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Annabell2017 Asked May 2017

Could sundowners be caused by pneumonia?

My father is 86 years old and survived bacterial meningitis 4 months ago. He has had pneumonia and exhibited sundowners syndrome. He just came home and we have never seen this behavior and were told the pneumonia could take up to 3 months to clear with the antibiotic. My father had the same behavior 2 weeks ago when first admitted with pneumonia in the hospital. Could the sundowners be due to the pneumonia? Also since he did not sleep in the hospital is there something to help so he sleeps at night and can wake up rested? We were told he has baseline dementia.

freqflyer May 2017
Annabell, after watching my very elderly parents deal with late set dementia, I noticed any time they had a medical situation, that their memory became a bit worse. With each fall it also made the dementia a bit worse. I just think it comes with the territory, but can vary from patient to patient.

It is always hard to sleep while being in the hospital, because of the room not being the same as home, the different sights, voices, and lights. Noise in the hallways. It will take your Dad a few days to adjust back to his own bedroom and hopefully get back on the sleep at night routine.... but then again, his dementia advancing could also make his sleep schedule confused.

Plus as we age, we tend to take naps during the day. There are times I can't keep my eyes opened especially right after lunch and I am watching TV. We just get tired. My parents were napping all the time, thus it would mess up their night sleep pattern.

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