Well my father is 80 years old and he's always pacing the floors at night and I also needs sleep keeping him up in the day doesn't do any good it's the same routine not sleeping
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Hi, my wife has full night sleep,every night. The leathergy status during the day would be a rare,rare instance. as of lately more sleep has been taking place during the day, asking Dr. to review medication protocol...
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Mom has never stayed up past 730. Now all of a sudden she is staying up until 830, 900, 10 at night. The past week. Very confused about things. What is it.
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Let me start out by saying to anyone who assumes taking care of someone with dementia is a easy job. Or some say enjoy their quality of life. I guess that means it doesn't matter about the caregivers life. This is a 24 hour job and I have been doing it every single day, taking carevof my mother in law. Who was spiteful, rude , devious, act like she was better then me. You name it this woman has disrespected me of no return. But not her other daughter in laws that she praised havent saw her in over 15 years. Im the one who sat with this woman from 6 qm-6pm doing everything. I would go home my husband took the second shift after working 10 hours at a job. After finally placing her. I still wipe her butt, feed her and dress her. Because the so called aides just seem to hide in patients rooms or talk creole. I too have delt with major illnesses , one being invasive cancer and many other issues. I don't have time to visit my own motheror my grandchildren. So when these so called experts talk quality of life....I guess a caregiver has no quality of life, because I feel depressed, exhausted, frustrated . You name it.....I'm exhausted so much, that I literally have to force a cup of coffee down still and thats to start my day. Half of the time , I don't get to eat breakfast but go feed my mother in law who sits and hold foods on her mouth. While I am almost passing out from eati g absolutely nothing. I want this pver. I knpw you all probaby think this sounds cruel but I'm in my mid fifties and also have taken care of one of her children that was olfer then me who died of cancer last year and was a heroine addict as well. So please don't knpck any caregiver unless you have been there. And for the record for 4 years I didnt get one penny. I want a life once AGAIN....
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As a care provider, you should be the shining example of what is right and good about the world. You should comfort the elderly with assurance that it is o.k. to trust those in charge and regularly show the evidence of their works that confirms their competence and love which benefits them. Teaching elderly how to trust, love and appreciate people, particularly their caregivers, in whatever ways they are capable, despite their nagging discomforts, promotes self-esteem in the dignity, love, trust and thankfulness they model to others over adversity. When caregivers perceive this dignity and effort by their elderly dependents they respond in more dignified and loving ways.
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1. How can a care provider give good care for the elderly if he/she cannot get necessarily sleep to perform day-time activities or night-time activities properly? It could lead to results that are not wise, safe or effective because of sleep deprivation. Since Bradley's solution is impossible for live-in care providers, it suggests with a bias that all dependent elderly can't get the best care unless they move out of their home. There are trade-offs either way. The elderly who remain in their homes value the advantages that outside care cannot provide which outweigh their restless sleep.
2. Through extinction, behaviors that are not reinforced decrease to a manageable level if not disappear altogether. The brain, as disabled as it may be, still learns and responds to past learning. Just as you condition a child to put him/herself back to sleep by taking longer periods to return and comfort the child, so this method works with elderly. In the bus stop example, the elder goes to a static place to reduce anxiety with the expectation to transition to a physically more appealing environment. I find that reassuring my mom with the undisputable fact that night-time is for sleep which we all need to be active in the day when our activities count the most reduces her anxiety with the expectation that she is doing the right thing, even though she might not feel like it, of relaxing back into a restful sleep to help everyone have a more productive day.
You can create a monstrously demanding elderly dependent if you reinforce every demand with attention and the object they are seeking. That will DELUDE both the care provider and dependent into believing that is NORMAL! The care provider is mercilessly exploited and led by an incapacitated elderly dependent chasing satisfaction from unattainable and constantly changing goals when what they really need is peace in a sense of order and a means to return to it, even if it isn't perfect.
Another ridiculous and suboptimal chase of fantasy is Validation Therapy by Naomi Feil. Instead of reinforcing their self-esteem with lies by participating in their fantasy, why don't you reinforce their self-esteem that they have selected and participate to the best of their ability with their care providers? If you are going to pretend a lie is the truth, why don't you affirm they are meeting a goal that is adaptive? In the face of them accomplishing less, affirm to them they are improving and know the better thing to do and that you know they want to make the better choice even though they aren't. Attention and validation is a powerful reinforcer, so they will be eager to please you to receive more of the same for doing more of the RIGHT thing!
My experience of caring for my mom for eight years confirms the better parts of my education and self-growth strategies.
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Should an alzhiemer patient be allowed to go to bed before 8:00 pm if they have been up all day?
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Im taking care of my mom what can i do to get her to stop sleeping so much for two days shes lively actimg like shes 52 then the next two days she just lays in bed all day all night. Its weird
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My mom is 74 its strange for two days she normal like shes 52 no everything then two days later she sleeps the whole day and night what can i do. Help
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I was staying awake practically all night while my husband kept climbing out of bed to check on anything he could think of,most which were not real. The doctor prescribed him MEMANTINE 10 mg.to take twice a day. it is He said it helps Alzheimers patients. And he was right.He now sleeps all night ,waking only to use the bathroom. I am sure it probably will not help everyone,but it was a life saver for me,and calmed my husband.He makes more sense now also and listens to me more when I am explaining things to him without getting upset.
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For those of us that do not have the money to pay for extra help:
May God continue to give us the strength, courage, health and sanity to continue caring for our loved ones."
God Bless you.
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The article mixes things to do at various stages such as saying 40% awake time in bed in late stages. Then it goes on to say about folding laundry. not done in late stages. My mother paced 20 of the 24 hours at the intermediate stages, but could not stay focused on anything, even leaving laundry out, for her to do. Later stages she slept night and day.
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I don't get allowing them to stay up in the middle of the night and have them fold laundry. I have experienced using relaxation techniques, talking and diffusing some of their worries assists my loved to relax and want to lay back down. Gently rubbing arm, hand and back and softly talking.....relaxes and the loved one requests to lay down. It is hard when he goes to bed at 6:30 PM and is back up at 8:30 dressed and ready for a day.
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It is soooo easy to let her sleep all day. Hey, now I have some time to myself, respite I believe they call it. Then the payback: she sits up all night, maybe reading the Bible or dozing fitfully in front of the TV and wakes up mean and cranky and off to a bad start the next day. One caregiver just doesn't get this respite they talk about, it's 16 hours on, 8 hours off and you can never be sure when the 16 and 8 will occur.
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God Bless All The Caregivers!!!
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My mother has problems as a result of hallucinations and vivid dreams. She is constantly dreaming that someone is banging on the side of the house or trying to break in. This will cause her to become stressed and the night is shot from that point on because she become nervous. What does help is that we take what she says seriously...even though we know it's not a real occurrence. My husband goes out walks around the property and comes back in to report he found nothing and we are safe. Then I tell her to go on back to sleep and I'll monitor the security cameras for the rest of the night. Then each time she gets up I remind her I'm watching things and she can rest. Once she loses the ability to understand what security camera do, I have no clue what to do to ease her mind...I'll probably have to spend my nights in her room with her.
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My husband, so far, is sleeping fairly well at night. But I can predict the problems I am soon to experience. He wakes up real early, and because I know this, I, too get up very very early. So I am trying to go to bed early. I used to be a night owl. Now I am losing interest in my activities.....marymember
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Very good, if not very encouraging, article. Lewy Body Dementia also involves sleep disturbances. And if we had not been able to solve that problem I could not have kept my husband home with me. (Our solution was a drug, but not a sleeping pill.)

I would love to have Castle care for a loved one at night! If a caregiver can afford overnight in-home care for the loved one, and can find someone as skilled as Castle, that seems to be an excellent approach. But it is obviously not something a son or daughter or spouse trying to care for a loved one on our own could manage.

So many aspects of caring for someone with dementia would be much more manageable with in-home care. So many aspects of caring for someone with dementia would be much more manageable with unlimited money.
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My mother, in the later stages of AD, tends to sleep more. She gets tired easily, too.
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I love the article - and have a piece to add to it. Gradual changes, not instant, and add reassurance, acceptance. I've worked overnights or bedtimes many years, and after 9 pm, i put my focus onto gently but consistently guiding the process of small routines the person uses, to prepare themselves for bed. Teeth brushing, undressing, bathroom, etc.

And I keep that focus on timing as my top priority - when my 104 year old lady wanted to stay in her recliner in her study, rather than get up at bedtime and walk all the way to the back bathroom to start nighttime routines for bed, I worked repeatedly to urge her to get up, using every trick in the book (kind tricks, but still, distracting her from outbursts, then gently returning to the, OK, let's get up prompts). I brought her walker and placed it in position for her to get up. I raised the recliner, even an inch at a time, to avoid her resistance. It was VERY helpful and no matter how much trouble she sometimes gave me, she always thanked me when she climbed into her bed and could rest. It helped if other caregivers used the same focus on other nights, so she would expect the habit of getting up and getting ready for bed.

But some carers just wrote down that she refused, and they left her in the recliner when she argued and refused and criticized them. But I vowed never to leave at 11 pm, without her safe and settled in bed, so I redoubled my efforts, supportive friendliness, but guiding her process an inch at a time.

Once she was standing, she was into the routine, and walked to the back and allowed all other routines. But while she was still sitting, it was sometimes a major challenge to get her up (and there were times when she stated clearly that she loved watching me struggle - and I just sighed in frustration, but told her again, that I do it because I know it's important to her, even telling her, that if she stays in the chair, she will soon start to confuse night and day, and not remember anything. She understood that risk, and my concern, and together we made it happen.

If my client woke during the night, I always responded right away, the first call, but delayed any responses after that, listening for signs of distress. Again, I worked to reassure but diflect her from any complicated topics, like finances for instance.

I assured my nightime clients if they called out and were anxious, that I have found that things often look darker during the night. So many times, we find ideas in the morning, so it is wasted time to fuss over over issues at night - plan to set it aside, and we can worry in the morning.

Again, I focus on the gradual lessening of awake moments, and always decreasing my role of conversing with them. Some nights if they are anxious, I might just sit silent in a chair nearby, gradually stopping responding to their comments, dozing, If they keep trying to talk with me, I move the chair farther away, but still, just be a presence, which makes them feel less alone, yet not engaged in conversation.

This gradual process, reassurance and guidance has always worked, with very few night exceptions.

If I can't find any other way, I may suggest a shared cup of cocoa, but the next night, I delay any repeat of this act, which could become a habit, keeping them awake. Gradual is the key, keep the focus. I use a similar self acceptance of small gains and gradual improvement for my own awake nights.
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