Urged on by my recent account about attempting to using magnesium supplements to assist with sleep, a friend recommended that I took ashwagandha. Not two minutes after that recommendation, I got a recommendation for the same supplement from an alternate person. It sounds like it is a supplement which I should give some attention to.
I do not know of ashwagandha, and I still don’t really know how to pronounce it, but it was available at Holland and Barrett and so I have been taking it. I’m about fifteen capsules into a thirty-capsule container and it purports to be five hundred milligrams (by the label).
There are several claims for the benefits of ashwagandha however, I notice that slipping off into nod-nod land is not one of them. So it has proven. I had variable results with the magnesium and I have had variable results with the ashwagandha.
It seems to have a small effect on wake-time calmness. Either that, or some recent training I am attending is having the desired effects.
However, it does not seem to have affected my annoyance at different aspects of life, nor the fact that I occasionally need the television to still my mind enough for sleep.
I continue with it and I welcome other recommendations for sleep, preferably those I can share on the blog. Any substances which are “controlled”, presumably, I am not going to be able to find and far less write about if I could.
(Although I’m sure some of the drug-related relaxants probably do work).
This week I saw mentioned a former monk by the name of Scott Tusa. I wondered if it would be possible to find any relaxing material outside of YouTube that I could direct you to. It appears some are available for download (if you also wish to sign up for a newsletter) on his website, here: https://scotttusa.com/.
I did find some resources in the Internet Archive though which are more readily accessible
https://archive.org/details/ggbc-2020-04-24-scott-tusa-mindfulness
https://archive.org/details/GGBC20180915ScottTusaMakingLifeMeaningful
https://archive.org/details/GGBC20180914ScottTusaResilienceAndHappiness
https://archive.org/details/GGBC20190412ScottTusaCalmBodyClearMind
It looks like these are freely available to download, such that you can use them to build up a night-time listening playlist of your own, quite independent of YouTube adverts, and indeed this blog come to think of it (although I hope you will return for the next instalment).
This week’s Calm recommendation is from Jay Shetty, who often has something fascinating to say:
This one is about self confidence
https://www.calm.com/app/player/v-BzceA7Vs
Daily Jay
Sing Your Own Praises
NARRATOR
Jay Shetty
or how bigging yourself up can have some positive effects.
I try not to dwell on the Calm recommendation. It does take a Calm subscription and I recognise a number of those reading are never going to be interested in taking out such a subscription, no matter the cost.
So, moving swiftly on…
I tend at this stage of the article to look at a professional ASMR artist in the hope that I can find one that actually beats the inadvertent ASMR material into a cocked hat. Thus far it’s been something of a curate’s egg.
This week I am drawing on a memory in which I remember an ASMR artist I saw a single video of many years ago and I think I have located the same artist (although almost certainly not the same video).
It is this:
Arctic Secret Base ASMR Physical Therapy |#42
A video that comes from the channel ATMOSPHERE this has 768k subscribers, two hundred and sixty videos, a quick scan of which seems to indicate a heavy Sci-Fi theme to a number of them. I’ve been focused on medical style ASMR for a while, although there are fourteen playlists none of these are on a medical theme as such.
The video is just shy of twenty six minutes in length so not huge. It has notes which are the standard ASMR professional length, i.e. verbose in the extreme: “Arctic Secret Base ASMR Physical Therapy |#42
ATMOSPHERE
768k subscribers
740,803 views 22 Dec 2021 #asmr #relax
#asmr
#relax
ATMOSPHERE summary by TemplePhoenix: https://templephoenix.weebly.com
This is a part of a story. All the videos and characters are interconnected.
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Arctic Base. Room #14
Previous episode: • Pulling Spy Bugs out of Your Hair | ASMR S…
Next episode: • Relaxing Ambush ASMR |#45
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Created by Anastasia
My Gear (affiliate link):
My best friend Laptop: https://amzn.to/3vZY7sy
Camera: https://amzn.to/3Wd47sF
Two Microphones: https://amzn.to/3CJrpPW
Lighting: https://amzn.to/3w2Wuuf
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If you wish to support me and get a behind-the-scenes access:
/ atmospherea
More ASMR videos: / @atmospherea
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Instagram: / anastasia_atmos “
I’ve edited the notes down a bit, I do tend to find that ASMR professionals produce encyclopaedic notes.
Comments are permitted; there are a great number and the habitual fan worship of professional ASMR artists is well represented here. So far – so good.
The video starts with extensive background noise which, given the content of the video seems by design. The voice is great but so muted I could not really make out every word. One of those videos where you either need to relax and hear some of what is going on or turn the volume up. However, if you do the latter you are going to get a number of extraneous noises turned up to eleven.
This is a video aimed at creating an effect and there are glove noises, rustling noises, whirring noises, clothing-related noises, noises related to the weather (which appears snowy), there is the odd clunk, water dripping, scrunching noises, a robotic sounding voice making announcements, glass stirring noises, strange technical noises – various whirrs, boings, plinking and digital-style feedback noises, noises like a metal can being oscillated, a noise which sounded like a transformer hum, a sound like two plastic surfaces grating against one another, equipment noises including a kind of motorised hum, a sound like plastic beads being rolled over a surface, and plenty more besides.
All of this fits with Sci-Fi style of presentation but perhaps not the best for dozing off.
The presentation is on the whispery side of whispery. That is fine but I do prefer a non-whispery presentation personally. The noises are probably way more than I could tolerate when trying to get to sleep but I am betting that some ASMR fans love this one. Worth a review I would have thought.
The inadvertent ASMR this week is this one:
Quick neurological examination
it comes from the channel Khaled Farrah three hundred and fourteen subscribers, thirteen videos, twenty two playlists of which this one seems firmly on the medical theme:
The notes are fantastically brief: “69,678 views 26 Jul 2020
rapid neurological examination to be used in the setting of GP in under 3 minutes”
There are comments. Some are quite strange, and I notice some ASMR fans are here way before me, which hopefully is a good sign.
Despite the notes indicating three minutes the video is a little over eight minutes in fact. There is loud startup music which is thankfully brief. The medical professional is apparently Giles Elrington Consultant Neurologist Barts Health NHS Trust
His is not the quietest of voices, but on the upside, he isn’t whispering. The tone is good and is also level. No nasty surprises here (well, excepting that music anyway). There are silent intervals where text is displayed (after all this is supposed to be a teaching video). If anything, I felt this made the video more calming. As the video proceeds it seems to get more measured and quieter. I also notice that Dr Elrington is quieter during the examination proper (which I have noticed others do as well, there must be something about medical examinations).
One great thing is that it does not end with music.
I think this one was is worthy of a review.
On that basis, just one, video this time.
That’s it on this occasion, more next time.
See you again next week.
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.
Until next time.
Photo by DeepAI
The Procrastination Pen 