Interesting to me to hear about counting as a barrier to sleep, as I have used it all my life as a way to *get* to sleep.... If I can't shut my mind down, I can't sleep, so I use counting to try and drown out the chaotic, competing thoughts that keep me awake.
I like previous posters suggestions to see if he can find ways to turn it into something more soothing, instead of repetitive and distressing. I can easily see how such a short loop would quickly have me stressed and hyperventilating...
For what it's worth, to help myself sleep, I start my count at 1000, which creates long and somewhat hypnotic numbers which tend to take a full breath in and out to complete. (Sometimes, I have to resort to mentally shouting them to try and drown out all the other things my brain would rather think.) When I really can't calm down and keep still, I will use tricks like only allowing myself to move after, first, a count of ten (i.e. 1010) then ten more than the first interval (1030), and then ten more than the last interval (1060), making myself wait an additional ten every time. Often, I miss my "allowed" moment to toss and turn, and then have to wait for the next one.
Really helps me. But neither of my kids have ever been even slightly willing or interested in trying counting, despite major sleep difficulties, so YMMV to say the least.
