Sleep scientists have discovered an alarming fact – counting sheep does not help you drop off after all. But there is consolation for insomniacs, as they also found that conjuring up a pleasant and relaxing scene will have you nodding off in no time.

Those finding hard to sleep often seek distraction and some distractions work better than others, a team at Oxford University has found. “Picturing an engaging scene takes up more brain space than the same dirty old sheep,” says Allison Harvey. “Plus it’s easier to stay with it because it’s more interesting,” she adds.

Harvey and her colleague Suzanna Payne asked 50 insomniacs to try different distraction techniques on certain nights, to see which helped them fall asleep more quickly. One group conjured up a tranquil and relaxing scene such as a waterfall or being on holiday, while a second were asked to think of a distraction such as counting sheep. A third group were left to their own devices.

On average, those picturing a relaxing scene fell asleep over 20 minutes earlier than on nights they didn’t try the technique. But both the sheep-counters and the controls took slightly longer than normal to fall asleep on the nights of the experiment. “Counting sheep is just too mundane to effectively keep worries away,” says Harvey.


“Thought suppression”

In another study, Harvey looked at a different technique for dealing with intrusive thoughts, called “thought suppression”. The idea is to nip an anxious or negative thought in the bud by burying it as soon as it pops up. This is similar to a traditional treatment for insomnia that psychologists often try.

This time Harvey asked half the subjects to “suppress” their pre-sleep worries and half to follow their normal routine. The “suppression” group took about 10 minutes longer to get to sleep, Harvey will report in a future issue of Cognitive Therapy Research.

Harvey’s results mirror those of a classic study known as the “polar bear test”. Telling someone not to think about a polar bear only encourages them to think about it even more – a finding that appears to have gone unnoticed by psychologists using the suppression technique to treat insomnia. It simply does not banish your worries.

Chronic insomnia

Harvey’s research will appeal to more than just the academics. One in 10 people suffer from chronic insomnia, and scientists estimate that lost sleep costs the US economy $35 billion a year in sick days and accidents.

“These studies represent an innovative approach to the management of insomnia,” says Charles Morin, a sleep researcher at Laval University, Quebec. But he is not surprised by Harvey’s second finding.

“The more you fight those intrusive thoughts, the more they want to come back.” Dealing with the underlying source of worries is the only long-term answer to restless nights, he adds.

More at: Behaviour Research and Therapy (vol 40, p 267)