Sundowners experience?

Hardest reality is slowly knowing that it will never be the same.
Definitely the longest goodbye, brace yourself for a whirlwhind of emotions.
Stay patient and strong.

You won’t ever get your mom back. My mother’s Dr. told me “this is not your mother”. It is a hard pill to swallow. It is like losing a loved one twice. Once to dementia and another when they pass from this world.

Sundowner's syndrome can be managed with increased lighting in the evening, stable routines, limiting naps during the day to 45 minutes (length of 1 rem cycle), exercise during the day, sunshine to keep her circadian rhythm in sync with day/night cycle, and an earlier bedtime.

Hospitals are hard places to get enough sleep. I am an RN and used to work a lot of nights. The comings and goings for vital signs, medications, and checking for responses to treatment tend to devastate good sleep. A lot of our older patients ended up having a little "hospital psychosis" with confusion, delusions, and difficult behaviors with prolonged hospitalizations.

SO, helping your mom get back to her usual routine and ensuring she gets plenty of rest at night (8-9 hours of sleep) should help. Some medications can also contribute to confusion. Other medications may help her to fall asleep and get rest. Her PCP can prescribe sleep medications and look over her other medications for side effects that may contribute to her mental health challenges.

PCP? Is that a geriatric doc or a neurologist that specializes in dementia? Get her checked for a UTI.

Time to try a different med, perhaps. Seroquel worked great for my mom, while some it does not help at all. My mom couldn't take ativan, completely the opposite effect as intended, but some have very good luck with it.

Normally for Sundowning I would suggest brighter lights so there are fewer shadows but I am wondering in this case if you tried a different colored light would that have an effect. Blue light or a Red light might help. I changed one of the lights I would turn on when I was caring for my Husband to a Blue LED because I read that it is the color that is less likely to disrupt sleep. I would turn the light on to check him and see if he needed to have his brief changed and to reposition him.

heathhoff, is there any type of distracting activity you can do with her at that time to try to refocus her mind? Go outside for a walk, car ride...? I wish you much success in finding something that calms her and makes your life less stressful!

Yes, my mother had episodes where she accused her caregivers of trying to murder her, screaming for help and being very agitated in the evenings. She was prescribed Aderal which helped a lot.

My father suffered from terrible delusions, and they got worse at night. He was convinced that the house was on fire or flooding and he needed to evacuate, now.
We found a geriatric neurologist who prescribed Olanzapine and Venlafaxine, and he returned to his sweet self, even as his dementia progresses. It was so hard to watch him suffer!

Yes, PCP is primary care physician. My question was more to ask if the PCP is a doc well trained in geriatric medicine or neurologist with dementia specialty.

General practitioners are often clueless about geriatric medicine, they are more family docs.

Praying for you. Big hugs.