Out of curiosity, do you drink alcohol? And if so, does your p-doc know this? My former p-doc refused to prescribe me any benzodiazepenes (to take as needed) for my anxiety because of the fact that I do drink alcohol regularly, even though I told her I wouldn't mix the two. (I eventually got her to prescribe me like 8 of the smallest dose of Ativan and haven't even used them.) I know you're not specifically looking for those, but I think some sleeping pills aren't safe with alcohol either, so that's a possible reason for the p-doc's refusal to prescribe them. I think they worry about liability/lawsuits.

I agree that you could ask about trazodone or Gabapentin. I also briefly took Trileptal (for bipolar II), but it made me incredibly sleepy (same with Gabapentin--haven't tried Trazodone). So maybe a small dose of something like that would help? And it wouldn't be a technical "sleeping pill."

In the U.K., GPs are VERY cautious about giving out sleeping tablets, because similarly to opiate-based drugs, it has been proven that your body develops tolerance so you need more and more to achieve the same effect, and also that they are very addictive and the side effects can be horrible and as bad or worse than the original problem when you stop taking them.

Do you have a T who you can work with on the insomnia issue? It may be that if you were able to do some therapy, e.g. some CBT- type work around reducing the anxiety about not sleeping, then you could use a drug for a very short-term way to help you to break the cycle. I have done this in the past. Insomnia is often linked to anxiety, and therapy can be helpful to learn ways to reduce anxiety.