My MIL used to sundown quite a bit. Hallucinations, confusion, pretty much everything intensified. Her current NH worked hard to get her in the habit of napping after lunch. They said afternoon napping would make quite a difference and it did. You can tell when she hasn't napped. Now getting the habit established was the tricky part, she was quite resistant for months. Now she is unhappy when she is disturbed during her naptime.
Oh boy have I been down that road. Anticipating when the sun goes down and how was I going to handle the mood. It was hell and sad to deal with and some how me being and advocate for mom with her meds seemed to help for now. I have always been cautious of meds and all the side effects and thought oh mom does not need those kind of pills. Long story short my sister and I agreed to try a new pill called Remeron and two of them twice a day on top of her prozac she was taking for depression. I though mom would never move or get out of bed. Well this medicine was a miracle and sundown syndrom is completely gone. Amazing. Took my sister and I about a year to get moms meds right and at first guilt was bad but seeing the great change has been just wow. Now as she is getting slower and older we are slowly taking her off prozac that she has been on for 10 yrs. I live with her so I can see any changes if we need to put her back on it. I have to say the best thing my sister and I ever did was accept some of the dr's ideas with meds and communicated with him and finally got her in a good place. The dr even prescribed morphine and we were just like no way would we give that to her. Well we did and it sure did help as needed. Read alot about meds and give them time to help. Best thing we ever did was that Remeron it took sundown away completely for now haha and also brought my mom back. Before Remeron she was trying to get out of the house just coo coo and sundown that kept coming earlier and earlier in the day. Life if good for now as can be. I wish you all the best with sundown. It's a weird thing to watch. I have to say mom was in a NH at one point from hip surgery and they had her on 15 meds. I researched everyone of those and tried to get her off most of them but the I found out that most NH do this for their peacefulness I guess you would say. I hated that place but now that I have experience a year of caregiving at home with mom I understand more now why so many meds. But being at home we are not on all of those. Good luck to you all. God Bless and always no we can only do the best we can.
Great suggestions here. We went through it for a year. Please know you cannot reason with them when they are in this state of mind. My mom pulled on the chained doors and yelled at me like a person I never knew. She stormed into the bedroom and opened the window! Just lock everything and let the episode take it's course, moms always ended with her too tired of the agitation and sat and napped in a chair for like 10 minutes. She was then a TOTALLY different person. God luck, it does end so hang in there.
My father was extremely independent, and until the later stages of dementia, we found that taking a nice drive - maybe driving by places familiar to his childhood - helped calm him and ground him. And then also, like articles suggest, we would look back thru photo albums that would catch him (not that he totally could take it all in) to present day. One evening, my mom was showing him the photos of all the grandchildren and the get-togethers, and my dad said to her " This is the life always wanted to have".
Later, he got very testy, especially paranoid about his car and finances, and his doctor gave us a medication that helped for about 3-6 months until he had a heart attack and was gone.
There are so many of us out here who know the struggles and the overwhelming challenges of just making to the next morning, until it starts again. But they took care of us, so we continue. We kept changing up with different tactics, would even tag-team to distract and divert attention to something else - neutral.
You can purchase light bulbs at lowes tat produce natural light also since winter is approaching and a walk outside may not be an option. The nap after lunch is also a good suggestion.
Alice , you will probaly get many suggestion on this issue.... but a little more infomation would be helpful as well. Like what stage of Alz is your mom in.. what types of things is she doing, so before I go into things that may not help, please give us a little more info.... thanks, we'll sure help if we can.....
You might try this---a walk in natural lighting in the late afternoon.
I like Oncehated's suggestion of a nap. Perhaps a routine of lunch, nap, little snack, walk in natural lighting, followed by calming activity, will keep the sundowining under control.
Our experience with Sundowners started with a stroke. There was no sign of it before. Anyone know if this will ever go away? It seems to last about an hour.
Agree that lighting and napping help. My mom doesn't like to nap so sometimes I have to lie down too just so she will. Another thing that works most of the time is to refocus them. Get them engaged in an activity that draws their attention away from the things that sun-downers brings out. Dust mopping or dusting furniture, sometimes just sitting down with them and engaging in conversation where they have to help you with a problem you have (wink wink). I've been known to sit and listen to my mom chatter on for over an hour about things that aren't really happening but if I can say things like "How did you handle that" or "that must have been challenging, what you you do if it happens again", it really refocuses her and she bounces out of it more often than not.
Later, he got very testy, especially paranoid about his car and finances, and his doctor gave us a medication that helped for about 3-6 months until he had a heart attack and was gone.
There are so many of us out here who know the struggles and the overwhelming challenges of just making to the next morning, until it starts again. But they took care of us, so we continue. We kept changing up with different tactics, would even tag-team to distract and divert attention to something else - neutral.
I like Oncehated's suggestion of a nap. Perhaps a routine of lunch, nap, little snack, walk in natural lighting, followed by calming activity, will keep the sundowining under control.
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