My wife often wakes up at 4:00 am and becomes belligerent. Any advice?

I'm a little confused, Bob, but I was also a spouse caregiver and I'd like to help you. Your profile says your wife has dementia, which I would have guessed from your description of the problem. And you say she takes carbidopa/levadopa, so I'm guessing dementia is either Parkinson's Disease with Dementia (PDD) or Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). These are both types of Lewy Body Dementia (LBD).

If that is what she has, sleep disturbances are part of the disease. You need to discuss this with her neurologist or doctor who is treating the dementia. Addressing the sleep issues is NOT a DIY project, and I'd caution against using otc sleeping pills.

Sleep disturbance was the number one problem we needed to solve for my husband to be able to stay at home. (He had LBD.) His wonderful neurologist understood that and together with a sleep psychiatrist came up with a drug that solved the problem for us.

I hope you are seeing a specialist who understands Parkinson's and/or Lewy Body Dementia very well. Most internists and GPs do not.

I know that this is very disturbing for both of you. I hope that your wife's doctors can come up with something that works as well for you as our doctors did for my husband.

Keep us informed of how this works out. It is a very common problem on this site and we like to learn from each other.

Most internists and GPs do not understands Parkinson's and/or Lewy Body Dementia . Beware of brain dead doctors.

Medication, medication and more specific medication from the neurologist and a sleep specialist if there is one. Talking won't help,and we are all often lethargic if we don't get enough sleep. I like the idea of an early morning aide if you can still sleep

My mom has DLB. When she lived with me she was up all night screaming. My main concern was that she was going to fall down the steps or wander outside. Anyway, the Dr gave her some medication which helped her sleep through the night. One of them was risperdole, I think. Talk to her Dr and see what he says. I know how hard it is. I hope things get better for you soon.

My husband gets Ativan .5 mg twice a day and .10 Celexa once a day. He goes to bed around 8:00PM and sleeps all night. Its a wonderful thing. Sometimes I think he has strange dreams because I see him jerking and talking in his sleep but at least he is not up all night. All I can say is medicate, medicate

You might also need to bring a night time person to watch her so YOU can get some rest. When I lived with my mom while my dad was recovering from his heart attack my mom would get up at ALL hours of the night and turn on all the lights. It would scare me to death and I would say mom, turn the light off! She would come over to look at me to make sure I was someone she knew. My point being, I was exhausted. Almost couldn't function it went on for a couple of mos before I finally had to put in a facility. May dad wasn't getting any rest due to her demands of him and I wasn't getting any rest either. Her schedule was thrown off with me being there although she loved me and knew who I was, she would forget until I would remind her why I was there and what was wrong with dad and then she would say "well, I KNOW that" but I really don't think she did. It was only suppose to be for a couple of weeks but here it is 5 1/2 years later. Anyway, please take care of yourself. Your health is as important as her's. Good Luck and God Bless.....

Bob1943: Your wife needs a sedative! First, you can start with OTC Benadryl and perhaps move on to RX Seroquel.

Ask her doctor if perhaps he/she can prescribe an antidepressant to reset her biological clock to match yours. You need your rest. Our dogs have an alarm in their brains that make me get up at 4:30 (give or take a minute or two), taking them outside, give them their little chicken jerky, and then it is back to bed. Of course, then I have to awake and start my day, but they are back in bed with Papa. See if that med solves the behavior.

My husband is 75 and has vascular dementia and has been popping up at 4 then 4:30, etc.. By 10 am he is a zombie, but I can't get him to sleep longer. I did an Internet search for dementia and sleep disorders. I found that it is part of dementia and will get worse as the dementia gets worse. Which made me feel better in some way because now I know there is nothing I can do about it. They also highly discouraged medication. I had already decided I would rather have him awake than perhaps getting up at night and being disoriented and raising the risk of falling. He also has restless leg syndrome and benedryl would be totally awful for him. He would be off the wall. I like it however. Fortunately it's not every night. The site said that sleep issues are the greatest cause of care giver distress and is one of the major causes of institutionalizations.

Edahmen-just because you like Benadryl does not mean it is good for your husband with dementia. Benadryl blocks acetylcholine which is necessary for brain neurotransmitters to connect thoughts. So many people are using this OTC med to get to sleep at night, and then the next day cannot remember daily tasks. Why do you think there are so many mistakes happening everywhere? One of the reasons - these types of drugs.