Gulp Error watch EPERM

I am getting the following error when trying to run my gulpfile.js I have my dev environment working on my digital ocean droplet and am thinking I missed a dependency in my localhost setup. running node/npm-sass/gulp/gulp-sass

[17:04:35] Error: watch /var/www/html/lns-app/sass/ EPERM
    at exports._errnoException (util.js:1018:11)
    at FSWatcher.start (fs.js:1443:19)
    at Object.fs.watch (fs.js:1470:11)
    at Gaze._watchDir (/var/www/html/lns-app/node_modules/gaze/lib/gaze.js:289:30)
    at /var/www/html/lns-app/node_modules/gaze/lib/gaze.js:358:10
    at iterate (/var/www/html/lns-app/node_modules/gaze/lib/helper.js:52:5)
    at Object.forEachSeries (/var/www/html/lns-app/node_modules/gaze/lib/helper.js:66:3)
    at Gaze._initWatched (/var/www/html/lns-app/node_modules/gaze/lib/gaze.js:354:10)
    at Gaze.add (/var/www/html/lns-app/node_modules/gaze/lib/gaze.js:177:8)
    at new Gaze (/var/www/html/lns-app/node_modules/gaze/lib/gaze.js:74:10)

and my gulpfile.js is:

var gulp = require('gulp');
var sass = require('gulp-sass');

gulp.task('sass', function() {
    gulp.src('sass/theme.scss')
        .pipe(sass({outputStyle: 'expanded'}).on('error', sass.logError))
        .pipe(gulp.dest('./css/'));
});

//Watch task
gulp.task('default',function() {
    gulp.watch('sass/**/*.scss',['sass']);
});

via Sandra Willford