How do you ‘count sheep’

[RunningFromInsanity]

When you are trying to sleep and count sheep do you-

Imagine sheep in a big field
Or
Imagine sheep jumping over a gate and count as they go over

YABU.

YABU

This is a genuine question, my partner and I were discussing this last night.

I don't count sheep but I do count backwards slowly from 499. If I start thinking of other stuff and lose my place then I go back to the beginning. I generally fall asleep before I finish counting.

Jumping over a gate (but have only done it a couple of times - it did work).

I count little cartoon sheep jumping over a gate. If I don't do something like that my mind starts wandering and I end up awake for hours

I try and think of a British town or city for each letter of thr alphabet. Sometimes it has to be one Scottish one and one from somewhere else in the UK. Almost always works!

Ah good, I also do the jumping over a gate!

He’s argument was that the jumping is stimulating and more likely to keep you awake.

Jumping over a gate

I’ve been known to look out the window and count the ones I can see

If I can’t sleep now I use a meditation app, much better. Sheep are noisy buggers

Yan tan tethera pethera pimp

@RunningFromInsanity

Ah good, I also do the jumping over a gate!

He’s argument was that the jumping is stimulating and more likely to keep you awake.

I'd say watching them jump over the gate keeps you focused a bit longer and stops the mind wandering.

I’ve never been able to do this!

Instead I think of a topic, say film stars, and see how many I can count before I fall asleep.

Not American states though. I always get to 49 and then the last one eludes me and I get rage filled and cannot sleep!

I dont do this but my image of this is cartoon sheep jumping over a gate. You count each one as they jump over it.
Surely looking around an imaginary field is more effort than just staring in one place at naughty sheep 🤔🤣

It's actually very difficult to count sheep in a field. You count one group and then they drift to another. What you need is a sheep handling system and they are forced to run through an open tunnel arrangement. It's the only way.

jumping over a gate for me - sometimes the field never empties so I get up haha

Sometimes a sheep sneaks under the gate, or two jump at the same time, so you have to make sure you are paying attention

Like this: m.youtube.com/watch?v=j5ufzsKT_zA

I try to think of two capital or major cities for each letter of the alphabet. There are 25 cities beginning with the letter X, all but two are in China.

I have no mind's eye so I don't see sheep at all. Until last year I always figured it as a figure of speech 😂

@thatwouldbeanecumenicalmatter
or backwards !

Slight digression but I asked dh with my best serious face how sheep don't shrink in the rain like a wool jumper usually does in the wash, he started on with some obviously stupid explanation!!
Baa rmy man..

When I've tried to count sheep I've imagined them jumping over a fence. It doesn't work for me though, probably as I only conceptualise them, I can't actually see them in my "minds eye" as I have aphantasia - meaning, simply, that I don't see pictures in my brain like most people do.

I had no idea other people could! I assumed that when people talked about "seeing" things in their mind's eye, they meant in a metaphorical sense, I had no idea other people actually saw things in their mind, until I learnt about it a few years back - on Mumsnet of course!

www.newscientist.com/article/2083706-my-minds-eye-is-blind-so-whats-going-on-in-my-brain/

@TOADfan

I have no mind's eye so I don't see sheep at all. Until last year I always figured it as a figure of speech 😂

Cross posts! (Took me ages to post - I got distracted reading the link I shared. Likely due to my ADHD, but that's another story entirely )

I count up from 1 to 100 when it's time to get up and I don't want to, and down from 100 when I want to go to sleep (and if I make it to 1, I stop, and read for a bit, or get up and try again in half hour)