Oral use - Clonidine (Catapres) for insomnia?

SWIM is looking to get away from Benzos to treat insomnia, they are just too easy to get dependant on and SWIM does not want to get addicted to them. SWIM heard his doc mention CLONIDINE during one of his visits. This is a med that is normally used for high blood pressure, but is sometimes used to treat insomnia. Has anyone tried it before? Does it work? Is it relatively safer than Benzos as long as it’s not taken everyday? It seems that every medication used to treat insomnia that really works can be very addictive and habit forming, but not being able to sleep is torturing SWIM and he needs something that works, yet he wont get hooked on.