Sleeping With ASMR

This week, for the first time in a while, I went to a car show, these mainly consist of a bunch of old blokes (or more often women nowadays) standing in a windswept field chewing the cud over which barely polished patch of rust is preferable to another one. It takes me back to where the blog began where I used to review cars, but discovered, rather early on, that I know nothing about cars and suffered a crisis of conscience in that were there not more well qualified people to write about cars than I. To which the answer had to be yes.

Today I write about sleep, and are there not more people qualified to write about sleep than I am. Absolutely. However, now we are in a world where much of the Internet is written by AI, is consumed by AI and is regurgitated by AI as fact.

In such a world I think that we all, however we struggle to create, can make a difference simply by creating some content for the Internet that is not regurgitated output from an AI. At least that is what I tell myself.

I have been trying to pay attention to an online sleep course. (It’s another pay for thing so I will not bother telling you which one). I am in the early stages but I think I can pass along a few titbits.

For example, catching up on sleep is a fallacy. If you get a bad night’s sleep attempting to sleep in to cover off the loss is not only ineffective, it is damaging to the sleep cycle. (This relies on good sleep habits being repeated night after night).

In addition, if there is sleep loss across the week, sleeping in at the weekend just does not cut it. Additional napping also tends to impact your sleep cycle and so is best avoided.

Watching a distracting video is actually unhelpful (apparently) and may keep you awake for longer. If you already have a sleep problem then saving the bed only for sleep is best.

(I must admit that I find the opposite, which is why this blog exists. Indeed, in emergencies, I have been known to come downstairs and listen to the TV drone on in order to get to sleep.

The old advice regarding blue light keeps being intoned as a great source of wisdom. But I read some time ago that the study on which that information was based used levels of blue light substantially higher than the average person is likely to be subjected to, such that the blue light is unlikely to be the problem. More problematic, by far, is to interact with services (such as social media) that have been designed to keep you engaged. That five minutes to check up on a post can easily become a couple of hours.

The amount of sleep that you need is often higher than you think, with people stating that on average they survive on six hours sleep a night but needing somewhere between seven to nine hours. You will know when you have hit the magic number when you stop feeling tired all day (I certainly have not got there yet).

A number of courses still state that as you age you need less sleep. I have banged on about this for a while so regular readers will know, as you age your sleep is likely to be more disrupted but the average number of hours sleep that you need does not change. The average still remains between seven to nine hours even in old age.

Most people report problems with sleep. In recent surveys; they report tiredness in the daytime (a possible sign of lack of sleep).

Lack of sleep affects you physically, true, but also mentally including memory, judgement and problem-solving.

After all that sleep related info, let’s look at this week’s Calm recommendation:

The Calm item this week is:

https://www.calm.com/app/player/MyrEmf4gT2

Daily Trip

==========

The Battle to Win Ourselves

—————————

### NARRATOR

Jeff Warren

### AUTHOR

Jeff Warren

Meditation can help us manage the warring parts of ourselves; it makes it easier to integrate them. The part that notices the battle is not in the battle; we get more freedom by noticing the battle and backing up to watch it.

Bear in mind that this material (on Calm) is not free and so you will need to subscribe if you want to listen to it.

Following on from my promise to locate some material which was not on YouTube and therefore not subject to advertising, I take you back to Greater Good (I have written about this site a few times on this blog previously).

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/podcasts/item/happiness_break_a_meditation_to_move_through_anger

Happiness Break: A Meditation to Move Through Anger

“July 09, 2026 | 7:25

Try a practice in accepting difficult feelings like anger or irritation to help keep your cool, feel better overall, and find calm with contemplative social scientist Eve Ekman. “

This material is free; it isn’t obviously downloadable but it does not seem to require an account to listen to it. Looking at the transcript I would say that it is right on message for this blog. Additionally, I rather like Eve’s voice in this.

Recently I have been trying to focus on older ASMR videos because I am perverse and YouTube seems to insist I watch something more up to date.

I came across this one:

ASMR Annual Physical Exam Part 1

It is from a channel I was not previously familiar with which is Fairy Char ASMR 457k subscribers, five hundred and twelve, videos, forty seven playlists

Of which this one would seem to be firmly on theme for this blog:

The notes on the channel are unusually brief for a professional ASMR artist: “Fairy Char ASMR

Description

Relaxation // Sleep // Tingles

Hi everyone, my name is Char! I make ASMR videos. I have an assortment of medical, spa, beauty and many more roleplays to help trigger your ASMR.

Links

Patreon ♥patreon.com/fairychar

Instagraminstagram.com/fairycharasmr

YTMember ♥youtube.com/channel/UCn622AJ6EcQLwpltrYJR8lw/join

👕 T-Shirts & Stickers 👚teespring.com/stores/fairy-char

Tiktoktiktok.com/@fairycharasmr

facebookfacebook.com/fairycharasmr”

The notes on the video equally so: “808,615 views 12 Jul 2016

Hi everyone, thank you for watching and supporting my videos. Please like, comment and subscribe!

Love,

Charlotte

✨My Instagram:   / fairycharasmr 

✨ PATREON (To support my channel): https://bit.ly/3eUuDmh

✨ YouTube Membership (Supports my channel): https://bit.ly/3f1bSxu

✨ My Props: https://amzn.to/2YbABJv

✨ CHARITIES: https://teespring.com/stores/fairy-char

✨MY HANDMADE TINGLE BRACELETS: hellofairychar@gmail.com

✉️ :

For BUSINESS INQUIRIES: hellofairychar@gmail.com

❤️❤️ Thank you for supporting my videos on Patreon ❤️❤️: Fuinlai, Samantha, Kapil, Kamar, Bill, Cody, Blake, Constance, Ray, David R, Lucinda, Stephanie, Patricia, Jordan G, Keith S, Les is more, Holly, Freedam, Tingles, Dr. Bill, Iris H, Jason V, Jake L, Brandon, Daniel B, Caleb, DarthMark, Emmanuel, GhostyGrimy, TnT, lalabeanx”.

Comments are permitted. There are a lot of those, a number of them are borderline surreal which seems more or less normal for YouTube.

The video is twenty-seven and a half minutes. It starts without music (indeed initially the artist is not on screen and the video is silent). When Char appears, we realise that she is very quiet. I pushed the volume up a bit, but straight away we find this is going to major on the whispery – so far so normal. Although I have pointed out my preference before for the non-whispery ones (not least because they are a lot rarer).

There are keyboard sounds, equipment sounds (items being moved off-camera). There are glove-related sounds (not my favourite). Plastic related noises (loud). Blood pressure cuff related noises (quite loud). There is the odd breathy moment (not too extensive). There are various off camera rather loud noises – clunks, squeaks, clicks, scratches, none of those are that appealing. There’s a tuning fork noise (these are habitually loud; in fact, the best video I heard was where they mentioned the tuning fork and then muted the actual sound altogether).

I do like the voice; I do like the pace. The keyboard sounds are none too intrusive. There is no background noise (that I could discern). It would be better without some of those extraneous noises but I still think it worthy of a review. Why not listen for yourself.

The inadvertent ASMR this week comes from a channel that has been covered so many times by this blog I probably should charge advertising fees (if Stanford are reading, that was humour).

Stanford Medicine 25 seems to have a consistent level of delivery much of it not only great (I assume) for medical training but also reasonably good for our purposes as well. 349k subscribers, one hundred and thirty-two videos, seventeen playlists.

Today’s is tiny being only a little over four and a half minutes in length. The notes are:”68,748 views 22 Jan 2016

From our dermatology series, this video covers all the basics you need to accurately describe complex and multiple skin lesions.

The Stanford Medicine 25 program for bedside medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine aims to promote the culture of bedside medicine to make current and future clinicians and other healthcare provides better at the art of physical diagnosis and more confident at the bedside of their patients.

Visit us:

Website: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/

Blog: http://stanford25blog.stanford.edu/

Facebook:   / stanfordmedic.  .

Twitter:   / stanfordmed25 

Google+: http://goo.gl/UBM7SP

Watch all videos from our dermatology series:

Approach to the Dermatology Exam:    • Approach to the Dermatology Exam (Stanford… 

Approach to Multiple Rashes:    • Approach to Multiple Rashes (Stanford Medi… 

Approach to Nevi (Moles):    • Approach to Nevi (Moles) – Stanford Medici… 

Diagnosing Acne vs. Rosacea:    • Diagnosing Acne vs. Rosacea (Stanford Medi…  “

So moderately extensive notes. No doubt I will be covering some of those other videos in future blog articles.

Bernice Kwong is the medical professional.

Approach to Multiple Rashes (Stanford Medicine 25)

The video starts with music which, as regular readers will know, is not my favourite thing and unfortunately that music seems to go on a bit. When trying to sleep I find music distracting and prefer videos not to have it. I have looked into playlists containing videos that have the play time truncated to remove the start and end music. However, I have not yet been able to make that work. No doubt a technical switch that I failed to include.

When Bernice starts to talk, we find that she has a great voice, nicely quiet, nicely paced. But sadly, there is background music that persists throughout the video. That is just too bad as Bernice could have been a great candidate for an ASMR person but the music really is quite distracting. I wonder at the decision to include it as, surely, it isn’t much of an aid to focus for eager students either. To add insult to injury, there is even more music at the tail end of this video. Definitely one for people who like music with their videos.

I’ll trial this in the Procrastination Pen playlist but I have a feeling this is one that is likely to get the boot to the archive list sooner rather than later. Shame.

So just one this week. I wish you well in your drive to get more sleep.

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

See you again next week.

The Stanford medicine 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

The further we get into 2025 the more people are becoming obsessed with sleep. This is probably the rectifying of the complete disregard that has been shown to it in previous decades.

I can remember certain public figures boasting that they needed little sleep (as if that was a good thing) and subsequently it being discovered that they were making up that sleep through napping.

What is currently missing is the configuring of work practices to respect sleep. Putting health before GDP would send a very significant message here.

There also seems to be little requirement for taking noise into account when designing and building housing, which has its own consequences. As is usual in such circumstances recommendations are around purchasing noise cancelling technology rather than ensuring houses are not exposed to excessive noise. (For example, before building them in the first place). Putting health before profits would send a significant message here.

If you’re in the, no doubt large, group of people exposed to excessive noise when you’re trying to sleep, I have found that having a noise playing of your own choosing can help. It depends on the noise and when it is happening. For example, a one-off sound at 2am, from a loud car say, can disrupt the rest of your sleep. A consistent noise that you grow used to through exposure may be less disruptive.

In any case, I have found as one gets older sensitivity to noise, when sleeping, seems to increase. The only way to react seems to be to take action yourself. Noise cancelling headphones can help. Although I find frequent use of these really hurts the ears eventually. A back track such as white noise (several generators are available) or, my favourite, a nice relaxing video can also be positive.

Statements that older people need less sleep have not proven correct in my case. I get less sleep, I am more tired, so I wonder how universally such findings apply.

In the drive to provide more relaxing videos for you, here is another blog item on exactly that subject.

Today’s video is already part of a playlist; however, it comes from a channel that I have regularly exploited for material so I have to be careful to avoid duplication in this area. If you spot duplication, do let me know.

The Exam for Ankle & Foot Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

As we have previously established this channel produces videos of consistent quality and as we would expect each video comes with a descriptive set of notes:

“19 Jul 2018 Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam

This video is brought to you by the Stanford Medicine 25 to teach you the common causes of foot and ankle pain and how to diagnose them by the physical exam.

The Stanford Medicine 25 program for bedside medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine aims to promote the culture of bedside medicine to make current and future clinicians and other healthcare provides better at the art of physical diagnosis and more confident at the bedside of their patients.

Visit us:

Website: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/

Blog: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.ed…

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordMedi…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanfordMed25

Diagnoses covered in this video:

Lateral Ankle Sprain

Talar Dome Osteochondral Defect

5th Metatarsal Fracture

Achilles Tendinopathy

Interdigital (Morton’s) Neuroma

Stress Fracture of 2nd Metatarsal

Plantar Fasciitis

Hallux Valgus (Bunion)”

Comments are permitted and, as expected, ASMR fans have been here before me. This probably means it is a good choice of video (although some less high-quality ones sometimes pass this test).

It is just less than seven and a half minutes, so not huge in terms of videos we have covered previously.

Of course, there is that bugbear of any ASMR video fan – the musical startup. Someday I will come across the command to dictate the start time of the video and such music will be banished forever.

This one features Dr Brinda Christopher again with whom we are well familiar.

Dr Christopher as we have established before has an excellent voice for such videos. It is great that we are re-acquainting ourselves with her. Chad is the patient (again).

There is some background noise (air conditioning again perhaps).

There are so many medical terms in this one that I am not going to attempt to define them – I’m guessing that you are not here to learn how to perform an ankle examination. If you are what a pleasant surprise and welcome.

The video is part of the  Stanford Medicine 25 channel where there are eighty-five videos. I have no doubt that we will be sampling many more of these in the future.

The video we have just seen is part five of an eight-part playlist. In order to avoid covering areas that I will have covered before, I will limit myself to reviewing the remaining two videos in this playlist. Future blog items will catch up on any missing areas I am certain.

The Exam for Knee Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

There is startup music of course, comments and notes as before and the same two participants – so far, so consistent. At just less than eight minutes it is also of a similar length to the last one.

The great thing about a professional video is that if you liked it you may well like videos from the same provider. Many student videos we have seen can be great, only for the next video from the same source to be totally unsuitable.

The Exam for Shoulder Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

As before, comments indicate ASMR fans are all over this, and we have proven that they have good taste. The only way these could be improved would be to remove startup music and put a bomb in the air conditioning.

But in comparison to some noises we have heard in other videos, this is minor quibble area.

One great aspect is a complete absence of loud equipment clunks, and bangs, which other videos seem unable to avoid. We have the same two participants here and to ensure I do not overlap with material from the same channel covered previously I will make this the last video of this blog item.

This one is a little less than ten and a half minutes so quite a bit longer than the two previous ones. However you may find, like me, that you do not notice the extra time.

I wish you well in your drive to get more sleep.

The Stanford medicine 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 Laura Matthews on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

For those people who actually read my blog articles at intervals, yay, welcome readers. You will notice that I am drawing again at the well of a popular channel for this blog. This site is designed for education purposes. However, it turns out to be pretty good in terms of relaxation as well.

Judging by the comments I am confident that I am not the only one to think so.

The video is this one:

Examination of the Spleen (Stanford Medicine 25)

The great advantage is that it already comes as part of a playlist i.e. this one

Stanford Medicine 25: Abdominal Exam

I also notice that all of the videos in this playlist are short ones, so this is not going to keep you for very long.

This first video is just over three and a half minutes long so blink and you’ll miss it, in comparison to some we have covered.

Initially the video starts quietly but just when I was ready to give thanks for the lack of startup music, some startup music begins. Fortunately, it is brief.

The person giving the examination (and commenting at the same time) has an excellent voice for our purposes. In this case it is Dr Verghese – who we have encountered before.

The next video in the same playlist is this one:

Percussion of the Spleen (Stanford Medicine 25)

The notes for these videos are very similar to those for the Stanford Medicine 25 videos that we have previously featured:

“17 Mar 2014

This Stanford Medicine 25 video was created in conjunction with Stanford’s AIM lab teaching the percussion of the spleen.

The Stanford Medicine 25 is a Stanford School of Medicine initiative to teach and promote the bedside physical exam. Here you will find videos teaching bedside physical exam techniques.

Please subscribe, like and visit our websites:

Main Website: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/

Blog: http://stanford25blog.stanford.edu/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordMedi…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanfordMed25

Google+: http://goo.gl/UBM7SP

It is an advantage of professionally produced videos that they tend to have notes and, in a number of cases, the notes are even helpful.

Again, we have startup and tail end music, which I’d prefer wasn’t there, but isn’t hugely intrusive.

The last video in this playlist is this one:

Diagnosis Anterior Cutaneous Nerve Entrapment Syndrome (ACNES) with Carnett’s Sign – Abdominal Pain

This time narrated by Dr George Meyer Gastroenterology the University of California, Davis.

This time the startup music has a life all its own and just will not be suppressed. It is louder, longer and more energetic than previous videos in this article. There’s also an introductory narrator who is too loud and therefore not at all restful. In an ideal world this front part of the video would be cropped right off. The reason it is worth persisting with is that Dr Meyer’s voice is every bit as good as that of Dr Verghese.

The video is just over three and a half minutes so you haven’t got a great deal of time to enjoy the experience.

It’s quiet, methodical, instructive (should you want that) and then goes and spoils it all by having the peppy startup music repeat at the end and to top it all that loud narration, followed by a jarring copyright announcement as well.

Despite that I like Dr Meyer’s voice so I am going to give all three of these a try in the playlist.

The Stanford Medicine 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 Luiza Sayfullina on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

If you have got to that time of life where you cannot remember the last time you had a decent night’s sleep and your daily consciousness is about walking around in a fog, you are in the right place.

For some little while now, the Procrastination Pen has been compiling a playlist of videos designed to be relaxing and to lull you off to sleep. If the bedroom has become a warzone with wakefulness, at the very least, you can lie there and listen to the videos rather than worrying about the sleep you’re not getting.

Today’s video comes from a source that we have seen before. It is from an institution that most people must be aware of.

It is this:

Demonstration of Teaching the Reflex Exam by Dr. Abraham Verghese (Stanford 25 Skills Symposium)

and like most professional videos we have covered, it comes with notes:

“27 Apr 2016  Skills Symposium – 2015

Founder and leader of the Stanford Medicine 25, and best-selling author, Dr. Abraham Verghese demonstrates how he teaches the reflex exam on a real patient in front of an audience of clinical educators.

On September 28th & 29th, 2015, the Stanford Medicine 25 team hosted the first annual bedside exam symposium for clinicians and educators. The purpose was to share how we do bedside teaching and allow them to improve upon their bedside exam skills.

Learn more about past and upcoming symposiums on the bedside exam:

http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.ed…

Visit the Stanford Medicine 25:

Website: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/

Blog: http://stanford25blog.stanford.edu/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/StanfordMedic…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanfordMed25

Google+: http://goo.gl/UBM7SP

Dr Verghese it appears is some kind of powerhouse of the medical profession.

However, we are more concerned with whether he produces a great relaxing video.

It starts with the inevitable music, but fortunately, this is short and not excessively loud. Dr Verghese has a calm sounding voice but the video is a presentation so he isn’t completely quiet here.

The video has the benefit of being an interesting one as well, perhaps it will prove to be a distraction from your concerns about insomnia.

This is a definite candidate for the Procrastination Pen playlist I think.

It is from the channel Stanford Medicine 25, this channel has eighty-five videos and so a few if we were looking to review them all (perhaps that will happen with time but not all in this one post).

Our video is found in the playlist Skills Symposium – 2015

Normally this would therefore be the subject of our blog post. However there are seventeen videos in this playlist and given it is a symposium, some of those videos are rather long.

I think therefore we will focus on presentations from this symposium that feature Dr Verghese. This is a subset of the videos in this playlist. However, I suspect we will return to the others in the future.

Purpose and History of the Stanford 25 by Dr. Abraham Verghese (Stanford 25 Skills Symposium)

The same music, a similar start up format. So far, so expected for a professional video.

Dr Verghese remains excellent in this. Sadly, for us it is a bit more interactive with laughter at intervals, for example. I’ll include it in the Procrastination Pen playlist for now (as you know this list gets reviewed constantly, and those videos which turn out not to be relaxing enough after extensive exposure get archived from this list).

An extract from the notes is as follows: “27 Apr 2016  Skills Symposium – 2015

Founder and leader of the Stanford Medicine 25, and best-selling author, Dr. Abraham Verghese talks at the opening of the Skills Symposium about the purpose and history of the Stanford Medicine 25.”

Why are We Doing this Teaching? – Dr. Abraham Verghese (Stanford 25 Skills Symposium)

“Founder and leader of the Stanford Medicine 25, and best-selling author, Dr. Abraham Verghese talks why we’re doing this bedside exam teaching.”

A different but equally unwelcome start up jingle. However, Dr Verghese remains consistent in having a great voice. Although at just over one minute you are not getting a lot of it.

The 5-Minute Bedside Moment – Dr. Abraham Verghese (Stanford Skills Symposium)

“Founder and leader of the Stanford Medicine 25, and best-selling author, Dr. Abraham Verghese talks about the 5-Minute Bedside Moment: our tool for teaching the physical exam at the bedside.”

He might be talking about the five minute bedside moment but he is taking two and three quarter minutes to do so.

Start-up music tick, notes, tick, same presentation tick. This consistency is such an asset when one video of a series is a good one (less good if it is a bad one). In this case these have all been good videos in terms of delivery and I shall be looking out for Dr Verghese videos in the future.

That is it for this time, thank-you for reading and I hope you get a restful night’s sleep.

The Stanford Medicine 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 Jonathan Fink on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

If you have been reading this for a while then you will notice that this is a return to a channel we’ve been to before and if you haven’t then you’ve been missing out and a whole breadth of reading experience awaits.

As usual I will be reviewing some YouTube videos for their ASMR potential and, if they are considered fitting, they get to go into the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Behind the scenes I continue to review that playlist over time, booting out those which are less brilliant than hoped, so that the main list should continue to be full of the best ones I have found so far.

I welcome suggestions. Any video which was not intended to be an ASMR video but which is effective in that respect and, if I agree that it is a good one, it will turn up in a future blog item.

Today’s video is this one:

The Exam for Ankle & Foot Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

It fits with the medical examination theme which has run through quite a number of these blog items (although I do ring the changes occasionally.

At just under seven and a half minutes it isn’t very long but given it is from a medical school it shares with a number of professional videos we’ve seen the provision of a healthy set of notes which are these:

“19 Jul 2018 Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam

This video is brought to you by the Stanford Medicine 25 to teach you the common causes of foot and ankle pain and how to diagnose them by the physical exam.

The Stanford Medicine 25 program for bedside medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine aims to promote the culture of bedside medicine to make current and future clinicians and other healthcare provides better at the art of physical diagnosis and more confident at the bedside of their patients.

Visit us:

Website: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/

Blog: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.ed…

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordMedi…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanfordMed25

Diagnoses covered in this video:

Lateral Ankle Sprain

Talar Dome Osteochondral Defect

5th Metatarsal Fracture

Achilles Tendinopathy

Interdigital (Morton’s) Neuroma

Stress Fracture of 2nd Metatarsal

Plantar Fasciitis

Hallux Valgus (Bunion)”

Bravely this video permits comments, but one outcome of which is that I can tell ASMR fans have been here long before me.

By now we are familiar with the format of videos from this channel. Firstly there is the introductory music; not as loud as some we’ve heard but it would be great if it could be dispensed with altogether.

Dr Brinda Christopher is of course familiar to us.

As is the patient for this video “Chad” as well (hopefully I did not misspell that).

Dr Christopher starts a little loud but settles into her stride pretty swiftly. Sadly there is the ever-present background noise which we’ve heard in other videos and may well be air conditioning.

The channel of course is

Stanford Medicine 25 https://www.youtube.com/@StanfordMedicine25

253K subscribers at the date I am looking at it

Surprisingly just eighty-five videos, when even some university promotional channels have more than that.

However eighty five is a few too many to get into a blog post. There are thirteen playlists and ours is in this one:

Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam

However, I think for this post we will stick with Dr Christopher. For this purpose, a standard YouTube search is an approach. This brings up three videos, the one we started with and two further videos.

This is the first one:

The Exam for Shoulder Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

Just under ten and a half minutes, so more substantial in terms of length and it is pretty much like the last one (professionally produced videos have the advantage, or possibly the disadvantage, of being consistent).

The notes are:

“19 Jul 2018 Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam

This video is brought to you by the Stanford Medicine 25 to teach you the common causes of shoulder pain and how to diagnose them by the physical exam.

The Stanford Medicine 25 program for bedside medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine aims to promote the culture of bedside medicine to make current and future clinicians and other healthcare provides better at the art of physical diagnosis and more confident at the bedside of their patients.

Visit us:

Website: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/

Blog: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.ed…

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordMedi…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanfordMed25

Diagnoses covered in this video:

Rotator Cuff Pathology

Impingement Syndrome

Biceps Tendinopathy

Adhesive Capsulitis (Frozen Shoulder)

Acromioclavicular (AC) Joint Disease

Shoulder Instability

Labral Tears (SLAP Lesions)”

The same medical professional, the same patient. The same approach, the same background noise, the same music and so on.

Again, ASMR fans are way ahead of me – see the comments. The earliest I can see is over a year ago as at today’s date but of course not every ASMR fan is going to fill in the comments.

As before the video gets quieter and therefore more appealing the more it proceeds. If you feel that the start is a little loud it is worthwhile persisting with it.

This is the second one:

The Exam for Knee Pain – Stanford Medicine 25

Notes again:”19 Jul 2018 Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam

This video is brought to you by the Stanford Medicine 25 to teach you the common causes of knee pain and how to diagnose them by the physical exam.

The Stanford Medicine 25 program for bedside medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine aims to promote the culture of bedside medicine to make current and future clinicians and other healthcare provides better at the art of physical diagnosis and more confident at the bedside of their patients.

Visit us:

Website: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/

Blog: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.ed…

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordMedi…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanfordMed25

Knee Diagnoses Covered in Video:

Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injury

Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL) Injury

Medial & Lateral Collateral Ligament Injury

Medial & Lateral Menisci Injury

Anterior Knee Pain (Patellofemoral Pain)

Bursitis

Inflamed Knee with Effusion

Osteoarthritis (Degenerative Joint Disease)

Stress Fracture of Tibia”

Yet again, comments from ASMR devotees, so it is consistent with the other two.

Just under eight minutes so not huge. Again with the start music, sigh, and then reacquainting ourselves with the background noise. Same medical professional, same “patient”.

This is the last in this set that I can find and the last in this blog item. The comments as for previous videos in this post apply equally to this one.

There is also a lead out set of music and a statement about copyright, either of which might prove to be distracting over time, if so these may ultimately get weeded out

The Stanford Medicine 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 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 Tuna on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

The Procrastination Pen playlist continues to grow in length. I think soon it will be at such a length that even if you leave it playing along in the background whilst you sleep, you will wake up and find that it is still going.

I am weeding the odd video out at intervals that does not seem to be as good as when first I heard it. However, I take suggestions, if you find any of the videos in that playlist just aren’t that helpful in getting some shut eye, let me know and I might remove the ones that you do not like.

As always if you’re too tired to read (and I don’t blame you) the playlist will be at the end of this article, such that you can scroll all the way there and pick it up without reading anything else.

For those who are continuing to read, welcome, and here is the subject of today’s blog post:

Shoulder Exam (Stanford Medicine 25)

This is very brief for the kind of video we usually see on the Procrastination Pen, at only one minute twenty seconds. It is narrated and the narrators voice is not as quiet as I would like. Because it is a professional video it comes with notes: “16 Mar 2014 Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam

This Stanford Medicine 25 video was created in conjunction with Stanford’s AIM lab teaching the examination of the shoulder.

The Stanford Medicine 25 is a Stanford School of Medicine initiative to teach and promote the bedside physical exam. Here you will find videos teaching bedside physical exam techniques.

Please subscribe, like and visit our websites:

Main Website: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/

Blog: http://stanford25blog.stanford.edu/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordMedi…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanfordMed25

Google+: http://goo.gl/UBM7SP

The notes have done most of the work for me in that is states who it is by and where you can find them.

The video has a little background noise, but strangely this does not sound like air conditioning. This time it sounds more like the audio was recorded onto tape (I guess you need to be a certain age to know what that sounds like).

The channel is Stanford Medicine 25

This has eighty-five videos at the time I am looking at it. Thankfully for the purposes of writing a blog post (of hopefully short length). The videos are organised into playlists and ours is in a suitable playlist i.e.:

Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam



This playlist has eight videos in it and just for a change
they are all visible.

The one above is the first in this playlist and so we can

cover them in order.

Knee Examination (Stanford Medicine 25)

Again, this is brief at just over one and a half minutes. It
is consistent with the first – the same narrator, the same background noise. Indeed, this is often the benefit of professional videos once you have seen one, you have a good idea what it is that you’re going to get. Of course, if the first
one is a tad loud, sadly it means that there is little variability in that volume. Still, the approach is methodical and calm which is helpful.

Approach to Low Back Pain Physical Exam – Stanford Medicine 25

This is a more “usual” length at just over eight and a half minutes.

Oh dear, start music, the thing designed to strike wakefulness into the slumbering person.

This is unlike the previous two videos in this set in that the medical professional in the video is the one doing the talking.

The medical professional is Baldeep Singh MD Clinical Professor, Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine.

The professor actually has quite a reasonable voice for our purposes, although due to the instructional nature of the video he isn’t as quiet as we would like. However, he is calm, methodical and even better, the video lacks background noise.

The “patient” is Steve here, sadly, we don’t have any further info about Steve.

The examination looks like something of a torture for anyone who actually has back pain. I imagine on the days I am suffering, there would be screaming involved. Best ignore that when listening to this video and trying to get some kip.

Approach to Hip Region Pain Physical Exam – Stanford Medicine 25

Unfortunately for us, the introductory music now seems to be the standard. Farewell to videos with no introduction hello introduction which is less conducive to sleep. I have heard a great deal worse however.

At least one comment indicates that an ASMR fan has already found this one, which isn’t surprising. From the video comments I’ve seen on YouTube, ASMR fans are even more voracious than I am (and I have made it my mission to write blog articles about it).

Here we have Dr Singh again with our old chum “Steve” as “patient”. Dr Singh starts a little fast but slows right down within seconds. The volume is a little variable. At six- and three-quarter minutes it is of reasonable length for one of these instruction videos.

The best way to watch a set of these from the Procrastination Pen playlist is to watch it on YouTube (rather than use the embedded videos on the blog). Then you can use the shuffle function. Without the shuffle function you will get a number of similar videos one after the other and you may quickly tire of that.

Again, the examination appears, to me, to be designed to elicit pain. I’m sure on the days I have hip pain I would not enjoy my leg being manipulated in the way demonstrated. However, I think as a video to fall asleep to, it actually works. Mainly because of the calm, methodical presentation.

Iliotibial Band Syndrome Physical Exam – Stanford Medicine 25

Definition: Iliotibial Band a thick band of tissue running down the length of the outside of the thigh.

Again the “Noble test” seems designed to cause pain, perhaps these doctors were trained in a torture chamber. Probably wise to ignore the scope for suffering with this one as well. Dr Singh remains consistent as before and Steve remains compliant.

And now the playlist moves onto a different medical professional and a different patient so it seems a good time to end this, we can recommence in a future blog post. Stanford Medicine 25 certainly seems worthy of more attention.

The Stanford Medicine 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 listening to this playlist most nights and some of the videos that were members have now been removed. If any of your favourites are missing from that main playlist you can find them here in the archive list:

Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than occasional intrusive noises.

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.

I 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