Tag: Vicki Scott

Sleeping With ASMR

I’m sure this happens to a number of people who write blog articles. I often find that in reading back through the blog, I am not convinced that I wrote it. Certainly, there seem to be some articles that do not sound like me at all, as if I had on a Hyacinth Bucket accent whilst typing it. In any case, the endeavour is to produce high-quality output of the type that many of you will desire to read on a weekly basis. If you find that to be true do tell all your friends, by the way.

By this time, we are some way into the journey that has been “Sleeping With ASMR” such that many of you will be familiar with how it has worked so far. This is also how it is probably going to continue to work, unless one day I decide to shake things up a bit.

To fill in the gaps for anyone new to the blog, it exists to review YouTube videos. Each week I will find a video and review it to see if it might be helpful in the drive to encourage the restless to restful. I will focus on whether it is sufficiently quiet and whether the participants have a pleasant, relaxing voice. I will also point out the detractors such as loud equipment noises, oppressive air conditioning, background chatter and so on and so fifth.

Many of the videos I find are posted on a YouTube channel containing more than one video. Where this is the case, I will frequently take the opportunity to look at other videos from that channel to determine if any others would be great for relaxation or better still, could produce ASMR symptoms in those lucky enough to have them.

This week a video which is slightly less than fifteen and a quarter minutes in length, which is not lengthy in comparison with some we have seen.

Respiratory Assessment

Immediately the medical professional has a good quiet voice. Even though the style is of a presentation it is not overly loud which makes a nice change.

The video continues quietly and without extraneous noises, which is great to hear (or not hear perhaps). The video cuts at intervals abruptly from one scene to another, but if you are listening you may well not notice.

It does cut to background breathing noises which might be off-putting for some people. Also, the narrator abruptly changes to someone who is a bit louder (but still not overly loud).

I think I’ll put this in the Procrastination Pen playlist, but it might be subject to weeding in the future.

The channel is:

University of Manitoba Nursing Skills, there are eighty videos and 55K subscribers.

The University of Manitoba turns out to be a university in Western Canada.

Of course, it has its own channel with 1.2K videos as at today’s date. However, experience tells us that these will be predominantly about promoting the university and little to do with ASMR (unless it is quite exceptional).

The medical professional in the video chosen above appears in quite a number of the others. This makes slimming down those eighty videos to a number that can be comfortably reviewed in one blog post less straightforward.

However, as luck would have it the video selected occurs in an existing playlist:

Health Assessment

I will focus on the videos in this playlist, but I may well return to this channel in the future.

There are four further videos in this playlist as follows:

Abdominal Assessment

This video is a little under seven and a quarter minutes. It starts quietly again. There remains no clue as to the participants. The approach is gentle and considered.

This one is a substantial improvement on the first one selected in that there are no intrusive breathing noises added. No doubt for their educational rather than restful value (that is the point of the video after all).

CVS & PVS Assessment

This one is just less than seventeen and a half minutes so the longest we have seen so far and in fact the longest of the five videos in the playlist. At odds with other professional videos we have seen this one has no associated notes. But at least comments are denied (We’ve seen enough bizarre and rude comments to last a long time).

The presenter’s voice is really excellent and if it were not for the odd equipment noise or inserted sound track these videos would be up there with some of the better ones reviewed so far. As it is I will put them all to protracted listening review and if those extraneous noises prove off-putting, I will consign them to the archive list.

This one starts as beautifully quiet as the others. However, there are inserted heart beat sounds which may be off-putting to some people, they are louder than the medical professional for example. There is also a set of pulse sounds and associated crackles which are not fantastic either.

Neurological Assessment

This one is less than seven and a half minutes and as before it starts quietly. We discover that the “patient” is called Justin but still no means of determining who the presenter is. It is consistently quiet and so quite possibly the best one of the set so far.

Integumentary System Assessment

This is the shortest one of the videos featured in this article at just over six and a quarter minutes. It has the same approach as the others and so is equally quiet and well presented. I also like the intonation that the presenter uses, your mileage may vary. The medical professional is very gentle in approach and the video appears to be to be relaxing. Thankfully this one does not have any added noises. That is welcome given so many of the others do have this.

Overall this is a good playlist. I will add them to the Procrastination Pen playlist but some of them, I have a suspicion, will be weeded in the future.

The University of Manitoba Nursing Skills 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 that 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.

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

Sleeping With ASMR

On The Procrastination Pen there is the occasional foray into sites purposefully created for ASMR videos, but it is not the main purpose of these blog posts (well not so far anyway).

Occasionally, it is so much easier to just review a video from one of these sites as they’ve been selected previously for ASMR. So I do not have to find one from amidst the many noisy and poorly recorded videos out there.

However ASMR symptoms seem to be stimulated by many different triggers, such that many of these sites cater to people who are looking for a very different kind of video to the ones I would find restful.

Today, I am once again on a channel whose purpose in life is stated right up front “ASMR Sandwich Breath” is the channel. We’ve covered “sandwich breath” before. The whole ASMR world is now like a giant clique with its own terms and ideas (only a very few of which I understand).

The channel has forty eight videos. Fortunately for us all on a medical theme which is an area this blog has largely been focused on (although I do occasionally stray). Unfortunately a number of them have been covered before as they are still available on the original sites.

For that reason I am a bit nervous about today’s video, as I guarantee in a short while I am going to find it wherever it originally came from and will then feature it again.

This is today’s video:

Health Assessment Unintentional ASMR

It seems to be one amongst the rich seam of student videos which has been mined for material on this blog of late.

This one does not have the greatest sound, which makes me wonder why a curated selection of this sort would have nominated it, as we know absolute gems like the Vicki Scott video are out there. However I have chosen to run with it as well, so there must be aspects to it worthy of listening to.

The sound is far too muted, but the approach is gentle and calm which makes a positive difference. I’d be interested in finding the original if it is still out there as I do like to feature original videos (where they still exist).

As usual, where comments are permitted, a smattering of unwarranted nasty comments. I am getting in favour of videos that don’t permit comments for this reason.

The patient “Bernie” (probably misspelled) and the medical professional “Caitlyn” (also likely misspelled), not quite enough for me to go searching independently for the video.

There are playlists on ASMR Sandwich Breath and I could use them to guide selection of videos for this blog article. However, we are in danger of covering videos already featured elsewhere in this blog.

I think I will go for the tested technique of selecting videos which feature the same “patient” or the same medical professional.

I have to make some guesses, but I am pretty certain the following have the same medical professional:

HEENT Exam Unintentional ASMR

As with the previous video the sound is still a bit muted. However the approach remains calm and gentle.

This also features Bernie and Caitlyn – the spellings are fixed now until someone corrects me…

Musculoskeletal Exam Unintentional ASMR

Bernie and Caitlyn again. I notice that they even share nail polish colour (which might be coincidental, but I would have thought indicates this is more likely two students involved in an assessment video).

One of the commentators refers to a participant as “Brittany” so possibly I may have misheard the name here.

Neuro Exam Unintentional ASMR

From the comments, others have been looking for the original videos for this set and not been successful in finding them. So I am a bit reassured in featuring videos from a site designed to curate ASMR videos – it’s doubtful we would find them elsewhere.

We’re now thoroughly used to the approach of this exam. Some people could probably repeat the steps themselves from the sheer number of times they’ve seen videos of this type.

I think these are consistent enough to be in The Procrastination Pen Playlist

In deference to the commentator, I’ve labelled the playlist on The Procrastination Pen “Brittany and Caitlyn” it is here:

The Procrastination Pen playlist (featuring all videos covered so far on this blog) is here:

A number of videos, that were once in that overall playlist, became tiresome to listen to over a period of time. This is usually due to excessive noise of one type or another. All such videos are in the Archive Playlist here:

I only keep this list at all in case I weed out a video that is somebody’s favourite.

I hope you find the videos restful and that they help you to grab what sleep you are able to.

If you liked this article why not subscribe to this blog.

Photo by Shona Macrae.

Sleeping With ASMR

Continuing in our search for medical videos which may induce ASMR in some listeners (or at the very least induce enough relaxation to see you napping) we have today’s video:

Hip Extension and Hip Abduction MMT

This one is from the channel Dominican College which has just seven hundred and three subscribers as at today’s date (this seems a little low for a college). There are one hundred and ninety-four videos at the time I’m looking at it. This is a tad too many for any single blog post. There are seven playlists but many of these have a high number of videos in them. So in this case using playlists to narrow the field may not be effective. This is thirty-eighth in a thirty-nine video playlist “PT541 Basics of PT (2022)”

I do not think that we will be covering thirty-nine videos in any single blog post even though some of them are quite short.

Today’s video is obviously filmed in a classroom setting, there is a general hubbub happening as for people chatting in the background. The sound is quite muted and the background noise is prevalent (I’d guess air conditioning again). It ends rather abruptly as well which might be off-putting.

It is marginal in terms of the purpose that we wish to put it to (engendering restfulness). This is no Hollie Berry or Vicki Scott. I’ll let it sneak into the Procrastination Pen playlist but it might be subject to future weeding.

The channel tells me very little about the college itself – merely that the channel was established in 2018.

Checking for Dominican College online I find that it has been rebranded to Dominican University now. I think I’ve found the correct one as it offers a PT programme (which is the subject of the playlist).

It is located in New York and has an interesting history.

Whilst we’re in the playlist let’s see if there are any others worthy of examination.

Given the large number of videos in this playlist I think we’ll need to arbitrarily cut the number. I’m going to choose five and then revisit on another occasion.

Gross UE ROM Screen

I wonder if the small number of subscribers is because it was posted for a specific reason, say a class during a time of Covid or something similar.

The tutor is Justine Ward. Sadly there is no channel for Justine, there might have been a chance to find something with better audio quality.

The sound quality is no better on this video and given it is less than three minutes it isn’t worth adding to The Procrastination Pen playlist.

Assessment of knee flexion end feel

A short video at just over a minute. Sadly the sound quality does not improve, the teaching professional really needs a lapel mic. Given it is so short, again, I don’t see the point in adding it to The Procrastination Pen playlist (it might have sneaked in had the sound quality been better).

The theme of these videos is they all seem to end abruptly which is even less great given it gives the opportunity for a loud YouTube advert to kick in immediately afterwards.

UE strength screen

This is two minutes long and the sound quality is not great. There is however no classroom banter in this one which helps. Someone does clear his throat part way through (I assume the person holding the camera).

There is a repeat of the “don’t let me move you” phrase we’ve encountered before. Again, I don’t think this will make it to The Procrastination Pen playlist.

Assessing ankle DF and elbow ext end feel

This is very short at just over one and a half minutes and the noise quality is not the greatest here. It’s noisy to begin with, slightly better as it settles down later on.

It’s also unnerving in places. I’m sure if some of the manipulations were tried on my elbow for example, I’d be nursing it for a long time afterwards.

It doesn’t belong in The Procrastination Pen playlist.

There is only one candidate video this time. As a consequence I will not create a playlist on The Procrastination Pen for Dominican College.

However, the playlist for all videos covered on The Procrastination Pen so far is here:

I recommend you view it on YouTube (rather than on this blog) then you will be able to use the shuffle function so that the videos play in a random order.

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after repeated review not to make the grade, is here:

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 trying to relax in order 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.

I hope you find the playlist relaxing, any feedback is welcome.

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

It came to me today that this series has been going on so long that I should provide an ongoing introduction to these articles, so that any newcomers will know what is happening. This needs to be brief enough though, so that the stalwart reader doesn’t get bored.

The aim of this particular blog series is to explore the use of ASMR videos for sleep. Specifically, to be helpful in the getting off to sleep and getting back to sleep when you awake in the middle of the night.

I’m assuming you have a device that can attach to the Internet somewhere near to your bed. On this device that you can open YouTube, browse to The Procrastination Pen playlist, click on shuffle, lie back and listen to the rest in peace. (This might require some kind of sleep-friendly headphones or similar).

My focus so far has mainly been on ASMR videos which have ASMR effects despite being designed for something else (most commonly medical exams so far). These are so-called “unintentional ASMR” videos. There are quite a number of these so I doubt we are going to run out of these any time soon. However, I do occasionally stray into the professional ASMR arena and select one of those videos that appeals.

Each article reviews a video or videos that came up on YouTube. These frequently are found through recommendation by YouTube. I then determine whether the ongoing playlist needs to be enhanced by addition of the reviewed video or that the video needs to be rejected. (In which case the video will still be clickable from the article itself – if you decide you rather like it).

You are free to recommend videos that you feel fit the bill or to disagree with my choices (I may even change the playlist in response to contributions).

At intervals, I review the playlist and pull out the less-successful videos into an archive list of those that seemed to make the grade but over time have not proven to be quite so restful. I use the Procrastination Pen playlist myself so I have a reasonably constant interaction with it.

Today’s video appears to have once been on YouTube on a different channel but was taken down for some reason. The comments indicate that it is a very welcome restoration.

The channel is ASMR Archivist and the notes state that its mission is “an archive for lost AMSR videos” (I assume that’s ASMR). This seems like the kind of place that we could enjoy.

That said, on exploring ASMR Archivist we find just one video (today’s video) and zero playlists.

So today’s article is going to feature just the one video.

Cate Darnell – Head to Toe Assessment

It is so popular that we find that it has an entry in the Internet Archive.

This indicates that it was deleted in 2020, but sadly not where it was deleted from – i.e. where its original home was.

As a consequence of being so popular we find that a similar thing has happened to this video as for the Vicki Scott video covered previously That is, the video is now posted in several places on YouTube. For example here:

On a channel called Sleep ASMR (which seems appropriate)

Our video is just shy of twenty-six minutes long so not the longest we’ve seen. It seems to start with “Miss Spagboll” (I’m sure I heard that incorrectly).

The badge on the patient is just not discernible enough to make it out however it could be Honors College which resolves as The University of Alabama in Huntsville. This has a channel UAH Admissions. This channel has forty-three videos and seven playlists but it appears this is all about marketing the university rather than medical examinations.

Possibly the Cate Darnell video once came from a Cate Darnell channel which has now gone.

Our video looks like an assessment video for a nursing university. We’ve seen these before of course. There is the normal level of background noise, air conditioning again, I think.

Cate has a brilliant accent and talks very quietly, just the sort of thing we are looking for in a video.

As usual the odd definition may help (well they do me – as I have no medical background) in this case bruit is an abnormal sound generated by a turbulent flow of blood.

I have no idea what Cate did next but for our purposes it is a shame that she did not produce a whole wealth of videos à la Dr James Gill.

The comments as usual are very helpful, one points out that details of Cate are online and that the video is over a decade old.

As many commentators state this is an excellent ASMR video. Definitely one for the playlist.

Sadly there will be no playlist for ASMR Archivist on the Procrastination Pen (there is only one video)

However, the overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:

(and now it includes the Cate Darnell video).

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after repeated review not to make the grade, is here:

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 Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

We are back to fairly safe ground this time. Firstly, this video is not found in a channel dedicated to ASMR (this blog focuses on unintentional ASMR videos for review material). Secondly, we are back to a Cranial Nerve exam which has featured before.

Neuro PACES is the channel and it is fairly easy to cover as it contains in total five videos none of which is longer than ten minutes (in fact all are quite a bit shorter than that).

The Cranial Nerve Examination is this one:

Cranial Nerve Examination Example

A nice calm start but progress through the video does seem to be quite hurried. Dr Michael is the medical professional, Mr Foot is the “patient”

I would guess that in order to get the entire exam completed within five minutes Dr Michael really needs to be motoring along.

The video is quite a bit different to the Vicki Scott one in this respect.

As the video progresses, if anything, it gets even quieter but the pace never seems to slow down much. To me that is not too distracting and it is a good video for the Procrastination Pen playlist I think.

The patient here states that the sensation in his face is unequal. This is the first time we have come across this in any of the videos covered so far. Surprisingly there is no mechanism here for noting that concern, that seems unusual. In addition, the medical professional here does not echo back the concern. Reflecting the concern has been more typical in the videos we have covered so far.

The link at the end of the video links back to Liverpool university neurosciences research.

A number of the videos seem to have been set up specifically for the neuropaces course organised by:

Professor Benedict Michael, Professor in Neuroscience, MRC Clinician Scientist and Honorary Consultant Neurologist

Professor Tom Solomon, Chair of Neurological Science and Honorary Consultant Neurologist

Dr Viraj Bharambe, Neurology Consultant

Dr Rosie Heartshorne, Neurology Registrar

I’ll make a guess that Dr Michael and Professor Michael are the same person.

Investigating the rest of the Neuro PACES channel we find that there are no playlists. Without a playlist order to guide the sequence of videos to review let’s begin with those videos dedicated to medical examination:

Lower Limb Examination Example

This features Dr Michael again, this time with Mr Jamieson. Again, this is a very gentle presentation. This one is pretty nigh ideal for our purposes and is a definite candidate for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The patient here seems to be really struggling, the first time I’ve seen this featured in a medical examination video. The videos reviewed to date have always featured healthy people. I’m guessing these are usually student volunteers. This is quite a good vindication of what the process is supposed to be for i.e., verifying an unwell person’s condition.

For our purposes though it is a good ASMR candidate and like the previous one merely five minutes long. I’d say Dr Michael is as good here ASMR-wise as Dr James Gill which is quite a statement to make.

Neurology Lower Limb Examination for MRCP PACES. NeuroPACES.mov

https://youtu.be/zSqczy8Km2M

The patient isn’t introduced in this video and Dr Michael starts off in much more robust fashion than in the previous two videos, (it’s quite a bit louder, as if he is trying to enunciate for a distant audience). There is a consistent background hubbub as if it is being filmed in a public area.

However, it still has its quiet and attentive moments which brings it back into a candidate for the Procrastination Pen playlist for me. It is still not quite as good as Shane Brun though.

In common with the other videos in this article it really motors though and is all over in five minutes. Overall therefore this one is not a great Procrastination Pen playlist candidate.

The Solomon System- NeuroPACES

This time the medical professional is flagged at the beginning Professor Tom Solomon PhD. FRCP of the Walton Neuro Centre NHS Foundation Trust & University of Liverpool

The “patient” is quite quickly introduced as Simon.

This is a longer video at eight minutes fifty seconds (though that is still not long in terms of the many videos we’ve reviewed in the past).

Professor Solomon has not got quite such a calm voice as Dr Michael sadly. I think again the problem is that he is presenting to a wider audience so his voice is louder. But at least there isn’t the background hubbub in this video.

There is quite a good description as to why some of the tests are actually performed and how to do these tests in the minimal time.

I’m not going to add this one to the Procrastination Pen playlist though.

NeuroPACES: The Walton Centre Neurology MRCP PACES Course

Another calm start, however it is just an intro video to the neuro PACES course. We get promotional material including funky music. This is not the kind of thing you want when you’re attempting to doze off.

This one is not going into the Procrastination Pen playlist.

The NeuroPaces playlist on the Procrastination Pen channel is here:

The overall Procrastination Pen Checklist (featuring all videos covered in the blog so far) is here:

The archive playlist of videos that were in the above playlist but found after lengthy review not to make the grade, is here:

I keep this in case people have personal favourites that they want to hear.

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I dislike these as they require me to stop listening and login to verify my age. You may find that you have more patience than I do in which case this list is for you.

I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of relaxation as a result.

If you liked this blog article why not follow this blog.

Till next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

As promised in an earlier blog item, I decided to follow up on “ROM and MMT” as a search term. This results in a great many videos with the kind of unpleasant noises in them which prove to be distracting.

There are however, a multiplicity of videos on this theme. It is a matter of persistence to find one which doesn’t have the air conditioning pretending it is a steel band.

UE Evaluation Review

The title is: “UE Functional Assessment ROM & MMT Screening Pinch & Grip, Edema & Pain”.

(I was pretty sure that was oedema – but obviously not.)

Janey is the medical professional in this one, Lisa is the “patient”. It is not as relaxing as Vicki Scott but is pretty calming. At only seven minutes thirty-nine seconds it is quite a good length for a medical exam. Fortunately, it lacks much in the way of obtrusive background noise.

Janey Detommaso is the channel. There is nothing posted here more recently than four years ago. This video is the shortest one. There are four videos and Lisa only features in this one.

With only four videos and none of these any longer than fourteen minutes thirty-four seconds, it’s worthwhile running through the others to see if they are any good ASMR-wise.

Shoulder & Elbow ROM and MMT

The title at the start of the video is “Range of Motion & Manual Muscle Testing ROM of the Shoulder, Elbow and Forearm” which is handy as that fits with the search term I was originally using.

In this one Janey is a bit loud from the start. The camera angle is a bit odd. It is probably just propped on a table somewhere. But it isn’t the visual aspect of the video that is the reason for us being here. At intervals, Janey tones it down a bit and actually gets to quiet. It is a shame she doesn’t do this the whole way through the video because when Janey chooses to do this she has a great voice.

Subsequently the filming switches to a bedroom – which leads me to suspect the whole video is part of some student assessment process. I would guess that otherwise it would be filmed in a medical establishment.

At fourteen minutes thirty-four seconds this is the longest of the four videos on this channel. There are twenty-three subscribers but no comments. It is conceivable (though not probable) that no one in the ASMR community has yet reviewed this one.

Midterm practicum: NDT, PNF, Rood, & Brunnstrom techniques

The sound on this one is really poor. It seems to have been filmed in a group situation in which people are paired off.

Other people are talking away in the background. It is difficult to distinguish the main track in this video. This really wrecks it for ASMR sadly.

This is not one for the playlist then.

The badge on Janey’s top seems to indicate it is at an establishment with the acronym TWU. This is potentially Texas Women’s University who seem to offer occupational health courses at Dallas and Houston locations.

It is a shame about that sound quality.

Hand & Wrist ROM/MMT

This video is twelve minutes fifteen seconds so it is the second longest video on this channel (and the final one available). Mr Hernandez crops up again (we saw him in the “Shoulder & Elbow ROM and MMT” video earlier).

Again, the interior appears domestic rather than medical. At the start of the video there is a strange flickering light behind the window Mr Hernandez is sat in front of. This is distracting, but only if you’re watching. As we’re all about the listening experience here, I’m ignoring it.

The sound is quite good, there is no background noise and Janey seems at her most calm here compared to any of the videos covered in this article.

This one seems well worthy of the Procrastination Pen playlist as it is quite relaxing.

The playlist for Janey Detommaso is here:

The overall playlist for all videos covered so far in this blog is here:

The archive list of videos that once made it into the overall playlist but upon reflection did not make the grade is here:

That list only exists in case I remove someone’s favourite video.

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

Warning this list will cause you to stop in order to log on to verify your age. If you’re happy with that then this playlist is for you. Personally I just ceased watching any material that requires that logon.

If you liked this blog article why not subscribe to this blog.

Photo by nine koepfer on Unsplash