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Debb064 Asked October 2010

My 98-year-old grandmother is up just about every hour and I'm not getting any sleep. What can we do?

We have a routine every night, and she gets plenty of light during the day. She get plenty of exercise and is still up. Tried Ambian and all that did was help her fall asleep (witch she didn't need help with) but she still was up over half the night. She ended up falling because all that crap did was make her dopey. I need something that will help keep her asleep!! She has dementia and uses a walker. We try keeping her up all day but that means waking her every five mins. Need help soon or I'm going to loose it from lack of sleep!!!!!!!!

vstefans Apr 2014
I would vote for MelatonEx (extended release melatonin) but YMMV. It may be one of your lowest side effect options, but you may end up needing something more potent adn her doc should help you with that. It sounds like she is tired due to lack of sleep too, and then after she's been up all night, you've got to be too tired to keep her from napping on and off all day though you are obviously making heroic efforts to do so. If no meds really work, you will have to get some shifts of aide care to make the situation sustainable at all in a home setting!

pamstegma Apr 2014
How about a glass of wine instead of all those drugs?

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Carlen Apr 2014
We had same problem with MIL. Combination of Ambient and anti anxiety mess. 1xanax at 6pm then at 8 pm her resperdahl, ambient and another Xanax. That was the only way she would sleep.

Debb064 Oct 2010
I've read that giving melatonin to a person with dementia could cause more problems.

NancyH Oct 2010
How about going to your health food store and getting some Melatonin? It's our body's natural way of putting us to sleep when it's working correctly that is. I'd at least give it a try.

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