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my mother 93years old,has lived with my family for 39 yrs. My husband is a saint! Now, its just the 3 of us. recently, she broke her hip & had partial hip replacement surgery.She was in rehab/nursing home for 21 days. She has been home a couple of days and is afraid to go to sleep,cries out in fear and talks almost all night. I try to comfort her. The dr. gave her meds to sleep which is not working. do you think this will pass when she gets more familiar with beeing home again? also, she has dementia/alzheimers.
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I do think sometimes complete darkness is hard for those with dementia or alzheimers disease... Nightlights are wonderful!!!
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There are specific medications for night terrors. See your neurologist for this.
Be very careful with all meds that affect the brain. Go with Melatonin for now until you receive a specific diagnosis.
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Sleep meds often don't work on frail older people--my MIL during her last few months of lung cancer would lay awake at night and cry out that she wanted to die. The dr tried every sleeping pill in the book and nothing worked. He told us that what she could face during and day and what they were at 3am were totally different. We finally had family members take turns staying with her at night.
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Does she ever tell you what she's screaming about? I mean, is it a dream she's having or what? Does leaving a light on in her room help? This would get old really fast being woken up at 3am.
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If she has taken any fluoroquinolones antibiotics it can cause this for an extended period of time after the medication was completed. My mother has had these terrors more than 2 weeks after finishing levofloxacin 500. Check the black box warning you can find it on line, against giving elderly fluoroquinolones. I took my mother to the ER with hallucinations & screaming night terrors.
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I'm worry about my Mom, She live's with my brother, and his one of 14 sibling, his the 7th child..My Mother has Dementia, he keeps her away from all of her kids grand-kids and great-grand-kids, she had a cell phone, and he took it away, She does repeat her safe, she scare to sleep by her safe, and she want someone to be there with her..he live's her along, let her sleep until 4pm or more. I want to take her, home with me, I live along, My brother has his wife, and Daughter. Mom will be along, she fell's like she the only one home..please help..I want her..she's 86yrs.old
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worryandsad, does your brother have Power of Attorney for Mom?

How does your brother feel about Mom moving in with you?

Has your mother said what she would like?
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In retrospect my mother's night terrors were caused by a UTI that was ongoing for over two years. She took flouriquinoline antibiotics and they ramped up to the crazy asylum type thing. Now she is good unless she gets a UTI. She should have that checked out. I just discovered some strips in the drug store that you can use to do it at home.
Maybe you should have a social worker do a welfare check on your mother.
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The visiting nurse suggested that I try an herb, valerian for my mother. I had tried melatonin which made her groggy the next day (but I have heard that it also helps with Alzheimers), L-Tryptophan and chamomile tea. The valerian seems to be working, but you never know when the night terrors will come on. it seems that they are worse when we are dealing with the UTI. Many nights I have just had to lay down by her and comfort her, although she is usually inconsolable. She often screams to the top of her lungs, sometimes whimpers and cries. Sometimes this bleeds over into the days, especially if she falls asleep on the chair or sofa. Doctors don't seem to have a cure for night terrors. They can happen to anybody at any age, but they seem to be worse with the elderly.
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