Sleeping pills, do they hurt more than they help?

Having insomnia for nearly 5 years, I know how tempting it can be to take sleeping pills. However, even though they are an easy way to fall asleep at night, I found them to harm my natural ability to sleep. At first, sleeping pills were a great way to fall asleep at night. I would pop one in my mouth and before I knew it, I was out cold. Soon though, I became dependent on the tiny pill, and had trouble fully waking up in the morning and would feel groggy throughout the day. Shortly after that, I quit taking the pill. This resulted in me not being able to sleep nearly at all! According to page 172 of the psychology textbook, this is known as rebound insomnia. Rebound insomnia occurs after longstanding use of sleeping pills, which results in dependency and difficulty to sleep once the person quits taking the medication.
On top of that little problem, I would wake up in the morning feeling cramped, like I slept on the wrong side of the bed. Apparently, having not so good sleep from Ambien is a common side effect, on top of what seems like a million others, which you can check out on http://sideeffectz.com/ambiensideeffects/. Long story short, I tossed the pills and adopted other ways of falling asleep. I quit drinking caffeine, took a shower before sleep, and would go through a nightly rhythm letting my body get ready for sleep. What I came to find, ironically, was that sleeping pills hurt my ability to sleep, rather than help.