Sleeping With ASMR

For the keen Procrastination Pen enthusiast, the Moran CORE channel will not be a mystery because we have been here before.

At that time, we encountered a “patient” Megan who had a good voice for us, but sadly didn’t get much air time. There is not a chance we will find any other Megan material unless someone reading this happens to know that she has a channel and passes that info along. (A search on “Megan” brings up all kinds of unrelated material as you would imagine.)

On the basis that we are unlikely to see that happen, I return to Moran CORE because one of the professionals on this site also has a good voice. This is David Meyer.

The video I start with is this one:

Using Subjective Refraction to Calculate Glasses Prescription and Fit a Contact Lens

Straight away the advantages of a professional video are heard, no background noise. In this case, no funky start up music (heaven be praised). David has a nice quiet and methodical approach – it’s all going swimmingly. The video informs us that David is the Director of Contact Lens Services at the Moran Eye Center Utah.

In addition, the video has notes: “8 Feb 2018

Title:  Using Subjective Refraction to Calculate Glasses Prescription and Fit a Contact Lens

Author: David Meyer, MD

Date: 3/08/2017

From Moran CORE Collection: http://morancore.utah.edu

David tells us that Moran is located in Salt Lake City.

The technical content is quite a bit beyond me I have to say so in this case I found it best to allow it to wash over me.

Definitions:

Phoropter: an instrument for evaluating vision

Axis: position of astigmatism in the eyes

Cylinder: lens power needed to correct astigmatism

Vertex: the distance between the cornea to the back of a lens

Slit lamp: a lamp the ophthalmologist uses to view the retina

Although, occasionally, he does get a little more energetic in his presentation, he does not stray here into loud. All-in-all I think a good one for the Procrastination Pen Playlist.

Moran of course has approximately one thousand videos available and thinning down those to review for this blog is one of those interesting tasks we have seen before.

In this case I think the only approach is to search YouTube for videos in which David appears (on the understanding that I will probably miss one or two videos featuring David which the search does not capture.)

Meet David Meyer, OD, FAAO

Notice that now we are on a new channel

John A. Moran Eye Center

I have no idea why there are two channels for one centre but I notice this latter channel has a lot less subscribers and a much more manageable one hundred videos. I suspect if it is anything like the University Channels we have explored before, this will be a marketing channel and of limited interest to us

This one, sadly includes ongoing funky music. I think it is safe to say this is a promo video and as a consequence David is much more energised here. Great for David less good for relaxing-sleep-time videos. This is not one for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The notes back this up, definitely more of a sale-sy pitch to it “25 Jan 2023

David Meyer, OD, FAAO, specializes in the fitting of contact lenses at the John A. Moran Eye Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. He also practices at Moran’s Midvalley Health Center. He primarily focuses on keratoconus, post-surgical corneas, pediatrics, irregular or high astigmatism, and fitting traumatized eyes. Dr. Meyer also provides primary eye care for those who do not wear contact lenses.

Call 801-581-2352 to schedule an appointment at our University and Midvalley location.”

Proper Fit and Evaluation of Gas Permeable Contact Lens

Back on the original Moran Core channel and at just over ten minutes a more substantive video, such that it feels like we are on home ground again.

Yet again no funky intro music, a quiet David voice which we are used to from the first video. The “patient” is the same, the approach is equally measured, however the technical terminology just keeps on coming.

The notes are somewhat brief this time “8 Feb 2018

Title:  Proper Fit and Evaluation of Gas Permeable Contact Lens

Author: David Meyer, MD

Date: 03/08/2017

From Moran CORE Collection: http://morancore.utah.edu

Definitions:

K reading: measurement of corneal curvature.

Diopter: focusing strength of a lens.

Over refraction: even when wearing the lens, the patient will still have some focusing issues left – this is a measure of those remaining issues.

Fluorescein: stain used to diagnose eye conditions.

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

Corneal Topography in Keratoconus and Contact Lens

Back on form, David is certainly turning out to be reasonably consistent for our purposes.

The notes are: “8 Feb 2018

Title:  Corneal Topography in Keratoconus and Contact Lens

Author: David Meyer, MD

Date: 3/08/2017

From Moran CORE Collection: http://morancore.utah.edu

Definition:

Keratoconus: a bulge in the cornea which affects vision.

This is substantially shorter in that it is just over three and a half minutes. The condition sounds alarming but fortunately there are none of the, sometimes-shocking, images that can haunt the dark alleyways of YouTube. So nothing (I hope) to aid in your sleeplessness. As a result I am going to include it in The Procrastination Pen playlist. It might be weeded in the future.

The playlist is subject to continuous review (by me) so if it turns out that something is just not a good fit I’ll plop it into the archive list (just in case it turns out to be one of your favourites, in which case it would b rude to ban it completely).

I hope that you find the playlist restful. My advice is always to pick up the playlist on YouTube itself. That way you can make use of the shuffle function and play it in random order. Otherwise, you may get a lot of similar videos playing one after another.

The Moran Core 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 are 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 listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by lingda kong on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Welcome back, another day at the Procrastination Pen and another review of a potential ASMR video. Those of you who have been reading this for a while now will understand the drill. If you’re a newbie, hello and welcome. Each blog item I take another video which was not designed for ASMR and review it, in case it has ASMR effects or at the very least could be thought relaxing enough to help you sleep.

At the end of the exercise any worthwhile videos are added to the Procrastination Pen playlist. I always put a reference to the playlist at the end of each article so if you are short of time skip to the end, pick up the url, hop over to YouTube and listen away. I hope you enjoy it.

Still here? Marvellous, well onto today’s video then which is this one:

Muscle Palpation – Upper Extremity (Shoulder, Arm, Forearm, Wrist, Hand) ASMR

This has a set of notes associated with it and boy are they long (I’ll skip the parts dedicated to asking for subscriptions) “27 Feb 2021 Upper Extremity Muscle Palpations

Muscle Palpation – Upper Extremity (Shoulder, Arm, Forearm, Wrist, Hand)

Deltoid

Supraspinatus

Infraspinatus

Subscapularis

Teres Minor

Teres Major

Biceps Brachii

Coracobrachialis

Brachialis

Brachioradialis

Triceps Brachii

Extensor Carpi Radialis Longus & Extensor Carpi Radialis Brevis

Extensor Digitorum

Extensor Digiti Minimi

Extensor Carpi Ulnaris

Abductor Pollicis Longus

Anconeus

Extensor Indicis

Extensor Pollicis Longus & Extensor Pollicis Brevis

Pronator Teres

Supinator

Flexor Carpi Radialis

Flexor Carpi Ulnaris

Flexor Digitorum Profundus

Flexor Digitorum Superficialis

Flexor Pollicis Longus

Palmaris Longus

Pronator Quadratus

Abductor Digiti Minimi

Abductor Pollicis Brevis

Adductor Pollicis

Flexor Digiti Minimi (Manus)

Flexor Pollicis Brevis

Lumbricals (Manus)

Opponens Digiti Minimi

Opponens Pollicis

Palmar Interossei & Dorsal Interossei”

Phew. And as for the notes so for the video which is in excess of 2 hours in length!

Comments are permitted which as I have pointed out before is somewhat brave. However some ASMR fans have found this one much before me. I have mentioned before that ASMR fans are equalled only by Jonathan Creek in terms of ferreting out ASMR content (it is with great joy that I occasionally find one which does not seem to have been tracked down before)

One of the commentators states that the timings are as follows:

“Deltoid 0:01

Supraspinatus 4:02

Infraspinatus 6:51

Subscapularis 9:34

Teres Minor 14:14

Teres Major 17:32

Biceps Brachii 22:38

Coracobrachialis 28:17

Brachialis 32:10

Brachioradialus 35:54

Triceps Brachii 38:58

Extensor Carpi Radialis Longus and Brevis 44:10

Extensor Digitorum 49:15

Extensor Carpi Ulnaris 53:10

Abductor Pollicis Longus 55:24

Anconeus 58:30

Extensor Indicis 1:00:23

Extensor Pollicis Longus and Brevis 1:03:06

Pronator Teres 1:07:32

Supinator 1:10:39

Flexor Carpi Radialus 1:14:04

Flexor Carpi Ulnaris 1:16:40

Flexor Digitorum Profundus 1:20:07

Flexor Digitorum Superficialis 1:25:08

Flexor Pollicics Longus 1:30:38

Palmaris Longus 1:34:13

Pronator Quadratus 1:37:48

Abductor Digiti Minimi 1:40:34

Abductor Pollicis Brevis 1:43:00

Adductor Pollicus 1:45:00

Flexor Digiti Minimi (Manus) 1:48:18

Flexor Pollicis Brevis 1:50:10

Lumbricals (Manus) 1:52:16

Opponens Digiti Minimi 1:57:06

Opponens Pollicis 1:59:16

Palmar Interossei & Dorsal Interossei 2:01:41”

I have not reviewed the timings myself, but I can’t imagine you’re going to need them if you’re using the video to drop off to.

The downside of a video with all these sections is that YouTube seems to take the opportunity at every division to throw in another loud and therefore sleep-disturbing advert. If there is a mystery setting that can put off such adverts till the end of play I’d dearly love to know what it is.

The medical professional has a good voice but sadly is not identified. The recording method leaves a lot to be desired, this video is not so much quiet as near silent. It is unusual that I have to turn the volume up in order to review a video.

However, the presentation is calm and methodical and let’s face it with a video of this length you’re probably only going to need this one video to fall asleep to.

It is probably a worthy addition to the playlist but all videos are continually reviewed and occasionally jettisoned into the archive list (the archive only exists in case I bin one of your favourites).

Given the length I think this time I will limit myself to one video however the channel is Blackriver & Bootsma Education.

At the time of review there are two hundred and ninety videos on this channel and most of them are substantially shorter than today’s video. For this reason, this is a channel worth noting and returning to. With any luck they solved their microphone volume issues on some of the subsequent videos.

Unusually (given there is only one video here) I have created a B&B Education playlist on the Procrastination Pen channel here:

This is only because I have high confidence other videos will be reviewed on this channel and added to the overall playlist in the future.

The overall playlist which seasoned blog readers will know well is here:

The archive list of those which fell from grace 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 listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Kelvin Han on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

In searching for new ASMR videos I’m prepared to try various avenues. You will have noticed that on occasion I do voyage away from the main theme, which to date has been medical (and similar) examination videos.

Despite the attrition of videos slowly being removed from YouTube, the Procrastination Pen playlist continues to grow and hence I can afford to be quite critical of its contents and to weed out those that are less desirable for sleep promotion than at first thought.

The overall playlist as usual appears at the end of this article, so if you are short of time scroll straight to the end and pick it up from there.

If you’re still reading, onto today’s idea.

Of late I have noticed that some gruff and loud presenters seem to calm down and go quiet when dealing with young people. Today’s is a foray into that area therefore.

It is this one:

Rachel Bridges Head to Toe Assessment

As expected, it is quiet, calm and methodically presented. The only thing I would say is that you might need to turn the volume up a bit.

At just over twenty-five minutes, it is quite a good length and it seems others think so too as the channel has over two thousand subscribers as at today’s date. However, (probably sensibly) comments are not permitted which means I cannot tell if ASMR fans have already tracked this down. (As we’ve seen before some comments are less than helpful).

The small person seems suitably entertained including being tickled at one stage, I think.

The medical institution is not identified. Rachel has an identification badge but I cannot make out what it says.

There is as expected continual background noise (probably air conditioning) as we’ve heard before.

I would guess from the orientation of the video (Portrait mode) that it was taken using a mobile phone or similar device.

Rachel maintains a conversation with the small person throughout, including in areas I thought they would find hard to comprehend.

I think this one belongs in the Procrastination Playlist, although it might be subject to future weeding.

This one is posted in 2018 to the following channel:

Rachel Bridges

The videos on here range from five years ago to five months ago and there are only four of them. There has to be a reason why there are quite so many subscribers. I would make a wild guess some ASMR fans have got here before me.

Looking at the other videos:

September 15, 2017

Very brief, just over a minute and appears to be reading from a piece about nurse practitioners. Rachel has a good voice but this one does not seem to be a great fit for the playlist. I think this might be an assessment piece for a course which is in line with other videos that have been featured before.

Another very brief video:

January 20, 2023

This one is on the role of a psychiatric nurse mental health practitioner, again, it is reading from a script and is not a good fit for the playlist.

The next one is another “Head to Toe” but without the small person (the person involved is more adult sized). Let’s see if my theory about people changing behaviour based on whether a person is a young person is supported by the second video.

The video is this one:

R.Bridges Head to toe assessment

Straight away the presentation is a lot faster than the last “Head to Toe” on this channel, and a lot less measured. However, the tone remains quiet. The presentation is so fast in places I am not sure what medical terminology is in use.

I have a feeling that the “patient” here actually has a slightly better voice (than Rachel). However, he gets little to say (he is also unidentified).

Comments are permitted but there are no comments that are helpful to us (such as where this is for example).

However, at one stage the badge comes into view and I believe it states “NP Student” at “Indiana Wesleyan”.

So at least we have identified the location, if not the “patient”.

We’re back to landscape mode with this one but the background noise persists. The volume is slightly louder, not markedly, but I would say the approach is less gentle (than the first video in this article).

It is just over nineteen and a half minutes so still a good length and on balance I would say also belongs in the Procrastination Pen playlist. However, I keep reviewing this playlist and videos get demoted to the archive playlist all the time based upon their long-term sleep promotion effects (or otherwise).

The video goes out of focus at one stage but, given you will not be watching but lying there praying for sleep whilst listening, I think that’s unlikely to affect you.

As is not atypical for assessment videos. There are occasional thuds as equipment is relocated – in the past I have weeded videos for this, and this one might be another that goes the same way.

I notice that (like me) the patient has apparent problems with the heel to toe exercise (not great if you have dodgy balance).

So a couple of videos from Rachel worthy of conclusion and so, as is habitual on this site, I have created a Rachel Bridges playlist:

The main playlist on the Procrastination pen is (as always) here:

The archive list of videos which whilst once in that main list were found over time to be less listenable than at first thought is here:

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I hope that you continue to find them restful

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

Until next time.

Photo by Anas Belmadani on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

I seem to have meandered into the world of ASMR YouTube channels more recently. It will not be a permanent move. My intention is to get right back to genuine medical videos.

Today’s channel is ASMR Sandwich Breath, as mentioned before sandwich breath is a bit of an insider ASMR joke. People either know of the sandwich breath video or they do not. Afficionados of ASMR videos are expected to understand the inside jokes (I only get a few of them as there are a great many such videos).

Today’s video is this one:

Physical Medical Exam Unintentional ASMR

The video starts with the title PE for TOPE Student Demonstration

Ross here the “patient” and Jessica the medical professional. Jessica states this is the University of Washington and that she is a registered nurse. The comments state that the original of this video has now been deleted. Assuming that we can trust that, this is possibly the only place we will encounter this video.

The University of Washington has its own channel of course, 757 videos on that channel and 12 playlists. The upshot of which is that some playlists are composed of over 100 videos.

Jessica’s video does not seem to be in there.

UDUB is apparently a shortening for the University of Washington to those in the know.

Ross does not seem the happiest patient, or taking a more positive view he could be half asleep.

Jessica enunciates the medical terms here in such a clear way, possibly the best I have heard so far.

I also notice a great deal of time taken to explain what is coming next. Perhaps this thoroughness explains why the video is in excess of thirty-four minutes.

This is very quiet. Jessica at intervals is on a par with Vicki Scott which is quite a statement, the result is a video which is a good playlist candidate.

The video concludes with a healthy amount of information Jessica Burke-Lazarus BSN, RN Midwifery-DNP student was the medical professional. Jessica, it turns out, graduated in 2013 and now works in Seattle.

The “patient” was Rosson Wiebe PMHNP-DNP Student Ross also graduated in 2013 and went on to work in Florida.

It also tells us that it was filmed December 9 2011 in the Center for Excellence in Nursing Education at the University of Washington.

ASMR Sandwich breath has forty-eight videos as at today’s date, that is a fair few videos to attempt to motor through. A quick scan of them reveals some old favourites which we have covered before.

The usual approach is to reduce the number to be covered by selecting a suitable playlist from the channel.

There are five playlists on here but some of them are a little on the long side.

A nice short playlist is this one:

which is titled

Medical ASMR – Male Nurse/Doctor with Male Patient

Ostensibly consisting of four videos but two of these are listed as hidden. We have seen this before but I am no closer to explaining it.

So that leaves us with two videos to look at (the first video with Jessica in it is not part of this playlist).

Fit and Evaluation of GP Contact Lens Unintentional ASMR

Dr David Meyer and we are back at the Moran Eye Centre. We covered a subset of the Moran Eye Centre videos previously.

However not this one or the one after this. However, I think a return to Moran is indicated when we can cover these videos in their natural home

Which for this one is here:

Prescription & Fit a Contact Lens Unintentional ASMR

This is also on Moran CORE it is here:

with the above video I will cover this one in a future review of the video in its proper home.

The ASMR Sandwich breath 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 experience to log on, this interrupts the process. 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

Recently, as happens in everyone’s life, things have been stressful. Habitually in the past, this would mean that I would achieve substantially less sleep. However, the addition of some Bose QuietComfort headphones (a company with which I am affiliated in no sense) and the Procrastination Pen playlist has really helped in this respect. The sleep isn’t super refreshing, don’t get me wrong, but there is at least more of it than I might have expected in similar circumstances in the past.

I hope that you find the playlist is helpful in your pursuit of sleep, no matter the headphones that you choose to employ to listen to it.

Today is another one from an old favourite channel which regular readers will instantly recognise. I also think, if anything, this video is superior in terms of restfulness than the last video I featured for this particular channel.

The video is this one:

Examination of the Cranial Nerves – Demonstration

At just over seven minutes it’s not huge in length and the comments lead me to suspect that the ASMR community has thoroughly taken to this one, adopted it and gone out for walks with it in the park on Sundays.

As a professionally produced video it, of course, has notes and the notes in this case are very helpful:

“13 Dec 2011 Clinical Examinations

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

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

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

Presented by Dr Richard Abbott MD FRCP Consultant Neurologist. Produced and Directed by Dr Irene Peat FRCR FRCP, Dr Nicholas Port MBChB BSc and Jon Shears.

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

The video starts without introductory music – wow!

It begins quietly, it continues perfectly. The medical professional and the “patient” both have excellent voices. All-in-all a video one could wish would go on for better than forty five minutes.

But it is a brief one, so we must console ourselves (like the Hollie Berry material) that at least it exists and is on a University channel (and so may exist for a while yet).

The channel is: University of Leicester and at this rate it is likely to become a thoroughgoing favourite on this blog (along with the University of Warwick).

Sadly, it has in excess of 1300 videos. Trawling that lot for the odd additional one is likely to take longer than is sensibly available.

I think falling back on the searching of YouTube for more videos featuring Dr Richard Abbott is a valid approach in this case.

It turns out that this search reveals some ASMR channels have now adopted this video as their very own for example here:

Unintentional ASMR – University of Leicester Exams (without Walkthroughs)

which is on a channel:

Princess Eev [ASMR]

Hopefully it (the channel) sticks around. Some of the pure ASMR channels have disappeared of late and I do wonder if some channel owners fall foul of copyright action (although I have no evidence for this of course).

However, there is another in the same series (sadly only the one more) and as I prefer to get the videos from original sources, if I can, I’ll go with that video.

(I have used pure ASMR channels before this, but I do try to implement the more po-faced approach of locating unintentional ASMR videos the old-fashioned way i.e. by watching a lot of normal videos and trying to locate any restful ones).

Examination of the Cranial Nerves – Explanation

This is just less than sixteen and a quarter minutes long. There is again no startup music, thankyou video recording persons for this (and other such persons take note).

It starts again quietly, it continues quietly, in my view it is every bit as good as the previous one.

The comments indicate the ASMR community love this, with many cross references to other ASMR videos known to those “in the know”. By this stage I imagine that you are all familiar with them as well. There being no mystery to them, other than the need to watch far too much potential ASMR material.

There are notes again: “30 Apr 2012 Clinical Examinations

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

I’m afraid the urls no longer lead to additional material which, given the video was posted in excess of eleven years ago, is probably no surprise.

In addition, the Internet Archive has no record of it (as at today’s date in any case).

Very regrettably that appears to be all Dr Abbott and “Paul” left for us. They enriched the ASMR community with their (sadly brief) presence and we could have but hoped for more.

So back to what you were doing then, but remember to come back in a week’s time.

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

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Svetozar Cenisev on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

After quite a few blog posts and a rather large number of draft blog items which never saw the light of day, I still remain interested in ASMR videos. I still listen to the Procrastination Pen playlist most days. I rely on it to drop off to sleep, commonly if I wake up stark awake in the early hours of the morning. For this reason I have high hopes that if you are reading this in the hope of getting some insomnia relief, especially if you know that you are susceptible to ASMR symptoms, that at least one of the videos I have found so far will become one of your favourites.

As is now typical the full Procrastination Pen playlist is referenced at the end of this blog item. If you are short of time scroll all the way down to it – hop over to YouTube – hit the shuffle function and get some restful moments.

If instead you’re keen to find out what new video I have happened across in my searches, it is this one:

Skin: Demo Exam

Back to the funky music which we know and are not at all fond of. It starts off a little energetically but it soon settles down.

It’s a professional video and, as we have seen before, it comes with a reasonable set of notes “17 Feb 2016

In today’s medical practice, knowing how to spot physical signs of nutritional imbalances during a routine physical examination is an essential diagnostic tool. This nutrition-focused skin exam is conducted by Elizabeth Boham, MD, MS, RD. https://www.drboham.com/

N Sight is presented by the Institute for Functional Medicine.”

Comments are denied (probably wise) so I cannot tell if other ASMR fans are here before me, but with a video like this, the odds are that they have been.

It is just over three minutes so a short one for us but it is calm and measured. Dr Boham has a good voice for us I think and is worthy of checking further – in case she features in other, similar videos.

The channel is N Sight

It has 2710 subscribers and is therefore popular and with twenty videos on the day I’m looking at it that is quite some achievement. (Some sites we have seen have many more videos than that).

There are four playlists and the great thing is that there is one playlist dedicated to Dr Boham – this makes life a great deal easier. The play list Skin Exam

has four videos of which the above one is video two in the set.

At first sight the others look less promising. They appear to be more presenting than medical examination as such. However, it is worth giving them a proper review.

The First video in the playlist is this one:

Skin Exam: Introduction, Equipment, & Patient Positioning

Sadly, there is no relief from the funky start up music, people love their brand even if it keeps other people awake!

This starts out as a presentation by Dr Boham which is not reassuring. However Dr Boham does have a good voice for us. The downside is that at every interval (within what is a very short video at only four and three quarter minutes) the funky music plays again. This gets rather tiresome.

The notes are as follows:

“14,451 views 17 Feb 2016

In today’s medical practice, knowing how to spot physical signs of nutritional imbalances during a routine physical examination is an essential diagnostic tool. This nutrition-focused skin exam introduction is conducted by Elizabeth Boham, MD, MS, RD.

N Sight is presented by the Institute for Functional Medicine.”

However, I have come over all charitable (Dr Boham does have a rather good voice) so I am going to include this in the Procrastination Pen playlist for now (it may be a victim of subsequent weeding).

Skin: Teaching Exam

Notes again: “17 Feb 2016

In today’s medical practice, knowing how to spot physical signs of nutritional imbalances during a routine physical examination is an essential diagnostic tool. This nutrition-focused skin exam is conducted by Elizabeth Boham, MD, MS, RD.

N Sight is presented by the Institute for Functional Medicine.”

This is actually video three in the set, video two being the one that we first came in with. Yet again the funky music. Dr Boham starts off a bit energetic in presentation. This is sad given the standard set by the video we started with.

However, I still like Dr Boham’s voice and I’m rather fond of the way in which she pronounces “Capillaries” so I am (at the moment) prepared to let it into the playlist. In any case at just shy of four and a half minutes it is really short. It is a shame I can’t delete the music and make it a decently quiet video.

And so to the final video:

(in this playlist anyway)

Skin: Conclusion

Annoying music – tick, really short video (this one just over one and a half minutes) – tick, duplicated notes from the other videos in this playlist – tick.

In an ideal world the video would have no music at all.

The N Sight playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others are 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 part way through a playlist in order to log on, this interrupts the flow/sleep dependent upon how long you’ve been listening. 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 Marcos Ferrari on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

In the drive to create the perfect night-time companion (I mean the Procrastination Pen playlist rather than any other type of companion that might have sprung to mind), I sometimes weed out so many videos that it all looks like a roadside verge when the strimmer operator has been a little too enthusiastic.

Added to this is a high rate of attrition, which shows that as fast as I write about videos, people are then taking them down. Given that some of them might be being taken down due to legal reasons (such as copyright offences), it would be unwise of me to keep copies of such videos to re-upload them again (or I might find the entire Procrastination Pen YouTube channel quietly disappears).

One day I may tire of maintaining the blog, and the YouTube channel, (and the Facebook page, and so on and so forth) but I’d rather like that decision to be mine, not imposed by a copyright official at YouTube.

I’ve been weeding the playlist recently, such that the Procrastination Pen archive playlist is quite healthy in size and the Procrastination Pen main playlist (the reason we’re all here I assume) is a bit smaller. Quite enough to act as a restful companion, perhaps not quite long enough to sustain many more YouTube video take-downs.

To this end, I need to get ahead and post a few more blog posts and fill that playlist up again. Apologies if on such occasions you are notified of more blog posts than you are keen to read in the timescale. If you are short of time, scroll right to the end of this blog post and find the Procrastination Pen playlist there. Flit over to YouTube, pull up the playlist, engage shuffle, lay back, and relax.

If you’re still reading, this is today’s video:

Abdominal Examination – Explanation

It is from a university and so one assumes a professional video. As such it has notes:

“768,069 views  14 Dec 2011  Clinical Examinations

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

This is a detailed explanation of the abdominal examination illustrating technique and patient interaction.

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

Presented by Mr Adam Scott MS FRCS (Edin) FRCS (Eng) Consultant General and Colorectal Surgeon. Produced and Directed by Dr Irene Peat FRCR FRCP, Dr Nicholas Port MBChB BSc and Jon Shears.

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

I love it when we get details about participants – it makes the video so much more believable  i.e. less likely the participants are making a professional ASMR video and masquerading as medical professionals to do so.

Mr Adam Scott is referenced in several websites and so unless those ASMR professionals are getting really great at subterfuge we can be very happy that this is the real thing.

Sadly, the URL that purports to lead to further videos leads just to the University of Leicester website so I am guessing the page, where those videos were, has now gone.

The video itself is just less than eight and a half minutes and so not huge in terms of videos that we are used to.

The patient is introduced as “Debbie”. Immediately Mr Scott is quiet, methodical, patient and not overly energetic. All-in-all what we would look for in a presenter of relaxing night-time videos.

There is a background noise (perhaps air conditioning) but not as terrible as some we have heard.

The channel on which this video appears: University of Leicester is huge, it has twelve hundred videos at the time I am looking at it. It seems very unlikely that it will be feasible to ferret out the gold from amongst all the other videos. Those promoting the university, covering other disciplines taught by the university, students wanting to try their hand at video-making, and so on.

I think the approach here is to look for Adam Scott MS FRCS (Edin) FRCS (Eng) Consultant General and Colorectal Surgeon (I would search for “Adam Scott” but sadly this is not an uncommon name).

The results of such a specific search on YouTube is that we have only five videos of which in overview only one more is suitable for our purposes:

Abdominal Examination – Demonstration

This is four- and three-quarter minutes so even shorter than the last one and is pretty much the same in all respects. One of the great things is the lack of introductory music, which is not missed in any sense whatsoever.

It would be even more great if there was an absence of background noise.

There are notes: “1,206,417 views 14 May 2012 Clinical Examinations

This is a real-time demonstration illustrating technique and patient interaction involved in the Abdominal Examination. The film was produced by practising clinicians to aid the teaching of clinical examination skills. It starts at the point when the clinician has finished taking the medical history and begins the clinical examination. Presented by Dr Adam Scott MS FRCS (Edin) FRCS (Eng) Consultant General and Colorectal Surgeon. Produced and Directed by Dr Irene Peat FRCR FRCP, Dr Nicholas Port MBChB BSc and Jon Shears. More Clinical Examination materials can be found at; http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/msce…

The video basically covers much of the ground of the previous video so it isn’t new material.

Then there are three videos whose descriptions lead me to suspect that they are promotional in nature:

Bowel Cancer Signs and Symptoms

This appears on the channel: Spire Leicester Hospital.

This has just twenty subscribers so a lot more niche than we are used to.

The notes here are: “416 views 19 Apr 2018

Spire Leicester Hospital Colorectal surgeon Mr Adam Scott talks about bowel cancer, the signs and symptoms, bowel screening and when to visit your GP. https://www.spirehealthcare.com/spire…

Although this is a presentation, Mr Scott has a great voice and I would be tempted to include this video in the playlist. However, I suspect that people may well find this off-putting (it is a scary subject).

The URL referenced in the notes simply redirects to Spire Leicester Hospital.

The Channel has only five videos and it does not appear to have any material that we can use for night-time relaxation.

The next video (and the one after that) both appear on a channel: PPM Software. This has one subscriber and three videos of which Mr Adam Scott makes up two of those – to me this appears to be promotional material.

The first video is just half a minute:

‘PPM’ Software, Client Testimonial

There is funky music – uuurrrgh.

The recording is loud with loud background music and of course it is very short, not the sort of thing we’re looking for at all.

The next video is more of the same:

‘PPM’ Software, What our Clients say

This repeats the above almost exactly but is twice as long. It is designed to sell a product and I do not think we can make use of it at all. This one isn’t for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

So, two videos for the playlist. Just enough to create a playlist for Leicester University.

However, if the quality is this good, I think we’ll be back with Leicester university again in the near future.

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

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop my listening 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 Vera Barus on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

If you have been reading this for a while then you will notice that this is a return to a channel we’ve been to before and if you haven’t then you’ve been missing out and a whole breadth of reading experience awaits.

As usual I will be reviewing some YouTube videos for their ASMR potential and, if they are considered fitting, they get to go into the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Behind the scenes I continue to review that playlist over time, booting out those which are less brilliant than hoped, so that the main list should continue to be full of the best ones I have found so far.

I welcome suggestions. Any video which was not intended to be an ASMR video but which is effective in that respect and, if I agree that it is a good one, it will turn up in a future blog item.

Today’s video is this one:

The Exam for Ankle & Foot Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

It fits with the medical examination theme which has run through quite a number of these blog items (although I do ring the changes occasionally.

At just under seven and a half minutes it isn’t very long but given it is from a medical school it shares with a number of professional videos we’ve seen the provision of a healthy set of notes which are these:

“19 Jul 2018 Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam

This video is brought to you by the Stanford Medicine 25 to teach you the common causes of foot and ankle pain and how to diagnose them by the physical exam.

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

Visit us:

Website: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/

Blog: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.ed…

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordMedi…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanfordMed25

Diagnoses covered in this video:

Lateral Ankle Sprain

Talar Dome Osteochondral Defect

5th Metatarsal Fracture

Achilles Tendinopathy

Interdigital (Morton’s) Neuroma

Stress Fracture of 2nd Metatarsal

Plantar Fasciitis

Hallux Valgus (Bunion)”

Bravely this video permits comments, but one outcome of which is that I can tell ASMR fans have been here long before me.

By now we are familiar with the format of videos from this channel. Firstly there is the introductory music; not as loud as some we’ve heard but it would be great if it could be dispensed with altogether.

Dr Brinda Christopher is of course familiar to us.

As is the patient for this video “Chad” as well (hopefully I did not misspell that).

Dr Christopher starts a little loud but settles into her stride pretty swiftly. Sadly there is the ever-present background noise which we’ve heard in other videos and may well be air conditioning.

The channel of course is

Stanford Medicine 25 https://www.youtube.com/@StanfordMedicine25

253K subscribers at the date I am looking at it

Surprisingly just eighty-five videos, when even some university promotional channels have more than that.

However eighty five is a few too many to get into a blog post. There are thirteen playlists and ours is in this one:

Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam

However, I think for this post we will stick with Dr Christopher. For this purpose, a standard YouTube search is an approach. This brings up three videos, the one we started with and two further videos.

This is the first one:

The Exam for Shoulder Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

Just under ten and a half minutes, so more substantial in terms of length and it is pretty much like the last one (professionally produced videos have the advantage, or possibly the disadvantage, of being consistent).

The notes are:

“19 Jul 2018 Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam

This video is brought to you by the Stanford Medicine 25 to teach you the common causes of shoulder pain and how to diagnose them by the physical exam.

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

Visit us:

Website: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/

Blog: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.ed…

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordMedi…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanfordMed25

Diagnoses covered in this video:

Rotator Cuff Pathology

Impingement Syndrome

Biceps Tendinopathy

Adhesive Capsulitis (Frozen Shoulder)

Acromioclavicular (AC) Joint Disease

Shoulder Instability

Labral Tears (SLAP Lesions)”

The same medical professional, the same patient. The same approach, the same background noise, the same music and so on.

Again, ASMR fans are way ahead of me – see the comments. The earliest I can see is over a year ago as at today’s date but of course not every ASMR fan is going to fill in the comments.

As before the video gets quieter and therefore more appealing the more it proceeds. If you feel that the start is a little loud it is worthwhile persisting with it.

This is the second one:

The Exam for Knee Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

Notes again:”19 Jul 2018 Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam

This video is brought to you by the Stanford Medicine 25 to teach you the common causes of knee pain and how to diagnose them by the physical exam.

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

Visit us:

Website: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/

Blog: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.ed…

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordMedi…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanfordMed25

Knee Diagnoses Covered in Video:

Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injury

Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL) Injury

Medial & Lateral Collateral Ligament Injury

Medial & Lateral Menisci Injury

Anterior Knee Pain (Patellofemoral Pain)

Bursitis

Inflamed Knee with Effusion

Osteoarthritis (Degenerative Joint Disease)

Stress Fracture of Tibia”

Yet again, comments from ASMR devotees, so it is consistent with the other two.

Just under eight minutes so not huge. Again with the start music, sigh, and then reacquainting ourselves with the background noise. Same medical professional, same “patient”.

This is the last in this set that I can find and the last in this blog item. The comments as for previous videos in this post apply equally to this one.

There is also a lead out set of music and a statement about copyright, either of which might prove to be distracting over time, if so these may ultimately get weeded out

The Stanford Medicine playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

Sleeping With ASMR

In previous blog posts I have been promising to come back to this channel in the future. When we left it, there were a great many videos remaining. However, I did not want to get into a glut of videos as it is a distraction from the unintentional ASMR that this blog has been focusing on. As I’ve previously said, this is a bit of a guilty pleasure as the channel is dedicated to ASMR and therefore all of the curation work has been done. Assuming the channel owner has any taste, I should be able to just sit back and let the ASMR sensations wash over me.

However, it is not unknown for the odd jarring-pick to crop up on these sites and therefore I propose to give each video a formal review much as I would have done had I plucked it from a channel dedicated to medicine or to wood-block printing.

As far as I can tell, the videos remaining number sixteen, so I’ll cover eight more here, and a further eight in one final blog post in the future.

The channel of course is ASMR Exams and regular readers will know that I have given a thorough look at this channel, not once, but twice. Some of the videos do seem to have been worth the effort.

Of the remaining, this one is the first video:

Physical Assessment (ASMR)

This is twenty-one minutes long and has no notes and so no
immediate clues about the video. Comments have been permitted and as expected some of them are properly unhelpful.

Straight away, this is incredibly quiet. I have the volume turned right up and some of the speech still eludes me. However, on the positive side, it is too quiet for any offensive background noises to be heard.

The “patient” appears to be “Bernette” (that could well be an erroneous spelling) and the medical professional is Mary-Beth Robbins.

The location has the appearance of a professional medical establishment but for some reason has artwork on the wall (possibly a famous historical medical figure). Mary-Beth is very calm and gentle, however, Bernette seems quite amused by the process. So far, so student assessment video. It’s just that this one seems to have taken a hit on the volume control.

At the point of the eye test, we get a view of the other patients in the room and it becomes obvious that they are all dummies, in the manner that they are made of plastic, not that they are especially gullible. So far, so student educational establishment.

Mary-Beth has a prominent name tag but I just can’t see it well enough to determine if it identifies the location. However, there is that large “W” which is discernible.

In all quite excellent which is what we would expect from a channel dedicated to ASMR of course.

Physical Examination (ASMR)

This video is a bit longer at a bit over thirty minutes. Again, there are no notes, again there are comments, and again the comments are often unsupportive.

This video starts a bit loud. Lauren the “patient” (possibly misspelled), the medical professional does not introduce herself.

This time the setting appears to be domestic rather than professional.

The volume seems to wander about a bit despite the fact that the two participants remain a consistent distance from the camera/phone used to film it.

The quality of said camera must be off a bit too, if you did decide to watch rather than listen; it appears 1980s VHS quality. The medical professional is wearing a name badge but given the fuzziness of the output I defy anyone to read it. Therefore, there are no clues as to who/where this is.

Later in the video, the dog decides to be a semi-hidden participant by lying under the table on which Lauren is sat. Dogs seem to be natural hams as we have seen. I also notice that the medical professional is wearing carpet slippers (which might now be the standard hospital garb, for all I know).

Neither participant seems to have a natural ASMR voice but at least the soundtrack seems to lack extraneous noises. Lauren in particular seems to have quite a loud voice in fact. Also, at intervals Lauren coughs and that is quite loud in comparison with the ongoing interaction.

The medical professional as well has her loud moments, as if attempting to project to a large room. (Perhaps she is stood in a large room although you would not know to look at it, the camera being focused on one small corner of whichever room they are stood in). The medical professional also seems to be regularly consulting something (perhaps a checklist) but you won’t notice this at all if, as I recommend, you simply listen to this.

This might be a bit marginal in terms of the Procrastination Pen playlist. I will trial it and reserve the right to weed it out in the future.

Physical Examination (ASMR)

This time there are no notes and (thanks be to God) no comments either, no more snide nastiness, we can fast-forward directly to the content.

This one at thirty-four and a half minutes is slightly longer than either of the videos covered thus far. It shares the “is this out of focus?” appearance of the last one, so is obviously trading on the sound rather than the visuals.

It starts amazingly loud, like “ohmigod I was asleep” loud. The “patient” is introduced as Courtney (probably misspelled) the medical professional as “Holly” and unlike the exalted Hollie Berry, sadly, she does not have an ASMR voice, not in any way. More your “oyez, oyez, oyez” kind of voice. At intervals I would label it a shout rather than conversation. Fortunately maintaining that volume appears to be too much of an effort such that it ameliorates a bit. However, the presence of ongoing and easily overheard conversations in neighbouring rooms then becomes a distraction. In addition, we have the presence of continuous background noise like the sound of a 1950s reel-to-reel tape recorder.

It is a great shame but it does go to show that just because a video appears on an ASMR channel does not mean it is actually a great ASMR video. It is worth taking the time to evaluate for yourself; I am sure this happens on the Procrastination Pen equally as much as on ASMR Exams.

This one does not belong in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Chiropractic Adjustment LOOPED (ASMR)

As I have already established I really do not like looped videos.

Several commentators do love this one though. At twenty three and three quarter minutes a bit shorter than the last two.

The medical professional has a great voice, but the marvelousness of that voice is ameliorated to a great extent by the sound of conversations from adjacent rooms. There is also the off-putting sound of the clicks and clunks used in chiropracty (we’ve covered these kind of problems before). There are whirring noises from the equipment being moved accompanied by whistling noises of escaping air which sounds like a dump valve. Perhaps a sound more for car videos than those for ASMR.

All-in-all this one does not belong in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Physical Examination (ASMR)

An absolutely whopping fifty-one and a half minutes (and some change). This is a physical examination going for the truly methodical.

The comments are variable (aren’t they always). The video quality is of the soft-focused variety (and that is being charitable). The background noise is of the intrusive type, air conditioning most likely. The patient is identified as “Kylie”(probably misspelled) and there is a crucifix on the wall which may give a clue to the location.

The medical professional is “Kristen” (again spelling may well be wrong) and she announces that this is a Head-to-Toe assessment. (We are well used to these by now).

Kristen is not the quietest and certainly not a natural ASMR voice. There are thunks from equipment at intervals but thankfully no conversation from adjacent rooms this time.

Definition:

Snellen chart: used to measure visual acuity

See below

Snellen chart

At regular points in the video there are breaks in the recording, as if this huge video were actually an assemblage of shorter videos. In cases like this, I always prefer to have the shorter videos and for you to be able to play them using the YouTube shuffle function.

The shoulder badge on the medical professional appears to be a stylised cross, so good luck determining which medical establishment it is from.

The medical professional at intervals is consulting something (I assume some kind of checklist) which gives this the feel of a student assessment video.

I do not like ASMR videos that have been assembled from other videos and I don’t think that this is of sufficient quality to make an exception, so I will not be adding this one to the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Physical Examination (ASMR)

Twenty-six and three-quarter minutes, comments again and by now we know the kind of content they are likely to have without even checking them.

This begins in a much more thorough fashion in that we have names and location. Monica Barbara a student at the University of South Florida. As we would expect the university has its own YouTube channel dedicated to promotion, there are 655 videos and 11.1K subscribers. There are ten playlists but no obvious candidates for ASMR material.

Of course, “Monica” and indeed “Barbara” might be misheard and misspelled.

The patient is introduced as “Alisha” (again spelling might be off there). The visual quality is of the type as if someone smeared Vaseline all over the lens. There is, again, the constant hum of background noise (probably air conditioning). In addition, this time though, there is a profound echo, as if it is being filmed in a large corridor. I notice that Alisha seems to be perched on a table with a cloth over it so hardly the bespoke medical centre. However, it does not have a feel of the domestic environments we have often seen in student assessment videos.

That echo though does prove to be somewhat distracting. I think Monica would have to be using a profoundly minimal whisper to escape its effects.

In fact, Monica does not have a natural ASMR voice so we have a sound that verges towards the boomy. (Think Bonnie Tyler in an echo chamber).

On balance I do not think this belongs in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Neurological Physical Examination (ASMR)

This one is just under thirty-one minutes. The comments reference some ASMR “In” comments that you will be familiar with now if you have followed this blog for any period of time. I swear some people comment because they can, rather than to say anything meaningful less helpful.

This is filmed against a dark blue curtain as if it was set up purely for filming. The quality of both video and of sound isn’t that great, to be honest. It is about the same as home taping in 1985.

It kicks off with a mental test and it isn’t that quiet. Rather the “patient” is quite quiet but the medical professional has quite a deep voice which he is using to full effect. The patient is Milena Pavlova (almost certainly misspelled) and it was filmed on 25/07/2000, (UK Format so therefore in July). Goodness knows what it was filmed on as I would imagine that the quality produced by equipment was somewhat more advanced than this by then.

The location sounds like something-haven hospital, possibly Shoalhaven, although that hospital is in Australia and neither participant sounds spectacularly Australian.

Given that Milena feels it necessary to tell us that Bulgaria is in South Eastern Europe, one imagines that this was not actually filmed in Europe where a large number of people would already know where the country is.

I notice that a copy of the New York Times is used as an illustration of a newspaper to be used with patients. This indicates that the something-haven hospital is located in New York. The only one I can find is Yale New Haven hospital. Assuming this is correct, they have a YouTube channel with 124 videos, 1.51K subscribers and 16 playlists. No obvious ASMR content though.

It comes to a conclusion rather abruptly which leads me to suspect that there is another longer version out there. I’ll add it to the Procrastination Pen playlist in lieu of finding the full version.

Physical Examination (ASMR)

This is just over thirty-nine minutes and the comments associated with it are somewhat disheartening. It has a healthy amount of background noise and seems to have been videod in a classroom setting – this usually means lots of extraneous noise. The person teaching has a good voice but the air conditioning is properly loud in this. The video quality is also no better than others we have covered in this blog post.

Given the subject matter (breast examination) previous experience tells me that I should now be halted and prompted to log on. But not in this case for some reason.   There is nothing on display but that hasn’t stopped previous login prompts.

There is feedback from the class. The people videoing are visible in mirrors in the classroom. People are coughing and shuffling (as is to be expected in a large group). There is laughter and equipment noises and someone keeps clicking the device that is being used for filming (probably fidgeting with their phone).

As is expected, the voices are a little raised as they need to project to the group rather than any individual. This is a shame as it could actually be quite good (well if someone put a bomb in the air conditioning).

This one also concludes rather abruptly but we have found some classroom-based tuition videos do that.

So, it isn’t the greatest, but I think worth putting in the Procrastination Pen playlist to see if it sits well there. It might get weeded out to the archive list in due course.

In summary, I do not share the taste of the owner of ASMR exams (or indeed of some of the commentators to the videos). However, I hope that means that the quality of the Procrastination Pen playlist is being maintained. I’ll revisit the ASMR exams channel again to attempt to capture the last of the videos. Most seem to have been posted about eight years ago so it should be possible to mop them all up.

The ASMR Exams 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 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

Reassuring for part time bloggers, such as myself, is the understanding that fitting in a bit of blog creation in a rush between other things is not supposed, necessarily, to lessen the quality of the output. (Well, the proof will be in blog items I have created of late, as the time to create them is definitely sandwiched between other demands). You will be the judge and feel free to feedback.

The playlist continues to grow in size and I continue to get more picky about the items in it. Such that the archive list of former members also continues to grow.

However, I have noticed a problem with YouTube. For example, yesterday I was watching the playlist and a set of adverts kicked in, there were a lot of them. After a few minutes the video started and them immediately another set of adverts kicked in. This then continued, I retried over the course of the next few hours with the same result. Of course, this is not conducive to sleep. I could not in all conscience recommend a set of videos if I knew this was going to be the experience.

I am hopeful this was an error on the part of YouTube and not some new revenue generation idea. If it turns out to be permanent, I will shut down the blog as I will not be watching YouTube any longer. I am now some months ahead with generated blog articles so we will see if by the time I get this one released, things have improved (or at least returned to how they were).

Shoulder Examination

This one has notes, now the established marker of a professionally created video:

“31 Jan 2021 RheumTutor MSK Examination Videos

This video was created by Dr. Raj Carmona.  It is a step-by-step instructional video for examination of the shoulder.  It is designed for medical students, residents and rheumatology fellows, but would also be beneficial to general practitioners and allied health professionals.”

There is also a title page:

“McMaster MSK Examination Series, Shoulder Examination, RheumTutor.com, Raj Carmona, MBBS, FRCPC, Rheumatologist, Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada”

So quite a lot to work with. The url is still current: https://www.rheumtutor.com/.

A page lists out the videos that can be seen (helpfully it appears these are all available on YouTube https://www.rheumtutor.com/msk-examination/videos/.

McMaster University of course has its own webpage https://www.mcmaster.ca/, the available programmes seem to feature health and medicine strongly https://future.mcmaster.ca/programs/.

And of course, the university has its own YouTube channel with 1.2K videos as at today’s date. Rather too many for any single review but perhaps a channel for a future visit.

Raj appears to be an associate professor at the university and has been at McMaster nearly fourteen years.

This video at just over seventeen and a half minutes is a decent length for a medical examination video.

Raj has a nice calm voice but the video is rather marred by continuous background noise of the variety we are used to enduring in these kinds of videos.

Helpfully the “patient” here is also identified as Dr Kim Legault MD FRCPC Rheumatology Fellow McMaster University.

As an educational video it seems (to the uninitiated) to be useful. The comments seem to reinforce this view. From our perspective it seems to also be a useful video for relaxing off to sleep.

The video is jam-packed with medical terminology. There is far too much for the odd definition to be helpful. (Although this would be my usual style). If you are watching, some definitions come up on screen, but I’m expecting that you’ll be listening so these will not be of much assistance.

I suggest for this one that you let the terminology wash over you but let me know if you find it frustrating. I always review the Procrastination Pen playlist and this could in the future find itself in the dreaded Procrastination Pen archive list i.e. those videos which do not stand up to long term examination.

Although the video shows as posted to YouTube in 2021, the tail page of the video indicates created in 2011 so it was already old by that time.

Not unexpectedly the channel is RheumTutor, thirty videos and six playlists. The choices are narrowed by the fact that a number of the playlists concern giving injections, which I am not certain would be a restful subject for some readers. The video we first looked at occurs in a playlist called RheumTutor MSK Examination Videos

This consists of seven videos of which this first one is video number six.

Ankle and Foot Exam – McMaster MSK Examination Series

At nearly twenty-three minutes in length this is another chunky video.

Again it has notes: “10 Nov 2019  RheumTutor MSK Examination Videos

This video was created by Dr. Raj Carmona.  It is a step-by-step instructional video for examination of the ankle and foot. It is designed for medical students, residents and rheumatology fellows, but would also be beneficial to general practitioners and allied health professionals.”

The title page is similar to the one we saw for the first video reviewed in this post.

The sound is consistent with that first video. Here the “patient” is not identified, possibly because we only see the foot which has been helpfully decorated to indicate some of the internal structures. I would guess the “patient” is male but given there is only one foot to go on that could be way off.

Later in the same video the credit goes to Dr Andrew Duncan MD, Internal Medicine Resident McMaster University. He appears to be the owner of the foot. Andrew appears to have been at McMaster until 2014.

The tail page of the video indicates it was recorded in 2012 which would fit with this time period. Some of the conditions described are a little off-putting to be honest, I think that this is too much for real restfulness. This will not be in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Back Examination – McMaster MSK Examination Series

Notes again: “10 Nov 2019  RheumTutor MSK Examination Videos

This video was created by Dr. Raj Carmona.  It is a step-by-step instructional video for examination of the back. It is designed for medical students, residents and rheumatology fellows, but would also be beneficial to general practitioners and allied health professionals.”

This is just as with the previous videos in terms of approach, voice, presenter, location, noises, structure. This one credits Brendan Flowers MSc Clinical Clerk McMaster University it looks like Brendan attended in 2012 which fits with the filming of the video.

Elbow Examination – McMaster MSK Examination Series

If you have seen one of these videos, then you are going to be at home with the look-feel of the rest. Same layout, same voice, same background noise. If you liked the first one this is a breeze, but not so great if you did not like it.

Again there are notes:

“10 Nov 2019 RheumTutor MSK Examination Videos

This video was created by Dr. Raj Carmona.  It is a step-by-step instructional video for examination of the elbow. It is designed for medical students, residents and rheumatology fellows, but would also be beneficial to general practitioners and allied health professionals.”

The format of this will by now also be familiar. The tail page of the video indicates it was filmed in 2012 and it was posted to YouTube in 2019.

The “patient” is credited again this time Dr Arthur Lau MD FRCPC Theumatology Fellow McMaster University. Arthur seems to have been there from 2011 to date so one would imagine a true asset.

It is just over thirteen and a half minutes so a bit shorter than the last one.

The great thing about professional videos is the lack of surprises. The last thing you want when trying to fall asleep is to find that someone thought a brass band backtrack was fantastic in this video whereas the previous two did not include it. The downside is that if you do not like the style it is very unlikely you will find a video in the series that is any different.

For example, thus far the patients do not get a lot of contribution so if this bothers you this particular series is just not for you. I accept feedback if you want to indicate your displeasure about it.

Hip Examination: McMaster MSK Examination Series

Notes: “10 Nov 2019 RheumTutor MSK Examination Videos

This video was created by Dr. Raj Carmona.  It is a step-by-step instructional video for examination of the hip. It is designed for medical students, residents and rheumatology fellows, but would also be beneficial to general practitioners and allied health professionals.”

Almost exactly as before.

A return of Dr Kim Legault (who we saw in the first video). By comparison with the other videos a real short one at just over twelve and a half minutes. This one is filmed in 2011 so possibly the earliest one we have seen thus far.

Knee Exam – McMaster MSK Examination Series

notes: “11 Nov 2019 RheumTutor MSK Examination Videos

This video was created by Dr. Raj Carmona.  It is a step-by-step instructional video for examination of the knee.  It is designed for medical students, residents and rheumatology fellows, but would also be beneficial to general practitioners and allied health professionals.”

Dr Kim Legault is turning into a bit of a favourite it seems as she appears again in this one. This one is just less than fifteen and a half minutes.

The video is consistent with all those we have so far seen (quite an achievement). It is filmed in 2011 so as for the previous video.

Shoulder Examination

This is where we came in.

Hand and Wrist Examination

The final video in this playlist

It starts in a different way. No shot of a seated Dr Carmona in this one. It is quite long for this series at nearly twenty-one and a half minutes.

Back to Brendan Flowers. It was filmed in 2012 and posted to YouTube in 2021.

There are notes: “3 Feb 2021 RheumTutor MSK Examination Videos

This video was created by Dr. Raj Carmona.  It is a step-by-step instructional video for examination of the hand and wrist.  It is designed for medical students, residents and rheumatology fellows, but would also be beneficial to general practitioners and allied health professionals.”

The breakdown of the video is not as structured as in the previous videos – perhaps the style was evolving at this stage. But presentation in all other respects seems the same.

In summary this is no Dr James Gill but I think all of them deserve a place in the Procrastination Pen playlist. (Assuming YouTube stop deluging me with adverts I’ll keep reviewing that list for less deserving videos.

The RheumTutor 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.

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Until next time.

Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash