For those who have stuck with this blog, well done and thank-you. You will be aware of the format that this blog has followed for over a year now and I thought that just for a treat we would have a change. Instead of focusing on inadvertent ASMR videos from YouTube as, by-and-large, I have done for a long time now, what if in between I take a look at a video from a professional ASMR artist and consider whether it is worthwhile.
The drive remains a mechanism for getting some sleep. The difference is that someone is deliberately setting out to be relaxing, so we should be disposed to have extremely high expectations.
Searching YouTube for ASMR material yields up a bewildering array of videos and quite a lot of them look unsuitable before I even give them a review.
However, this one:
ASMR Medical ROLE PLAY | Cranial Nerve Exam (personal attention for relaxation and sleep)
is by an artist who has been around for some time and who has her own entry in the online ASMR index.
This is one of many by Isabel on a medical theme and given this is just a diversion I am not going to explore the others here. This is just a taster.
Not unexpectedly, Isabel has a truckload of followers and enough videos to restock Netflix on a Friday evening.
This particular video is a little over thirty eight minutes in length and for me it’s a little on the breathy side. (But I imagine some ASMR fans rather like that).
There are also some jarring beeps at intervals which would not dispose me towards snooziness, I must confess.
I’m also not a fan of the scratchy noises. However, I imagine for some people they are the main appeal.
It has notes but given a lot of professional artists focus on the merchandising, I won’t repeat them here.
Comments are permitted and, boy, are there a lot of those. A quick review though indicates that they are predominantly positive which is unusual in comparison to the video comments we have become used to.
I’m always a little concerned by professional ASMR videos in that predominantly the artists featured are, shall we say, a little too attractive to be considered average. In such cases I am suspicious that fans are attending not because of the quality of the sound…
The sound quality (as we would expect) is sublime with no weird background noises, no loud equipment noises and it just shows the incredibly high bar that an inadvertent ASMR video is aiming for (and habitually misses).
In any case, as this is a diversion, I am currently not disposed to set up an Isabel playlist on the Procrastination Pen (unless there is call for such a thing).
I will instead add such videos to the Sweetie Jar playlist on the assumption that a subset of readers might use such material to fall asleep to (as opposed to the inadvertent ASMR videos which have been the focus of this blog to date).
So returning to the main theme.
Today we go back to a channel which has been an old favourite which is the University of Leicester
Regular readers will know that we have been here before and whilst the videos on this channel may not be quite the ASMR standard of Isabel it has consistently delivered some restful videos.
The video featured today is this one:
Respiratory Examination – Demonstration
Again it is a professional video and so as we expect it has some notes:
“257,959 views 14 Dec 2011
A second more detailed video can be found at; http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/msce…
This is a real-time demonstration illustrating technique and patient interaction involved in the Respiratory Examination.
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 Dr Jonathan Bennett MD FRCP Consultant Respiratory Physician. 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…”
This leads us to suspect that there are more videos out there on a similar theme and so it is worth taking a while to try and identify them.
This one is a little over six minutes and so it barely has time to take a run up before it is all over.
There are comments and as usual a number of the comments are as helpful as a leg iron.
This though may help us identify the others in this series:
“@UniversityLeicester
12 years ago
There is a second video in which the Doctor does explain the procedure. All the videos in this series can be found in the Clinical Examinations Playlist on the University of Leicester Channel.”
The video starts without music, how delightful, but it does have the constant background accompaniment of air conditioning, sadly. The pace and tone are both ideal, there is an absence of offensive noises and even some light humour. What is not to like.
The “patient” is Mr Jackson, the medical professional is introduced only in the notes Dr Jonathan Bennett MD FRCP Consultant Respiratory Physician.
This is a great Procrastination Pen playlist candidate.
The Clinical Examinations playlist mentioned in those comments appears to be this one:
Looking at that playlist, there would appear to be only one other video which features the same “patient” and the same medical professional, and it would be this one:
Respiratory Examination – Explanation
This one is hardly enormous as it is only just over ten minutes in length.
There are, as expected, notes “482,017 views 28 May 2012
This is a detailed explanation of the Respiratory 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 Dr Jonathan Bennett MD FRCP Consultant Respiratory Physician. 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 is no music to start and, again, the presentation is calm and quiet. I also love how polite everyone is in this video.
Some of the explanations are a little on the off-putting side. (I’m not sure that discussions of sputum pots are that restful).
By and large though, this one is as delightful as the last one.
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 Akshat Vats on Unsplash
The Procrastination Pen 