If you're counting sheep to help you sleep, don't look them in the eye.

For some will give you dreams to keep and some will make you die.

The idea of counting sheep stretches back to a simpler time in our history.

A time before all those pesky notifications and breaking news updates would spring us out of bed in the middle of the night to look at a screen, a time when shepherds counting

their flock before taking a nap in the shadow of some tree was a relatable situation.

Historians disagree as to where the term actually came from.

Some say it is a recent expression originating from the New Zealand colonists.

Others invoke medieval British sheep herders, while some pointed verses in dusty tombs of Islamic fairy tales.

They're all wrong.

The original expression comes from the Gororal people of the Tatra Mountains,

although the Austro-Hungarian approach to the people as a lesser culture has pushed the truth from libraries into word of mouth.

What is also been conveniently removed from anthropology

papers is the original form of the expression. The idea of counting sheep to help ease the mind

originally came in a rhyme. The only place

where the true form of the old advice still survives is in the mouths of direct

descendants to the garal culture. If you're counting sheep to help you sleep, don't look them in the eye.

For some will give you dreams to keep and some will make you die.

My grandma is shaking leathery hands pressed against her forehead again.

I was wrapped in four different blankets and a frigid wave of hot ice was traveling up and down my body,

but her words cut through my fever.

Why do you say that, Grandma?

I said, my chin savly tucked beneath the blistering blankets.

...