Counting Sheep

What is the origin of this phrase? Is it UK-centric or what?

As a child in Scotland, I was advised to count sheep jumping over a fence in order to help me sleep.

I've ne'er seen a sheep jumping o'er a fence. Why not horses jumping+ over fences (I've seen this), or why not +counting breadcrumbs or beans?

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.

Counting sheep really is the best way to fall asleep

On the basis that the greater the emphasis on not doing something the more children are likely to do it, I'd say: whatever else ye do, do not fall asleep...

when I worked as a shepherd, people used to ask me all the time if I kept falling asleep while I was counting sheep. For some reason they all thought it was original.
I've learned to count by threes (for large numbers of sheep count every group of three sheep as one). problem is I can count by threes but I can't multiply by threes.

I count in threes too. I hadn't really thought why

I stay awake all night because I keep on counting sheep from 1 to 10,000.

Edited by: happyexplorer

I get stuck between 9,999 and 10,002

For some reason they all thought it was original.

And you hated the stereotype so much you thought of an original username?

sheepgirl's my nickname in real life too

This is real life :)

Even though we hardly have any sheep in Malta (goats are more common) and fences are scarcer than the sheep, we still count sheep when we want sleep.

However, when we want kids to stay awake we advise they count the holes in a sieve, so that's supposed to have the opposite effect but I don't really think so.

next time I'll have a recording of counting sheep in my Ipod, it might help me get some sleep. :) (joke)

I once had a superb leg of goat in Malta, saviourag - and a delicious rabbit dish too.

Very good (happyexplorer, 20) - but yer joke at 14 - I stay awake all night because I keep on counting sheep from 1 to 10,000 - was much the better :)