As Mom moves into advanced/late stages of vascular dementia we are noticing a new downturn, too many changes in behavior to enumerate here. I've been re-reading past posts about daytime sleeping and nighttime wakefulness and have gleaned lots of helpful tips about dealing with this. My question is about when to relax her "schedule." I retired 2 years ago to give her full-time care in our home. She's been with us for 9 years, had a part-time home aid for 5 years, and now me full time. I've been rousing her around 8:15 in the mornings and she voluntarily retires by 8 pm, although she doesn't actually get to sleep until 9-9:30. Up until recently she's done pretty well at night, but that's changing and she's more restless at night and dozes more in her chair in the day. While we're working on that part, I'm wondering about adjusting her "schedule" to sleeping later in the morning so that she is more awake during the day? Anyone had success with this? I so appreciate those who are farther down the path and your helpful insights and experiences.
As a side note, hubs is still doing "pickup" work odd-jobbing off and on, so we have an early-morning schedule ourselves. I am trying to protect our rest as well, as we navigate the landmines!
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My dad got his days and nights completely reversed and it was horrible. Nudging him and talking to him helped keep him awake. I did let him sleep until he woke or 10:30am whichever came 1st.