Would love to know how some of the rest of you keep your spirits up in regard to this annoying sleep issue?
Accept it. Everybody complains about it, I know I did. But there's nothing you can do about it, so you might as well accept it and do the best you can.
Change comes slowly after a TKR, so there are quite a few trials and tribulations along the way where we think it's a big problem because we can't see it's getting better slowly.
For at least 2, if not 3 months my biggest issue by far was lower back and tight hamstrings. Early on it was debilitating. I thought for sure my spinal stenosis had gotten worse and was seriously considering seeing a back specialist for possible surgery. At my 8 week follow-up with my surgeon, I mentioned it to him and how the PT told me to back off on walking a mile a day on the theory that I might be doing too much too soon. The surgeon rejected that adamantly and said NO, KEEP WALKING! He showed me a couple of gentle stretches to do, and insisted I keep walking.
Well, he was right. I don't know when it happened but somewhere along the way, my back and hamstring issues went away. I guess I never had worse stenosis all along, but more likely it was from years of walking with a cane.
For something that takes at least a year to fully resolve, you can imagine how slowly things are changing/improving, so it's easy to think nothing is changing and you're not getting better.
The way I look at it is, as long as the doctor looks at the x-rays, and then tells you he doesn't see anything that concerns him, it's probably better to keep the faith and proceed day by day. The moderators offer a lot of good advice here, and in my opinion, the best advice they give is that it takes at least a year, so don't be in a hurry and don't overdo anything along the way.
I found that to be extremely helpful.