My LO calls me often from MC and says he’s bored. Do dementia patients experience boredom more than other older people? How can I answer?

I know it is boring in a locked up Memory Care unit with nothing to do.

My Gram would not complain of boredom, but she would get into "topic loops:" talking about the same event that happened over and over and over again. It was worse if she was still miffed at an unresolved slight. At first, I talk her through the event and help her place it into a time period. Then, I talked about praying for the person she was miffed at. Eventually, I talked her through forgiving the person(s). When "it" would come up again, I would say we decided to forgive that person and change the topic.

Your LO may be experiencing something similar. Skip to the end and say, "That's too bad." Then, try to change get LO engaged in another topic.

My mother in memory care has vascular dementia too. White matter changes in the brain, and then a fall with head injury. She has a patchwork of abilities and impairments. She still has high reading comprehension and can concentrate enough to read a book and talk about it later. She reads the newspaper every day and we talk about the news. But she has no concept of time anymore--she doesn't know if something happened a month ago or 5 minutes ago. She doesn't remember the concepts that go along with all the words and phrases that measure time. She has never actually complained of boredom, but if someone else says "you must be so bored," then she agrees and repeats it, and it becomes a refrain for the rest of the day. But I don't think she experiences the passage of time the way we do. I think she experiences time the way young children do--they've been waiting forever, or they just got here, or it's always been sunny.

My mother has been complaining of boredom for her entire life. Especially on the weekends, with Saturdays being THE worst day of the week for her. No matter how much is going on, no matter how many phone calls she gets, no matter WHAT, she's 'bored' and has 'nothing to do'. As if it's up to everyone on earth to keep her entertained or something. I just tell her "Gee that's unfortunate." I learned long ago that I can't fix her or her situation or her chronic misery/boredom/complaining. It's just what she DOES.

If you think your LO would like to read, get him some books. Puzzle books, word searches, magazines or things of that nature to keep him occupied. If he's like my mother, though, he's not looking for a solution, but an ear to listen to the complaints.

Who knows really what goes on in the injured or aged mind, or in the mind suffering dementia. Oliver Sacks spent a lifetime studying to conclude that they have their own little worlds, just that they don't match our worlds. I think the one thing that does happen is that whatever sort of little phrase they get stuck on it tends to replay sort of like those old vinyl records that got a scratch that forced them to repeat over and over again. Just answer "Really? I am so sorry".