Brief Answer:
Ambien is considered a drug with high abuse potential/street drug value.

Detailed Answer:
Given your non drug abusing history, this sounds like excessive monitoring. I would suggest you talk with your doctor to pose this question. But I am thinking your doctor may be doing it for her own protection. There has, in that past several years, been pressure applied to physicians to limit prescriptions of certain drugs with abuse potential or street drug value. Doctors who have been found to prescribe larger doses of these or for longer times have been called to task including having to go before review boards. So I am thinking your doctor may be concerned about how her prescriptions are reviewed rather than concerned that you are going to abuse it.

It sounds like Ambien has been working well for you. And that you did not tolerate trazadone. Just something to consider: there are newer medications available that you might want to try. If you find that you need the Ambien multiple times a week, you might want to consider an SSRI with a low side effect profile such as Escitalopram (Lexapro). This might make you feel overall calm so that you can sleep whenever you need to. The trick with these is to start at a very low dose and go up slowly, if you have had side effects in the past. I see that you do shift work - does that mean that you sometimes work night time and sometimes daytime? Because if you have a regular time for sleep, supplementing with Melatonin can help too. But I wouldn't recommend Melatonin if your bed times change and are all over the place. Melatonin and Escitalopram can be taken together. Just some information to think on.

I hope this information helps.

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