Counting Sheep Lost to Doing Nothing in an Oxford Sleep Study

“Counting sheep” is shorthand for a bedtime trick that, when it was tested, did nothing measurable. Does counting sheep help you fall asleep? According to the Oxford study that tested it, no: Allison Harvey and Suzanna Payne (2002, Behaviour Research and Therapy) found that insomnia volunteers who counted sheep fell asleep no faster than people given no instructions, while a group told to picture a relaxing scene fell asleep about 20 minutes sooner than on their usual nights.

What did the Oxford study find?

Volunteers with insomnia tried different pre-sleep strategies on different nights. One set pictured a tranquil scene, such as a waterfall or a holiday. Another used a general distraction, the sheep-counting kind. A third did what they normally did. Accounts of the sample size vary between about 40 and 50 people, so treat any exact headcount with suspicion.

The sheep counters and the do-nothing group both took slightly longer than normal to fall asleep on the study nights. That is a small difference and probably noise, but it is the opposite of a benefit. If the 20 minutes held every night, it would add up to 140 fewer minutes of lying awake over a week, a hypothetical but a striking one.

The usual reading is that counting is too dull to hold attention, so it wanders back to worries, while a vivid scene is busy enough to leave less room for them. That is an interpretation of the result, not something the study measured.

What to do instead of counting sheep

Pick one of these and give it a full five minutes before you judge it.

1. Walk a route you know. Choose a specific path, like the lane to a grandparent’s house, and move through it one landmark at a time. Real places are easier to hold than invented ones.
2. Build a room, then furnish it. Start with a cabin or a beach hut. Add the floor, the light, the smell, one sound. Every new detail is a small job for your brain, which is the point of the task.
3. Run a slow, pleasant memory. Replay a past afternoon in order, such as a lake day, from the car park to the water. If it drifts, restart at the car park.

If the worry is a loop rather than an occasional intruder, a longer piece on racing thoughts at bedtime covers what else to try. If a worry barges in, do not fight it. Return to the next detail of the scene. Pushing a thought away is itself a mental effort that keeps you alert.

How far does one study go?

Not far, and it is worth saying so. It tested adults with insomnia, each compared with their own usual nights, so the 20 minutes is a change from their norm and not a clock reading. Replication evidence is thin. Treat the imagery task as a cheap experiment with no side effects, which is already a better deal than sheep. A tracked experiment with a different mental trick makes a useful comparison.