Ambien and other sleeping meds always stop working after a period of time. This is not an end of the life. Most of us been in your shoes. Insomnia is tough, however it is possible to survive and even to lead a prodactive life on little or sometimes no sleep at all. All of medications I ever took for the last 8 years, stoped working at some point of time. This is what I did. I took a break, no meds...of course little or sometimes no sleep at all. I survived months like that and all my pregnancy I slept not more than 4 hr. Then, I started taking pills again. Then, I stoped and so on. If you are working, can you take a break? Resset your life priorities. Insomnia and stresfull job feed to each other. Then, do not force yourself to sleep. Stay awake no matter how long you did not sleep. Believe me, after couple of nights you will fall asleep. As you will have some rest, you mind will work differently. So, use this moment to find out how you gonna live with such a exhausting health issue and what you can or can not do. There are lots of information around. Keep in mind, there are many people who have an insomnia and on this forumforum we share, helpsupport. I am 42, mother of tow kids, I have insomnia for 8 years...this thing turned my life up side down. A pretty, educated and goaloriented person ended up staying at home and missing a lot on life. I first strugled and hopped, then I learned to surrender. There were desperate days, when I fought I am done, I am gonna die. There were other days, when I was proud of miself to still be able performing great. I just recently have 3 nights with 0, 2, 3 hr of sleep consequently. Those days I managed to do lots of things. So, please, do not give up. There is a light in the end of a tunnel. Good luck. Pardon my english, this is my second foreign language

I'm just tired of all of this stress over sleep, I've went through this all my life and I just want to know what is causing this. I know it's not over anything like anxiety or stress, I wish I had the answer. I'm just going to have to start taking two times my dose again to get some sleep every once and a while. No, I do not work or go to school so I don't really have to worry about that. All I want is sleep and I don't think I will ever be able to get it without a struggle. That deeply saddens me.

Have you tried CBT-i? This is the only non-drug method that has been shown to work. I improved about 70% after I completed a self help version of this therapy. There are online courses one can take too. It doesn't have to be expensive. This therapy helps one not to stress about not sleeping. Insomnia is vicious cycle. Not sleeping creates anxiety. Anxiety prevents one from sleeping.

I agree that anxiety prevents us from recovery. Would you please share the link about CBT. Thank you in advance.

I have noticed not stressing does help some, I try not to but it's so hard. For now I'm just taking more pills than prescribed, but hey, it's better than nothing. Thanks everyone for the kind responses, I really appreciate it.

Sorry, I don't know how to do links. A google search should give you info about cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. I did a self-help plan by buying a book at Amazon and using a free app. The app was developed by the VA. It is not intended to be a stand alone program. The name of the app is CBT-i Coach. I hope this helps.