Music – The Procrastination Pen

Sleeping With ASMR

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

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

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

Skin: Demo Exam

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

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

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

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

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

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

The channel is N Sight

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

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

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

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

The First video in the playlist is this one:

Skin Exam: Introduction, Equipment, & Patient Positioning

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

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

The notes are as follows:

“14,451 views 17 Feb 2016

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

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

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

Skin: Teaching Exam

Notes again: “17 Feb 2016

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

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

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

And so to the final video:

(in this playlist anyway)

Skin: Conclusion

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

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

The N Sight playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop part way through a playlist in order to log on, this interrupts the flow/sleep dependent upon how long you’ve been listening. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Marcos Ferrari on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Todays’ video is this one:

ASMR | Professional Worry Removal

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

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

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

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

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

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

ASMR | Another Professional Worry Removal

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

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

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

ASMR | Sybil Gives You a Soothing Manicure

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

ASMR | Professional Worry Removal for the New Year

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

ASMR | Professionally Removing Your Anxiety & Stress in 2023

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

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

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

The Gibi playlist on The Procrastination Pen is here:

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

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

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

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after repeated review not to make the grade, is here:

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

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

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

Head to Toe Health Assessment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(and now it includes the Marissa video).

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after repeated review not to make the grade, is here:

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

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

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

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

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

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

As promised in a previous blog post we are back again at the Merck Manuals channel. Last time we were covering the Ortho Exam playlist.

Relevant videos from this playlist/channel have already been added to the Merck Manuals playlist on The Procrastination Pen YouTube channel.

And into the overall The Procrastination Pen playlist:

There are twenty-two playlists in this channel some of which are extremely large. (The “Merck Manual Consumer Version” contains ninety videos for example. If I attempted to cover all of those it would not be not so much a blog post as a book on ASMR).

Since my last blog post they have changed elements of the Merck Manuals channel to state that it is not available outside the United States.

I hope it wasn’t something that I said.

If like me you’re not in the United States I am afraid that you are left with whatever remaining crumbs there are in terms of videos that are still available.

Parts of some playlists remain accessible.

The playlist:

The Neuro Exam – Merck Manual Professional Version

Contains seven videos which are still visible outside of the US. (Who knows how long you’ll be able to see even these. I suggest you go listen to them before it is too late).

How to do the Mental Status Exam | Merck Manual Professional Version

This is another video with funky start up music. I mean, really, don’t they know I’m trying to sleep?

The narrator here is way too loud sadly. Fortunately, that doesn’t last very long. The “patient” states that she is in Philadelphia in the Einstein Medical Centre. It’s not your standard ASMR stuff in that it is a little bit loud even in the medical exam portion.

I also notice that the medical professional asks how many nickels there are in a dollar and I realised that I did not know (in case you’re also not located in the US the answer is twenty apparently).

Some of these tests are a bit tough. It made me wonder about my own memory as I’m not sure I’d be able to pass such tests.

The video is just a bit loud I think and not great ASMR material so not one for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

How to do the Cranial Nerve Examination | Merck Manual Professional Version

It looks like startup funky music for videos in this playlist is going to be a theme.

Here the narrator is more muted and much more in keeping with what we’re looking for, I think. The video is designed to be for teaching/instruction so although there is an examination of a patient the actually dialogue between medical professional and “patient” does not feature in the video.

However, I think this one will make it to the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Cerebellar Examination: How to Assess Gait, Stance, and Coordination | Merck Manual

There is music at the start as before. Maybe eventually I will find a way to edit videos for their ASMR effects but that currently is not the purpose of this blog/playlist.

The narrator has learned his lesson after the somewhat loud presentation of the first video in this list. He is quite calm and reasonably quiet.

The exam proper appears without audio – the narrator is filling in what the stages in the exam mean. It is an instruction video that is also quite good for ASMR. This video will also be in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

How to do the Motor Examination | Merck Manual Professional Version

I notice that comments for these videos are turned off. Turning off comments stops some of the crazier contributions that we’ve seen of late but it also stops us working out if others are using these videos for their ASMR effects.

To me they seem a good find, this one included.

How to do the Sensory Exam | Merck Manual Professional Version

This is the longest video of the set, but it follows the format of the other videos seen so far. We’re entirely reliant upon the quality of the narrator here (especially to distract us from the music interludes). Fortunately, he has a good voice.

There are intrusions of parts of the genuine exam here. The only distraction with these interludes is the background noise. This is almost certainly the air-conditioning noise which we have become used to from other videos.

In this playlist whilst the medical professionals have changed between videos the “patient” remains the same.

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

How to Test Reflexes | Merck Manual Professional Version

Apart from the first video these have been consistent. Quite a good find this series and this particular video is worth making part of the Procrastination Pen playlist.

How to do a 4-Minute Neurologic Exam | Merck Manual Professional Version

This is exactly the same format as the other videos covered in this article. They were all posted six years ago. I notice that the notes tell me something about the Merck Manual:

“First published in 1899 as a small reference book for physicians and pharmacists, The Merck Manual grew in size and scope to become one of the world’s most widely used comprehensive medical resources for professionals and consumers. As The Manual evolved, it continually expanded the reach and depth of its offerings to reflect the mission of providing the best medical information to a wide cross-section of users, including medical professionals and students, veterinarians and veterinary students, and consumers. • Merck Manual Professional Version: http://www.MerckManuals.com/Professional”

I’m guessing that there is some financial consideration involved in its use. If it produces videos of this quality, I’m in favour (well until they totally remove my ability to see the videos in any case).

However, if the video recording guys are reading, please quieten down the funky music at the beginning (or better still go for a silent intro).

This is another one for the Procrastination Pen playlist, I think.

The Merck Manuals playlist has been updated with these videos.

The overall playlist containing all the videos featured so far is here.

The above playlist has now grown quite large so I have started to weed out some of the less effective ones. However I realise that some people may consider them favourites so I have added the removed videos to an archive playlist.

However, if people who post videos keep taking those videos down again, or making them unavailable to a person writing a blog in the UK, then I may find the weeding is being done for me behind the scenes.

There is also the playlist for the small number of videos I have covered that require age verification. There has been limited demand for these so I doubt I will cover many more (unless I do so by accident).

I hope that you find them restful (and that you get some great sleep).

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Photo by Shona Macrae