There's two kind of drugs, new drugs and old drugs. In 1994 or thereabouts, ambien was a new drug and the pharmaceutical company proclaimed it non-narcotic and non-addicting. When it becomes an old drug, its "OOPS, it is addicting." While not a benzo, it has the same result of messing up your brain's chemistry along with your normal sleep/wake cycle. Yes you'll have to endure some rough nights until your brain kicks back in producing its own chemicals for sleep. When it saw ambien flooding your system, it shut down.
I quit ambien in Sept of 2007. I started sleeping about 5 hours a night by the next June. I was taking 30 or more of the 10 mg Ambien a day! You may not have it that bad. Just be patient. Ambien needs to be tapered.
It doesn't give you restful sleep in the end. You will feel so much better when you get off of it. I promise! It nearly killed me! I had to have my stomach pumped twice and had 2 near fatal car accidents that I do not remember having!
Please stop while you can!
Its going to take time your are going to have to have some sleepless nights .There are some herbs that can help but you will have to push threw some sleeplessness.