How can I help my mother who frequently has bad dreams and auditory hallucinations?

salina95: Her primary care physician should be made aware of these occurrences for medication evaluation and referral to a specialist if deemed necessary.

Definitely review all her medications. Do not assume her PCP is doing that. I've had two people in my life with mild to moderate dementia that experienced huge personality changes. Both reverted back to their previous personalities when medication changes were made. One was always a kind, sweet woman, until she started throwing coffee cups at her new TV, trying to kick her son in the crotch (her walker got in the way and saved him), screaming, and more. She actually was moved to a facility where they got her meds straightened out. The other was my brother-in-law who had been a cordial but reserved retired college prof. He became Mr. Cocktail Party, calling everyone Sweetheart, overly gregarious, buying expensive gifts for people. That all went away once his meds were reviewed and changed. He lived to 94, still knew me, knew my daughter. When he was Mr. Cocktail Party, he introduced me as his niece.

My sister was on donepezil (aricept) and ir caused very vivid dreams that were very disturbing to her, and hard for her to shake off when first waking.
I requested discontinuing the drug, and the vivid dreams stopped almost immediately (along with her constant urge to urinate, I must ad.)
Check possuble side effects if her meds.
Best if luck to you!

My father has been experiencing this recently. Very vivid dreams and waking hallucinations (seeing ghosts in the bathroom). The vivid dreams cause him to wake up confused and think that was he dreamt was real. Last night he had a dream that my oldest sister died! Scary stuff.
I went through his meds and saw that several of them can cause vivid dreams/nightmares. Trying to get my sister who takes him to his Dr. appointments to bring this up to see if they can adjust or change some of his meds.

Geriatric Psychiatrist (who can prescribe medications)..........memory care may have one "on call." Please accept Mom as she is today, without comparing her to the person she used to be, her brain is not the same and neither is she.

One day at a time.

Please get your mother an appointment ASAP starting with her PCP to begin appropriate assessment of her experiences. This could affect her safety.
If you can go take her and be present for the appointment, please do.

My mom has Lewy Body..Early on this was her issue also..now in mid stages it has mostly stopped. I have educated her on Lewy and she can remember most of this nonsense is Lewy…her understanding her Lewy disruptions and behaviors helps ease her concerns and fears. That includes everything she hides when Lewy acts up..she now tells me Lewy hid her lotion , jewelry or candies. We look for it when I visit. She started having cell phone issues so we took her phone away. She never missed it and we have a lot less stress. PS:Lewy can not handle lots of the drugs Alz patients can for psychosis.. beware!

My husband has REM sleep disorders where he acts out his dreams or wakes up very confused. He has always loved military history and most of his bad dreams and hallucination issues revolve around being in a military or war scenario. Monitoring what he watches and reads has helped tremendously.

If you can identify a particular theme to the bad dreams or hallucinations, it may give you ideas on things that may be stimulating them. Unfortunately, when someone is in a facility, even if you identify the issues it may be difficult to find someone there help limit the exposures. The mind is very complicated whether we are awake or asleep.

As others have suggested, a thorough evaluation of her medicine may be in order because it may be contributing to the issue or there may be a medicine that may help. There are geriatric pharmacy consultants who can help with this. Using one has made all the difference in resolving issues for my husband.

https://www.ascp.com/
https://www.bpsweb.org/bps-specialties/geriatric-pharmacy/

Any pharmacist may can help, but there are many issues that can affect how medications react or are absorbed in the elderly population. Without the training and experience many contributing factors can be overlooked. When we consulted with the geriatric pharmacy consultant he looked at my husband's health history and looked at all the recent lab work, asked about the recent concerns, then did a detailed evaluation of the prescription and OTC meds, etc. He then created a report with his suggestions to take to our providers to consider. Sometimes it was simply change the times certain meds were given or adjust the dosages. Never make changes without the approval of your personal providers.

There are things called night terrors. My Mom had them. I would wake her up, tell her to open her eyes and then she would go back to sleep. There is medication for these and the hallucinations.

Let her doctor know and ask about medications.