Hi glove_of_power !
If you want to learn more about hypnosis, just look at you avatar. I find it very… hypnotic : 
I found some topics about self-hypnosis or relaxation methods :
Jeff explains his self-hypnosis method.
[Self hypnosis: tell me everything about it.)
Dm7 explains her method.
[Self Hypnosis and LD)
DeMoN explains his 61 points relaxation technique.
[Insomnia - Can't sleep!)
I explain mine.
[Relaxing...)
I learnt somewhere on LD4all ( but where ? ) that someone could hypnotize himself in visualizing an hypnotizer. Strange method indeed, but he told it works 
When I was about 18, I had sort of little insomnia, cause “I am a night bird, I am not much good in the day time” too.
One told me about phosphenes and HI that you see just before sleep and, as I’m curious, I tried. So I learnt a relaxation method. But practising a boring relaxation method and trying to focus on HI had mainly the side effect of making me sleep !
From my experience, ( I try to WILD every night without success 
), if you have such problems when getting to sleep, it will be better for you to try to focus on phosphenes and HI than to count, because counting will keep your mind awake. ( Researchers at Oxford University have recently found that insomniacs are more likely to fall asleep by imagining a relaxing scene than by counting sheep )