Clonazepam did not help, possibly hurt

As I mentioned in previous entry, I finally went to see a sleep doctor because the hypnopompic episodes were very frequent and disruptive. I was thinking he'd prescribe a pill they advertise on TV, but surprisingly he prescribed Clonazepam, which apparently is very effective at treating non-REM (and also REM-type I think) sleep disorders (although more severe and dangerous than the ones I have). It's similar to valium, but more potent.

I have more details from a journal I kept, but for now, here is the brief recollection of the experiment:

• I tried the pills for two days first. No alcohol at all. First time, I actually got very sleepy within 1/2 hour of taking pill (0.5 mg pill), fell asleep right away, but had nightmares. Second night, I think I had insomnia (felt a little drowsy but couldn't sleep) and then had strong hypnopompic episodes. Both days I felt hungover (like from alcohol) and tired throughout the whole day. I was really busy at work, and couldn't afford to experiment anymore, so I quit the pill and just went into "not sleeping much" mode. Probably a couple days later I switched backed to alcohol (wine, bourbon) which definitely works better than clonazepam in my case (yeah, I do know alcohol is supposed to make you sleep worse, blah blah blah)
• I tried another experiment later for three days, again, without any alcohol at all. I don't remember the details, but I was convinced that the pill either didn't help or exasperated the hypnopompic episodes, and also seemed to trigger regular nightmares. Also, the whole-day hangover didn't seem to be getting better, which was worse than being just tired anyway. Combined with possible side-effects, decided to quit the pill.

So, overall clonazepam didn't help at all, which was disappointing, given the reported success with much worse problems.