Firstly apologies – the sound quality on this is not the greatest. I mean what the heck is that background humming going on? However, it’s also a piece of fun. Even the “patient” finds it highly amusing. In this one the patient will have to go by “X” as they are not identified at any stage.
I’m not sure if it is the giggles which makes it so effective. Usually I dispense with any videos that have the least kind of annoying sound in them. But in this case after a few seconds, it became just background hubbub which I could ignore. Your mileage may vary.
Chest, Lungs, Heart assessment by Nikko Holloway NU 607 Advanced Health Assessment Dr. Wildinger
Initially Nikko (assuming that is the person’s name) is a bit on the loud side, but it soon settles down till the background hubbub is increasingly distracting. (Sadly I have no way of filtering such noises out). It derives into giggles pretty quickly and at one stage they have to quit filming altogether (Warwick medical school this is not).
Nonetheless it was enjoyable and it’s a shame there aren’t any more in this series. (Preferably without the sound of Hades air-conditioning, or whatever it is). I wonder whether Nikko passed whatever assessment it was that she was completing (I’m assuming of course that this is part of an assessment process for a medical establishment.)
Sadly Nikko Holloway (for that is the channel) has only uploaded this one medical examination video. In total there are three videos but whilst the voice is reasonably relaxing, I’m not sure that the others qualify under the medical examination criteria.
For completeness here are the other two:
X- Treme Makeover N. Holloway
This indicates that Nikko attends Jacksonville State University (spring 2020 semester).
Sadly it isn’t up for much in the ASMR stakes so this one will not be in the playlist.
Recording #2
Again it is not up there in terms of ASMR-i-ness (an established term) so I will not add this one to the playlist either.
There do not appear to be a huge number of subscribers or comments for this one so perhaps this is an ASMR find. In any case I hope you find it relaxing.
I haven’t created a playlist for this (it’s one video) however it is in the long playlist of all videos featured in this series.
Why not subscribe to the playlist on YouTube and then you will get automatic updates as I change it.
It’s been a short one on this occasion. More next time.
For some reason Cranial Nerve Exam has generated a whole heap of videos and not surprisingly a number of these have people commenting that they are great for ASMR symptoms.
Helpfully BrainLine (for that is the YouTube channel where you find today’s video) provides its own playlist for Dr James Kelly (however they call him Dr Jim Kelly on the playlist) which is here:
However I am in no sense stating that these are all good for ASMR.
In addition, this playlist is no less than twenty one videos long (and I think that is stretching your patience a tad much for one blog item). As luck would have it the first two are the ones that concern a medical examination and so I will limit this blog item to just those two.
Today’s video is this one:
Cranial Nerve Test
By the way I had not the least idea who Pat LaFontaine is but he turns out to be a famous former ice hockey player.
Hence (I am sure) why his name appears in the title of this video. To ice hockey fans I apologise for my ignorance. All I can say is that he has a marvellously calm voice. (He might be a resource for ASMR videos in the future – if anybody has found any please get in touch).
Dr James Kelly turns out to be something of a superstar himself, his YouTube playlist bio states that he was “the neurological consultant for the Chicago Bears”. All I can say is that he has a great soothing voice and is very much worth listening to if you need to be chilled before falling asleep.
By the way this video is the one that started the now famous phrase “sandwich breath” which appears to occur very often in the comments of a number of ASMR videos. No I have no idea why either but a number of ASMR fans seem to appreciate the fact that other fans are also aware of it.
The BrainLine channel is huge. There are so many videos I am not going to set about counting them so I will limit myself to medical exams and Dr James Kelly (so I’ll start with that playlist).
Of the twenty-one videos contained in this playlist by far the majority are interviews to gain the benefits of Dr Kelly’s expertise on brain health.
In terms of medical examinations there is only one further video:
Neuropsychology Test
This is equally as great as the first one in my opinion.
Both of these will now go into the playlist.
The Dr James Kelly playlist is here:
The playlist of all items featured so far in this blog is here:
I hope that you find them restful.
If you liked this blog item why not follow this blog
I’m continuing the medical examination theme as I think at the moment it is proving to be reasonably fruitful. I wonder if there is some association between those providing care and calming/soothing voices.
Perhaps the medical training engenders not only medical talent but a predisposition to calm and soft-spoken. Long may people continue to train – medically – if that is the case.
Dr. Simmons – Exam
For those who are sleep afflicted. In this case I think we’re looking at an examination for someone (Victor) who has a need for a device to assist with a snoring condition. Snoring is something I only started to display in recent years, sleeplessness being not the only effect of gaining so much in age. Nothing like Victor though, thus far no one is suggesting an appliance.
Dr Simmons has a good voice, very calm and very attentive. The other thing I find with medical professionals like Dr Simmons is that they actually listen to what the other person is saying. This is a rare (and I’m sure much appreciated) skill.
I count nineteen videos at today’s date of which only a subset are connected with medical examinations. (The current theme for these ASMR articles – although I’m sure that will change in time).
Seven seem to me medical-examination related so I’ll focus on these:
Victor Mouth Piece
Victor again (hence the title) and now we see the results of the earlier examination. CPAP is referred to here – a device that is used to treat breathing difficulties in sleep. These devices sound unpleasant to use and I’m guessing you use them where the alternatives are even more dire (such as apnoea).
The content is quite technical and the results sound quite worrying, hats off to people who use appliances like this and learn to live with them.
It is a little variable in terms of ASMR content and covers different examinations – I am not convinced this one belongs in the playlist.
Dr Simmons – Oral Appliance Therapy
The start of this video is not at all ASMR-y and the sound quality is not amazing. It stacks up as an advertisement. It is fascinating for someone (me) who attends NHS services to listen to a system where insurance information is very nearly the first question someone asks.
I will not include it in the playlist. I’ve included it here to allow you to evaluate it for yourself.
Sleep Apnoea
Not a medical exam as such, more of an interview which gives the background to Dr Simmons interest in this area. Of course, there is an interest in getting people to address snoring. I can only imagine the amounts of money that must be involved here.
Interesting but not much ASMR effect here – so I’ve not included it in the playlist.
Dr. John Roesler – Performing a Nasal Exam
Dr John Roesler rather than Dr Simmons here. This is quite an interesting interview, presumably especially if you do have sleep issues.
However the medical exam does not occur until a good way into the video (the patient is Dr Simmons). I don’t think this one is a candidate for the playlist.
Dr. Michael Simmons – Taking Dental Impression
This seems to start out quite loud and a bit too enthusiastic for a sleep-aid I think.
For some reason Dr Simmons has lost the soothing voice in this one and so it is not effective for ASMR. I also did not find the mixer noise at the beginning that soothing (other people may differ here). It’s not a candidate for the playlist.
Dr. Michael Simmons – Sleep Disorders
Designed for other professionals who are also providing treatment in the sleep problem area (dentists). It breaks the rules as there is no patient, no medical examination.
(Not that breaking the rules is necessarily a bad thing in terms of membership of the playlist.)
Although Dr Simmons is back on form with calming voice I am not going to include this one.
Overall therefore one video that is helpful in an ASMR fashion and quite a lot of fascinating content about managing sleep issues. That though is not the purpose of this blog (at the moment anyway).
Therefore there is no purpose in creating a playlist for Modus Five.
I will add the one video to the overall playlist for the ASMR videos covered so far.
That playlist is here:
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel @theprocrastinationpensite
(I have found the best way to view this is through YouTube rather than embedded in the blog – for example you get access to the ability to shuffle the order of the videos) (which can be helpful if you listen to the same playlist more than once).
The next item in the ASMR sleep series is a little more complicated. Now that I have been following ASMR-related videos for a while it has become obvious that some ASMR publishing people are trying to game the system.
From the number of follows, comments, views, and so-on I am not the only person who is searching for ASMR content. There appears to be a subset of people who are interested in videos where the person produces ASMR effects by mistake. Examples include speeches made where the person has a gentle voice; a lecture where the lecturer’s tone happens to be the correct one to set off ASMR in some of the listeners; interviews where the participants have very calm voices.
Some professional ASMR artists, (and indeed amateur ASMR artists) are now making videos deliberately but claiming they were produced entirely coincidentally. There is obviously a money angle – the more adherents you have – the more advertising-related revenue you can captivate. So the temptation is there, frankly, to cheat.
Some titles will say something like “by a genuine person” (as if there were non-genuine people wandering around). Sometimes there are “medical examination” videos, with a couple of suspiciously attractive young people in the video who don’t appear to know a great deal about medicine.
In this climate I am a little unsure about this series. They are great videos for ASMR which purport to be part of a medical education series.
Patient Examination Series- Dr Hollie Berry
Given I am suspicious I took a look on DuckDuckGo (other search engines exist) and it turns out there is no Dr Hollie Berry other than as part of this video series (or other people discussing this video series). No LinkedIn account, no medical papers, no references or citations – and no college sites linking to the videos.
So far Aidan Blunt appears to be the only source and he (assuming it is a he) is obviously aware that Dr Berry has this affect in some listeners as he has produced some videos edited in order to enhance the ASMR effect.
Here:
Cranial Nerves Examination ASMR Loop
I have a dislike of ASMR loop videos. There will be (say) a medical exam which is about ten minutes and to make it an hour it will play (or parts of it will play) over and again. It might be that I am just dosing when a part I’ve heard before comes winging back. This is one of those. So I will not be adding it to the playlist.
And here:
Cardiac Examination ASMR Edit
This one edited in order to enhance its ASMR effect. Again I won’t add this one to the playlist, however some people reading may find this kind of thing right up their street perhaps.
And here:
Abdominal Examination ASMR Edit
Also edited for its ASMR effect and therefore, as before, not included in the playlist.
And here:
Upper Limb Neuro Examination ASMR Edit
As before.
However Aidan also produces some more dedicated medical videos so for the purposes of this blog item I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.
I found this series originally through a posting on Reddit
Which leads to this video:
Cranial Nerve Examination
Which leads me to suspect that the filming was done at Manchester Medical School and the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. However I am currently not able to find any similar video content other than that put out by Aidan.
This video has the smell of the genuine article and is a sensible seven and a half minutes in length which seems to fit with a reasonable length medical examination video found elsewhere.
Aidan Blunt – this is the channel where the Hollie Berry videos are all found. There are thirty four videos here and so too many to feature in any one blog item.
However I started with a Hollie Berry video and so I will concentrate on the videos from this channel that feature Hollie Berry.
Apart from the compilation, ASMR edit and ASMR loop videos (all of which I know to be doctored and therefore will discount) there are these:
Abdominal Examination
This is a sensible length at five minutes thirteen seconds.
Cardiovascular Examination
This one is five minutes six seconds.
I think Hollie may have my favourite ASMR voice of the videos I have covered so far.
Diabetic Foot Examination
Three minutes twenty five seconds in length.
A repeating theme in these is that the “patient” appears either petrified or completely distracted. I’m not sure what they could have said to them to get them in this state. Hollie seems the ideal medical person – professional and relaxing. But for the people in these videos it does not appear to be working.
Lymph Gland Examination
Three minutes fourteen seconds in length. And given the comments I’d say a number of people find Hollie’s voice to be relaxing.
Respiratory Examination
Five minutes thirty four seconds in length. The more I listen the more I think this set of videos is a great find ASMR-wise.
Upper Limb Neuro
This last set seem all to have been posted eleven years ago. I think we can assume that Hollie Berry does (or did) exist and probably made a set of videos for the Manchester Medical Schools a decade or so ago. They’ve moved on and taken down her videos subsequently but Aidan has preserved them for some reason.
Why Hollie should disappear altogether at that point is anybody’s guess but a set of six short videos is all we have of the greatest ASMR voice I have so far discovered. A great shame.
The playlist is here:
The complete playlist of videos covered so far is here:
In my opinion the first of these is the best in terms of ASMR-i-ness (if such a term could be said to exist). Yet again a change of direction as we look away from standard medical examinations and move to eye-related exams instead.
The channel comes from the Moran Eye Centre at the University of Utah.
Moran CORE (for such is the channel) provide a number of ophthalmic-related videos, but the best from an ASMR perspective is this one:
The Neuro-ophthalmology Exam: Neuro
The key to this I think is probably the interactions between Judith Warner, ophthalmologist and the “patient” Megan (who turns up in other videos in the series). Megan seems to have the most naturally restful voice here I think.
Moran CORE has so many videos that I gave up counting them and so it is critical to limit the videos that I present here. (Both for my typing fingers and your no doubt tired eyes).
Sadly Moran CORE does not present any helpful playlists that include this particular video so the obvious approach is to filter on videos “starring” the same ophthalmologist or featuring the same “patient” (Megan).
What leaps out scanning the videos is that a number of them feature the same “patient”.
Sticking to videos initially that feature the same “patient” we have this one:
The Orbital Exam
Which is with Tom Oberg instead of Judith Warner. Tom actually has a good voice ASMR-wise but again Megan’s is better. The approach is calm and de-stressing. Both Tom and Judith have been encouraging and patient – the kind of person that you want if someone is going to be examining you.
The Ophthalmic Exam: Retina and Posterior Segment
This is with Andrew Davis, who is technically brilliant I’m sure, but sadly does not have a great voice for ASMR. In this one Megan seems to say very little. So it’s a washout for us sadly and will not be added to the playlist.
The Neuro-ophthalmology Exam: Pupils; Color; Eye Movements; Prism
This is Laura Hanson with the “patient” Megan again. Laura doesn’t have the greatest ASMR voice but Megan here gets more of a speaking role which compensates to an extent.
However as before I do not think this makes the grade for the playlist.
Indirect Ophthalmoscopy with Scleral Depression
This is James Zimmerman with Megan. James’ voice is actually quite good here. But I don’t think it is going to be good enough sadly. This isn’t going to make the grade for the playlist.
How to Instill Topical Anesthetics
Lloyd B Williams with Megan. Lloyd also has a good voice. But again I don’t think this one will graduate to the playlist.
The Neuro-ophthalmology Exam: Eyelids
Laura Hanson again, as far as I can tell the last video featuring Megan and so the last of this blog item. This is slightly better than the earlier Laura video I think. However I still don’t think it is going to make the playlist.
Filtering the videos by the “patient” is an arbitrary method for limiting the videos. However Moran CORE has so many videos and they are so varied that I suspect we will be mining this resource in the future.
The Moran CORE Playlist is here:
The playlist of all videos so far covered in this blog is here:
For some time I was simply going into YouTube and filtering by ASMR, searching and finding thousands of videos. This method led me to find squishing sounds, clicking, scratching noises, even purring cats (actually the purring cats are rather good).
However as I stated in the first blog item on ASMR I find it works best when it is someone that is talking quietly and calmly.
Recently therefore I have started to focus on medical exam videos. There appear to be a wealth of these. Several of them feature excited or at least energetic presenters (with a mission, presumably, to motivate their viewers). However as I use ASMR as an insomnia cure there isn’t great mileage in continuing with these.
Some are quite obviously designed to educate an up-and-coming population of medical students and start delving into confusing medical terminology. However, occasionally I will come across one that fits the bill quite well. Today’s video is this one:
Focused Shoulder Clinical Examination
It’s a little disconcerting when it loads as in my browser I get just a grey cassette image – I did wonder if I had the incorrect video, however when played there is some preliminary material stating it is “Associate Professor Shane Brun” at the “Clinical Skills Unit, School of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, Australia”.
Having found this video, I thought it would be worthwhile checking out Anthony Bender (for the video occurs in a YouTube channel of that name) and determine if there are any more of the videos in this channel that are also worthy of watching.
I found that there were five videos available the one above and these four:
However I did not find this very relaxing ASMR-wise and so I have not added it to the playlist. – I’ve included it in this blog so that you can review it for yourself (ASMR effects seem to be highly individual).
Ottawa Knee Rules Australian Version
I have also not added this to the playlist for the same reason.
I’ve again created a playlist which is here:
There is also a Global playlist which incorporates all the videos covered in the blog so far:
Please feedback if they are effective for you or if you have any further ASMR material which would be worth considering.
Sadly these videos no longer work for me so I am looking for new material, which I will shortly publish here.
One of the consequences of entering the fifth decade of being alive (which no one seemed to warn me about when I was somewhat younger) is that it is almost impossible to get to sleep. And having got there, to stay in that state for any period of time.
I have tried various hacks for this over the last years, to varying degrees of success, and by chance I happened upon the fact that ASMR works for me.
The little reading I’ve managed to do seems to indicate that only some people are affected.
It also appears that different people have preferences for different sounds.
For me, the most potent trigger is a person speaking quietly and calmly.
Sadly though the effect soon wears off, and over time the same person – with the same speech – stops working.
This means that I am more-or-less constantly looking for new material, which may be of some merit for this blog and for people who react in a similar way.
For some time I have avoided revealing that I find ASMR helpful in that a number of commentators respond to it as if it is akin to some kind of sexual perversion.
However for me it feels more of the kind of attention I would see on a David Attenborough programme in which one monkey is grooming another and both monkeys are more relaxed as a result.
As science progresses it appears that there is more acceptance that relaxing to ASMR is not necessarily a sexual experience.
Hence it is moderately safe to give some recommendations around ASMR that I have found work for me.
I am also getting some playlists together on YouTube for those who do not have the time to look around for ASMR videos.
(Most of the ASMR material I find on YouTube at the moment – although other ASMR resources exist.)
Recently I came across an article for a Welsh stone carver who has been an ASMR discovery after he published some YouTube videos about his stone carving.
There are only three and I found them effective. Three is a suitably short number to start with to see if you feel the same way.
All very well but for me this article did not reflect being 50 in any real sense.
Here are the steps that you will inevitably encounter when you’re 50.
Tradition dictates that there should be 50 of these, but 10 is all I’m prepared to read at one sitting.
Alcohol: moderate drinking leaves you with a hangover which would’ve taxed Gandhi. More than moderate drinking has you escorted to a hospice. Drinking over more than one day means a trip to an expensive rehab centre.
You will forget the name of someone you’ve known for at least ten years; you’ll be too embarrassed to admit it. Months later you’ll be trying to remember where you put your keys; for no obvious reason the name will pop back into your head.
A malicious poltergeist will move into your house. It will confine itself to moving your keys, your money, your work’s access pass. You will spend the start of most journeys hunting for one or more of these items.
You will develop an irresistible urge to sleep whenever you sit down – any comfortable surface will find you drooling into your collar: park benches, train seats, brambles, nettles.
You’re on better terms with the doctor than you have been your whole life; your medical records are being moved to The National Archives.
You meet some people from school and find at least one person you knew is already dead and has been for some time. You start guessing which of you will be next.
Without warning you develop a fondness for cardigans, they become your default outer wear.
Saga starts to send you junk mail – for some reason their trips start to look interesting.
Room temperature of 20 oC seems to be like the inside of a Greenland glacier; you keep revisiting the thermostat.
The heroes you’ve had in your life now turn out to be paedophiles or dead or more often both.
The Procrastination Pen 