Counting Sheep

I assume it stems from shepherds counting their sheep after a day in the fields. The sheep were led into the shed through a narrow corridor where they could easily be counted after jumping over a low barrier one by one. Apparently some shepherds got sleepy after this and that's why they invented espresso.

Suppose very few people were rich enough to need to count their horses.

argentina: we should count cow instead! or sheep in patagonia.. yet we count sheep as well. Interesting question

I don't know where it comes from but it's definitely not UK-centric. We also count sheep in Slovenia and as far as I know in German speaking regions as well.

You won't see sheep here in Chicago except in a zoo, but we also "count sheep" in trying to fall asleep.

One mattress manufacturer uses animated sheep in its television advertising. The sheep complain about having put out of work, since people who use that brand of mattress fall asleep so quickly that they don't need to count sheep.

I haven't done this for a while.

I should care, I should go around weeping;
I should care, I should go without sleeping.

Strangely enough, I sleep well
'cept for a dream or two
But then I count my sheep well --
Funny how sheep can lull you to sleep

I should care, I should let it upset me;
I should care but it just doesn't get me.
Maybe I won't find someone as lovely as you,
But I should care . . .
And I do

Sammy Cahn, music by Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston, 1944.

Would you rather Nat Cole or Amy Winehouse? Never mind, I know who I would rather have.

Many thanks for all replies and enlightening me.

I used to count sheep that way as a youngster. As #1 says, they would jump over a low stile rather than a fence. It didn't make me sleepy but could become mesmerising, because of the sheer number of them, and the repetition. They don't look different to each other in the way cattle and horses do. They look like ... sheep.

It's hard to get sheep to separate so you have to run them down a narrow race and either over a stile or through a drafting gate. Thing is, they usually make an instinctive little bound as they come out of the gate anyway. You might, for example, be drafting out the ewes who have been "marked" by an amorous ram.

Horses and cattle are easier.. You just count the legs and divide by four.

Various sheep-counting systems discussed at the link. Language related: Yan tan tethera febera phubs.

The thing that puzzled me, as an often-couldn't-get-to-sleep child, was why was such an ineffective method so frequently recommended.