I had trouble sleeping for over 1.5 years before I went to the Drs with c/o not sleeping. (I am kind of stubborn) I tried all sorts of things including natural sleep aids. Nothing seemed to work at all. They tried me on Amatriptyline for sleep. I had an alergic reaction to that where my throat closed up on my. Not a fun experince at all. He then put me on Ambien. I tried it for a bit and it did work, however I started to not feel very well during the day. I was dizzy, light headed and felt like I had the flu so I no longer took that. I also started to have a hard time talking at times and with word finding..
I did some research and talked with a friend and now I take on a rare occasion Calms Forte which seems to help...I also stepped down from a rather stressful positoin at work. PM if you have any questions because I do know how it feels not to sleep. I was sent on a sleep study at the end of last year and the results were... "YOu don't sleep at all"..gosh, tell me something I didn't already know. The rest of the results were that I never entered REM sleep and I woke up over 19 times per hour. So needless to say I feel your pain. Just don't wait like I did.