He can’t understand what you say and he gets confused because he thinks you said something completely different than what you said. He stays up until 12:30 to 1:00 AM before he goes to bed. I can’t get my sleep. I bought hearing plugs but they only help so much.
Getting him to understand what you are saying— stand right in front of him. Turn off tv, radio, etc. speak slowly and clearly and in short sentences with pauses between words. Use your hands to gesture and point. Boil down what you say to him to the bare minimum. Try writing words or pasting pictures on cards.
it takes the patience of a saint.
good luck!
Another option for your ear plugs are noise cancelling ear plugs.
Her audiologist explained to me that shouting and loud volume doesn't work nearly as well as just being close to their ears. He said that the shouting is not worth the frustration, and that I should just get closer to her ears when attempting to talk, and speak in a normal voice. I stopped even trying to talk across a room.
Try putting his hearing aids into his ears in the morning. Have him keep them in all day until bath time. Take them out at bedtime.
He might benefit from sleeping medication to help him fall asleep at night.
They hook up to the TV and he or someone else can control the volume for him. They are simple to use.
We all breathed a sigh of relief, as well as the neighbors! Good luck!
My dad has a super patient audiologist, who keeps reminding him that if he wears them daily his ears and brain will get used to them and they will work best, but this just does not sink in. Also, to stop putting qtips in ears and clogging them with wax, but he keeps forgetting. So he really doesnt like to wear them.
For TV watching, the headphones is a good idea if he will wear them. Or, move the TV to the furthest possible room away from you. Or - high noise blocking ear plugs for you as others have suggested
Hubby saw an ENT doctor and sure enough he had wax in his ear that had harden like cement. It took awhile using different products suggested by the doctor before the doctor found one that worked. Then she was able to take out, bit by bit, the harden ear wax that had broken into tiny pieces. Anyway, just a suggestion.
We both use "closed caption" on the TV because actors today tend to mumble. Experiment with the different colors and fonts to see what works best. For us, the background is black with magenta lettering.
A person with dementia takes a little while to process what is said.
I have read that it can take 30 to 60 seconds for the brain to process what was said. Then it takes a while to formulate a response.
So if he is watching TV and something is said by the time he figures out/understands what was said he is lost in the conversation. Same thing when he is sitting in the living room and you or anyone else is talking to him. This means that the response he gives you might be from a conversation he heard 30 minutes ago.
Talk to his doctor about his inability to sleep. There are medications that can help. you could even try Melatonin.
The drawback to any medication that can help you sleep is that it can also make the person a fall risk.
Try getting him on a "schedule".
If he is not involved in an Adult Day Program that might be good for him. It would be a reason to get up in the morning on the days he goes, he would have an active schedule so he may just be tired at the end of the day and go to bed early.
Turn off electronics 30 minutes before bed. Follow a routine. (turn off TV, bathroom, change. and any of the other things you do before bed)
A sound machine sometimes helps or soft music.
If this does not work and he still goes to bed late continue the "routine" by doing a morning routine.
Getting up at 7am, and starting your day. Get him up as well. There is a good possibility that eventually he will fall into a new routine.
Start making dr appointments early so he does not have an excuse for sleeping late.
If none of this works...just take care of yourself.
There are noise cancelling headphones that work very well but they may not be good in this situation as it would block out all noise and you would not be able to hear if there was an alarm that went off, if he left the house, if the phone rang....
How is the eyesight of this senior? My own partner, 83 with hearing loss, and I myself with some hearing loss are quite dependent now on our caption system. Works so well for what we miss. I know that if there is no longer the ability to read it is out of the question. Otherwise, be certain it is on.
One more thing is that the current new and expensive aids require a whole lot of manipulation with APPS on phones and so on to fine tune them. Without this ability they are worth flushing them down the toilet. My partner is so much happier with his lower cost Costco hearing aids that don't require all this manipulation and tech savvy ability.
Other than this, there's not a lot to do but work on lightweight new earphones and be certain you don't allow him to trip on the cord if one is needed.
Best of luck.