Does sleeping all day cause her to be wakeful at night? Could she have undiagnosed depression? Just adding this to the other very good observations already given.
Is she not even waking to eat? If not, that's cause for concern, and of course you should wake her.
If she's actively dying, then no, you don't force feed her, but if this is just sleeping, there could be a lot of reasons why she's doing it. In my mother's case, she'd rise at 7 a.m., get dressed (refuse a shower), come downstairs, have breakfast, then retire to her comfortable chair in a dark room to sleep until noon. She'd get up, have lunch, then "take a little nap" in the chair until dinnertime. She'd eat in front of the TV with Dad, watch a little TV, and be in bed by 9:30. I think she was awake about six hours a day.
After Dad died and I moved her to a memory care facility, she was awake all day because she had things to keep her engaged and alert. She was up and dressed by the caregivers by 7:30 a.m., brought out into the common room, and she didn't go back to her room except for bathroom breaks until bedtime at night.
In short, she was bored to death at home because she was isolated, couldn't hear and couldn't see (macular degeneration), and she did her what her favorite activity was -- sleep. The other problem was the big, comfortable chair. We didn't bring it with us to the memory care facility, and she was also wheelchair-bound soon after getting there, so she wasn't able to go to bed on her own either.
Caregiving is exhausting on its own, and trying to keep a person engaged and stimulated all day is exhausting, too. Still, if you can get MIL up in the morning, have a routine, and try to keep her somewhat engaged by TV, the radio (music is fantastic for dementia patients), or by folding laundry or some mundane task, you might find she'll stay awake longer. You might have to hire a companion to spend time with her each day so you can get things done.
All of this above is of course if there isn't a medical reason why she's sleeping all day. However, if there is no medical issue, leaving the choice to get up to a dementia patient is not the way to go. You have to be the "parent" in this situation and get her up each day.
Sleeping more is one of the signs of decline that Hospice uses when recertifying a patient to continue on Hospice. The problem with letting her sleep is that if she is wet remaining in a wet brief (aka "diaper") is bad for her skin. And sleeping a lot, if she is not moving while sleeping she can develop pressure sores. So repositioning her or getting a mattress that will help relieve pressure is important. Even in a sleep she can be repositioned and you can change her. It is a matter of rolling her from one side to the other. If you have a hospital bed repositioning is easy raise the foot of the bed, lower the head and let gravity help you slide her up a bit on the bed. (people seem to slide down as the head of the bed is raised so it is natural to slowly slip down) And rolling her from one side to the other is repositioning let her sleep on one side or the other once in a while. Just position arms and legs so they are in a comfortable position. Use pillows to cushion and prop her. Placing her on her side also allows secretions to drain out if any are building up. My Husband would sleep 10 to 12 hours that increased so that the last several months of his life he was sleeping about 20 to 22 hours a day. the last month or so he was pretty much in bed all the time, I would get him into the shower (Hoyer lift, shower wheelchair) then back into bed. the last week or two the Hospice CNA did not even get him into the shower it was bed baths. He would sleep through that as well.
If she's actively dying, then no, you don't force feed her, but if this is just sleeping, there could be a lot of reasons why she's doing it. In my mother's case, she'd rise at 7 a.m., get dressed (refuse a shower), come downstairs, have breakfast, then retire to her comfortable chair in a dark room to sleep until noon. She'd get up, have lunch, then "take a little nap" in the chair until dinnertime. She'd eat in front of the TV with Dad, watch a little TV, and be in bed by 9:30. I think she was awake about six hours a day.
After Dad died and I moved her to a memory care facility, she was awake all day because she had things to keep her engaged and alert. She was up and dressed by the caregivers by 7:30 a.m., brought out into the common room, and she didn't go back to her room except for bathroom breaks until bedtime at night.
In short, she was bored to death at home because she was isolated, couldn't hear and couldn't see (macular degeneration), and she did her what her favorite activity was -- sleep. The other problem was the big, comfortable chair. We didn't bring it with us to the memory care facility, and she was also wheelchair-bound soon after getting there, so she wasn't able to go to bed on her own either.
Caregiving is exhausting on its own, and trying to keep a person engaged and stimulated all day is exhausting, too. Still, if you can get MIL up in the morning, have a routine, and try to keep her somewhat engaged by TV, the radio (music is fantastic for dementia patients), or by folding laundry or some mundane task, you might find she'll stay awake longer. You might have to hire a companion to spend time with her each day so you can get things done.
All of this above is of course if there isn't a medical reason why she's sleeping all day. However, if there is no medical issue, leaving the choice to get up to a dementia patient is not the way to go. You have to be the "parent" in this situation and get her up each day.
The problem with letting her sleep is that if she is wet remaining in a wet brief (aka "diaper") is bad for her skin. And sleeping a lot, if she is not moving while sleeping she can develop pressure sores. So repositioning her or getting a mattress that will help relieve pressure is important.
Even in a sleep she can be repositioned and you can change her. It is a matter of rolling her from one side to the other. If you have a hospital bed repositioning is easy raise the foot of the bed, lower the head and let gravity help you slide her up a bit on the bed. (people seem to slide down as the head of the bed is raised so it is natural to slowly slip down) And rolling her from one side to the other is repositioning let her sleep on one side or the other once in a while. Just position arms and legs so they are in a comfortable position. Use pillows to cushion and prop her. Placing her on her side also allows secretions to drain out if any are building up.
My Husband would sleep 10 to 12 hours that increased so that the last several months of his life he was sleeping about 20 to 22 hours a day.
the last month or so he was pretty much in bed all the time, I would get him into the shower (Hoyer lift, shower wheelchair) then back into bed. the last week or two the Hospice CNA did not even get him into the shower it was bed baths. He would sleep through that as well.