The Transition

I honestly don't know if this is the right place for this, but I'll ask anyways.
I wanted to know if you all felt the same things that were happening to me and if they are signs of transitioning. I'm a n00b so I don't really know what these "signs" are about.

Yesterday night I attempted to fall asleep.

Well, trying to fall asleep in my bed didn't work out so I tried to sleep on my reclining chair next to my computer.

Doing that, I started feeling the effects of sleep paralysis. I was all set to head into dreamland. Out of nowhere my heart started racing like crazy, I tried calming down but my heart for some reason started accelerating.

Once that ceased I tried doing the counting method, counting my inhales hoping something would happen. After about 200 reps, I felt weightless over my body and noticed my breathing was alot easier to do and seemed barely noticeable to do and it was easier to lose count. Along with the breathing, I started feeling myself to twitch weirdly, I was wondering if that was normal too.

For about two hours, I felt weightless, and started seeing various "images", like random flashes of light swirling around the darkness of my closed eyes. I read about these and I think I'm not supposed to pay attention to them but focus. One of these images I saw was an immediate flashing light flashing off and on. It was unusual.

I also did a dream spin which seemed to trigger something to my subconscious, but it still wasn't enough and I was back to my train of thought.

My question is, how do you "transition" into sleep or a dream. I mean I did the counting thing like over 10 times and my mind was still waiting to transition into sleep. I tried also focusing on a place. I went to the Anime Expo last week in L.A. and kept my mind focusing on that place hoping to arrive there. I pictured myself in first person view sitting around pacing back and forth hoping to feel myself there.

After three hours, I went back to my bed and slept normally. What sucked is that is that I actually DID dream after that, and I even remember it too. I just don't recall ever "knowing" the transition from being awake in my head to a full on dream.

Thanks.