Hmm, some progress and two items of news.

The good item being that I've found that I can fully relax and nearly slip off to sleep within a minute or two by counting my breaths (also found that saying "I'm dreaming" after each count doesn't disrupt the relaxation so that should be useful). This I just tested while attempting to take a nap in a chair.

The not-so-good item is that I was just trying to nap and couldn't seem to actually slip into sleep.
I kept nearly drifting into a daydream with my thoughts going independant along with the current daydream storyline for no more than a second and then snapping out of it.
The odd thing is that I don't see any hypnagogic imagery. No flashes, no light, no images, nothing. It's just conceptual thought; what I was thinking one moment becomes independant of my will and goes on evolving...then I snap out.

Any thoughts? Perhaps I still need to grasp the balance of passive withdrawal? Or could it be distractions from the outside world?