Surely you still remember when you were a child, you had problems sleeping, and your mother used to tell you that counting sheep helps us sleep . One by one, that it will help you relax and finally fall asleep, even if you never had a rational explanation about why you list animals.
And in days when we have all kinds of technological products whose main purpose is to offer us information about the quality of our dreams, the time may also have come to discover why this happens.
It is that, although the origins of this custom that has been passed by word of mouth are until now unknown, there is no doubt that it is a useful technique for many people , some of whom continue to repeat it in adulthood when sleep seems impossible.
It is assumed that parents told this story to their children, in which a shepherd had to cross his sheep over a bridge one by one, counting them as they passed from one side to another, until finally the creature fell asleep because, of course, the story it has no real ending.
Studies carried out in recent years have concluded that there are several reasons that explain why counting sheep helps us sleep , the first being the aforementioned, the inaccuracy of a specific number of sheep, which makes the story never end. .
Animals that help us relax
Beyond that, there are reasons to believe that things work more with these animals than with others, and there the tender image we have of sheep begins to play, something that would be impossible to imagine if we counted crocodiles, for example. The image of a sheep helps to relax.
Other research suggests that thinking of paradisiacal destinations, or that we have closely related to being calm, away from difficulties, attracts sleep in the same way.
Endless story
But in the case of sheep, it is the only one in which many of the requirements that humans need to finally fall down are met, since it combines an endless story, which we know we will not be able to solve , an animal species appreciated in general, and that memory of childhood for most, times in which we lived calmer.
