My Dad (91) has gas moderate dementia. He sleeps 20 hours a day, only awakens for his 3 meals a day.

Thank you for all the suggestions. Yes, I feel the dementia getting worse is what has made him withdraw. He is getting more confused, and when he is confused he quickly gets agitated. I will try the music idea. We have a doctor appointment next week so will discuss all of these issues then. Thank you again for all the suggestions.

I might discuss with his doctor and read a lot about the progression of dementia. I've read that the patient may increasingly need more sleep.

Also, does he remember saying things? Maybe, he repeats things, because he doesn't recall that he has said it before. So, when he says he just wants to die, he may think that's the first time he told you that.

Also, I would imagine that if you have lost your ability to focus and understand things on tv, it wouldn't hold much interest.

My cousin, who has Vascular dementia, used to be the biggest tv fan around. Yet, she started to lose interest in it with her dementia. I would ask her questions about shows and she would say that she couldn't understand what was happening in the story. All she could get was that the actor was sad or upset. She didn't know why. This bothered her and she stopped watching anything except for sports and the news. Then, she stopped being able to focus on those things and she no longer has any interest in a tv at all.

I wonder if the reason there is no interest to do activities is due to the inability to do things. What about petting a pet or listening to their favorite music from long ago? I'd just experiment with different things to see if anything might get his attention.

You might also discuss medication adjustment with his doctor. Some meds don't work for everyone.

He sounds almost like my Mother. She is 85, mild dementia and a host of other ailments. Her sleeping has increased over the past 4 years to where she is sleeping almost 18 hours a day. She watches TV but has lost interest injust about everything else. She is on antidepressants , which don't seem to be helping. Hopefully someone can give us some help as I have the same questions as you.

No, that's too long. If you'd said 4 weeks I'd have suggested getting it checked out. It might still be worth doing, I suppose - ask his GP about it next appointment.

Is he sleeping in his chair or going back to bed?

It is awful for you to have to hear him say that he wants to die. But, although I know this sounds like a weird question, would you say he is actually unhappy or more just terribly tired?

He has been doing this for about 4 months now. It first started with a bad UTI. He is fully recovered from this, but has never fully regained his strength back.

That amount of sleep... are you sure he hasn't had a stroke? How long has this been going on?