My wife was on it at two different inpatient Hospice units the last four weeks of her life . Theoretically it was supposed to be as fast acting as Ambien but with longer sleep periods (fewer wake ups during the night. Considering the cocktail of meds that she was on trying to reduce Terminal Restlessness including Haldol, Seroquel, Morphine, alone and in combination. She was receiving Crisis Care round the clock nursing so side effects such a dizziness and instability were of minor consequence.
Earlier in the course of his illness, my husband was on temazepam for insomnia and I believe it was alprazolam for anxiety. I may be off on that, but it was the generic for Xanax. Considering the progression of the disease and aging, those were changed to generic Ambien (zolpidem, the ER form) and lorazepam (Ativan). The reason given to me for the Ambien was the same as described by Marty* above. I don't really understand the difference between the other two. For each of these situations the docs were different and sometimes I wonder if a factor of it isn't their personal preference.