Jennita

This is a common problem. Narcotics can start it off but do not have a long post-withdrawal syndrome and high tolerance issues like sleep medications do. It's a domino effect and usually sleep meds always worsen existing insomnia no matter what the original cause. Ambien, Lunesta, etc. are benzo-like medications although not technically classed as such but carry the same problems as benzos.

So be patient, natural sleep will return but sometimes it does take awhile...weeks, sometimes months!

Helpful stuff is enough exercise, and chammomile tea or homeopathic formulas(like Hyland's Calms)are very good. A tylenol pm or benedryl sometimes helps too. But these things will not substitute for sleeping drugs at first, (since prescription sleeping pills are quite strong and cause dependancy) so they may or may not work well at the beginning but as the body becomes less dependant on strong drugs the weaker stuff will work better.