If you’re here because it’s the middle of the night and sleep feels impossible after your knee replacement, you’re not doing anything wrong. This is one of the most common and frustrating parts of recovery, and it’s rarely talked about in a way that actually helps.
Why You Can’t Sleep After Knee Replacement Surgery
By far the biggest complaint outside of pain that I hear after a knee replacement is the inability to sleep. I had this myself for the first six weeks after my first knee replacement. The only way it seemed that I would sleep is directly after taking my pain dosage.
I would also find myself dozing throughout the day, and I often wondered if that’s what kept me from sleeping at night. But it didn’t really matter because at some point either the nerve zinging or the deep ache would get me to get out of bed for my first knee replacement.
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Let me take you back to 2020 for a minute.
I’m not here to reopen that whole chapter of history. I’m just giving you context, because at that point in my life I had one knee that was about eight months old and a hip that was barely two months post-op.
So yes, I was very aware of my body.
Anytime you go through joint replacement, you’re told about a couple of risks right out of the gate. Infections and blood clots. Those two tend to stick in your mind. And when the world started talking nonstop about illness, I found myself doing what a lot of people do when they’re unsure. I started searching online.
As you are sitting there healing from your knee replacement, think about this…
What if I told you that everything was going to work out and you will be at 100% in a future that you are so close to?
It is.
It’s not a lie; I am not kidding.
Now that path may not be what you thought it would. Maybe you needed an MUA, maybe you got an infection or maybe you required another revision because the first didn’t take.
I was talking to a client today, and she asked how long it took me to get to 120 degrees after my knee replacement. She’s sitting at 115 right now, feeling like she hit a wall, and I could hear that mix of frustration and fear in her voice.
It reminded me exactly what this part of recovery feels like.
So, I told her the same thing I want you to hear:
You’re not stuck.
You’re in a phase. I call it the learning phase.
So you think you should be further along… maybe you’re not even six weeks out, or you’ve just hit that two-month mark, and you’re wondering why you still don’t feel “normal.”
Let me tell you something: you are not back to normal—or anywhere close to it—in six weeks.
And I say that as someone who’s been through not one, but two knee replacements and with all the love I can muster. When my surgeon told me, “I’ll see you in a year,” I swear it felt like the floor had been pulled out from under me. A year? I was thinking maybe three months tops.
But that’s the thing about recovery—it humbles you. It teaches you patience in ways you didn’t realize you were signing up for.
