We don't.
It's something to occupy your mind that doesn't require a lot of attention but still prevents it from wandering.
So you're saying it's meditation in sheep's clothing?
In addition, the classic version where you picture sheep jumping over a fence causes your eyes to trace an arch shape, which can tire out your eye muscles and make your eyelids feel heavy. I never really got the "counting sheep" thing until I watched an ASMR video recently where the creator traced little arch shapes with her finger to simulate the sheep jumping over a fence and it made my eyelids droop almost immediately.
I think Chais has the reasoning behind the concept correct, but I agree with everyone saying that nobody actually does it.
All you can do since the sheep got that restraining order…
Stupid sexy sheep
Do you?
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Only shepherds.
No. It's more of a metaphor and a cultural joke
It's the counting that matters, not the sheep. By giving your brain a simple, familiar, and repetitive task you help to disengage some of the more distracting functions of your brain letting you get to sleep.
By all means, count whatever animals, objects, or social constructs that tickles your fancy!
count whatever animals, objects, or social constructs that tickles your fancy!
Doesn't work.
I have tried to count bats, I have tried to count young dominatrices and old ones, former reddit mods on lemmy, and even fanbois of Elon. None of them have helped me sleeping.
This is what works for me. I close my eyes, relax my body. I visualize all the "non-sleep" in my body traveling from my toes and fingers up into my head. Then I visualize a sphere, which is usually kind of hazy, kind of behind my eyes. As I breathe in I visualize all the "non-sleep" being sucked into the sphere which changes them to sleep stuff. Then I exhale picturing the sleep stuff dispersing from the sphere. In…and out…in…and out.
When I first started doing this I could fall asleep almost always in about 5 minutes. After doing it every night for awhile, I started to go to sleep in like 2 minutes, if not quicker. These days, after about 5 years of using this technique, I've found myself going to sleep after one or two breaths.
People with aphantasia left the chat
They can still count the idea of sheep, they just don't visualize the sheep jumping over a fence with numbers flying off them similar to damage numbers in an RPG.
Because they can't count themselves.
Just in case you lost one during the day
I don’t keep my sheep in my bedroom.
Normie activity, does not work if you have mental disorders
I've heard it just doesn't work.
