keeping focus can be tough... Any suggestions?

[ArmyOfOne1911]

I am trying this thing where I close my eyes and just observe what I see in front of me. Changes in color of light, any flickers of light I see... etc. For the past two nights now I have done this and have got to the falling sensation. When I first started this I would get the falling sensation and I would then be literally 15 seconds from leaving my body. I would get buzzing sensations etc. Now I just get the falling one and it only lasts for about 4 seconds and then I continue lying there wide awake. But extremely relaxed... I constantly find myself all of a sudden having a bunch of thoughts come in and I try my best to get rid of them. My attention span is pretty bad sometimes. I talk to myself alot too. Any suggestions for this? I know this has probably come up a hundred times but my focus seems to be pretty bad alot of the times. Then I either have a failed phase attempt, or I end up falling asleep.

PS: I am also going to start using the couch instead of my bed, and sit up instead of laying down. Like Lionheart said that might be why I am always falling asleep!

Thanks all

-Cody

[Lionheart]

 Hey Army, try counting up to 300 slowly. Don't focus on anything but the counting and ignore any sensations that occur during it. Just passively observe these sensations/imagery with an air of curiosity. When I am having difficulty turning off my busy day, the counting method always works to help me Phase.
 Good Luck my friend! 

[ArmyOfOne1911]

Thank you Lionheart! I will give this a shot 

[Stookie_]

Another suggestion: "Noticing" is really good, but can be hard if you're not in a fairly focused mindset at the moment. A rundown might be better in this case, because when you realize you're not focusing on the exercise, you can immediately correct it to where you were at, whereas with noticing, you just randomly start doing it again. Having a particular thing to focus on could help.