I took Xanax for about 17 years at night for anxiety that was preventing me from sleeping. I didn't ever increase the dose or take it during the day. I just tried to ride out the anxiety during the day, because the Xanax did make me very sleepy.

My doc has now switched me to klonopin not for addiction reasons but because I had a long period of hypomania & not sleeping. Klonopin & Trazodone seem to do the trick for getting me to sleep.

I don't think taking an anti-anxiety for a short period of time would be dangerous. For people with chronic anxiety like I have it has been very helpful.--Suzy