counting sheep
1
3.7
- noun
- Informal
:
contar ovejas
- We'll count sheep together.
Examples
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What she found was that not only did counting sheep not make you fall asleep any faster, it actually made people take longer to fall asleep.
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And I'll be counting sheep tonight.
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Beats counting sheep a million miles.
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I now understand why I fail to get to sleep when counting sheep to infinity.
Blog text (9) -
But the idea was that instead of counting sheep at night, you should count the things that you're grateful for.
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Counting sheep—and soon the monotony of the distraction caused relaxation and dreams.
Fiction book (1992) -
When I have trouble falling asleep, I try counting sheep to clear my mind.
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Many people find that counting sheep helps them relax and drift off to sleep.
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After a long day, I often spend my nights counting sheep to help me fall asleep.
How Sleep-Inducing
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a mental exercise in which one imagines counting sheep to help fall asleep' is directly derivable from combining 'count' (to tally) with 'sheep' (the animals); the phrase describes the literal activity of counting sheep. This is a literal, culturally common strategy rather than an idiomatic shift, so a B1 learner who knows both words would likely infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Counting sheep comes from picturing sheep jumping over a fence while you slowly count them one by one. This simple, repeated picture is boring and calms your mind, so the phrase now means 'a mental exercise to help you fall asleep'.