The meditation of coming back to location that you describe Mark is actually so darn simple that one could easily discount it, but it works, and I like it as one technique I can use when I wake up in the middle of the night, thanks.
(astralc, on The Tao Bums discussion forum)
The practice is indeed darn simple once a person witnesses the location of consciousness shifting, as just before sleep.
I think the same practice is at the heart of seated meditation. Here’s Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen:
…learn to take the backward step that
turns the light and shines it inward.
(“Fukan zazengi”, by Dogen)
Meditation is often associated with something a person does, but I think anyone who tries seated meditation will find that the ability to feel in the posture relies on things that happen as consciousness occurs, so that the spontaneous place of occurrence of consciousness in waking up and falling asleep is actually sufficient to sit.