Sleeping With ASMR

Having a bad day at work? Just want it to be over? Despair that you’ll ever chill enough to actually get any real sleep tonight? Welcome to The Procrastination Pen. Here the finest in inadvertent ASMR material is reviewed at intervals. Even better there is an ever-growing playlist of curated items for your delectation. And if after all that you’re still plotting ways to murder the boss in an undetectable fashion, at least you’ll get to listen to a relaxing video whilst you are doing it.

Today we have a video from a channel dedicated to health. Nothing could be more medical than that I am thinking and therefore any ASMR effects must be purely down to chance. So far so much the aim of this sequence of blog posts.

The Lung and Thorax Exam

The notes are helpful, which we often do not find: “Jessica Nishikawa demonstrates some of the techniques of the Lung and Thorax assessment.”.

We know who the professional is before we start. Comments are turned off which is a breath of fresh air after some of the nasty stuff that you sometimes see.

We start with Jessica Nishikawa DNP, FNP-BC. DNP appears to be Doctor of Nursing Practice. FNP-BC is Family Nurse Practitioner – Board Certification

Unless you follow nursing, you, like I, may not have been aware these qualifications existed.

Suffice to say a highly qualified person then, but this is not why we are here.

The background hiss which we have heard often before is present here as well. Initially I thought I was going to exclude this video from the Procrastination Pen playlist, but it soon settles down to be less obtrusive than in some of the videos I have reviewed of late.

The “patient” is McConnaugh (probably nothing like the spelling). A quick search of YouTube determines that McConnaugh appears elsewhere such that he might crop up in a future blog post.

At intervals Jessica looks off video to her right. I’m not sure if there is a person there or if she has notes about what she wishes to cover. However, you’re likely to be listening rather than watching, so it is unlikely to affect you.

This is moderately good – no Hollie Berry but still worthy of a place in the playlist I think.

The channel BilderbackHealth surprisingly has only eight videos (including the above one), so we can comfortably cover this off in one blog post.

The majority of the videos feature Jessica – there’s a couple that look like they are not going to be on theme including one on Log Cabins so it might be that six is the total we’re going to be looking at today.

The HEENT Exam Video.mov

The “patient” is Miley (the spelling may well be incorrect).

HEENT head, eyes, ears, nose, and throat.

Sclera the white of the eye.

It is great to have a medical video from a medical facility (not someone’s front room) and for the noise of air conditioning to be absent. Having got used to background noises of late, it is fantastic what a difference silence makes. I may be weeding some of the more air condition-y (new technical term) videos from the playlist going forwards.

The presentation is lovely and quiet. Positively gentle at intervals.

Definitely a Procrastination Pen playlist member I think

The Cardio Vascular / Peripheral Vascular Exam Video.mov

McConnaugh is the “patient” again

JVP – Jugular venous pressure – used to diagnose types of heart and lung disease.

Thrill – a vibration felt whilst palpating a blood vessel.

This remains consistent with the first video we looked at.

The Abdominal Exam Video.mov

Miley returns as the “patient”.

I’m not sure if this is bias but the videos featuring Miley sound to me moderately more-gentle than those featuring McConnaugh. In any case this one is consistent with the HEENT video featured previously.

The Neurological Exam

Connie is the “patient” here – somebody new. Interesting that cranial nerve one is generally not tested and yet how many of these videos have we seen in which people test coffee or even alcohol to verify that this nerve is functional (its function is for smell perception).

This is a bit more of an instructive tone than the ones that have gone before. However, it is probably indicative of the consistency of this set of videos that I even bring this up. Usually in a group of videos that I review we are lucky to have one or possibly two videos included in the playlist. In this case we very likely will include the majority of them. We have not seen that since Dr James Gill.

The Musculo Skeletal Exam

Chris is the patient this time (I’m a bit more comfortable with that spelling)

The best demonstration of abduction and adduction I’ve seen so far.

I’ve watched a number of these and have just realised that Jessica does her nursing in a set of high-heeled shoes, I have pity for her poor feet and respect for her endurance standing on her feet all day in those shoes.

Anyway, this will probably be the last time I actually watch the video (listening being the more usual approach) so this will be of no concern to me (and likely to you either).

I love the pronunciation of buttocks probably the first time I have heard it pronounced that way.

Another video the equal of the ones we have seen in this post previously.

It’s worth noting that Jessica has her own channel, which given the nature of these videos is very likely going to be the subject of an upcoming blog post.

Hand Hygiene

The guitar music is good, but in other respects this is just not the quality of those that have gone before. This is not going to be in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

It also goes all funky subsequently which is just not conducive to great relaxation. (Entertaining though I’m sure it is).

Outside Log Cabins 1.16.21 with Jamie O’Brien and friends

Funky music from the outset, charming images but that isn’t why we are here. This is a poor fit for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

In general, an excellent set of videos and the largest consistent set of videos for the Procrastination Pen playlist we have seen in a while. This gives me more ammunition for ongoing weeding activity to perfect that playlist.

The Bilderback Health playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The Procrastination Pen playlist (which is no-doubt what you have all been reading this in order to locate) is found here:

I have been working through that playlist repeatedly and some of the videos that were members have now fallen from favour. If any of your favourites are in there you can find them here in the archive list:

Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than excessive background noise.

The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function), usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night, is here:

I hope that you find the playlists restful and that you get a good night’s sleep.

Hope to see you again back here for the next blog article.

If you liked this blog item why not subscribe to this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

We came across Michael Koller in a previous blog post.

At the time I pointed out that he had a page dedicated to videos i.e. this one.

So far I have not tried reviewing videos which have been linked to from a web page. This is a venture into the unknown. It is not possible to add them into a playlist so this entire blog post will buck the trend of all previous blog posts on ASMR and ASMR-related videos.

The organisation of the page is impeccable, a series of links in a table. I’d guess that they are designed for education purposes.

The first video is:

Head to Toe: Male; Dr Michael Koller

There is a link to the main video entitled “Complete Video”. The video has also been divided into four parts (I’m not sure what the point of that is).

There is also a link called “Text”, this turns out to be a fourteen-page checklist. Students have a much greater memory than I have if they can memorise and utilise all of that.

The “Complete Video” link is to this video

the quality doesn’t seem to be great and it duplicates one that we’ve already seen on YouTube so not really worthy of additional review

The “part” videos are as follows:

The quality doesn’t improve just because they are a component of the main video above. These are also quite loud for what we want.

If the tone was a bit quieter, then these might have been ideal.

I was considering asking Dr Michael Koller if he would permit me to upload the videos to YouTube so that they could be enjoyed in the normal way. However sadly he has died so I am unable to do that. As such I cannot upload them to YouTube and therefore, I cannot add them to the Procrastination Pen playlist.

I very much suspect that this is a lost branch of a website which will one day be rediscovered by the Stritch school of medicine and taken down.

For that reason, if you want to see the videos, now is probably the time to do that.

Head to Toe: Female; Dr Michael Koller

For these the only videos available are the Part1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 videos rather than a complete video.

Parts 1, 2 and 3 are secured by a Stritch logon leaving only part 4 for us to see. There is no associated text file as there is for the Head-to-Toe Male video. The reason is not obvious.

This video is much better than any of the Head-to-Toe Male videos in that it is substantially quieter. If this video was on YouTube, it would be in the playlist. I suspect that one cannot just take other people’s videos and upload them to YouTube so I’m sorry for ASMR video fans out there who would like this to be in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Head and Neck; Dr Michael Koller

In contrast to the above this video does not come in parts -only the complete video is available. In addition, the above video does not have a “Text” link but for this video a link to the text file is provided.

The text file is four pages long and is again a checklist to go with the video.

At least the music used to start this is gentle, a bit of classic guitar music. Dr Koller introduces Nancy Grecko (assuming that is how you spell that).

The sound for the video is not great – a constant background noise. It is as if the sound track had been lifted from an ancient cassette tape. We have heard background noise like this before.

Given the track is not on YouTube it will not be in a playlist, however I may have considered it if it had been.

I have made an email request to a general contact address at Stritch to see if permission will be granted for me to upload these videos to YouTube. Assuming permission is granted I will upload the videos to my channel in the future and create a playlist as I would normally do. If no such list appears you can assume no such permission was given.

At intervals there are brief snatches of narration which do not have the background noise and this is distracting in that the noise is only emphasised as a consequence.

Thorax; Dr Michael Koller

There is an associated text file, which is again a four-page checklist. There is a bit of a theme developing.

This time there is a complete video

and two “part” videos

The complete video has funky start music (thanks but no thanks). The background noise is still there but just less pronounced than with the “Head and Neck” Video.

Dr Koller refers to “IPM1” in the intro this now seems to redirect to “Patient Centred Medicine 1”. I’m not clear what the Original Acronym was for although it does still form part of the URL in some cases like here: https://www.stritch.luc.edu/lumen/meded/ipm/ipm1/geninfo.htm

Dr Koller refers to this being a composite video composed of videos that are found elsewhere – my apologies if you notice some overlap (I have not done so).

This is a reasonable video. It is not truly quiet, but it could be said to be quite calm and methodical, not as good as Dr James Gill however.

Part way through, though, Dr Koller starts whacking a tambour which cannot be said to be properly restful.

The outro indicates the “patient” was Thad, assuming that is how you spell that.

A review of the “part” videos indicates that, as expected, they replicate the content of the complete video.

Pulmonary; Dr Michael Koller

Having established with reasonable assurance what the expected behaviour is i.e., the “part” videos are just bits of the complete video, I’m going to limit myself to reviewing the complete video in each case.

In this case there is a text file as before, as expected it is a checklist – this time three pages long. I think we’ve probably satisfied our curiosity about the checklists now and we can cease to review them. The complete video is here http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=F6FD6842-E2D0-46EF-8A56-1CF6D17BE36F

The two “part” videos are http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=DEA8DD0B-6C75-4FF9-B53C-8784425AA7FF and http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=75C0B723-E226-43DC-BEB4-B04050DD47D5

We are back to the classical guitar music approach to video introductions although it seems to be a bit louder than before, the inter-video volume problem reasserting itself

Dr Koller and Thad appear again. (Apologies to Thad if I am misspelling your name, happy to correct this if you let me know).

The sound is strange like there is a slight metallic tone to the voice (as if the microphone was inside a metal box). Thankfully we lack that awful background noise in this video though.

There is a set of breathing sounds on the track but (to me) these were not excessively loud and did not distract from the track in anyway. Your mileage may vary.

Again, we see the definition of egophony which we have seen before.

Heart; Dr Michael Koller

The obligatory text file (which I think we can assume now is a checklist) and the complete video supplemented with 2 “part” videos.

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=A04A60F2-B7F4-46B1-9512-3075A42A99E2

Part 1: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=04E8B771-92D5-405F-97CA-796A9295DAEF

Part 2: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=128F2A83-7ECB-43E2-8F33-32DA6F6C3F36

The complete video starts with the classical guitar music again (a bit loud this time). This video still features Dr Koller and Thad. Again, we have a slightly metallic edge to the sound.

This is very much of the quality of the previous video.

Atrial fibrillation – an irregular heartbeat.

Mediastinum an area between the lungs

Epigastrium upper central region of the abdomen

Towards the end there are various heart beat sounds but I did not find then distracting. You may have a different reaction.

Abdomen; Dr Michael Koller

This video begins with far-too-loud start music, no restful guitar music this time. It has the metallic sounding vocal track, Dr Koller and Thad as we have heard in previous videos. This really needs a better microphone, I think. If it wasn’t for this aggravating metallic echo I think this would have been quite a good video.

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=36FFE14E-6DDE-4186-93F5-17E239D611DB

Part 1: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=9A6B1293-A7AC-4BE1-B5F0-882773806144

Part 2: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=32693A4A-A3E7-4EA1-B2E7-53B8AD91DA63

Part 3: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=F1A2F47E-302F-4A18-AC24-45C935050300

This is the last Dr Michael Koller video on the site. However, there are a lot more videos with other participants.

I’ll return here in a future blog post to review the others assuming the page stays up.

Sadly, I have not created a playlist this time (I may get permission to create one in the future from Stritch perhaps).

The overall playlist of videos covered so far in this blog is here:

The archive playlist (videos which were in the overall playlist but after repeated playings it turns out that was a mistake) is here:

The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function) – usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night is here:

I hope that you find them restful

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

Until next time.

Photo by FOYN on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

If you’ve been following the blog for a while, I am hopeful that you have quite a lot of material to make your night hours more restful.

I’m still continuing with the medical examination theme because it appears to have been an effective one. However, I realise that having a playlist of ASMR videos that stays focused on the same subject might be dull, so I am open to new ideas. Indeed, I may explore a few side avenues independently.

If you’re new to the blog well, welcome. The idea is that I keep finding new videos that may have some ASMR effects. So far, predominantly videos which were not created for their ASMR effects but were devised for another purpose. This has mostly been videos covering some variety of medical examination.

These unintentional ASMR videos may produce ASMR effects (assuming you are a person who is lucky enough to feel such effects) or they may just be restful enough to gentle you off to sleep. Either way I hope that they are of use to you and I am open to suggestions if there is other material which you have found effective.

Today we are exploring more material in terms of eye examination. We have covered this area before with Moran Core where we encountered Megan, who had a very good ASMR voice (but got somewhat limited air time).

Today’s video is this one:

HEINE Direct Ophthalmoscopy — How to perform Ophthalmoscopy

This is very different in that it is an out-and-out instruction video. It is distinguished for our purposes in that the narrator has an excellent voice. It is a very calming voice and unlike material we have recently seen it is not afflicted by horrendous background noise.

This strikes me as a great one to keep in the playlist for this blog (if you want to see that playlist scroll to the end of this article).

As is usual for articles in this blog, when I find one video which has potential ASMR effects I take a chance to explore the channel in which it is found.

Here we have the channel HEINE Optotechnik. This channel has one hundred and twelve videos as at the date I’m looking at it. Even with superman fingers I do not think I will be doing a blog post on that many videos.

The standard approach I have adopted in these circumstances is to look for a playlist. I have assumed up to ten videos is enough without you losing the will to live.

There are twenty playlists in this channel with contents ranging from four to seventeen videos.

Our video (above) appears in a playlist entitled How-To: Opthalmology (indeed, it is the last video in that playlist).

The other two are:

HEINE Indirect Ophthalmoscopy — The Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscope (Part 1)

This has exactly the same narrator as our first video. Looking at the comments it appears that there are none at all from the ASMR community (well they have not made themselves known in any case). It is possibly not a popular category with them.

I think however that this is a relaxing video – not a Dr James Gill standard but good enough for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The notes inform us that the narrator is a Mr Brian Little, sadly that is not a rare enough name for me to determine whether he has narrated any other material which might be of interest to us.

The next (and last from this playlist) video is this:

HEINE Indirect Ophthalmoscopy — The Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscope (Part 2)

There are over four thousand subscribers, so this is no passing fancy of a channel. It is very likely a channel to which I will return in future blog items.

This is unusual for an item on this blog, in that all of the videos reviewed deserve membership in the Procrastination Pen playlist of ASMR videos.

The playlist for HEINE is here:

The overall playlist of videos covered so far in this blog is here:

The archive playlist (videos which were in the overall playlist but after repeated playings it turns out that was a mistake) is here:

The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function) – usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night is here:

I hope that you find them restful

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

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

Continuing in our search for medical videos which may induce ASMR in some listeners (or at the very least induce enough relaxation to see you napping) we have today’s video:

Hip Extension and Hip Abduction MMT

This one is from the channel Dominican College which has just seven hundred and three subscribers as at today’s date (this seems a little low for a college). There are one hundred and ninety-four videos at the time I’m looking at it. This is a tad too many for any single blog post. There are seven playlists but many of these have a high number of videos in them. So in this case using playlists to narrow the field may not be effective. This is thirty-eighth in a thirty-nine video playlist “PT541 Basics of PT (2022)

I do not think that we will be covering thirty-nine videos in any single blog post even though some of them are quite short.

Today’s video is obviously filmed in a classroom setting, there is a general hubbub happening as for people chatting in the background. The sound is quite muted and the background noise is prevalent (I’d guess air conditioning again). It ends rather abruptly as well which might be off-putting.

It is marginal in terms of the purpose that we wish to put it to (engendering restfulness). This is no Hollie Berry or Vicki Scott. I’ll let it sneak into the Procrastination Pen playlist but it might be subject to future weeding.

The channel tells me very little about the college itself – merely that the channel was established in 2018.

Checking for Dominican College online I find that it has been rebranded to Dominican University now. I think I’ve found the correct one as it offers a PT programme (which is the subject of the playlist).

It is located in New York and has an interesting history.

Whilst we’re in the playlist let’s see if there are any others worthy of examination.

Given the large number of videos in this playlist I think we’ll need to arbitrarily cut the number. I’m going to choose five and then revisit on another occasion.

Gross UE ROM Screen

I wonder if the small number of subscribers is because it was posted for a specific reason, say a class during a time of Covid or something similar.

The tutor is Justine Ward. Sadly there is no channel for Justine, there might have been a chance to find something with better audio quality.

The sound quality is no better on this video and given it is less than three minutes it isn’t worth adding to The Procrastination Pen playlist.

Assessment of knee flexion end feel

A short video at just over a minute. Sadly the sound quality does not improve, the teaching professional really needs a lapel mic. Given it is so short, again, I don’t see the point in adding it to The Procrastination Pen playlist (it might have sneaked in had the sound quality been better).

The theme of these videos is they all seem to end abruptly which is even less great given it gives the opportunity for a loud YouTube advert to kick in immediately afterwards.

UE strength screen

This is two minutes long and the sound quality is not great. There is however no classroom banter in this one which helps. Someone does clear his throat part way through (I assume the person holding the camera).

There is a repeat of the “don’t let me move you” phrase we’ve encountered before. Again, I don’t think this will make it to The Procrastination Pen playlist.

Assessing ankle DF and elbow ext end feel

This is very short at just over one and a half minutes and the noise quality is not the greatest here. It’s noisy to begin with, slightly better as it settles down later on.

It’s also unnerving in places. I’m sure if some of the manipulations were tried on my elbow for example, I’d be nursing it for a long time afterwards.

It doesn’t belong in The Procrastination Pen playlist.

There is only one candidate video this time. As a consequence I will not create a playlist on The Procrastination Pen for Dominican College.

However, the playlist for all videos covered on The Procrastination Pen so far is here:

I recommend you view it on YouTube (rather than on this blog) then you will be able to use the shuffle function so that the videos play in a random order.

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 trying to relax in order 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.

I hope you find the playlist relaxing, any feedback is welcome.

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

It came to me today that this series has been going on so long that I should provide an ongoing introduction to these articles, so that any newcomers will know what is happening. This needs to be brief enough though, so that the stalwart reader doesn’t get bored.

The aim of this particular blog series is to explore the use of ASMR videos for sleep. Specifically, to be helpful in the getting off to sleep and getting back to sleep when you awake in the middle of the night.

I’m assuming you have a device that can attach to the Internet somewhere near to your bed. On this device that you can open YouTube, browse to The Procrastination Pen playlist, click on shuffle, lie back and listen to the rest in peace. (This might require some kind of sleep-friendly headphones or similar).

My focus so far has mainly been on ASMR videos which have ASMR effects despite being designed for something else (most commonly medical exams so far). These are so-called “unintentional ASMR” videos. There are quite a number of these so I doubt we are going to run out of these any time soon. However, I do occasionally stray into the professional ASMR arena and select one of those videos that appeals.

Each article reviews a video or videos that came up on YouTube. These frequently are found through recommendation by YouTube. I then determine whether the ongoing playlist needs to be enhanced by addition of the reviewed video or that the video needs to be rejected. (In which case the video will still be clickable from the article itself – if you decide you rather like it).

You are free to recommend videos that you feel fit the bill or to disagree with my choices (I may even change the playlist in response to contributions).

At intervals, I review the playlist and pull out the less-successful videos into an archive list of those that seemed to make the grade but over time have not proven to be quite so restful. I use the Procrastination Pen playlist myself so I have a reasonably constant interaction with it.

Today’s video appears to have once been on YouTube on a different channel but was taken down for some reason. The comments indicate that it is a very welcome restoration.

The channel is ASMR Archivist and the notes state that its mission is “an archive for lost AMSR videos” (I assume that’s ASMR). This seems like the kind of place that we could enjoy.

That said, on exploring ASMR Archivist we find just one video (today’s video) and zero playlists.

So today’s article is going to feature just the one video.

Cate Darnell – Head to Toe Assessment

It is so popular that we find that it has an entry in the Internet Archive.

This indicates that it was deleted in 2020, but sadly not where it was deleted from – i.e. where its original home was.

As a consequence of being so popular we find that a similar thing has happened to this video as for the Vicki Scott video covered previously That is, the video is now posted in several places on YouTube. For example here:

On a channel called Sleep ASMR (which seems appropriate)

Our video is just shy of twenty-six minutes long so not the longest we’ve seen. It seems to start with “Miss Spagboll” (I’m sure I heard that incorrectly).

The badge on the patient is just not discernible enough to make it out however it could be Honors College which resolves as The University of Alabama in Huntsville. This has a channel UAH Admissions. This channel has forty-three videos and seven playlists but it appears this is all about marketing the university rather than medical examinations.

Possibly the Cate Darnell video once came from a Cate Darnell channel which has now gone.

Our video looks like an assessment video for a nursing university. We’ve seen these before of course. There is the normal level of background noise, air conditioning again, I think.

Cate has a brilliant accent and talks very quietly, just the sort of thing we are looking for in a video.

As usual the odd definition may help (well they do me – as I have no medical background) in this case bruit is an abnormal sound generated by a turbulent flow of blood.

I have no idea what Cate did next but for our purposes it is a shame that she did not produce a whole wealth of videos à la Dr James Gill.

The comments as usual are very helpful, one points out that details of Cate are online and that the video is over a decade old.

As many commentators state this is an excellent ASMR video. Definitely one for the playlist.

Sadly there will be no playlist for ASMR Archivist on the Procrastination Pen (there is only one video)

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

(and now it includes the Cate Darnell 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

In writing this it is all too easy to assume that you have made the journey thus far with me and have some idea what this blog is for. However, it is to be hoped that people are meandering into the blog, from some search engine or other, all the time. If you have done that, this article may be your point of entry.

If so welcome.

I hope that those who have been reading (and subscribing) for a period of time will have patience whilst I tell you what you’re looking at.

The purpose is to generate a playlist – simply that. A great long playlist of videos from YouTube. Videos which, after careful listening and review have been found good for ASMR (or at the very least to be restful and relaxing, sufficient to nestle a person off to sleep when they have a stressful day to come and desperately need the rest).

The writing is actually the review process and I assume that a lot of people will just scroll to the end of the article and pick up the playlist.

Some people may take an interest in the review and take a moment to read and reflect on it or to vehemently disagree and to leave comments.

At intervals I will further edit the playlist to try to ensure that only the more restful videos are included.

This time we are starting with a video on a much more official sounding channel than some of our recent dalliances have been. No professional ASMR curation here.

The Exam for Shoulder Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

A rather nice piece of introductory music this time, although what it will sound like once you’ve heard it a few dozen times in the dead of night and you’re tired, irritable and have an important meeting in the morning, I’m afraid I can’t predict.

The medical professional this time is properly announced in the video Dr. Brinda Christopher Sports Medicine Physician FFSEM MRCP BSc MBBS. A rather dazzling array of qualifications there. The patient isn’t introduced.

But how does her voice sound and is the video very relaxing is what we have come to find out (well I have and I assume you have too as you’re reading this).

Certainly, Brinda has a very quiet voice, sufficiently quiet that the background aircon is quite apparent in this video.

The comments are quite enlightening with some comments from people seeking instruction for exams and some from those coming to this channel for ASMR videos. (I am not the first to find this video for ASMR purposes).

Although it is quiet it isn’t tops for ASMR with me. It is worthy of a review though and probably worthy of the Procrastination Pen playlist. (It might fall victim to a subsequent weeding, we’ll see).

The channel is Stanford Medicine 25. There are two hundred and forty-four subscribers at the time I’m looking at it. There are eighty-five videos as at today’s date and thirteen playlists. This video occurs in a playlist called Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam.

This playlist consists of eight videos of which the above one is the very last in the set.  Dr Christopher only features in three (of which the above is one).

The other two featuring Dr Christopher are:

The Exam for Knee Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

As usual with institutional videos (see the ones from Warwick) these are of a brand i.e. the same introductory images and the same image bottom right-hand side. (This last presumably in an attempt to preserve copyright of the entire video).

You might be intrigued (as I was) by the term crepitus, which is a noise coming from the joints on movement.

I’m not sure what the “patient” is called here, I thought that Brinda thanked “Chad” but it might just be my ears.

The last video with Dr Christopher in this playlist is:

The Exam for Ankle & Foot Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

In this we establish that the patient here is “Chad” the same patient in all three videos covered in this article. From the accent I would guess Chad is an American person. That’s in keeping with the institution location but is in quite a contrast to the more English accent of Dr Christopher.

These three videos obviously belong together, the same medical professional, the same “patient” the other five in the set (contained in the Musculoskeletal Exam playlist) less so.

Therefore, I think I’ll call this article at an end here and resolve to follow on with the rest of that playlist (and the channel) in future blog items.

The Stanford Medicine playlist on The Procrastination Pen is here:

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

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after lengthy 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 dislike these as they expect me to login to verify my age. This interrupts the listening experience in my view. You may be happy with this interruption in which case this list is for you.

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

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Until next time.

Photo by Heyphotoshoot on Unsplash

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

Sleeping With ASMR

I recently had a nasty shock when posting an ASMR article. For each embedded video, rather than a nice image of the video from YouTube there is a rather abrupt message from YouTube stating that the content of the video can only be shown on YouTube itself.

I don’t see this as a problem. I was anticipating that in reading this you were eager to get to the playlists at the end and see what new joys of ASMR I had found for you. However, it does look rather unattractive.

I apologise for this. I do not know a workaround other than to delete the video from the blog altogether. That seems a bit counterproductive since you wouldn’t get to experience the video at all.

If anyone has any suggestions as to how the ugly warning box can be dispensed with and something more attractive put in its place, I would welcome that kind of input.

Today’s video subject is another nerve examination – they are a rich source of ASMR material. I have no idea how the medical education process seems to churn out so many people with calm quiet voices but long may it continue and long may they continue to post their videos.

Quick Neurological Screening Examination

Judging by some of the comments I am not the first to divine that this is a great ASMR video. I’m hopeful that you find it soporific, if you’ve decided to use the playlists to get off to sleep, as I do.

Prashant for that is the YouTube channel has posted just ten videos but has 4.06K subscribers as at today’s date. This makes me wonder if there are a shed-load of ASMR devotees out there.

A number of the videos could have been effective but they are in a language I do not understand and hence there is a risk I’m posting something that I shouldn’t. Therefore, I have discounted them.

This next one features Dr Prashant himself. He has quite a good voice, but I’m not sure the coronavirus is a very restful subject so I am discounting it from the playlist.

Corona Virus (COVID-19) Pandemic

Which leaves only one video:

Mental Status Examination

This takes a while to wind itself up, the exam proper does not really start till six minutes five seconds into the video. Sadly whilst it is the sole remaining video in this channel worthy of consideration, I don’t think it really made the grade. (Your experience may differ). So one more video for the playlist, remember it is found here:

I hope you find it restful.

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Photo by Emre Camcıoğlu on Unsplash