Having trouble keeping my 82 year-old father asleep during the night and not wandering, we’ve tried multiple sleeping pills. Nothing seems to work. He had been on trazodone before and we took him off because it was not working, and they added a new behavioral medicine which really elevated his mood made him pleasant and agreeable to work with, and my mother was diagnosed with cancer so it was important for him to sleep so she could be resting, We tried multiple sleeping pills. Nothing works, our doctor doesn’t know what to do… they just gave a higher dose of trazodone.I’ve noticed within three days behavioral issues started happening again and during his waking hours, he is more zombie like.
maybe if your dr doesn’t know then he needs to refer you on to a specialist ?
I don’t accept I don’t know what else to do as acceptable to be frank.
ask nicely for a referral
You don’t think the medication is reacting well with his others and now he’s a zombie
I’ve had my dads tablets changed
until something worked
Maybe also
check if it’s best taken with or without food
if your father is eating late at night contributing to not tired/sleeping too much in the daytime?
we got my dad a tv with jack socket
So he can plug in a manual headset with an extension cable
when he isn’t tired I out on a film fir him to watch n he falls asleep
tv’s nowadays have timers as well
so you can set time to turn off? Altho I do it manually
maybe a small milky drink before bed
not enough fir excessive wee’s
i find the tv cuts boredom n keeps him
happy
Be really careful about combining meds. My Mom is already on duloxetine and Lamotrigne for depression. That made me nervous about another layer. I am trying to decrease all the meds she is on.
your geriatrician is definitely the right person to advise. I am trying to get my Mom switched to a memory care doctor within the Kaiser health insurance system to help with just these kinds of decisions. Her Primaty Care physician is nice and competent but I still feel like I am going it alone a lot of times. I have to ask for do many things. No suggestions coming from the PCP.
I would ask the doctor about how it interacts with the behavioral medicine, or any other medications he is taking.
Trazodone does have lasting effects, making a person groggy the next morning, if taken late at night. Perhaps try giving it earlier in the evening, say two hours before bedtime.
If his waking activity during the night and unwanted behavior during the day is disrupting your mother's need for rest, you might consider separating them, whether she sleeps in another room, or find a care home for either one of them.