Interesting Ambien Taper this guy figured out to deal with rebound insomnia

I'm trying to figure out a way to get off the short half life Zopiclone and I have Ambien, which is the only thing and I mean the ONLY thing that will get me to sleep. But I can't stay on it for long, tolerance goes up fast, doesn't work all night alone, etc, other problems. Zopiclone doesn't work and is nothing but problems. So anyhoo, I found this blog and thought it looked interesting.:

"I started out on the lowest prescribed dose (5 mg) of regular, ie not continued release, Ambien. I cut these in half, and switched every other night between a full dose (5mg) and a half dose (2.5mg). So, over the course of a week I had 75% Ambien in my system compared to the week before. I stayed here for about 2 weeks, before adding in another night of a half-pill. So now it was one night at 5 mg, 2 nights at 2.5 mg. After a few weeks here I move on to 2.5 mg nearly every night, and a full dose about once a week. This once a week was usually in situations where my routine was off- vising people, staying out late, etc etc. Anything that would disrupt my routine and cause excess stimulation, which my brain interprets as stress. My body responds with an elevated heart rate and pulse, breathing quickly-yeah, no sleep for you.

Eventually I was taking 2.5 mg a night. From there I cut those in half, and followed my same protocol outlined above with every other night, every two nights, once or twice a week....Finally, I was at the point where I was only taking 1/4 of a 5mg Ambien pill every 3 or 4 nights. I made the leap to go cold turkey at that point. The whole process took me about 4 months. The advantage of slowly tapering off was that I didn't have any withdrawal or kick-back insomnia. I was very motivated to avoid withdrawal effects that would worsen my anxiety (I am still on that med.) Perhaps someone without concurrent anxiety/ depression could go off more quickly.

I have been completely off sleep medication for about a month. I don't sleep great (there's still that sleep apnea), but I do sleep well enough." 

the rest here:

http://permanentstudentplus.blogspot.ca/2010/09/how-i-went-off-sleeping-pills.html