Does it work? If it does, how? And if it doesn’t, why do people think it does? Why should imagining sheep jumping over a fence put anyone to sleep? Where did this little bromide originate?
Counting sheep is just a boring activity used to push any stressful thoughts out of your head so you can get to sleep. It’s been around for a long, long time.
when it’s worked for me(very rarely), it’s been a combination of boring counting and the visualization of the sheep jumping over the fence. Something about trying to see a picture (especially a moving picture) behind closed eyes is very soporific.
jello biafra
Counting me what?
I count biggirls every nite.
Maybe it works for some people who don’t have anything better to think about before falling asleep. Just make sure not to count sheep the way Mr. Bean did. (In case you haven’t seen it, he used a photograph of a herd.)
I believe the theory is that if you occupy your mind with something meaningless, it prevents your “discursive mind” from chattering on and on. In other words, you expend mental horsepower on something you don’t care about so that you don’t start thinking about your bills, which is so very fascinating to the idle mind that you’ll be up all night.
Counting sheep doesn’t work for me (I’ve been an insomniac all my life). What does help (sometimes) is trying to remember last night’s dreams. Interestingly enough, when I do that, I find myself recalling dreams I’d had years before and had completely forgotten about. It’s fun, and it somehow signals my brain to go nighty-night.
If anybody else has suggestions for getting to sleep, I’m all ears.