Tag: mental-health

Sleeping With ASMR

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

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

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

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

The Calm track is this one:

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

Daily Calm

Bird by Bird

NARRATOR

Tamara Levitt

AUTHOR

Tamara Levitt

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

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

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

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

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

Well, I live in hope.

Today’s video is this one:

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

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

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

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

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

#ASMR

⤖ INSTAGRAM   / sophiemichellegoodall 

BUSINESS ENQUIRES: sophiemichelle_asmr@outlook.com

Lots of love x”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Introduction 00:00

    Radial pulse 00:06

    Brachial pulse 00:30

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

Check out our other awesome clinical skills resources including:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sadly, it concludes with more obtrusive music…

Lower Limb Pulses – OSCE Guide

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

Neck Lump Examination – OSCE Guide

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

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

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

It is this one:

Percussion & Auscultation of the Lungs – OSCE Guide | Clip

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

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

The Geeky Medics playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by DeepAI

Sleeping with ASMR

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

This is the podcast:

Inner Safety and Sleep with Dr Nerina Ramlakhan

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

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

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

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

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

The Calm track this week is this one:

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

Daily Jay

Crossroads

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

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

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

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

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

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

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

“5,292,031 views 4 Jul 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Health Assessment – Midterm check offs

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

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

The notes are informative: “10 Jul 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Health Assessment – Final Check Off – Head to Toe

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

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

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

Health Assessment – Bed Assessment

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

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

There are some quite loud equipment noises.

These three videos are covered in this playlist

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

The Patrick Zhuravel playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

Photo by DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Jay

Chase the Future You

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TikTok:   / katieasmr00 

For Business Inquiries: ilovekatieasmr@gmail.com”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peripheral Vascular Examination – OSCE Guide (Latest)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Diabetic Foot Examination – OSCE Guide (Latest)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rinne & Weber Test – OSCE Guide (Clip)

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

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

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

The Geeky Medics playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Photo by DeepAI

Sleeping With ASMR

Some things are changing locally for me which might impact the ongoing nature of this blog, or perhaps the regularity of updates. If I can, I will flag if updates are likely to slow down.

Meantime, I will continue with today’s item.

I have been trying to get more disciplined with my approach to Calm. i.e. to do one of the Calm daily meditations once per day. In general, they are ten minutes in length and one would imagine that ten minutes is going to be available every day, right? Hmm, the resolution is only so-so effective, I have to say.

However, I can say that I found the following one of interest:

Exploring Anger

Tamara Levitt

https://www.calm.com/app/player/5PLKQJSzYP

Tamara has a great voice and I think this one is a great one to play before sleep. Should you already have a Calm subscription, that is. As I’m sure I’ve said before, I am not a salesperson and no one is likely to be paying me to flog their specific pro-meditation product. Also, I know that other products exist (I spent a while in the past using Headspace, for example).

At this point, I have recently been reviewing a professional ASMR artist and in some way determining how well it stands up to my inadvertent ASMR video reviews. This week I have come across a channel that is dedicated to Unintentional ASMR videos. In fact, it is called

Pure Unintentional ASMR and has 398K subscribers (wow). I have had reservations about hosting videos originally belonging to other people (given I am not a copyright solicitor and what I don’t know might cost me).

However, this channel has no such reservations one hundred and forty-seven videos made by a number of different people. There is no way I could deliver this breadth of material in terms of a blog or a playlist. It is possible that I may browse back here again, but probably not for this blog, as all the work has been done. What can a humble reviewer add?

If, like me, you like inadvertent ASMR material it looks like you could do worse than browse this channel of an evening quite possibly as an aid to sleep. However, just because this channel is doing something so well is not going to cause me to stop reviewing ASMR videos – some people may like to read the reviews after all.

It is necessary to choose one artist from amongst the many. Completely arbitrarily, I have chosen this one:

VERY Soft-Spoken Engineer talks about her career while you sleep

This video is just under one hour and twenty minutes in length (wow). It was posted very recently.

Comments are permitted and these are largely positive, some seem to refer to a previous incarnation of this channel. It would seem it has been taken down before (at least once).

There are (I’m afraid) a very large set of notes, with an element of self-promotion for the channel amongst them so this is the edited highlights:

“Cynthia Barnhart is an award-winning engineer who has studied and now works for MIT. She also has a ridiculously soft-spoken voice for you to fall asleep fast too. Perfect for unintentional ASMR!

So we’ve combed through this interview to cut out as many unwanted sounds as we could to try and create the best unintentional ASMR experience possible. Hope you enjoy and find this unintentional ASMR interview as relaxing and interesting as I do.

A huge thanks to the MIT Infinite History project for the video. You can learn more about that here: https://infinitehistory.mit.edu/

Their channel:    / @infinitehistoryprojectmit8815 

🔴 In case this channel is removed, please subscribe to our newsletter for updates on new videos locations: http://eepurl.com/ds-orr. We will never email you about anything other than a new channel.”

The original video is here:

and it is not one I’ve come across before, a great find by this channel. It is interesting that they are preparing already for the channel to be taken down. Something which I fear may happen, given the many sources of the videos. I suggest if you like this sort of thing fill your boots quickly.

Given the video has been edited to enhance the ASMR attributes, it is no surprise that the voice is excellent. There is no startup music – hurray. There is no terrible background noise – hip-hip, no hesitation, no staccato delivery, in fact it is pretty nigh perfect for this kind of video.

A further attribute that I like, in this context, is the lack of whispering. There is, I am sure, a place for whispering in ASMR videos, but there seems rather a lot of such videos. It is refreshing to find one that does not take refuge in whispering.

So onto my own inadvertent ASMR candidate and this one perhaps a bit of a cheat as he was a personal favourite from back when I first featured him (greater than two years ago now, which seems, to me, rather difficult to believe). It must have been fun. The time passing oh so quickly.

This time we are looking at this video:

Clinical Skills: Cervical Spine Assessment – Dr Gill’s Neck Examination

The site, subscribers, playlists and so on are, of course, familiar. However I’ll take a look again in case there are some new visitors to the Procrastination Pen.

There are notes:

“1,088,598 views  Premiered on 12 May 2023  #asmr #neck #DRGill

Neck Examination – Cervical Spine Assessment – Clinical Skills – Dr Gill

Compose a new pain within athletes is cervical spine discomfort, thankfully in the vast majority of cases when the neck is examined the cause of the neck pain is found to be muscular.

However, pain can also refer from the neck to the arm, in which case it is important to be able to assess for cervical radiculopathy prior to gaining more information which may indicate an MRI is needed

We assess for radiculopathy by doing Spurling’s test, an often overlooked part of the neck examination, but it should be included for completeness and reassurance of the patient – not forgetting the athlete or not, neck pain can be a considerable source of distress, so it’s vital to be able to get information from the neck examination which allows you to safely reassure a patient when appropriate, or comment that neck exam found evidence that needs further investigation

#DRGill #neck #asmr”

There are comments but, of course, given it is Dr Gill we can take it as read that the majority of these are positive.

The video itself is a tad on the bijou side given it is only a little over six minutes long. Sadly it starts with music. The voice of Dr Gill needs no introduction (well at least if you are a regular reader in any case). It is restful, not given to whispering, and is at a lovely measured pace. Without the starting music this would be a perfect video. (Well if we could also add about thirty minutes to its length at any rate. Sadly, despite its short length, it still finds time to end with further music.

The playlists on the channel do not seem to be a great deal of assistance in narrowing the field for the location of any related videos.

At the present time there are nine hundred and sixteen videos and it would probably be foolhardy to cover even a reasonable fraction of those in this blog post.

Scanning through the videos for ones which appear to feature the same “patient” reveals quite a number. My thoughts are, therefore, we’ll cover a few here and go on to cover the remainder in a future blog post.

Taking these videos in the order that they appear (from the channel search) we first get to this one:

Ulnar Nerve Examination – Clinical Skills – Dr Gill

Again, it is very short at a little over four minutes. The patient announces her name – possibly Megan Struthers? Even the captioning struggles to capture it so possibly my ears are not solely to blame. The video has music again. I think we can take that as ongoing, as will the existence of notes and comments. Dr Gill’s voice continues as great to listen to. I could probably spend a great deal of my blog just reviewing Dr Gill videos – I won’t – it would make very dull reading. Of course, if you find it very dull reading anyway do feedback and I’ll try to come up with something more stimulating.

Lower Limb Neurological Examination – Clinical Skills – Dr Gill

This one is a little longer at just over nine and a half minutes. Comments are the usual level of variable but not (as far as I can tell) at the level of abusive that is often seen. Such is the power of Dr Gill.

In this one even I can tell the “patient” is Megan Struthers, awards to me for hearing that correctly the first time.

There is another “in” ASMR joke going on with this video in that anyone observing notices that, at intervals, Megan is wearing socks, then not wearing them, then wearing them again.

The “socks” comment seems to be another of those “in the know” comments such as “sandwich breath” which I have referred to before. I suspect it is fun if you enjoy that kind of thing.

Checking a Patients Vital Signs OSCE – Clinical Skills – Dr Gill

Just three and a quarter minutes and still a few seconds at either end given to music – boo.

It is very quiet this one, it would be ideal for sleep if only it was many times the length. As it is in a playlist it should not matter, apart from the opportunity for YouTube to insert as many adverts as it physically can, and at a volume so different to the video springing awake is a not improbable outcome.

General Examination – Clinical Skills OSCE – Dr Gill

A little over five and a quarter minutes in length, the consistency is the thing that stands out and highlights the quality of these videos. If you heard the first video you could more or less assume all the remainder are the same. Much as I hate videos that have been hijacked and concatenated, in the case of these short videos of Dr Gill’s, I can see the point. At least it would keep the intrusive adverts to a minimum.

I think we’ve hit the point where enough videos have been reviewed for one post. Although the total length of this week’s videos is not huge and it will not take you long to review them all for yourself. There are a few more videos featuring Megan and I propose that we come back to those at a future post. Certainly, Dr Gill is a gift that keeps giving, ASMR wise.

The James Gill playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

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

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

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

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

The Momentum of Thinking, Jeff Warren

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

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

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

Today’s video in this vein is this one:

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

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

As expected Sister Sister ASMR appears on the ASMR index.

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

“Emily’s channel: ‪@emvyASMR

Katie’s channel:  ‪@xokatieASMR

Email: Emily.katieasmr@gmail.com”

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am more interested in the voice.

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

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

Today’s video is this one:

Primary Care Provider Physical Examination: Foot and Ankle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Obesity TKA

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter Points: coming soon…”

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

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

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

This is just not a suitable video from our perspective.

So just one video this week.

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

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

I notice that media outlets are now declaring that six hours of sleep is just not going to be enough. Which is all very well, but if you are above the age of fifty and have a reasonably busy life, I can more or less bet that many of your nights will have less sleep in them than that. The reflection that as you get older, waking up in the middle of sleeping gets a more pronounced experience does not help if it is three AM and the one thing you don’t want to do is to wake the person who you’re sharing a bed/bedroom with.

At such times, perhaps the Procrastination Pen playlist and a decent set of headphones might be the saviour of the night. (YouTube adverts excepting).

Of late, I have told you when I come across a meditation on Calm that I liked and regular readers will note that I have developed a taste for the daily meditations featuring Jeff Warren. This includes this one https://www.calm.com/app/player/5iglULfMFq “Patiently In A Rush”. I am finding the dailies on Calm to be much more useable than the tracks dedicated to sleep and so again here too. Sadly, Calm is not free and I am not trying to persuade you to pay for it.

A habit I have established is the review of a professional ASMR artist in each of these blog articles. If only in contrast to the inadvertent ASMR that I have been reviewing for greater than a year now.

Today’s video is this one:

ASMR Appointment with Your Doctor

It starts with the medical professional typing into a computer and ignoring anyone else. This has the benefit of being accurate to real-world experience but is not a noise I would want to start an ASMR video with. Perhaps we should be thankful there is no peppy music or thanks given to some sponsor or other.

This video is a little over twenty-one minutes and so is not a huge length for one of these videos. The notes are largely dedicated to advertising, so I won’t bother with them. A quick scan of the comments indicates that they are largely positive. The channel is VisualSounds1 ASMR with 326K subscribers and 1.1K videos. Wow that is a lot of videos. There are twenty-six playlists, none of which obviously focus on medical themes.

Unsurprisingly VisualSounds1 ASMR is also on the ASMR Index.

There is a quite loud background noise, either air conditioning or a sound mimicking air conditioning and I do wonder (again) why ASMR artists include this. I am constantly looking for inadvertent ASMR videos that do not have this type of background noise.

The style is of a person responding to an individual (unheard/unseen) which I believe is probably to make the whole video feel more personal. It can also be a tad on the confusing side until you latch on to what is going on.

The tone, is of course, excellent but tends to delve into the whispery. This seems to be the volume that most professional ASMR artists use. It has the benefit of being ASMR-y but the disadvantage of being much less believable as a rendition of a real medical exam. I cannot remember one occasion in which a GP has ever whispered at me. Perhaps I am missing out…

Hopefully, that was a bit of fun and now back to the day job. Today’s inadvertent ASMR video is this one:

Macleod’s examination of speech

It is, of course, from a channel that we must by now have done to death. Farsight Channel has 102K subscribers and fifty-nine videos which seems a very high subscriber to video ratio to me.

The notes will be familiar to regular Procrastination Pen readers: “84,162 views 6 Jul 2013

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

We are now used to the slightly stilted and artificial sounding sound track from this channel and this particular video is no different. There is no startup music, no background noise and no strange narrator with a less desirable voice. In fact, in terms of the videos I commonly review this is pretty good. However, it is less than three minutes in length which gives YouTube plenty of opportunity to slide in loud and distracting adverts prior to the next video in the playlist.

The problem with reviewing this site a great deal before, of course is the likelihood that I repeat previously-covered videos. To obviate this possibility, I decided to narrow my search to speech and speech related videos on this channel. This only produced one further video which is this one:

Macleod’s examination of the facial (VII) nerve

The notes don’t really need to be repeated… There are only four comments, but even in that small number they are somewhat variable. It is less than a minute in length and this time there is a narrator. As usual, with the use of narrators, the voice of the narrator is louder and less inclined towards ASMRishness. In other respects, it is similar. The voices of the participants sound odd as if they do not belong to the people participating in the video, just as before.

The Farsight Playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

Today, I started the day with “Bask on the Beach” from Calm. The description is:

“Relax yourself from head to toe, as you visualize a beautiful, tropical cove. Created in partnership with Discover Puerto Rico, this body scan practice will help you embrace the essence of vacation.” The narrator is Diana Holguin.

https://www.calm.com/app/player/5z3j61an_I

I found this a lot more relaxing than some of the sleep dedicated tracks on the same site. I like Diana’s voice and there are no intrusive sounds. Of course, because the site is paid for, there is no offensive (read loud) advertising either. However, I hate to recommend something that you have to pay for, so let’s move on.

I have been looking at contributions from professional ASMR artists and actually finding it surprisingly challenging. A number of such videos dedicate a great deal of time to the sponsor du-jour. Often, they include a surprisingly large number of distracting noises. Sometimes, I just do not like the presentation. However, today, I have this one:

ASMR Emergency Room | You’re in Critical Condition | Full Body Exam

Firstly, it might be as well to understand that this is a huge-long video only slightly under two hours in length. It comes from the channel The Cozy Hospital ASMR.

This has 226K subscribers and four hundred and twenty three videos. So, yet another very hard-working ASMR artist. Not unexpectedly, given the title of the channel there is a great resource of medical-a-like videos on this channel and so if you have been following this blog you may well be interested in this artist.

Not unexpectedly the Cozy Hospital appears on the ASMR Index.

The video starts with no startup music but is obviously firmly aiming for “genuine” presentation of a medical exam. As such it includes a number of noises that I would not have included. There’s the squeaking trolley wheel and a background air conditioning noise, which quite quickly settles down. The voice is then, as expected, delightful. There are occasional background noises (Tannoy noises at intervals for example). I would not have bothered with the glove noises or the handling of equipment noises either. There are noises from application of micropore surgical tape and a background monitoring beep. There’s the clicking of a tube cap and the rustle of packaging/clothing but I am certain that some of these are included because someone out there finds them a useful trigger.

I would say that this voice is excellent. At intervals it is too whispery to be believable and a bit breathy as well, but I am picking holes because the presentation is very good.

However, I could spend all day reviewing YouTube channels that were created to make money out of ASMR. The target up to this stage has been to find an ordinary YouTube video but which, nonetheless, some people might find relaxing. So far, by far, the majority of those reviewed have been on a medical theme.

Today’s video suffers from the fact that it does not run for very long at all, a little less than four minutes in fact:

Peripheral vascular

It is drawn from that rich vein of videos that have been mined so often on this blog, the student assessment video. Indeed, we have visited this channel before. It is on the channel Leah Barlow which has ninety subscribers and fifteen videos none of which seems to be going for record breaking in terms of length. It looks like the last time I decided to review only those videos where Leah appeared with the same patient and, if I pursue the same methodology, it looks like today’s “patient” appears in three of these videos.

The video starts with a bit of a loud clonk and the voices are a little loud, probably because they need to talk over voices that can be heard from an adjacent room. This is a shame because the approach seems to be quite methodical and the voices reasonably restful. There is, of course, a constant accompaniment of air conditioning which we are well used to by now.

There are occasional loud equipment noises as parts of the examination table are slid in and out.

The next video apparently featuring the same two participants is this one:

Abdominal

This is just over three minutes long. Again, there is a loudish knock at the beginning. The patient here announces her name but at a pace that makes it tough to work out. I would say Ella Kelly, possibly, but that is in all probability, incorrect. There is a very slight echo which I assume is down to the design of the room. Again, there are loud equipment noises and mutterings from next door. The presentation is very level, almost quiet, and if it were not for extraneous noises would be excellent. For a start, there is no music on this video which a number of professional videos could learn a lot from…

Part way through there is a loud knock and the session is interrupted. However, the video is brought to a close swiftly after that.

The last one from the same medical professional-“patient” combo is this one:

Skin, hair, and nails

This pretty much follows the theme of the previous two. Knock at commencement, background air conditioning, overheard conversations from adjacent rooms. The presentation continues level and methodical. During the actual exam the noise level goes down. There is an absence of equipment noises this time, which makes this one the most restful of the set.

The video is a little over three and a half minutes so they are all much of a muchness in terms of length (no huge long monologues here).

The Leah Barlow Playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

Welcome readers to another article of the Procrastination Pen. Just for a change, we will be looking at videos designed to encourage ASMR symptoms (if you want to receive ASMR symptoms, that is).

Yet again, I am temporarily going to review the video from a professional ASMR artist as a slight distraction from the main aim, which is to review inadvertent ASMR material.

In this case, the video under review is this one:

ASMR Cranial Nerve Exam – Roleplay

This is from the channel Starling ASMR a channel having 532K subscribers and three hundred and seventeen videos which is pretty high productivity, I’m sure that you will agree. There are a few playlists dedicated to medical exams which has been bread and butter for this blog for over a year now.

Starling ASMR also features on the ASMR index.

As I have concluded previously about other ASMR artists, Valentina is of attractive appearance and continues to confirm my suspicion that a number of ASMR fans don’t attend these videos because of the way that they sound.

The video is inclined towards the whispery and so I do not think that it is designed to fool anyone. I do not think any medical professional would conduct an exam whispering to this extent.

It contains some noises which I suspect are supposed to be stimulating, but to me rubber glove noises, clicks and crumpling noises are not what I’m interested in. In addition, the somewhat loud vibrations roughly half way through the video are, to me, distracting.

Given how popular the video is however, I think I am in a group of one here.

The voice is, of course, first class and distracting noises aside, I can hear what people are listening for.

I think it is worthy of review and so I have added it into the Sweetie Jar playlist.

Of course, the purpose of this blog has not been to review professional ASMR artists and so we return to the inadvertent ASMR that is its core material.

Today we are back on a channel that I did promise I would revisit after a moderately successful first review of it.

The video features a different “patient” to the last time we were here, and we may have some success sticking with that “patient” in terms of the videos that we review on this occasion.

The channel is Farsight Channel and will be familiar to regular readers.

The video is this one:

Macleod’s examination of the cardiovascular system

As we have previously established Macleod’s appears to be a medical tome of great worthiness in that a number of people seem to be reading it, following these videos, commenting on it and so on. Sadly, with all the medical knowledge of a person with no medical knowledge I have no idea if all that attention is justified. I will take it that it is.

As we saw the last time, all of these videos are professionally produced and a well-established clue to this is the presence of a great many notes. The notes with this video are as follows: “2,047,718 views 5 Jul 2013 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 information about the director www.iainhennessey.com”.

Comments are (bravely in my view) permitted, and are the usual rag-tag of rare affirming statements, demands for attention of one variety or another and the occasional off-the-wall comment, which makes you wonder.

The video is a little less than thirteen minutes and almost amazingly has no startup music at all (hurrah). Like before, we have two participants who could easily be computer rendered. The tone is wrong, the pacing is wrong and the voices occasionally don’t seem to fit what is happening. It is as if we have two participants and two other people’s voices have been dubbed over the top. This is less apparent, however if you don’t actually watch the video. Just listen to it. This is what I recommend anyway, after all the purpose of the blog is to help you get to sleep and it is hard to do that with your eyes open.

The video is largely narrated in any case. The narrator is not as restful voice wise as the participants who (artificial or not) have moderately quiet voices. The narrator is a little louder, but not sufficiently so to eliminate the video from the Procrastination Pen playlist, I think.

Given the channel has fifty-nine videos I think we will follow the technique used in the former article and search for videos where the same “patient” features. This gives us the following:

Macleod’s examination of the thoracic and lumbar spine

At a little less than five and a half minutes. It has notes: “9,840 views 6 Jul 2013 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 author www.iainhennessey.com”

Again, it starts silently. The participants seem to be speaking in a strange way, but they are more restful than the narrator. However, this remains consistent with the last one which is something we often find with professionally produced videos i.e. find one good one and the entire channel might well be a source of other good videos.

At least in this one the patient shows some emotion (smiling), so it is decidedly less robotic than the previous one.

Definition:

Dimples of Venus, a picture seemed best for this:

Dimples of Venus while seated (with arrows)

Macleod’s examination of the respiratory system

This is just under thirteen minutes and again it has notes: “2,851,650 views 5 Jul 2013 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 information about the director http://www.iainhennessey.com”

We’re used to the format by now. So, we are expecting the participants to be a bit robotic but nonetheless for the video to be a reasonable one for our purposes.

We have Omar and Amy in this one and both we have seen before with Amy featuring in the previous article on this channel.

There is silence to start and that strange impression that the people featured and the voices somehow do not belong together. The actual examination is quiet and measured and the whole video would be approaching ideal sound wise if it were not for the narration over the top of it. However, the narrator never quite gets as far as objectionable such that I could find cause to dismiss the video from the Procrastination Pen playlist altogether.

He has the benefit of good intonation and never straying into excessive volume.

Definition:

Thoracotomy – surgery to open the chest.

Macleod’s examination of the shoulder

Notes: “82,387 views 5 Jul 2013 New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition

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

This is Ben and Omar, so a change of medical personnel. The video is a little under five minutes so isn’t going to waylay any of us for long. If anything, the narration with this one is slightly more muted which makes it more suitable for us.

Definition: Serratus Anterior

A picture is best for this:

Serratus anterior

The responses are abrupt as we have seen previously with videos featured from this channel. However, the way the medical professional handles the examination is gentle and considered.

Deltoid

1119 Muscles that Move the Humerus b

At intervals (whilst the narration is occurring), the medical professional is speaking but nothing can be heard.

At this point I realise that the blog post is likely to be an excessively long one. So As before I’m going to halt the review of videos and carry some onto a future blog post on the same channel.

The Farsight Playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

Welcome to the Procrastination Pen where, for greater than a year, I have been reviewing ASMR videos. I understand that for a number of people ASMR is so much falderol and, for people who have that view, I would say that the ultimate aim of the Procrastination Pen playlist is sleep. The finding of relaxing videos is just a pathway to creating a tool that makes it easier to fall asleep and to go back to sleep if you wake during the night. To make the waking during the night less likely, videos with sudden changes in volume, excessive noise, and random interruptions will consign the video to the rejected pile (there are quite a few such videos).

The outcome is a playlist – the Procrastination Pen playlist in fact. I listen to this most days and I am constantly tweaking it to remove any videos with irritating characteristics which for some reason did not bother me before. In this fashion, I hope to produce a quality playlist which you can use in lulling yourself off to sleep. 

Each week there will be an article like this one, in which I explain the reasoning behind selection and rejection of certain videos, and I flag the playlists at the end of every article. (If you’re short of time, just scroll to the end and pick the playlists up from there).

I recommend that you listen to the playlist via YouTube rather than embedded in my blog. For one thing, YouTube offers the shuffle function for playing playlists which enables you to hear the videos in random order.

I am always open to suggestions for great videos although, to date, I tend to review videos that are inadvertent ASMR videos rather than those by professional ASMR artists. But I am thinking of changing this, so never say never.

This week’s video follows on from the tradition of eye examinations featured on this blog.

Having Cataract Surgery? Here’s everything you need to know!

It rather bravely permits comments and, as expected, a number of these comments are from people who would perhaps be best placed consulting a medical professional, rather than commenting on a video.

There are no obvious ASMR-related comments.

I often find that videos which are professionally produced have a rather detailed set of notes associated with them and this one is no exception. The notes state:

“1,366,499 views 29 Apr 2020

In this video, I go over all the nitty-gritty details you need to know about before your cataract surgery. Common questions that I answer include: What is a cataract? Does everyone get them? What kinds of symptoms will I have as my cataract gets worse? What does cataract surgery entail? What is a lens implant? Are there different choices for my lens implant? What are the restrictions after surgery? Does the surgery hurt? What are the risks of surgery.  How much does everything cost? Does my insurance pay for the surgery?

Cataract surgery is a wonderfully rewarding and highly successful surgery but it can be scary when you are faced with eye surgery. If you are thinking about cataract surgery or have already scheduled your surgery, this is the video for you!”

The video is a little less than half an hour so is fairly substantial in terms of videos I have reviewed of late (but certainly not the longest one I’ve listened to).

The video starts with music which intrudes over the top of the presenter’s voice. I have no idea why presenters do this. In fact, the presenter starts out muted but once the music stops that improves a great deal.

The medical professional is Allison P. Young M.D. who, at least initially, does not have the most relaxing voice. However, the video seems to improve as it progresses (one of those videos where it would be great to set the start time some way into the video).

There is a fair amount of technical terminology, but this does not seem necessary to comprehend in order to relax to the video. Most of the difficult terms are explained sufficiently, which is the motivation behind the video. However, this tends to mean it is a bit of a monologue. On first listen, it did not descend into boredom but whether it will have longevity in the Procrastination Pen playlist or will ultimately be weeded to the archive list remains to be seen. The pace is perhaps a little faster than I would have liked, however I suppose if it had been any slower then the video would also have been much longer…

I notice that Allison is presenting from Stone Oak Ophthalmology Center. It is interesting to see a lengthy discussion on insurance, this is something I don’t have to think about under the NHS. I can either qualify for a procedure or I don’t. In this case you may qualify and yet be unable to pay for it. That is certainly food for thought.

One feature to be aware of is that the video seems to have artificial breaks in it where YouTube adverts get inserted. The ones I was listening to were somewhat louder than the video itself, your mileage may vary.

Sadly, the video also exits to music and, yet again, it plays over the voice track. I’m going to trial this video in the Procrastination Pen playlist. However, I’m not sure if it has legs enough to last there a long time.

The YouTube Channel is: The Eye Surgeon.

It is not uncommon for me to explore the channel when I find one good video to see if there are other relaxing videos that may be worthy of including in the playlist. The channel has only seven videos but 17.5K subscribers which is a fair number for so few videos.

It sounds like it is well worth reviewing the channel in total given how few videos there are to review. Most of the videos appear to have been posted three years ago so it has the feel of a channel that is not actively maintained. The upside of which is that if the videos stick around for a long time and are good for relaxation, they are also likely to be in the Procrastination Pen playlist a long time.

What is the Light Adjustable Lens and how do we use it in cataract surgery? | The Eye Surgeon

This video is just a little over 6 minutes, substantially shorter than the last one and thankfully this time no start up music, heaven be praised.

The notes are equally brief: “8,728 views 13 Feb 2023

In this video, I discuss the newest lens implant option for cataract surgery, the Light Adjustable Lens. We will talk about how it is different from prior lens implants and who is a good candidate for the lens.”

Again, comments are permitted and again, a number of people asking the kind of medical questions I would guess would be best asked directly of one’s doctor rather than as comments on YouTube, this seems to be a trend. Perhaps in the future diagnosis will be by social media…

The video has really horrendous background noise. This seems to be the dreaded air conditioning noise which we are well used to by now. It mars a number of videos that have been reviewed on this blog, some have sufficient compensating factors that I tolerate them for a while in the Procrastination Pen playlist. However, if you do take a look in the archive list, a fair number of the videos that ultimately have been consigned there have been put in that place due to excessive background noise.

In this case I do not think it is worth trialling the video in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

What is Macular Degeneration and how is it treated? | The Eye Surgeon

As before notes: “7,528 views 23 Feb 2021

In this video I will give a brief overview on the different types of Macular Degeneration and how they are treated.”

The comments, as usual, are somewhat variable, but do not seem to include any ASMR-related comments.

The video announces that February is macular degeneration month. I’m sure all those people rushing out to buy over-priced flowers and high calorie gifts will be relieved to discover that is what February is known for.

The voice track is muted and includes a fair amount of background (air conditioning) noise. There is an intrusive alarm noise acting as encouragement to subscribe to the channel, which I imagine in those of us trying to drift off to sleep is likely to have the opposite effect.

The video is a little less than five and a half minutes and for me could have eliminated the first half a minute and still been a useful video.

It is again a monologue, but fortunately, in this case, brief. On the plus side, the presentation is more measured than in the previous videos covered by this blog post. Had it not been for that alarm sound, I would have said it might have been the best one so far.

As it is, I think I’ll trial it in the Procrastination Pen playlist but distracting noises like that alarm sound is one of the prime reasons for weeding a video out to the archive list, so I do not have high hopes for its membership in the Procrastination Pen playlist for any great length of time.

DRY EYES | How to stop the burning, stinging, tearing and blurred vision | The Eye Surgeon

There are notes as usual: “38,027 views 24 May 2020

Dry eyes affect almost everyone at some point. In this video, I review the reasons our eyes get dry and some simple ways you can treat them!”

As before we find a range of comments and only a few are of much relevance. As we have seen earlier in this blog post some people really need better availability of medical treatment. Feedback on YouTube is probably not the way to get a definitive diagnosis.

This video is in excess of twelve minutes and so a bit longer than the previous one. Again, the audio seems to be muted but this time the presentation is a bit more measured in delivery. Sadly, there is funky start-up music and boy it is really pacy. The delivery is again a monologue – no featured examination here. The muted delivery means that at least any background noise is held somewhat in check.

More music on the way out, as if rather than sleeping I fancied a trip to a discothèque. This is very borderline. I think I’ll trial it in the Procrastination Pen playlist, but my feeling is that music is going to get it the boot before too long.

FLOATERS | When they are normal and when to call your doctor | The Eye Surgeon

The notes for this one are: “156,943 views 8 May 2020

Floaters are usually just a nuisance, but sometimes they are warning signs of a much bigger problem like a retinal tear or detachment.”

It is a little over nine and half minutes so not huge. There are comments and I am beginning to understand that some people use comments as if they were talking to their own personal counsellor. Perhaps this explains some of the esoteric responses that are seen associated with some YouTube videos.

The video starts without music but at a fair old pace. But just as you’re settling in, the funky music starts. Oh dear.

The subject is a little alarming. The delivery is rapid. The background noise though is muted. It is a monologue again, with no medical examination as such.

Of course, as the video concludes more of that music. I suspect that over time each of the videos featuring startup and tail end music will hit the archive list as newer and quieter videos are found but for the moment, I’ll trial this one in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

STYES! | What are they and how are they treated? | The Eye Surgeon

A slightly less alarming subject than the last one, although I doubt it is going to win in the attractiveness rating. Just less than seven and a quarter minutes long. The notes as with the previous video are brief: “303,387 views 19 Apr 2020

A “stye” is the most commonly-used term for what is technically known as a “hordeolum.” In this video, I review why we get styes in the first place and the usual stepwise treatment plan I use in my office. Hope it is helpful!

Feel free to check out my website for more eye education!

www.stoneoakeyes.com”

A number of the comments as before seem to be hoping for a response giving medical advice. Perhaps we are seeing a future in which social media will advise you whether the chest pains are because you ate a strong curry or are about to expire due to a heart attack…

Again, the video commences with very active music, not the stuff of sleepiness I’m thinking. The presentation is a monologue again and it is quite fast paced as well. At least post the music, the volume settles down.

However, it returns at the end just as peppy, which is a shame for us slumber lovers.

Blepharitis | 2 Easy steps to banish red, crusty, itchy eyes | The Eye Surgeon

A little less than seven minutes in length. As before there are a few notes: “120,613 views 16 Apr 2020

Blepharitis is a very common condition of the eyelids that causes flakey, itchy, irritated lids and lashes. In this video, I review the basics of blepharitis and some simple steps you can take at home to get your eyes feeling great again!

Products mentioned include:

* Microwavable warm compresses: Several brands available – here are a few links.

http://ocusoft.com/ocusoft-dry-eye-ma…

https://www.bruder.com/eye-care/dry-e…

* Lid scrubs:

http://ocusoft.com/ocusoft-lid-scrub-…

https://systane.myalcon.com/eye-care/…

Feel free to check out my website as well for additional eye education!

https://stoneoakeyes.com/”

There are also comments, including thanks from the people whose products are being endorsed here. (To be clear I am not endorsing any products; I have no idea how effective they are).

The video begins in a muted fashion, although perhaps a little too fast paced, but again, music follows which is just too energetic for our purposes.

However at least that music is brief. The format is a monologue as before, no examination here.

Again, it concludes with music but this time it is quite short.

The Eye Surgeon Playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

Last night I discovered that the shuffle function on YouTube is not exactly up to spec. For example, a specific set of adverts can stop the shuffle function in its tracks. I also discovered that some adverts cause the track not to return, but instead, it sets off a not-responding loop.

I recommend the shuffle function because the playlist is growing organically and, therefore, all of the tracks from one review appear in one place. This would mean that if there were, for example eight recommendations from one YouTube channel then these would all occur one after the other. That could make for very dull listening. However, this error in the shuffle function is quite disconcerting.

I do not regularly come across it, which seems to indicate that the problem occurs with specific video/advert combinations. It is irritating when the desire is that the playlist is kicked off and then continues without interaction until waking up the following morning. The error has proven that this is not always reliable.

Currently, I have no adequate solution. I have had the odd problem with YouTube which regular readers will have come across. Alternatives do exist (for example, I often listen to Calm). Some of these would make for less interactive blog posts. However, I am considering widening the scope of these articles to cover some of these alternatives.

Today’s though returns us to YouTube, as has been habitual for a long time now. However, it differs from the usual approach in that, in fact, it is a playlist.

Draping (How to Drape)

by Blackriver & Bootsma Education

It consists of four videos, which is actually a rather good number of videos to cover in one blog post.

The playlist occurs on the Blackriver & Bootsma Education channel. Whilst I am looking at it, I notice it has two hundred and ninety-six videos, as at today’s date, and a quite whopping 52.9K subscribers. I would have little doubt that some of them are going to be ASMR fans as well.

As I have pointed out before ASMR fans can spot a great video in the dark at fifty paces whilst wearing a blindfold.

There are thirteen playlists (The longest having one hundred and forty-two videos) but none seem to be of as such a convenient length for review as this playlist.

However, I have little doubt we will be back to take another look-see at this channel.

How to Drape – Prone (Face Down) [Upper Body, Lower Body, High Glute] Massage Position

This is nearly twenty-one minutes in length, so sizeable in comparison to some we have recently looked at. It starts without start up music and that is very welcome. It has notes and comments and for a change, none of the comments are unhelpful. The medical professional though is quite loud and I had to turn the volume way down. Once I had done that though, the presentation was excellent with none of the equipment noises we have sadly become so used to. The associated noises include movement of sheets which some ASMR fans seem to rather enjoy. At the time I am looking at it, YouTube took every opportunity to insert adverts (every few minutes) and a number of those adverts were really quite distracting. This now seems to be a standard thing – see the comments above about alternatives shortly being included in these blog posts.

Despite the volume, the presenting professional has a great and measured voice. It is very easy to listen to and definitely calming without any jarring unexpected noises.

It was sufficiently calming that the advert breaks come as an unpleasant surprise.

I’m not really expecting that anyone will pay much attention to the subject matter, it being mainly a source of relaxation for sleep. However, it is quite an interesting subject in itself. I would not have known there was so much to it and the number of considerations that need to be taken into account.

How to Drape – Supine (Face Up) [Upper Body, Lower Body, Abdominal, Chest, V Shape] Massage Position

This commences in the same way as the previous one, no startup music, a calm presentation, a very good start. Yet again I kept the volume button on the low side and you might experience inter-video volume issues on the playlist with some of those with a quieter presentation. In an ideal world, I could normalise the volumes so that as one video ended and another began but that option does not appear to be available.

The process is quite careful and a great deal of thought has obviously gone into it.

I notice however that the floor is floorboards, there are wooden cabinets there is a rug. This has the feel of domestic rather than a medical establishment. (I’m sure most medical establishments opt for wipe-clean surfaces simply on the basis of being more hygienic).

How to Drape – Supine to Sidelying (High Glute) Massage Position

This one is short by comparison with those we have just seen, at just over seven and a half minutes. However, it is very similar to what has gone before. This time, one person in the comments is seeking medical advice. People seem to do this elsewhere in YouTube and on the Internet. I suspect when the developers of AI technologies cotton onto this tendency for people to trust almost any location on the Internet for medical advice (more than say an actual medical professional) there will be a large number of medical bots stood up which for a small fee will diagnose and recommend…

The consistency of the video presentation is a great sign and is an indication that this is a professionally prepared video (we have seen the kind of variety in presentation that occurs in student assessment videos, for example).

There really is little to choose between the ones reviewed so far, and this means that we can push all of them forwards into the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The Blackriver & Bootsma Playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae