Counting Sheep

[Doolhof]

Hi. Has anyone tried to count sheep jumping over a fence in their head when they are unable to sleep? Last night I was sound asleep until I had a call of nature. Once back in bed I was thinking of all the nice things I wanted to do in the morning, and felt like getting up straight away to do them, but it was only 2.30 a.m.

So I decided I would try to count sheep and thought the monotony of that exercise would send me back to sleep. Not so! The sheep in my mind started to jump the fence okay, then a couple of sheep decided to do a flip over the fence, the next one tackled it like a high jump, and then the following sheep tried to out do that one by doing ballet steps on the top of the fence!

My mind was having a wonderful time with the sheep! I wish I could have filmed the whole episode, would have made a great little movie for kids, especially when the sheep started doing all kinds of tricks and some were wearing pink ribbons in their wool or even lace up boots!

I had to stop thinking about sheep jumping over fences or else I never would have fallen asleep! Ha. Ha.

The mind is an amazing thing and I am thankful for my creative thoughts, but not at 2.30 in the morning when I am trying to sleep.!

Cheers, from Mrs. Dools

[angelite]

Hi Mrs.Dools

Can't say that I count sheep but I do keep the blind up at night and count the stars. That doesn't work for me either but it passes the time. Maybe I'll try shhep tonight, let you know how I go.

Please take care, thinking of you

Karen

[turtl3]

wow! deja' vu' much??
I had a similar occurrence the other night. I woke at 3am because nature called.

As i tried to go back to sleep, it seemed that all the excitement of what tomorrow held, took precedence over actually sleeping, to gain the energy for said activities...I tried counting sheep with my eyes closed but it became a competition as to who could jump the fence in the fanciest manner!?!?! I tried getting up and walking around around the house and looking at the stars, and the vacant park across the road. nothing seemed to help.

I tried breathing deeply and tried to think about nothing...absolutely nothing. If a thought popped into my mind i would label it as nothing, but i was still wide awake.

I suffer alot of restless, sleepless nights. i find not using mobiles or laptops in bed, right before trying to sleep helps a lot. Same applies to watching tv. I try to unwind by having a shower or just chit chatting with the missus just before getting into bed, electronics seem to really stimulate the mind, especially if your playing games(Farmville, PVZ, Clash of Clans, Deer Hunter).

stick to reading books (e-books dont count) talking, massages, a hot drink or a hot shower. these things seem to help unwind and count towards a solid sleep. Everyone is guaranteed to have a restless night, every now and then, regardless. but i find not doing the things mentioned above really helps a lot.

[Doolhof]

Hi Turtl3,

Ha. Ha. So your sheep were very clever as well! Isn't it amazing how our imaginations work! I do wish sometimes I could print out my images in my brain, some of them are quite amusing and hilarious.

My Dr. had given me a print out relating to "Sleep Hygiene", I have put it somewhere safe so I can find it to read it when I need to but can't remember where that place is!

I do sleep better with the window open or the fan on, after having a shower like you mentioned and once I have already thought about and planned the things I need to do the following day.

Reading is good. I have never liked watching t.v. in bed unless I have been sick and do so during the day.

I've been a bit slack with the exercise bit lately, so have kick started my day with a walk and might try to achieve that every day.

Hope you have sweet dreams all this week. I just had a thought, I wonder if we counted elephants if they would start doing acrobatic flips over the fence! Ha. Ha.

Cheers for now from Mrs. Dools

Cheers from Mrs. Dools

[Neil_1]

Hi there Mrs Dools

Excellent little thread you’ve created – revolving around the age old problem of how to get back to sleep once woken during the night.  And we seem to be woken by our body telling us that we need to relieve ourselves – perhaps a solution might be to not take any fluid in, in the last couple of hours before sleep-time.  Could this then allow our bodies to continue to sleep the night right through?  Or maybe we are just so Pavlov dog’s trained that no matter what, we will wake for the call of nature?

I did have a good giggle at the accounts of how your sheep were behaving when they were faced with the challenge of leaping over the fence – made me wish I was kind of on the same meds as you guys if it makes your thoughts wander to such shenanigans!   🙂   🙂   🙂

Oh and as for elephants, I think the first one would just crash straight through the fence and then it’d be just a mass stampede of excited packy-derms!

Neil

[Doolhof]

Hi Neil,

I've tried not drinking anything from 6.00 p.m. and I still need to pee during the night and then again first thing in the morning! I don't have tea or coffee after 6.00 and maybe just a glass of water usually. Anyway, that is just part of nature I guess!

Regarding the wonderful imaginative images, I have always been able to call those up, even before I even realised what anti depressive drugs were. Like I mentioned, it would be great if I could transfer those images and turn them into something creative.

My younger sister told me that I was forever telling her stories when we were kids and had written a couple of books when I was in primary school. One was called Adam Ant, long before the singer showed up on the scene! Ha. Ha.

I don't know about the elephants though Neil! If the sheep can do back flips and ballet steps on top of a fence, I am sure I can get the elephants to do some pretty amazing tricks as well!

I can just picture an elephant now, wearing a pink tutu and balancing on the top of a railed fence by her trunk, spinning around, like an old fashioned spinning top, to then land gracefully on the other side like a gymnast dismounting from the bars with her trunk straight up in the air and her front legs raised in victory

If your meds or your imagination are not doing this for you Neil, then I can gladly share you some of my images! Ha. Ha.

Cheers, from Mrs. Dools

[geoff]

dear Mrs. Dools, isn't this a lovely little post.

Well I am fortunate enough not to have to count those little white sheep jumping, doing back-flips or ballet dances, because I am one lucky person, as I fall asleep before my head hits the pillow, even after I have to go to the loo during the night, as I could sleep anywhere, but I can't sleep if I am a passenger in the car.

The dreams that I do have no one would believe, as I relay them to my twin who must think that I'm 'stark raving mad', and even dreaming of people I've hadn't seen for 58 years, but they are entertaining in a funny way.

He often says that I should write a book, but could be successful in the 'looney tunes' section. L Geoff. x

[turtl3]

lol i agree with mrs dools. the meds dont have anything to do with it, just vivid sleep deprived minds. that and i wasnt currently taking meds when i was trying to count sheep.

there are antidepressants which will make you extremely sleepy but are very strong antis and shouldnt be taken lightly, my doc prescribed them months ago but it had nothing to do with depression, just sleep deprivation. i took 1/4 of this miniscule tablet and i was a virtually a zombie until 10-12 the next day. and my bladder was killing me in the morning as i did not have the will power to get up during the night.

my partner is a nurse and has described to me 'fluid retention' and the pain it causes....i think we should be extremely happy that our body wakes us and is able to relieve certain stresses haha.

I agree with Neil1 in that we are 'pavlovs dog trained' pretty sure our parents drill the whole toilet training into us ASAP! much as we do with dogs 🙂

[Doolhof]

Hi Geoff,

Yes it is wonderful to have a light hearted post to connect with! You are so lucky to be able to just fall asleep like you do! Wow. That must be wonderful.

Even as a child I didn't sleep very well. I used to wake up all hours of the night. I loved to climb out of the bedroom window and go for a walk in the moonlight along the beach! I would have been about 10 or younger when I started doing that.

I would have the whole beach and the town for that matter to myself. I loved it on a moon lit night, watching as the moonbeams danced on the waves.

On the darker night's it was  a bit harder to see where I was going as the town street lights used to go out at 10 p.m. Sometimes I would sneak a torch into our bedroom before I went to bed so I could find my way to the beach in the wee hours of the morning.

It is great you can share your dreams with your twin brother. Some of my dreams can be a little weird as well. I once had a co worker who used to analyse dreams and said I should keep a pad and pen next to the bed to write the dreams down so I didn't forget them.

I would have enough trouble trying to analyse what happens in my day let alone what goes on in my dreams at night if I was that way inclined! Ha. Ha.

Happy dreams to you and everyone else. I have to dash off to work now. Cheers from Mrs. Dools.

p.s. I just needed a little cheer to help me along the way this morning!