I was prescribed the same tablets a couple of weeks ago by my Dr. He put me straight onto the 7mg dosage, which is the maximum. He told me not to take them every night. I've found they do very little for me, if they work at all.
Because he recommended that I don't use them every night, I've been trying to get to sleep naturally before resorting to taking a pill. This means that most nights I try to go to bed at around 2200 and persevere as much as possible, trying different things, such as all the lights out and trying to sleep without distractions, trying to read, having a little background noise such as the tv or music. After exhausting all of these options it's getting on for 0100, sometimes later, when I decide to take a tablet. I find it does little to help me sleep, either that or it takes a long time to kick in, I'm usually still awake a good hour or so after taking the tablet, usually not even feeling drowsy.
So it's often almost 0300 before I get to sleep and then I'm up again between 0730 and 0830 depending on what time I need to be up in the morning. I then feel groggy all day (or until I've drank enough caffeine to sit still for more than ten minutes without feeling like I want to nod off).
I didn't take a tablet last night because I had a couple of small glasses of champagne in the evening to celebrate my housemate getting her PhD offer and the tablets are not supposed to be taken if you've had alcohol. Despite going to bed at a reasonable time it was about 0200 when I last looked at the clock and I got up when my alarm went off at 0800. I did however take an anti-histamine at around midnight because I was feeling itchy after sitting outside on the grass in the evening. This morning I feel like a zombie and I'm finding it difficult to concentrate.
I'm considering going back to my Dr next week to see if he will try me on something else. Or at least give me something I can take every night short term. Once my dissertation is in on the 1st I don't really care how well I'm sleeping, but right now I need to be able to concentrate and feel alert during the day and sleep at night.