Ok- so I think I'm in total denial. I was up at the crack of dawn this morning- literally. I even stayed up late last night thinking that maybe I could kick myself into a normal sleep pattern. However, when I rolled over in bed this morning it was only four hours after I had fallen asleep. I tossed and turned longer than usual trying to get myself back to sleep, but completely failed. My mind started working and I just couldn't shut it off. I tried counting sheep, but it didn't work out. Who the came up with sheep counting anyway?
What to do today..... the options are endless, but my motivation is nil. Maybe I'll just take the dog to the park, soak up some sun and read a good book, trying not to let my mind wander into all the unknowns. Sometimes life is just too weird and a bit overwhelming. It feels good to get away from it and sink into a good imaginary tale sometimes. Who knows, maybe I'll start writing a book (Jenny)!
I miss you already!
ReplyDeleteI miss you too. Can't wait to hear/read about all the wonderful things you are doing on your journey. Good luck on your book:)
ReplyDeleteJenny
Counting sheep is a mental exercise used in some European cultures as a means of lulling oneself to sleep. It most likely arose from Yan Tan Tethera, a traditional numbering system used by some northern English shepherds to count their flocks.[citation needed]
ReplyDeleteIn most depictions of the activity, the practitioner envisions an endless series of identical white sheep jumping over a fence, while counting the number that do so. The idea, presumably, is to induce boredom while occupying the mind with something simple, repetitive, and rhythmic, all of which are known to help humans sleep.
Although the practice is largely a stereotype, and rarely used as a solution for insomnia, it has been so commonly referenced by cartoons, comic strips, and other mass media, that it has become deeply engrained into popular culture's notion of sleep. The term "counting sheep" has entered the English language as an idiomatic term for insomnia. Sheep themselves have become associated with sleep, or lack thereof. For example, an ad campaign of the Serta mattress company features the Serta Counting Sheep, a flock of animated sheep with numbers on them who resent the said company's mattresses for supposedly rendering their services unnecessary.
According to an experiment conducted by researchers at Oxford University, counting sheep is actually an inferior means of inducing sleep. Subjects who instead imagined "a beach or a waterfall" were forced to expend more mental energy, and fell asleep faster than those asked to simply count sheep. Sleep, by the same token, could be achieved by any number of complex activities
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Rob