This week, the news that none of us (except for a lucky few) can now afford to retire. On the upside though, there is research that appears to establish that retirement is very bad for sleep. Perhaps we are going to live healthier lives, it’s just that we’re going to have to keep working.
No doubt there are other strange sleep dilemmas that will crop up in this blog but I found that one rather unexpected.
For the non-YouTube resource this week, I remember that during lockdown I used to listen to Tovi Scruggs-Hussain. I had a hunt around and it turns out that Tovi publishes meditations on Mindful. It seems I must have spent a while on this website. Here is an example article and meditation: https://www.mindful.org/a-12-minute-meditation-to-set-the-tone-for-your-leadership/
Twelve minutes for you to determine whether you like Tovi’s voice. There are other meditations and articles on that same site so if you do like Tovi then you should have plenty to listen to. I may be back for another listen in the future depending how many other artists I can find out there who do not charge for listening to their MP3 files.
This week for the professional ASMR artist, I go to one that I used to listen to a lot but have fallen out of touch with of late. The channel is Moonlight Cottage ASMR 1.59m subscribers, one hundred and forty-eight videos, sixteen playlists none of the playlists are obviously on a medical theme. The channel, of course has notes: “Moonlight Cottage ASMR
Description
Hello and welcome to Moonlight Cottage!
I’m Diane and here I share my passion for cinematic/historical ASMR & relaxation videos.
If you wish to support my channel (thank you!), you can join my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/moonlightcottageASMR
Thank you for visiting!
Links
Support me on Patreon ❤patreon.com/moonlightcottageASMR
Follow me on instagraminstagram.com/moonlightcottageasmr
Spotifyopen.spotify.com/artist/7HTOAi6IQXsE54wqgwYdFn”
This channel is a treat for people who actually want to watch rather than just listen to the videos in that the effort that goes into the historical re-enactment material is really second to none. However, most of us are here to get some sleep and so how does the voice stack up when it is not backed up by the visuals:
The video this week is this one:
Steampunk Cranial Nerve Exam | ASMR Roleplay (medical nose, eye, face & ear exam, soft spoken)
Of course it has notes: ” 28 Aug 2022
Welcome back to the Steampunk optometrist (now with many other skills, and still messy hair) for a cranial nerve exam. Music starts at 00:49, if it’s too loud you can skip to 01:40.
Many thanks to my friend Anastasia (@ATMOSPHEREa) for lending her voice in the intro & outro!
This video includes a lot of personal attention & unintelligible whispering.
00:00 Intro part I – phone conversation with Ada (feat. Atmosphere’s voice)
00:49 Intro part II (with music, a bit loud)
01:40 Welcome back
03:00 Testing your senses of smell & taste (unintelligible whispers)
06:50 Eye exam (close personal attention)
11:20 Stereoscopic / 3D vision (steampunk sounds, unintelligible whispers)
16:33 Chart reading, lens testing (unintelligible whispers)
20:38 Face exam / testing your sense of sensation (face touching)
23:00 Ear exam / hearing test (otoscope, close whispers, tuning fork)
27:20 Writing your certificate of aptitude (writing / paper sounds)
30:30 Outro – phone conversation with Ada (feat. Atmosphere’s voice)
31:55 A few submersible ambient sounds”
I’ve trimmed these, a lot, because otherwise you’d be spending a lot of time reading notes.
There are comments and a number seemed to be from seasoned ASMR afficionados who really rate this channel, which bodes well for this video.
The video is a little over thirty-three-and-a-quarter minutes long and so a reasonable length in comparison to recent professional videos we have listened to.
The video starts with the clicking from a rotating dial, there must be few readers who recall such a device. It does however start without music. Moonlight Cottage seems to have a French accent which is actually rather delightful. Sadly, the video then goes into quite active music which is not great when you’re looking for something for sleep purposes.
There are clicking noises, rustling noises, clonking noises and scraping noises. There are brushing noises, flicking noises, equipment sounds some of which sound like machinery. There are paper scraping noises.
The voice continues calm and well-paced; it is not whispery (that’s rather a nice find as many of these presentations are). There are breathing noises, clothing related noises, sounds of glass clicking against wood, there are some background whispers (which actually are rather nice). There is the sound of cork against glass, that mouth clucking noise that ASMR artists love so much, nail tapping noises against glass, objects scraping across a wooden surface, the guttering noise from an oil lamp, polishing noises, and metal scraping noises.
It is actually delightfully slow; some we have reviewed seem to be in too much of a hurry or seem to strain to slow the pace so that it all seems artificial. This seems to plod along at a lovely meandering pace.
There are metal latch sounds, wooden box noises. Some are quite loud, I would guess it depends how far you are into dropping off whether that is going to make a lot of difference to you. The slide viewing device makes quite loud scraping noises as the glass slide goes in and comes out. It also makes a relatively loud noise as it is raised and moved around. There are clicking noises, the chinking of glass as lenses are tried, an odd squeaking as they are returned to the box. There are the small thumps of fingers being tapped. There are tuning fork noises, which are surprisingly muted. There are paper noises and those associated with the scraping of a nib across that paper. Post examination there are more equipment noises, and the rotating dial again. The click of a pocket watch and the turning down of a gas lamp. Then the loud noise as if in an air ship or similar, which plays out the final minute or so (this latter is quite loud).
Overall, I rather liked this. Why not give it a review for yourself and see what you think.
Each week I feature a Calm recommendation. For as long as I have a subscription to Calm, I may as well make use of it. The service, however, is not free so I will not linger long over it.
https://www.calm.com/app/player/TQloKAeDwA
Daily Calm
Creativity
NARRATOR
Tamara Levitt
AUTHOR
Tamara Levitt
This indicates that creativity comes not from intellectual effort but from stillness and silence. Tamara has an excellent voice. If you have a subscription (or are considering taking one out) why not give this one a listen.
The inadvertent ASMR this week comes from a channel which regular readers will know well as there have been visits to this channel on more than one occasion previously. It is University of Leicester, this has 90.2k subscribers,1.6k videos, thirty four playlists not surprisingly very few have any material that are likely to be of use to us.
Today’s video is this one:
Abdominal Examination – Explanation
It has notes: “14 Dec 2011
A second video can be found at; http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/msce…
This is a detailed explanation of the abdominal examination illustrating technique and patient interaction.
The film was produced by practising clinicians to aid the teaching of clinical examination skills. It starts at the point when the clinician has finished taking the medical history and begins the clinical examination.
Presented by Mr Adam Scott MS FRCS (Edin) FRCS (Eng) Consultant General and Colorectal Surgeon. Produced and Directed by Dr Irene Peat FRCR FRCP, Dr Nicholas Port MBChB BSc and Jon Shears.
More Clinical Examination materials can be found at; http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/msce…”
There are comments, there are a fair few of these and most of them seem to be from ASMR fans. So far, so good. It is a little less than eight and a half minutes so it is not going to waylay us for very long at all.
It starts without music and without excessive background noise. We find that Mr Adam Scott has an excellent voice, it is not overly loud and it isn’t too fast either.
There are nice intervals that tell what part of the video comes next, but for our purposes it makes the pacing of the video nicely slow. The patient does not get to say much but she also seems to have a good voice in what little we can hear from her. During the examination, if anything, the pace becomes even more restful and quiet, which makes it quite delightful, a small amount of air conditioning noise notwithstanding.
There are some tapping noises. These are not disturbingly loud (for me at any rate). There are the gurgling gut noises, which didn’t seem particularly disturbing.
On that basis, just one, video this time.
That’s it on this occasion, more next time.
See you again next week.
The University of Leicester Playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening 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 Deep.ai
The Procrastination Pen 