Counting Sheep

There have been several nights over the course of the last week or two when sleep has refused to come to me. I'm not one of those people who can function on four hours of sleep night after night. I like sleep. My body requires lots of it. So when I find myself in situations where my brain won't slow down and I just lay in bed staring at the ceiling, I get frustrated.

My first course of action is Benadryl. Pop two of those bad boys and I'm set for the night. In fact, that usually works so well that I've never had a second course of action.

Until recently.

My second course of action? Counting sheep. That's right...1, 2, 3, 4...50...125...

One night I remember getting to 165. Another night 210. I'm not sure if I fell asleep at that point or if my mind just wandered off. Either way, it seemed to work.

You may think that is the strange part of my story. A 24 year old counting sheep. It's not. What I find odd is that I'm imagining the sheep in my head--not just lined up (or however you would imagine them)--but they are jumping over a fence. One by one. In kind of a "cow jumped over the moon" sort of way, but over a fence not the moon.

Even weirder is that they are not real sheep I'm imagining, but cartoon sheep. Or maybe paper cut out sheep that abruptly jump over the fence. (Like back in the day when they would take a still shot of it, move it a little, take another shot, move it again, take another shot, etc. Then piece it all together. Have I lost you?)

My question is this: Where is this coming from? Cartoon sheep jumping over a fence? Did I see this somewhere before--maybe Sesame Street as a child?

When you think of counting sheep, what do you think of?