Limiting television usage?

Good idea. Turn on the parental controls. I’d be willing to bet she won’t notice.

Long story short several years ago my wife began having strange frightening (to her) hallucinations. I was able to trace it all back to her watching those awful TV murder mysteries. Criminal Minds and such. Switched her over to Lawrence Welk and such. The hallucinations stopped. She was unable to use the remote so the switch was easy.

I think there is very little chance she will notice this monitoring and that it is a good thing. You are acting in her protection.

Mom's TV is set to an 'oldies' station. She sees the news and gets frantic--so brother changed her channels setting. All she watches is Hallmark and one sports channel. No news.

Also, she has a station that plays oldies music all day and night with no talking in between. It's like being at the dentist all day :)

I care for a lady such as you described. TV is all they have. My lady can no longer read or even colour, ( unable to hold pencils well). If she likes music, that's a first choice. Mine loves music. If you have access to the Hallmark channel, that's very good. Yes my lady cannot see the news. It makes her cry. She can no longer tell the difference between a commercial and a show. I don't limit but I find something as best as possible like Hallmark a garden show home building. But music is the thing she loves the most.

I learned to put the channel on Animal Planet or a channel that shows the classic fun shows like I Love Lucy, Carol Burnett, etc. Cute and funny shows can be very uplifting for the elderly as well as Beautiful scenery with music.
We should all do the same!!

My father used to watch the game shows, or we would put a nice movie on for him, so it wasn't an issue. But the NEWS on the other hand can be rather scary even if it's not happening near you...

My late stage mom isn't able to process most of what's on TV and it's become more of an irritant than anything. She thinks the people on TV are right in the living room with her and it unnerves her. She has also become less enthused with the jazz and blues stations we used to have on most of the time. She thinks its just a lot of noise.

Our solution, which has been working more often than not, is a channel on YouTube called Memory Lane TV. It plays hours of relaxing music and plays videos of beautiful scenery, farm animals, flowers, etc. No stress, pretty music, lovely scenes with no people. I put the channel on and leave it. It entertains her somewhat and definitely adds to a relaxing atmosphere. Good luck and I hope this helps. It has been a life saver for us.

Dtgray, if TV is all you have the mental capacity for, it would be better than sitting alone staring into the corner. People with Alzheimer's benefit from mental stimulation of any kind, even stupid tv. It's ok to allow them this stimulation. You can explain to your kids that you watch TV all day when your mind fails, and there may be a cause and effect relationship. That might turn the kids away from tv!

My mom with Alzheimer's had the same reactions as others have mentioned: she thought  what was on the TV screen was real. She'd duck for cover if they showed a war scene on the news. She'd think the "Golden Girls" were in her living room. I even wrote about our travails in a  book called, "My Mother Has Alzheimer's and My Dog Has Tapeworms: A Caregiver's Tale." My mom once confused a news story about a public figure having a marital indiscretion with a news story about a leaked story to the press, and she said, "They should have kept that story undercover." I mean, you had to laugh. That's 1 thing I leaned: You have to try to find  humor where you can. Maybe you could convince your mom to go for a walk, or, if she's not ambulatory, maybe you could push her in a  wheelchair outside. She might get tuckered out after that, and not rely on TV so much. (I should talk; I'm watching Wimbledon on TV, but still...)