Sleep Apnea Treatment

I’ve been having difficulties with sleep ever since I graduated from high school in 1999. I have been to a Sleep Doctor. Originally he diagnosed me with mild obstructive sleep apnea. I tried the CPAP but felt very clausterphobic while wearing it. I tried the life style changes they recommended with no change. I consulted a dentist regarding the dental application that pulls your bottom jaw forward a tad so your tongue doesn’t close your air way off but for some reason we didn’t find that to be a feesable option. So I went with the surgery. UPPP with tonsilectomy and minor rhinoplasty. (if you don’t know what that is, basically they remove my tonsils, adnoids, and my uvula, shorten my soft palette and then trimmed down the muscle/tissue ridges in my nose) I went back for a follow up study since I still wasn’t getting great sleep. My apnea is gone but the doctor said I “sleep with one eye open” and I can’t relax into a deep sleep so I wake up often.
Since all that occurred, I took this 3rd shift position to complicate matters further. I took melatonin previously but it didn’t make a difference. So I was wondering if there was a recommended dosage and time of day I should take it. Should it be taken when I wake up? just before bed? A short time before bed?
For more background, most times I seem to get only 3 to 4 hours of sleep at a time and after 4 to 5 hours of being awake, I am sleepy and want to go to bed again. If I sit for a while and my brain is not stimulated, then I fall asleep. I have tried almost all prescription sleep aides and OTC sleep aids. Oh they help with GETTING me to sleep… but nothing has helped with KEEPING me asleep. I have also taken the smallest dosage of Topamax to help relax me but that didn’t work either.
Thanks in advance!

I started out w/ 3 mg like the bottle recommended, but it didn’t really do anything so I doubled the dose. It still didn’t have an effect so finally I just went all out. Is that normal? I’ve had problems falling asleep my whole life, is it possible I’m like insensitive to melatonin?