"i was having severe insomnia to the point where i was only getting 1-2 hours, at the most, of sleep a night. i started to hallucinate after a few days of this and was prescribed ambien. it works fast (within 10 minutes after kicking in to fall asleep), but i only sleep 4-5 hours on it and then wake up refreshed. i don&#039;t get my full 7-8 hours. not sure what&#039;s up with that. i tried ambien cr and it took longer to fall asleep on that and i still only got around 4-5 hours of sleep on the cr version. i still use ambien and it&#039;s better than lunesta which gave me a nasty taste in my mouth and didn&#039;t even make me tired. overall, i recommend ambien."