Advice

Is it typical for people with dementia to sleep a lot during the day?

My Nan has carers 4 times a day and I would say she is at the end stage of her dementia. She is eating very little bit has the ensure supplement drinks and she is sleeping a lot.
Carers insist on getting her out of bed every morning for a couple of hours.
What’s people’s views on this?
I am wondering whether it’s more of a risk getting my Nan out of bed than leaving her in it?
As she is getting weaker and sleeps a lot.
Do you think we should stop the carers getting her up!?

My family member has been prescribed sleeping pills by his doctor. Yet he sleeps through the day and night soundly. So I was wondering if anyone has any knowledge as to why he has been prescribed sleeping pills..? He has dementia also.

My step dad and my mom just moved in with us because she can’t care for him 24/7. He is sleeping like 18 hrs a day. He has a temper on him. There are times he will not take his meds. We actually called his doctor yesterday because we was not acting right. My stepdad Was trying to listen and he thought we were going to take him to the hospital. He would not take his meds per his doctor told us to give it to him. He walked out of the house and started walking down the street.
We looked into a place for him to go to almost like a nursing home but for Alzheimer. They want him in a hospital for 4 days before they would take him. That is not fair. We can’t have him a hospital just for observation. The hospitals won’t do that. Plus he won’t go to the hospital.

My 73 year old diabetic husband was not compliant when came to taking his insulin and his oral meds and as a result his blood sugar reading were off the chart on an almost daily basis. During hospitalization for a UTI infection it was discovered there were tiny pit formations on his brain from the consistently high sugars over so many years. I was told that Vascular Dementia was likely the result. He sleeps between 20 and 22 hours. Its awful. I cannot communicate with him these days and its so hard not to share this problem with him directly as he doesn't seem able to grasp the concept and for some reason seems apathetic. Its a very lonely journey for each of us. I miss him terribly. Thank you for the insight I now have into this aspect of Vascular Dementia. I now know to use a better approach with his Caregiving.

I work in a care home as an activities person . My co worker shouts and wakes some of our residents up in the afternoon. I disagree with this . As reading about dementia sleep is part of this horrible disease in the later stages . Am I right to have a word with co worker

Hi, in respect of my previous letter above, I have just read about a new type of dementia called LATE. I was interested due to my mother in law, not conforming to my extensive reading about this horrible disease.. her memory of seconds, not even understanding the sentence in the present moment, while being extremely vocal and logical about her few things she can remember to ask or state. This consists of polite questions about how the family are and the absolute opinion that she looks after herself and will NOT go into a home. Maybe this is a real breakthrough, though no help at all at the moment. It can only be diagnosed on an examination after death..

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My mother in law has vascular dementia and we are in the fifth year. She lives alone in a bungalow and sleeps for long periods if alone. Her condition doesn’t seem to correlate with other stories I read here. She has no memory lasting more than the time it takes to put down the phone or close the door behind a carer. So she is permanently lonely because as far as she is concerned, nobody has been in to see her or phoned all day. It is so sad and frustrating for us trying to keep her safe and her personal care as best as possible. However she can convince anyone who doesn’t know, that all is well in her life. She believes she does all personal and domestic duties herself, including housework, gardening, windows etc. She concocts convincing conversation, all in response to questions not spontaneously, but in her own mind none of the intense regimes in place to keep her clean and fed and watered exist. Sleep is a problem only because her ability to retreat to bed if no one is with her affects the time she goes to sleep at night. The carer can leave her in bed but she will often get up and stay up, milling around endlessly, going through her obsessive compulsive actions many many times until the early hours. Would she be better off in a home, we really don’t know, her simple response if the subject in broached is ‘ I am not hurting anyone am I ‘..
Sleep is a comfort when she is alone, she won’t believe that she has been in bed for hours during the day and we are aware that she often doesn’t know if it is day or evening, so it goes on..

Hi my mum is 70 and has vascular dementia for 6 years now I had to put my mum in a care home 8 weeks ago but I want her back home now but I don’t know if I could cope with her she to is a sleep all the time during the day she also sleeps all night I was getting worried but reading the posts have put my mind to rest she also cry’s a lot for no reason and yes there is a DoLS in place am I doing the right thing asking for her to come home or should I leave her where there are Carers 24/7 she does have nasty mood swings my head is telling me to leave her my heart is saying bring her home but it’s not fair if I bring her home and then she has to go back again any advice please

I have been worried the past 3 weeks. My dad sleeps 20 hours, have to Encourage him to open eyes to drink nectured water and pureed foods. He only talks about 10-20 words per day. Nothing makes sense just agree with hi as have for awhile. Yesterday they ordered hospice. I am grateful for the opportunity to spend one on one time with him the past 2 years. I'm relieved for him and my heart aches that I have to let him go.

My Husband has Dementia and Parkinson's he was awake from 1.30am shouting out all night long and pacing, we live in a cul- de- sac so not only did I not get any sleep nor did our neighbours, this went on for six months solid, he is now in a dementia assessment, no medication prescribed has helped he is still awake all night pacing up and down calling out, he is being sent home and basically I have to just get on with it and as for the neighbours tough! He sleeps in the day for about 40 minutes and that's it!

People often do not understand this condition and many care homes will NOT tolerate this behaviour as others on this blog have witnessed.

Thank you for sharing this information. My mother is in her 6th year of dementia and has been sleeping almost 18 hours daily the past 6 months. Thankfully, we have been able to keep her awake and interested during mealtimes. We also do frequent short exercise sessions (mostly walking) with her which she enjoys. Now I understand these activities can actually be very tiring for her and thus, the sleepiness. I must share though that sleeping for long periods of time in the same position could cause bed/ pressure sores which can be painful and uncomfortable . Turning them at intervals would relieve the pressure.

My husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s 18 months ago. He now sleeps most of the day and only 4 hours at night. He also has a stoma which is difficult for him to cope with at nighttime. Most nights it leaks so we have that to deal with which means changing the bed. I have ms which adds to the problems as well. Fortunately our daughter is a gem and helps all she can. We live in a supported housing complex where we can get help but sometimes we have to cope on own. I wonder how long I can cope before he will have to go into a care home. Your piece on sleeping in the day has helped me to realise that this is apart of the disease and not my care.

Thank you for this information, our Dad sleeps a lot and i mean a lot, we have been quite concerned. Then last week they have diagnosed him with Alzheimers and vascular dementia and this blog explains such a lot and is very informative. The advice was to try and get him to take less sleep in the day so he goes to bed at reasonable time at night and has a more restful sleep but reading this i think its the norm under the circumstances and we maybe shouldnt disturb his routine. Mum says he gets nasty with her sometimes but neither me or my two sisters have experienced this and we do have concerns that mum is also going down the same route, she has tests coming soon. They are 81 and 88. Thank you

My father had Vascular dementia with Lewy bodies. He slept alot during the day and was restless at night. He passed away on January 28th 2019. He was having vivid hallucinations, dreaming that he had gone to work or people were coming through the walls to take him. His dreams continued to worse ten towards the end. He onece told me people were pulling him through the floor and he was actually sitting in a chair fighting them. His eating and sleeping deterioted towards the end of his life. The last few days watching him scream in pain and then sleep for the majority of the day was very distressing for him and my family. This website is a gem for giving information and support. It's very distressing for carers to watch someone they love dearly suffer so much. Dementia is a cruel disease.