Hello,
My mom is 97. Recently, she's had a slew of health issues most of which were related to extreme anemia. She's on a cocktail of medications including several statins, Eliquis, furosemide, and diltiazem. In the past six months, she had a bout of pneumonia, several UTIs, and had three separate blood transfusions.
She's been struggling to stay hydrated after recently increasing her water pill from 1/2 a day to 1 pill a day.
Lately, she has been falling asleep in her chair. Her sleep is often very superficial as if she's aware of the sounds in the house around her. Today she woke herself up with a surprisingly loud exclamation and thought I'd said something to her.
Could her dehydration be causing the new symptom of talking in her sleep? I'm really hoping it's something related to her medicine or anemia rather than a new problem (...dementia of some sort).
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If she is still sleeping well, I suspect the underlying problem is the effect of the many medicines upon her, but I am not a doctor. During the last few years of her life my wife slept 12 to 13 hours each night as well as having morning and afternoon naps, so she was sleeping 18 to 19 hours out of 24. But this gave her energy to relate well to others in the midst of 12 years with Alzheimer's.
You might find it helpful to look at Dr Rangan Chatterjee's "The 4 Pillar Plan: How to Relax, Eat, Move, Sleep"--perhaps more for you than for your mother. It is a challenging time for both of you and you need to get help from others, both medical help and friendship.
Friendship and Prayers,