Disclaimer: I'm writing this down in the hope that it proves useful to someone else. Of course, there's no guarantee that it helps. It's just what works for me.

The method is plain and simple:
1) In your mind, start to repeatedly count from 10 to 1. Or from 1 to 10. Or from 1 sheep to 10 sheep. Whatever is easy to concentrate on.
2) Move your eyes toward the center, as if you were looking at the tip of your nose. Usually, that's where they will go anyways once you fall asleep, but if you just can't relax, forcibly make them go into that position.
3) Take a couple of deep breaths.
4) keep counting!
5) Optional step: try to concentrate on where those glands are that secrete that makes-you-want-to-go-to-sleep stuff. They should be located near the sensory organs, usually along rifts or protrusions in the skull (such as the rift running along the top of your head, bumps behind your ears, and at the bottom of the nose). I don't know how other people perceive this, but I can clearly feel this stuff (is it melatonin? I have no idea) being secreted, and am able to stimulate it to a certain degree by focusing.

That's what's worked amazingly well for me the last couple of nights. It's so simple, especially the first step. So, this whole counting sheep thing does work after all (at least for me). The idea is to find something to concentrate on. I used to try to relax by concentrating on my breath, like during meditation. But that just takes a lot of practice and I never managed to get the hang of it. Just counting, on the other hand, is dead simple - although, granted, it still takes a bit of discipline.

Once I counted for a while, I become aware of the difference between the part in the brain that is counting and...myself - or the whatever I perceive as such. The other part is the where the inner voice constantly goes on talking while I'm awake. I realized that this is one of the major obstacles when going to sleep. Once I manage to turn off this thing, I almost immediately feel some tranquility setting in. I'm also more aware of tensions that I then can consciously relax. Actually, there are always a lot of tense muscle. In particular right below the brain. The way I look at this region, it's like the interface between the brain and the body. I've always been a light sleeper, and it's always taken me up to two hours to go to sleep. But for certain (not very pleasant) reasons, it's even harder for me to go to sleep now. In particular if I ingest food right before going to bed, I can feel that stuff being converted into energy and pumped up to the brain by way of that interface. That's the reason I can't eat chocolate - a few pieces and I know I will be up all night. So, I will try and relax the muscles below the brain, and that way, I manage to reduce the amount of chemicals that are injected into my brain. Because once the get their, it fuels parts of the brain that keep me awake. I already mentioned the constantly talking brain part. Another one that is the social one - the frontal cortex I think. I'm also keenly aware of this one being active if I had a lot of social interaction during the day. It is relatively easy to quiet it down by relaxing the muscles right behind the nose, and the eyes.

So, that's just my experience. Obviously nothing scientific, and very subjective. Hope this helps somebody else.

Also, I realize that I could take medication or melatonin, but I like to keep it simple and yes, I'm a cheapskate.