I now have good luck with Ambien, but it didn't start that way. Regular Ambien would get me to sleep, but I would awake a couple hours later. We switched to ER, but then I stayed groggy during daylight hours.

For some reason my body got used to non-extended release Ambien, and I now get a full night's sleep with it. I have no idea why, but I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. I'm not happy about being dependent on another prescription, but am very happy that the sleep problem is not a problem for the time being (I certainly have enough of those).