David's right about the really slow recovery, while for him it was a process of weeks, for me it was a slow process of months. It will get better with time though, so live each day expecting the next to be better, if only slightly so.

As to sleeping meds, I take Ambien CR occasionally, particularly when I am on the road lecturing and have trouble with wildly different time zones and unbelievable early morning schedules. I haven't had the problem Jim has had, though those have been reported in portions of the population of millions of people that have taken it. You won't know if you don't try it. But there are other meds that have been around for decades, like diazepam (Valium) that are well tolerated and have minimal reports of negative side effects. To give you some idea how long diazepam has been the drug of choice, it was the drug the Rolling Stones were referring to when they said it was "mothers little helper" .... back in the 60's.