Retirement – The Procrastination Pen

Sleeping With ASMR

I notice that it has been so hot that we are starting to get advice about sleeping in a heatwave and that a sleep “divorce” is being discussed as a potential solution to some sleep-related issues. One thing that seems to be coming out of recent sleep articles is that people all over the UK (and no doubt elsewhere) are struggling to get enough decent quality sleep. The very high temperatures cannot be helping.

This blog, as regular readers will recognise, is all about sleep but mainly it focuses on sound and how to use sound to distract your mind from all the stresses of the day (and anticipation of the stresses of the day yet to come).

To this end I recommend (and review) a few audio tracks in the hope that you will find them restful. I am also, very gradually, building a playlist of inadvertent ASMR on YouTube which you may find helpful in this respect.

Some time ago I promised that I would find material that was not on YouTube so that those, like me, that loath the state of advertising on YouTube, during the quieter moments of the night could find refuge with another audio facility.

This week I notice that Susan Piver (someone I have mentioned before) has now started a podcast, called “Buddhism Beyond Belief”. It seems to have started in May and is still going strong. I rather like Susan’s voice. I also found that I could click on any of the tracks and they would just play without the need for any kind of logon (unlike some of the Spotify recommendations I have made recently). There is no obvious mechanism for downloading each track so, sadly, no method for building into your own personal playlist. It may still be worthy of a review however.

The Calm track this week (which is strictly for people who already have a Calm subscription) is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/rUpkBWv51r

Daily Jay

Unlikely Teachers

NARRATOR

Jay Shetty

What do unpleasant people teach us about ourselves.

I do not think that there is any free content, so on that basis (given most readers will not have a Calm subscription) I will move swiftly along.

I have, for some months now, been reviewing a professional ASMR artist. I have recently taken refuge in some rather old ASMR in that it is nostalgic for me (I used to listen to these tracks close to the time that they were first posted). This week’s one is this:

Ocean Fabric Affirmations 🕯[ASMR] Whisper

We have featured the channel WhispersRed ASMR before, but for those of you new to the blog, WhispersRed ASMR has 1.12m subscribers, nine hundred and twelve videos, twenty-nine playlists.

Of which this one is dedicated to getting sleepy:

Regular readers will have noticed that I have, yet again, strayed from the core theme of these blog articles which is medical orientated videos. I have been reviewing such videos for a long time and I assure you that I will be returning to them as well.

The notes on the channel are quite informative including the fact that WhispersRed has been posting videos for thirteen years now (wow):

“WhispersRed ASMR

Description

Welcome home 💜 Make yourself cosy, put your feet up and I’ll pop the kettle on.

ASMR Tingles ✨ Relaxation ✨ Sleep ✨ Sound Therapy ✨ Silence ✨ Peace ✨ Love ✨ Smiles

Emma WhispersRed, Emma Smith, YouTube Mum

London, England

Links

Vlog Channelyoutube.com/@Emma_WhispersRed

Children’s Channelyoutube.com/c/WhispersRedASMRForChildren

Websitewhispersredasmr.com

Dog Rescue Charitywhispaws.org

Instagraminstagram.com/whispersred_asmr

TikToktiktok.com/@whispersredasmr

Facebookfacebook.com/WhispersRedASMR

More info

http://www.youtube.com/@WhispersRedASMR

United Kingdom

Joined 12 Apr 2013

1.12m subscribers

912 videos

433,408,137 views”

As you can see the notes are pretty comprehensive (read extremely long). The majority of professional ASMR artists seem to double as part-time authors if the length of their notes is anything to go by.

The video is a little over thirty-two minutes and it also has humongous notes; associated with it. This time I think I’ll edit them down (a lot):

“663,439 views 16 Jan 2020 #whispersred #asmr

An ASMR affirmations whisper using ocean fabric hands sound, candle gazing, smudging and fluffy mics for close comforting hair sounds 💜0:01 – Introduction 6:53 – Guided relaxation 14:36 – Affirmations begin 23:39 – Repeated affirmations for sleep 29:09 – Goodnight, Sleep tight, with LOVE from me 🌟

Items in this video:

🌸US Links – Satya Incense collection including Celestial – https://amzn.to/2u4hpAt

Silver grey blanket https://amzn.to/30o6wFG

🌷UK Links – Satya Incense with Celestial https://amzn.to/2teboRK

Silver Grey Blanket https://amzn.to/2uSixaB

📚My ASMR Book – Unwind Your Mind: The Life-changing power of ASMR https://campsite.bio/whispersredasmr – Published by Ebury/PenguinRandomHouse in the UK/Europe and Harper One in the US and Canada. Available in Hardback, Paperback, Audiobook and Ebook.”

The full set of notes are interesting to true ASMR afficionados and no doubt to out-and-out WhispersRed fans.

Comments are permitted. There are a fair number and as per usual some are lauding WhispersRed as the pinnacle of ASMRishness. Some are just peculiar. This seems pretty average for any YouTube video. (Some YouTube videos also attract some rather nasty comments, but not so here, as far as I can tell).

The video starts without music and I suppose the clue was in the name of the channel in that we can hear that we are focused on the whispery; in fact, I would say it is on the whispery side of whispery.

Emma mimics ocean sounds by dragging her hands across fabric (and it is really very believable). If you find ocean sounds restful, I would say you would be hard pressed to tell the difference with your eyes closed. I am mainly here for the voice and whilst I prefer presentations that are not focused on whispery, as whispery presentations go, this is a good one.

There is the crackling of a burning candle, the sound of a cigarette lighter, the clicking of nails and that ongoing fabric sound which could easily be the waves retreating over sand, if you did not know better. I thought it quite a clever effect and I’m not certain who first worked out that you could employ fabric in this way. The blowing of a Joss Stick quite effectively mimics the wind blowing; it really is quite carefully put together. It even includes a few well-placed affirmations; I’m quite in favour of an affirmation so I would say that gives it extra kudos.

I can now remember what it is caused me to listen to it all those years ago. In fact, whether it was the heat or the restfulness of this video I did find myself nodding whilst listening to it. In terms of this blog, therefore, I would deem that a success.

Why not review it yourself and see what you think.

The inadvertent ASMR video this week is from a channel that regular readers will already know. It is from Oxford Medical Education a channel with 164k subscribers, thirty two videos, nine playlists, and I have mined this channel for material repeatedly. Some of the videos have actually been quite good.

The video is this one:

Neck Examination – ENT

It is a little less than four minutes so play close attention or you’ll miss it!

There are notes of course: “338,976 views 17 Feb 2012

This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School in conjunction with the ENT faculty – demonstrates how to perform an examination of the neck. It also demonstrates the lymph node regions of the neck.

All videos on this channel are linked to Oxford Medical Education (www.oxfordmedicaleducation.com)

This video was produced in collaboration with Oxford Medical Illustration – a department of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. For more information, please visit http://www.oxfordmi.nhs.uk”

How lovely and succinct they are, compared to those for the previous video.

The video starts without music but I was somewhat shocked after WhispersRed how loud the narrator initially sounded. This might be one to thumb the volume down a little. It might also be that in the context of the Procrastination Pen playlist it will fit right in. Something goes wrong with the video at about twenty seconds – it makes a very odd sound and the screen goes crazy for about three seconds. That is a great shame the video is otherwise quite calming. One of those where if I owned the video, I would cut that section out altogether. The medical professional has a great voice for our purposes, quite calm and quiet. However, sadly he does not get to talk as frequently as the narrator in this one. The “patient” doesn’t get to talk at all. The narrator has quite a good voice but not quite as great as the medical professional here. It might be that she has been instructed to be louder in order to be clear for the (no doubt students) attending to the video. It was not, after all, recorded for us ASMR fans.

The only problem from my perspective was the rather active advert that kicked in immediately afterwards.

On that basis, just one, video this time.

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

See you again next week.

The Oxford Medical Education 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

Sleeping With ASMR

Recently it has been warm. Actually, warm does not even begin to describe it. It has been the kind of warm that must attend a sweating person’s undergarments. It has been hot and humid, and the kind of weather that makes you wonder why winter seems such a terrible idea.

One of the things that I find when it is like this is that lying in a pool of your own sweat is not that conducive to sleep. I also find that a couple of asthmatic tower fans do not really begin to make a dent in it. I am also hearing colleagues discussing the relative merits of this air conditioning system or that one.

England seems a quite different place to what I am used to if air conditioning starts to become as normal as formally a gas boiler would have been.

In these times as far as I can tell, all that is feasible is to rest, trust that your body is going to sleep when it has to, oh, and listen to a nice distracting playlist. It is for the latter that the Procrastination Pen has been reviewing calming material (predominantly from YouTube) for the last mumble-mumble months now. (It’s been a long while).

I am making efforts to live up to my promise of finding Internet-available material which is both free of adverts and also free of cost. (I think I was something of a lummock for promising it in the first place, but the endeavour persists).

This week I remembered that I had heard a meditation from someone called Chris Murchison called “I Am”. I found a copy of it here: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/podcasts/item/happiness_break_an_affirmation_practice_for_the_new_year

There is no obvious download button, however, there was also nothing that demanded payment. It is quite brief and there is some music, which is not my preferred thing. However, I found that Chris has a relaxing voice. Why not give it a try for yourself.

Whilst I’m looking at past relaxing material, I found that I had at one time been listening to this week’s professional ASMR artist in the past. The video is not on a medical theme but it is a goody (in my opinion).

The video is this one:

🌙* Sleepy Time🌙* ASMR * Soft Sounds * Massage *

It is from a channel that I have reviewed before

Gentle Whispering ASMR which has 2.43m subscribers, 848 videos, and 14 playlists.

There is even a playlist on a medical theme:

containing thirty-eight videos no less.

Today’s video is dated 2016 which is when I would have been listening to it. The notes, as usual, for a professional ASMR artist are making a run for war and peace in terms of their length:

“1 May 2016 #Gentlewhispering #ASMR #relax

Good evening🌙 ^_^ In this video we will scratch a pillow 00:59, make sleepy sweeping sounds with it 03:15, tuck you in with a soft blanket 06:22, massage your shoulders and your neck to help you relax more while learning why it is so good for you 08:45, then we’ll rub your temples and your forehead to sooth any tension you might have 17:00, help you locate and relax your jaw muscles 21:14 and at the end we’ll use a tissue technique 23:05 to help you close your eyes and fall asleep faster 🙂 I hope you’ll enjoy this simple and light video. Thank you for watching! 🌙 ♥

Disclaimer: ***- This video is created for relaxation, entertainment and ASMR/tingles/chills inducing purposes only. For more information about ASMR phenomenon please click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomo…

-This video cannot replace any medication or professional treatment. If you have sleep/anxiety/psychological troubles please consult your physician. Thank you 🙂

Email: MariaGentlewhispering@gmail.com

#ASMR #Gentlewhispering #relax”

As usual I have truncated those quite a bit. The video is a little over twenty-six and a quarter minutes. There are a shed-ton of comments. As usual there is lots of fawning commentary with the odd strange comment thrown in to remind you this is YouTube.

There is no startup music and the presentation is heavily dependent on whispery, breathy presentation. Pretty standard for a professional ASMR artist then. I do prefer them less on the whispery side personally, probably because such videos are comparatively rare. The voice is so quiet that at intervals what is being said cannot be made out (by me at any rate). However, the tone is so restful and quiet and the pace so marvellously slow. There is a persistent background hiss but it is barely noticeable. (I had turned the volume up a bit as the presentation really is that quiet).

There are non-vocal sounds of course: nails clicking on sequins, fabric-related noises, (some of those do not seem to be that restful), stroking of a cushion (which is uncannily like an ocean noise), stroking of a jumper, rustling noises, fingers tapping on material.

At intervals my mind did start to drift a bit which is perhaps not a good sign. Then again it could be a sign that if I was horizontal, I would have drifted off at that point.

I would say this one was definitely worthy of a review, why not take a look yourself.

The Calm track this week is this one:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/yS_L-ODr3t

Daily Trip

Awareness for Curious Cats

NARRATOR

Jeff Warren

AUTHOR

Jeff Warren

What is awareness? We can never fully know ourselves but we can try.

I know the chances are that relatively few of you will have a Calm subscription and I am not going to sell you one. However, if you do subscribe to Calm, why not give that a try.

For the inadvertent ASMR we are back, once again, with a channel that I have covered many times previously, that is Geeky Medics. This channel has 1.44m subscribers, three hundred and fifty four videos, twenty playlists and occasionally we do find a really rather relaxing video. With the downside that as far as I remember every single video I have reviewed from this channel has music.

Today’s video is this one:

Tinel’s & Phalen’s Test – OSCE Guide | Clip | UKMLA | CPSA | PLAB 2

In common with several recent inadvertent ASMR videos of late it is rather short at a little less than one and a half minutes. The video still has notes though: “2 Oct 2022 Neurological Examination OSCE Guides | CPSA | UKMLA | PLAB | MRCS

This video demonstrates how to screen for sensory loss in the hands in an OSCE station. Sensory assessment of the hands (radial, median, ulnar nerve) is commonly performed as part of a hand and wrist examination.

Tinel’s and Phalen’s test screen specifically for median nerve compression (i.e. carpal tunnel syndrome).

You can read our step-by-step guide to hand and wrist examination here: https://geekymedics.com/hand-examinat…

Always adhere to medical school/local hospital guidelines when performing examinations or clinical procedures. DO NOT perform any examination or procedure on patients based purely on the content of these videos. Geeky Medics accepts no liability for loss of any kind incurred as a result of reliance upon the information provided in this video.

Achieve success in your medical school OSCEs, UKMLA CPSA, and PLAB 2 exams with our free clinical skills videos. Subscribe to our channel to be informed of our latest releases. 🙂

CPSA OSCE Guides https://geekymedics.com/the-clinical-…

UKMLA AKT Notes https://geekymedics.com/ukmla/

PLAB 2 OSCE Stations https://geekymedics.com/plab-2-osce-s…

Revise for the Simulated Consultation Assessment (SCA) with our collection of high-quality SCA cases written by GPs and Training Program Directors. Check out our SCA revision cases and prepare for the MRCGP https://geekymedics.com/sca-cases-ban…”

Again I have edited those down a tad.

Despite how short this video is there is still time, apparently, for startup music (I am not a fan). The examination is not quiet, but the tone is good and the pace is excellent. Without the music it might even have been very good indeed. There is even further music at the tail end of the same video… it’s a great shame, I need a Geeky Medics Senza Musica but no such channel exists.

Still worth a review though I feel.

On that basis, just one, video this time.

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

See you again next week.

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 Deep.ai

Sleeping With ASMR

This week I have been examining supplements to determine if my mistake of the other week (in which I believe I took too much magnesium) is complicated by the fact that a number of supplements contain magnesium. I found that in fact they do. Three different bottles I read the ingredients list of contain magnesium in one form or another. Taking more than one set of supplements may have a greater impact than would seem at first sight to be the case.

I also read this week that glucosamine (an apparently benign supplement to assist with aching joints) has a rather nasty potential side effect. This all makes me somewhat nervous about supplements and the recommending of them. Todays symptom-free supplement for sleep assistance might be tomorrow’s carcinogen, for example. It also goes to show that articles on the Internet, wherever they derive from and no matter how prestigious and reliable the author purports to be, need to be taken with a container load of salt.

The search for material that is advert free and yet is also no cost continues, and I am getting to trawling some pretty ancient stuff to find it. Some time ago I remember that I heard a meditation by Natalie Bell.

Of course, YouTube resources for Natalie exist, such as this one:

Nonetheless, that does not get us to a free – advert-free resource,

However, I did find a set on SoundCloud which is accessible simply by creating a login:

https://soundcloud.com/natbell77/sets/natalie-bell-meditations.

Of course, whilst I still maintain a subscription, I tend to post something from Calm each week. Maybe there’s the odd Calm subscriber out there who hasn’t had chance to listen to the same meditations that I have. Maybe we could even swap notes about it…

https://www.calm.com/app/player/bCDgJm-Jo4

Daily Trip

Deep Acceptance

NARRATOR

Jeff Warren

AUTHOR

Jeff Warren

Can you back out of the way things are supposed to be to the way things actually are?

Jeff is the presenter on Calm that I have the greatest sympathy with. I often feel that we are wired in the same way. He does not have the best voice on Calm, I think that might belong to Tamara Levitt. But don’t tell anyone in case it goes to her head.

I have another “Isabel Imagination” this week. I have a feeling I may have spent a while listening to her channel in the past and built up a resource in terms of previously-viewed video material to return to. As a professional ASMR artist, either she is remarkably consistent or I have been lucky and happened across a few videos that happen to be ok to listen to.

This week’s one is this one:

ASMR Nurse Personal Attention Role Play

Of course, I have detailed the channel one or two times previously, but for those who have happened across the blog, and have not read my ASMR reviews before, the channel is Isabel imagination ASMR.

This has 381k subscribers, six hundred and forty three videos, thirty three playlists.

Of which I rather liked this one:

Even though it is completely off-theme for this blog (I have tended to focus on medical-orientated videos).

Today’s video is a little over thirty and a half minutes long and so isn’t huge but seems fairly consistent (in terms of length) for the videos from Isabel that we have featured. It starts with that trademark crackly effect that regular listeners will be familiar with and, as usual, we are onto a whispery presentation (at least there isn’t any startup music).

This one has some background noise, presumably associated with the theme which this time is not just medical but wartime medical. Thankfully that noise does not last long. Things then get a bit breathy. I’m not averse to breathy, just not an excessive amount of it. As usual the voice is a whisper, but unusually for a while anyway, it sounds at a distance as if the person is remote from the microphone. I believe this is part of the effect as well. Things do settle down and the excessive breathiness and strange effects are dispensed with and it’s whispers all the way.

If you like a video with good presentation, you should like this one as the background does look authentic. I always assume anyone reading this blog is flat out with eyes closed when listening to the material and so what it looks like is not that important.

As usual, the tone of the voice is excellent and the pacing really good. One day I will find one that isn’t a whisper and it will be even better (as long as the voice is calm, quiet and the pacing slow, in any case).

I did find that occasionally it would get very quiet and the next time that Isabel spoke I was shaken back to awareness. There is the rustling sound of a pillow and that mouth clicking/clucking sound so beloved of ASMR artists; the sound of clothing moving; paper being handled; moments of out-and-out breathiness.

Occasionally my focus on the video wandering a little which doesn’t sound a good sign but it might be ideal when using it for sleep. I also wondered if any “patient” would truly get this level of attention – thirty minutes of dedicated attention sounds like your average patient’s dream and your average hospital’s unaffordable nightmare. I don’t think anyone is supposed to think about the reality of the situation when watching these videos but I can’t help but consider how realistic it all is.

This week’s inadvertent ASMR video comes from a channel that I have featured before more than once. The channel is Geeky Medics https://www.youtube.com/@geekymedics. This has 1.44m subscribers, three hundred and fifty four videos twenty playlists and unsurprisingly all of that content appears to be medical themed. The channel has notes: “Geeky Medics

Description

Geeky Medics has built a reputation as a leading producer of high-quality educational resources. Achieve success in your medical school OSCEs, UKMLA CPSA, and PLAB 2 exams with our free clinical skills videos. Subscribe to our channel to be informed of our latest releases!

Links

Create a Geeky Medics accountapp.geekymedics.com

Geeky Medics product bundlesapp.geekymedics.com/purchase/bundles

Download the Geeky Medics appgeekymedics.com/geeky-medics-app

1300+ OSCE Stationsapp.geekymedics.com/osce-stations

OSCE Booksapp.geekymedics.com/purchase/compare-books

Linktreelinktr.ee/geekymedics

Instagraminstagram.com/geekymedics”

Which are quite comprehensive I’m sure you’ll agree. The video is this one:

Sensory Assessment of the Upper Limbs – OSCE Guide (Clip) | UKMLA | CPSA | PLAB 2

It is a mere whisper itself, at three minutes in length. There are notes of course – it’s a professional video: “19 Dec 2023

This clip demonstrates how to perform a sensory examination of the upper limbs, including assessment of light touch, pinprick, vibration and proprioception modalities.

Read our step-by-step guide here: https://geekymedics.com/upper-limb-ne…

Chapters:

Introduction 00:00

Light touch sensation 00:10

Pin-prick sensation 00:51

Vibration sensation 01:39

Joint proprioception 02:02

Always adhere to your medical school/local hospital guidelines when performing examinations or clinical procedures. DO NOT perform any examination or procedure on patients based purely upon the content of these videos. Geeky Medics accepts no liability for loss of any kind incurred as a result of reliance upon the information provided in this video.

Some people have found this video useful for ASMR purposes.

So not so much notes perhaps, as a mini encyclopaedia. I had to edit them down a lot the blog post would have been mainly notes otherwise. There are comments but there are precious few of those and none of them seem to be from ASMR fans. If there are ASMR fans here they seem to be being unusually reticent.

It starts with music which is a shame, but it does not last long. The voice of both the doctor and of the patient are calm and quiet. There is no extraneous noise at all. It isn’t even possible to hear the tuning fork which in some other videos can be rather loud. It ends with music as well and this goes on for quite a bit longer than the startup music. It is also rather too funky to be restful; it would be great to have the same video topped and tailed to eliminate that music. In all it is a rather good video for our purposes just, sadly, way too short.

On that basis, just one, video this time.

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

See you again next week.

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 Deep.ai

Sleeping With ASMR

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