We’ve long been told to count sheep to nod off to sleep. Where in the world did this adage come from, and more importantly, does it work?

“Counting sheep is just too mundane to effectively keep worries away,” said Harvey. The waterfall insomniacs got to sleep 20 minutes faster than the others. Instructive as that study might be, Dr.

What is clear is that the concept of counting sheep to sleep is so old it was mentioned in a 13th century compilation of short stories titled “Cento Novelle Antiche.” ...

While she didn’t actually study counting sheep as a way of overcoming insomnia (and isn’t aware of any other studies to do so), Harvey does have an opinion based on her years as a sleep ...