How long does your parent with alz sleep?

Jeffrey20832, so glad you posted and I came across it. I needed someone to talk to. I have been dealing with my Mom's dementia for 3 1/2 yrs and she is doing basically the same thing as your Mom. The time and the clock thing is exactly like my Mom, so she just goes to bed and gets up whenever. Everyone says tell her it is time to go to bed and take her to bed and then everyone says wake her up and don't let her sleep so late. I let her sleep (which she does NOT do, she just lays in her bed and tosses and turns and gets up and down to the bathroom all night, Then dozes in the late morning hours), because I can have a little bit of "me" time, which is few and far between........Her doctor prescribed her sleep medication and it seemed to keep her awake more and "psyched" up more. So we did away with it.......My Mom has also ripped apart bedroom and bathroom doors. She is tiny and weak, but sometimes get sudden bursts of strength and I have NO idea how that can even happen. The "full moon" really plays havoc with her, too. I just dread that time of the month and it is NOT just the full moon night, it can happen anytime from a couple days before until a couple days after! Today we are dealing with
incontinence! I am getting ready to put her in the shower and scrub her. She deals with different things every day or every few days something different each time. I am at wit's end. I have spent most of the day crying because I am running out of ideas and resources to take care of the problem. Thank goodness, I am still able to leave her alone for short periods of time, which is a blessing. If I couldn't I would be in the "looney bin"! Hang in there and if you need to compare notes, give me a shout. Be sure to take care of you!

I continue to struggle with 83 year old mother's sleeping; she has had Alzheimer's for at least 3 years that we know for certain. She has had a growing habit of getting up during the night and asking if it is time to get up. She cannot tell time anymore; I even have clocks that will verbally tell her the time, but she is beginning to understand it less and less. She wants to go to bed at 8, but if she does then she is up at 4 AM for sure. So trying to get her to stay awake until 9 has been a battle, which is not good. She sleeps in a bedroom down the hall from me, so her waking up at night keeps disrupting my sleep also and then I am having a hard time functioning at work. We tried different things. I tried Ambien, didn't really do much, and one geriatric psychiatrist took it off her because they thought it was causing hallucinations. They tried Trazadol, also really didn't do much. Then we replaced that with Mirtazapine. Honestly, I don't see these are doing much to address the dementia confusion at night time and waking up in the middle of the night. Has anyone been able to deal with that? My mother was wandering in the house, and I tried to keep from wandering outside of her bedroom (which has a split dutch door, so part is always open), by locking the bottom part, but then she ripped off the bottom door knob. The nighttime / middle-of-night dementia is a real challenge as a caregiver to cope with.

I am assuming that Mom, who is 93, has dementia as of right now. She too has weird sleeping habits. Now that it is getting dark earlier and the cool fall temps, she goes to bed anywhere from 5 p.m. (she will start trying to go to bed around 3:30 to 4 p.m., but I can usually get her to stay up til 5. Seems like she has ESP, because if there is a chore I need to do or outside work, she will stay up til 7 p.m.! Then she starts trying to get up around 5 a.m. when I am getting my husband off to work, but will usually stay in bed until at least 7:30 to 8:00 a.m., but it's really hard to tell when she will get up. She will drink a cup of coffee and eat a breakfast bar and zonk out again, off and on, until around noon. I don't think she sleeps all night, because when I check on her at various times, she is always just laying there. Everyone tells me it won't get any better and I surely have to agree. My best and prayers to all that are going through the dementia/alz steps. I truly know what you all are experiencing.

I know I am 2 yrs late on this thread but hope this helps. I am the full time caregiver for my 92 year old grandmother. She has moderate Alzheimer's now and her sleep is horrible. She was sleeping from about 10 pm to 9am but woke almost every 2 hours to go to the bathroom, then wanted to sleep all day. The doctor gave her Mirtazapine for depression but said it would help with the sleep and appetite. After 3 days I took her off of it because it was making her have nightmares and sleep walking. I asked the doctor and pharmacist about Melatonin. Because it is a natural chemical your brain produces it is not harmful and would not interact with her other medication. I started her on 300 mcg and the first night was just okay. The second night she took 450 mcg and made a huge difference. She now takes the melatonin right before I tuck her in bed around 10pm. She sleeps all night without waking. Her mornings start early, about 5:30 am but it has been a big help. Now we both get a solid 7 hours which makes us both feel better. Hope this helps. As with any addition to medication make sure your doctor agrees, if so I wish everyone a good nights rest.

The sedative knocked him out for 3 days. He lost so much from it. We had to teach him to swallow again. My brother tried to teach him to walk again but he just couldn't do it.

I worked in a nursing home many years ago. Mom lives here in my home with me and my husband now. I have a very structured day so that she is awake during the day (except for a few snoozes - she is 94 after all) and sleeps at night. If it gets bad enough that Mom is bedridden then we will probably find her a nursing home. As long as she is mobile, I'll keep her here with me. Her hope is that she will fall asleep and not wake up. I know that is not likely but if it did happen, that would be nice. More likely though, we'll be looking for a nursing home at some point in the future.

What did the sedative do to him? So sad isnt it. I dread my mom ever being bedridden and I hope she never is. We just ordered a ramp because the steps are getting difficult on most days and its an accident waiting to happen for sure.
You must know then, how it is to change diapers on a bedridden person, its got to be horrible for both them and us. I just cant imagine the mess it could be. You say you worked in a nursing home? Do you have your Mom with you thou?

I see what you mean. Not having been there yet, I was thinking differently. Although I worked in a nursing home years ago, I'm learning much of the caregiving a day at a time. I learned a lot from Daddy's Alzheimers also but he went from home and totally healthy (ran 1/4 mile in a delusional episode) one week to never walking again the next week because he checked himself into the hospital for testing. When he forgot why he was there and rebelled, they gave him a normal sedative for a man his size - but he had never taken any medications. I don't fault the hospital at all. They couldn't have known the impact that sedative would have. On this topic though, he literally went from using the toilet to needing diapers in the nursing home a week later. Given that, there may be a lot I will have to learn about this particular topic as time goes by.

Hi, I dont understand why it would be good for her to quickly forget the toilet? My Mom is incontinent and has been for some time now. But, the breathing she does when a BM is coming alerts me and she tells me something is wrong. I get her into the bathroom usually 1/2 day thru it and its a big help. When she makes it, its great, but thats me that is trained, not her. At daycare , and I hear also in nursing homes, they take them to the bathroom every 2-4 hours even when completely incontinent as it helps them, and their skin from breaking down. The urine smell is so difficult, I use the liquid vaginal gel cleaners on my Mom for sensitive skin to help, but bathroom duty is always there no matter what. Thats how I change her clothes as she sits and wash her peri areas down too, I cant imagine not ever using the toilet. I think you will see that when you come to that point? Its difficult , but easier to catch it.

At 94, Mom is not yet incontinent although we have changed her over to Depends because her pants were always soiled. It's been a trial moving her to the Depends because she goes to the bathroom quite often but still makes it there. Advice by both an RN here and her doctor was to change her to Depends before it got worse because time will just make it harder to transition. I hope by the time she is incontinent, she will quickly forget how to use the toilet!

94 omgosh!! Does she have dementia? My Mom used to get up to go the bathroom, then she used to get up and pee on the floor thinking it was he bathroom, now she has depends on. I too try and let her cat naps 5 minutes or so only so she will sleep at night. She has busy days at daycare often but not always. Thanks for writing.

They say that they will sleep more as time goes on but it sounds like the medications may be helping you out. Woo hoo! That's great! I have to keep my 94 year old mom busy all day so that she will sleep at night. She heads to bed at about 9:00 pm and gets up around 6:30 am (she doesn't actually sleep all that time). During the night she gets up and goes to the bathroom several times.