you have read any other articles recently on this blog) the aura around professional ASMR artists is such that all commentators seem to have left their nastier tendencies at home and praise is heaped upon the video.
It comes to us from: Sarah Lavender ASMR, with 474K subscribers, three hundred and seventy-five videos and ten playlists. Sarah Lavender is a hard-working ASMR artist.
There is a whole playlist dedicated to medical style videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLymIhVfp2ZPx4yTyy4412qeylQ1YjI0bi
This is a subject which has been the grist to our mill for some months. It might be that you’ll want to give that playlist a try.
All that being said, I tend to have high expectations of professional ASMR artists and, of late, those expectations have not really been met. There are some interesting decisions around sounds which I do not like (but I am sure only exist because so many ASMR fans do like them).
In this case the voice is excellent, and often I wish that the video would stop right there in terms of included noises. Here we have ceramic noises, clothing-related noises, various clicks, taps, crackles, keyboard noises, clucking noises, writing noises, scratching noises, liquid noises, even fingernails on glass. I’d prefer that none of these had been included but I think I’m safe in assuming there will be an ASMR devotee somewhere that loves every one of those noises.
It has a tendency to be a bit on the breathy side. However, on the plus side, it seems a lot less visual-orientated than videos reviewed on this blog of late. This makes listening to it as an aid to sleep substantially more worthwhile. Sadly, it ends with music but it is neither loud nor extended. You might want to give this video a try.
The core purpose of this blog article like the many before it, has been to focus on inadvertent ASMR videos – i.e. videos that are restful despite the fact that they were created for quite another purpose (of late, habitually videos on a medical theme).
I think the Procrastination Pen playlist is beginning to graduate into the more serious leagues given how large it is getting and the number of videos that I have now archived from it in the drive to capture continued quality from it.
Hopefully you are finding this to be the case, and I would encourage you to comment if you are not finding it as workable as you would like.
I thought I should explain the named playlists as these are not as dynamic as the others, and this has always been by design. The rules have been that where I find a YouTube channel which has more than one video that might be useful for sleep, I create a playlist which is named such that it references the original source of those videos. This is not as common as you would imagine. Not infrequently I find that there is one gem of a video on a channel which is the sole diamond in the coalmine. Hence no named playlist is created.
Where named playlists exist, however, they remain static as at the point the blog item is published. There is no further reviewing of it and no attempts to weed from it. This was by design. I reasoned that people who choose the named playlist over the main Procrastination Pen playlist are doing so because they have a fondness for that set of videos and probably do not want to have anyone messing with them.
I still recommend that you focus on the Procrastination Pen playlist as this has the focus of attention. It gets updated regularly and videos which turn out to contain irritating noises are despatched to the archive list. The aim being that it remains pristine, usable, restful.
Today we are back to eye exams with this video:
Easier Ophthalmoscopic exam
A little over six and a quarter minutes so it isn’t one to delay you for long.
In terms of a playlist the length of the video matters little as the next video pops up automagically. I have noticed two downsides of short videos however:
One is that the volume of any two videos is unlikely to be the same, meaning that as the new video pops up there is a possibility of being deafened. Or worse, woken up just as you were drifting off.
Secondly, YouTube tends to choose the between-video moments to slot in some of its louder and more energetic adverts. These seem not to take into account time of day, video theme, (if I’m watching relaxing videos do I really want a video to start loudly or at two hundred miles an hour?) or, despite apparently using your info for advertising purposes, the preferences of the viewer. It surprises me the number of adverts I get that are totally of no interest whatsoever and loud, so – so loud.
Therefore, these shorter videos may expose you to more of the energising, “crush your goals” nonsense that seem to act as click-bait on such adverts. If so, I apologise.
For this week’s video, notes do exist, but are refreshingly brief: “76,075 views 27 Jul 2017
This video shows how to easily find the optic disc in less than 5 seconds”
Comments are permitted and for a change are mostly positive. However, there are no ASMR-related comments – which is usually not a good sign, frankly.
The medical Professional is M. Kyu Chung MD. Dr Chung has a great voice. The video starts without startup music, there is not background noise discernible – so far, so good. The “patient” is not introduced.
The Channel Myung Chung for that is where this video is found, contains playlists which are really of no assistance to us. There are five videos including the one first reviewed, so it is quite within the scope of this one article to cover them all.
I notice that none of them are particularly long either. I hope the adverts that you are “gifted” are restful ones…
Korsakov method dilutions
This is just under eleven and a half minutes long. There are brief notes: “7,401 views 18 Mar 2020
Demonstration on how to make a Korsakov dilution for virus management.”
As usual the comments have somewhat variable (and not always helpful) content. This time the microphone seems to be fighting against a very large space. The video sounds distant and muted. An alarm starts to go off and no one attends to it. That is quite distracting.
I’m also not clear whether homeopathic content is likely to encourage many readers to listen to it. The evidence against homeopathy seems to have been overwhelming.
There is no medical examination here as such. Adding those factors together I do not think that this video is a suitable member of the Procrastination Pen playlist.
How to use the otoscope/pneumatoscope
Just slightly over five minutes, so we won’t be held up long in listening to it. The notes associated with the video are equally brief: “84,702 views 27 Feb 2018
This video describes a neat trick to effectively use the pneumatic insufflator.”
The usual array of comments, some affirming a number less so, some just whacky, no ASMR related feedback though I notice.
The video starts without introductory music – which is a plus. The sound is a bit muted as if a less than optimum microphone is in use, possibly use of the inbuilt microphone rather than a lapel mic, for example.
Mr Chung’s voice is a good one. It isn’t loud, fast or hesitant. However, on the downside this is more of a tips for using equipment video rather than a medical examination video as such.
Easier IV Placement
Just a little less than six minutes. Already, I am feeling that the subject matter might not be that restful. The notes are again brief “4,687,387 views 17 Feb 2017
Easier technique for IV placement”
The comments are variable as expected but a number of commentators report that they did find it off-putting.
Dr Chung remains consistent voice wise. But again, this is a description of a technique rather than a medical examination as such.
Although there is no extraneous noise in the video and the presentation is as measured as in previous videos featured in this blog post, I think the subject matter is such that it will not be a comfortable member of the Procrastination Pen playlist. Therefore, I am discounting it.
An Easier Thyroid Exam
Just over seven and a half minutes. The notes continue to be brief: “683,734 views 17 Dec 2014
A demonstration of a more accurate method of performing the thyroid exam using an anterior approach.
By M. Kyu Chung MD
http://www.chunginstitute.com”
Which makes a change from the enormous number of notes used to market a product.
It is quite refreshing in fact.
The comments if anything are more unhelpful than associated with other videos in this blog post, including the odd comment which indicates a person really should be consulting a medical professional rather than watching videos on YouTube.
The video starts in a muted fashion, which is very welcome given we are so used to funky start-up music.
Again, Dr Chung has a great voice for our purposes. There are elements of the video which are silent which might be distracting (these are used for explanatory content, but you won’t know that if you are listening rather than watching).
The examination is gentle and careful. The explanation of what is happening seems to be thorough (and some of the comments confirm that to be the case).
Occasionally the microphone sounds like it is a long way from the Dr (a lapel mic would have helped, I suspect).
The Dr Myung Chung playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
Photo by DeepAI
The Procrastination Pen 