Counting Sheep Quotes

“But [Pooh] couldn't sleep. The more he tried to sleep the more he couldn't. He tried counting Sheep, which is sometimes a good way of getting to sleep, and, as that was no good, he tried counting Heffalumps. And that was worse. Because every Heffalump that he counted was making straight for a pot of Pooh's honey, and eating it all. For some minutes he lay there miserably, but when the five hundred and eighty-seventh Heffalump was licking its jaws, and saying to itself, "Very good honey this, I don't know when I've tasted better," Pooh could bear it no longer.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“Having solved all the major mathematical, physical, chemical, biological, sociological, philosophical, etymological, meteorological and psychological problems of the Universe except for his own, three times over, [Marvin] was severely stuck for something to do, and had taken up composing short dolorous ditties of no tone, or indeed tune. The latest one was a lullaby.
Marvin droned,
Now the world has gone to bed,
Darkness won't engulf my head,
I can see in infrared,
How I hate the night.
He paused to gather the artistic and emotional strength to tackle the next verse.
Now I lay me down to sleep,
Try to count electric sheep,
Sweet dream wishes you can keep,
How I hate the night.”
― Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything

“Insomnia

I cannot get to sleep tonight.
I toss and turn and flop.
I try to count some fluffy sheep
while o'er a fence they hop.
I try to think of pleasant dreams
of places really cool.
I don't know why I cannot sleep -
I slept just fine at school.”
― Kathy Kenney-Marshall

“Don't blame you," said Marvin and counted five hundred and ninety-seven thousand million sheep before falling asleep again a second later.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“I find her anecdotes more efficacious than sheep-counting, rain on a tin roof, or alanol tablets.... you will find me and Morpheus, off in a corner, necking.”
― Dorothy Parker

“I'm dreaming of sleeping next to you and feeling like a lost little boy in a brand new town
I'm counting my sheep and each one that passes is another dream to ashes
And they all fall down.

- Sleeping to Dream”
― Jason Mraz

“A 2002 Oxford study showed counting sheep actually delays the onset of sleep. It's just too dull to stop us from worrying about jobs and spouses”
― A J Jacobs, Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection

“Yan, tan, tethera, pethera, pimp,
Sethera, lethera, hovera, covera, dik;
Yan-a-dik, tan-a-dik, tethera-dik, pethera-dik, bumfit,
Yan-a-bumfit, tan-a-bumfit, tethera-bumfit, pethera-bumfit, figgit.”
― Marc Vyvyan-Jones, The Barefoot Book of Rhymes Around the Year

“Es war ein brillanter Plan. Die Sache hatte nur einen Hacken: den Haken an der Futterkammertür. An diesem Haken hing ein Schloss. Ein Schloss, das man nur durch Zählen öffnen konnte. Die Schafe konnten nicht besonders gut zählen, aber einen Versuch war es wert.

‘Drei!’, sagte Heide.
‘Acht!’, schnaubte Othello.
‘Vier!’, blökte das Winterlamm.

Das Futterkammerschloss zeigte sich wenig beeindruckt von ihrem Zählkünsten.”
― Leonie Swann, Garou

“While you lay dreaming,
I hear you sleep,
and slowly start counting
little lost sheep.
But I'd rather you snore,
than be no more!”
― Adiela Akoo, Lost in a Quatrain

“When politicians have problems sleeping, they count voters.”
― Ljupka Cvetanova, Yet Another New Land