Sleeping... or NOT sleeping as it were...

Hi all:

I'm looking for some feedback/tips if possible... for the last week I've had a very hard time falling asleep. I normally go to bed around 9-10 and read a bit then, lay down to sleep. Almost always snoozing by 10:30. I'm home on disability still since I just had surgery about 20 days ago or so. I'm trying to not sleep in late to keep from mixing up my circadian rhythms if possible, but for the last week it's taken me 2-4 hours to fall asleep. I have some mild restless leg syndrome that I've known about but just dealt with. It can escalate at times to where I feel the need to tense my entire leg (all muscle groups) and release, and I've had that the last several nights as well. 

I'm working to move more in hopes of being more tired physically at bed time, but it's not working very well. I'm up to 10,000 steps a day over the last two days from 7,500 steps a day; I'm adding in squats while I'm walking to tire out my quads, etc. 

Is this something that nay of you ave experienced, and if so any tips?  I'm a HUGE fan of sleep and not being able to get it is driving me bonkers. 

Oh, and I take benadryl too at night periodically due to allergies, but not always. I've been using it about every other day...

I make do with a cup of sleepytime tea at night, that and a good book will have me drifting off in no time. YMMV

What did your labs look like pre-surgery?  Natural calm (magnesium) helps my restless legs relax at night when they are kicking in despite the Mirapex.  If you are not low on iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium you may want to go to a sleep doctor and have them prescribe you some Mirapex for the RLS.

Melatonin helps a lot of people with relaxing and going to sleep but for me it makes my RLS worse, so I can't use that.

Labs before surgery had magnesium in the normal range, as well as calcium and potassium. I'm pretty sure iron was in "good" range, too. I have had a sleep study done and have OSA, and they said the restless leg syndrome was pretty mild since I was able to fall asleep in an appropriate time frame. I wear my CPAP occasionally, but can never keep the seal longer than 2-3 hours since I move in my sleep so much. Yesterday I got the most exercise I have had since I had surgery, and slept well. I'm taking that as a correlation and pushing for the higher level of exercise each day. It was 11K steps yesterday - shooting for that again.

I take Melatonin 3mg if I'm not very sleepy when I lay down.  6mg if I'm stressed.  Always works to have me snoozing quickly.  They sell melt tabs if you don't like pills.  I've always found Melatonin worked well for me.  My chiro recommended and he specializes in alternative herb treatments (he doesn't sell any of that, so he doesn't profit from his recos).

P.S.  I also recently have started going to sleep with some background music softly playing.  I put the timer on for 30 minutes.  I found that I'm falling to sleep very quickly and I much more relaxed.  Only took Melatonin once or twice in the last couple of weeks since starting the background music.