Ask Mike: Why count sheep?
Hey Guys,
Whenever I can’t sleep (thankfully a rare occurrence, I’m only half awake right now), I imagine myself skiing down a giant mountain without a care in the world. Usually I’m snoring my head off in no time. Conventional wisdom says you should “count sheep” when you need some shut eye. How in the world did this get started?
In a way it makes sense. When you can’t sleep, it’s likely because you’re stressed out or distracted about something. What better way to stop focusing on your worries than by doing something totally monotonous, like, say, counting sheep. A video from the Bay Area’s CBS 5 explains that this does work for some people.
But why sheep and not lions or frogs or labradoodles? The experts at The Word Detective speculate that the tradition dates back to “at least the mid-19th century.” The Phrase Finder actually goes a step further, finding a quote from 1854 that may have started the tradition. In “Way Down East,” by Seba Smith, the author writes, “He shut his eyes with all his might, and tried to think of sheep jumping over a wall.”
Another blog from Haaretz.com, an Israeli newspaper, sites a book called “Illustrations of Political Economy” by Harriet Martineau. In the book, she writes, “It was a sight of monotony to behold one sheep after another follow the adventurous one… the recollection of the scene of transit served to send the landowner to sleep more than once, when occurring at the end of the train of anxious thoughts which had kept him awake.”
There is another, non literary, theory for why we count sheep. According to an article from The New York Times, “some authorities think it may have to do with a tallying system devised by shepherds in ancient Britain.” And, interestingly, a study mentioned in the same article found that folks who were told to count sheep in an effort to fall asleep actually took longer. People who pictured a relaxing scene like a beach fell asleep “an average of 20 minutes sooner than they did on other nights.”
Got any of your own tips on falling asleep quickly? Please leave a comment below.
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Thank you very much for this article. Now I know not to waste my time counting sheep, but instead imagine myself at the beach.
I always found “counting sheep” unhelpful… probably because my imagination had them in colorful costumes jumping through a ring of fire, so it wasn’t very monotonous (9 times out of 10 a fire broke out).
I always do this: I lay down, find a comfortable position, close my eyes, stop thinking, and just breathe deeply and slowly. Either I lapse into sleep naturally or get so very bored I fall asleep.
This makes sense. Sometimes I try to count sheep, and it never helps. In fact, it usually takes me longer to fall asleep. But whenever I think of a place that makes me happy or relaxed, I fall asleep almost instantly.
Counting sheep is based on the 23 Psalm. ‘The Lord is my shepherd’ Idea is to count all the sheep that the Lord is protecting within His flock while you try to rest. Knowlegde of this is supposed to relax you, because you will tucker yourself out trying to count that high. Also it is reinforcing you that God is pulling guard duty so you are safe when sleeping. Got that from the Nuns when I was in Catholic School.
funny you bring this up–when my child was 4 yrs old & couldn’t sleep one night, I taught him how to count sheep. Next morning I asked him how it worked for him, & he said, “Mommy, it didn’t work very good, I got to four hundred & eighty-seven sheep & I STILL couldn’t sleep!” :-} 487!!!! … a FOUR YEAR OLD! It DID teach him how to COUNT!
Interesting post!
I’ve tried to count sheep as a way of falling asleep but it has never worked for me. I just end up ‘over thinking’ about it. Like, naming them, wondering why they are jumping over a fence, what it would like to be a sheep etc. My mind just fills up with random useless thoughts when I do that!
Reading always helps me fall asleep in no time. It’s very relaxing. I also believe drinking warm milk with honey is excellent when trying to fall asleep.
Actually, most doctors advise against counting sheep, because it’s so boring that your brain automatically thinks of something else, forcing you to become more awake and concentrate on counting sheep, which your mind overrides, making you concentrate even harder on counting sheep, etc., etc…
I usually read boring books, that bore my mind out.
First. (:
Here’s the most popular question in Mental Health section.
what are some tricks to falling a sleep ?
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Best Answer By – VeryQuietGirl
“making sure your room is comfortable, not too hot or too cold, don’t eat a big meal just before bed”
“use your bed only for sleep and sex”
“Minimize noise and light in your room and cover your alarm clocks so you can’t see the time ticking away”
Dear Mike,counting sheep involves imagining sheep passing before our eyes,Better to recite a simple rhyme 9religeon doesn’t matter) like ‘god bless them all’or as it is said in Sanskrit ‘om shanti shanti’
Hey Mike, Is there a sure fire way to see if a guy likes you or not without asking him? I have a class with him and we’ve talked a little and he waited for me after class once to ask me a question and conversate briefly. Any thoughts?
I actually count my breathing. In is 1 out is 2.
OR I make up a dream. Like I start thinking about a storyline that would make me happy (i.e. getting that promotion, winning a big race) The kicker is i start where I am now i.e. my project is not finished and I go in in the morning and go gang busters and imagine me completing my goals and everything turning out well.
Not only does this help me fall asleep but it also helps me devise a plan to attack whatever it is that is stressing me out in the first place.
counting something is never helpful. I cannot sleep because of pain usually but sometimes I just have too much going on in my head (as usual) so I found something I can watch without thinking. I turn my tv on and just watch something and eventually I fall asleep. the best thing about it is if I wake up in the middle of the night I don’t even have time to think, I just stare at the tv and in less than 5 minutes I am back asleep
A famer didn’t know what to do one day so he started counting all his sheep. It got so boring he fell asleep. lol i made this up.
I usually pretend to be in a television show or book that I am a fan of. If I can manage to stay focused, I usually fall asleep.
whenever i cant go to sleep, i envision myself ice skating. unfortunately, i am horrible at ice skating. so i envision myself ice skating, and i start to go to sleep. then i start falling on the ice, so i try to catch myself, which makes me shoot out my arms really fast. and whenever i kick or hit something in my sleep, i always wake back up. so yeah it usually takes me about 2 hours to go to sleep.
It’s usually the ‘noise’ of constant thought in a person’s head that keeps one awake. But, how to turn the noise of thinking off.
When we think, we mostly think in words. Even if we’re not saying the words, they are there, as are little micro movements in our throat and larynx which a similar to the muscle movements we make when speaking. So, the trick is to relax the throat and larynx so the micro movements stop. When the micro movements stop, the thought words stop and it gets very quiet so you can go to sleep.
The same trick works to quiet your mind when you’re trying to meditate.
I think ,if we try to go at the root of the problem, what is more important is that we should be able o imagine of something that il engage our mind, and at the same time, will not involve mental strain. Very few people from h present generation may have actually seen ,at least in their childhood, a shepherd driving his sheep through a narrow aisle,so that one can count the sheep one by one.passing before one’s eyes, so that one can easily picture them by imagination while sleeping. If not,they can imagine something else which is easy to picturise or just recite a verse
Yes, leaving the TV on does sometimes do the trick for me but I also use this Count Sheep iPhone app… http://bit.ly/countsheep – pretty neat.
i count dogs