Among the patients I've worked with over the years, sleep difficulty is easily the most common secondary complaint to their presenting problems. And it's often one that's neglected or forgotten about amongst the many other issues going on. Many clients are on sleep medication and have found some relief from them, but I came across this book which claims that:

A number of studies have shown that drugs like Ambien and Lunesta offer no significant improvement in the quality of sleep that a person gets. They give only a tiny bit more in the quantity department, too. In one study financed by the National Institutes of Health, patients taking popular prescription sleeping pills fell asleep just twelve minutes faster than those given a sugar pill, and slept for a grand total of only eleven minutes longer throughout the night.

I'm not a psychiatrist so I don't know about the science of the meds. But if it works only because you think it should, what's really wrong with that?