Nocturnal manoeuvres

[Thethirdmrsc]

Hi, I posted a while ago about my OH not sleeping. It is now a wee bit worse than that. After about 2 hrs sleep, he gets up and wanders about the bedroom, goes to the loo and gets back into bed, for all of a minute, and the process repeats. Last night it was for nearly 3 hrs. Is this normal ? This was despite have 2 sleeping tablets before bed, which I hoped would knock him out.
One of the weird things is the next morning, he cannot remember any of it. It is almost like he is sleepwalking, cause you cannot reason with him when he is in that state. Last night he got dressed at 3amto go out, until I actually persuaded him to get into bed.
Single rooms is a dream, but he would probably come looking for me!

 

[jaymor]

It was a problem I never managed to solve. Right up to my husband going into a nursing home he never slept more than 2hours. Sleeping tablet taken, into bed and sleep. One hour later or two if I was lucky he would be up, dressed and ready for the new day. He had no understanding of darkness, no cars or people around meant it was night not day. It really was a nightmare, I shudder now thinking about it. Because he was awake I had to be awake. Hence now I find it difficult to sleep.

When he went into the nursing home they were amazed how he walked around all day, never took a nap and then only had the 1 to 2 hours sleep in 24.

I hope your husband’s nocturnal habits will stop or at least get a little better, it is so hard on you as a Carer.

 

[myss]

As far as I'm aware the wandering about is a common trait of dementia. My dad does the same and as long as he's safe, we leave him to get on with it. But at night this had progressed into wandering outside and it was only when he shut the door behind him and he felt the cold air was when 'he awoke' and realised he should be inside.

Someone stays with him now, due to the amount of times we got 'that call' in the middle of the night/early morning from a neighbour or the police to say that they've found him outside, and the exit door is locked to ensure he doesn't leave the house without someone. If one of us is awake, we've decided to go out with him and most the time he now doesn't go far before wanting to go back in. I think there are times he feels he isn't at his home but recognises the street furniture and the outside of his house when he gets out.

During the day it really takes something for him to sit down for a long time.But as long as he's safe and it's not inconvenient, we'll go along with it. If it isn't, we've had to persuade him to go another time.

 

[Thethirdmrsc]

Thank you for these comments. The day stuff I can deal with, it is this night stuff which is something else. We have a camper van that I will have to sell, as he can’t settle in it. My front and back doors do not lock with a key, which he recognises the danger of, so am having to change those. But I love my sleep, which is going to become a thing of the past.

 

[Thethirdmrsc]

My OH is similar. Here is my 'solution'. We sleep in separate rooms. I leave my door open at night and I can still hear if he gets up but am less disturbed by it. I don't get up as often as I used to and sleep much better. He rarely 'finds' me. I bought some light sensitive night lights (£18 for three I think) from Amazon. I have one in the bathroom and one on the landing and I leave all the doors between his bedroom and the toilet open and the toilet seat up. The lights 'show' him the way to the toilet and then switch off after movement has stopped for a minute, and he gets less confused. He often dresses in the middle of the night, and sometimes put lights on and looks at books, but as long as he is happy and goes back to bed I don't worry. I have locks and chains on doors that I don't want him to go through on his own. So he can wander about safely. Occasionally he gets agitated and I have to go and calm him down, but this is much rarer than it used to be when I slept with him and intervened more. All of this works so much better than when we shared a bedroom and tried to keep things as they had been before the dementia. Its a new normal, I guess.

Thank you! The lights sound like a good idea, so will look for them. I think separate rooms are the way ahead, and it seems to be all in the planning.

 

[Bod]

Hi, I posted a while ago about my OH not sleeping. It is now a wee bit worse than that. After about 2 hrs sleep, he gets up and wanders about the bedroom, goes to the loo and gets back into bed, for all of a minute, and the process repeats. Last night it was for nearly 3 hrs. Is this normal ? This was despite have 2 sleeping tablets before bed, which I hoped would knock him out.
One of the weird things is the next morning, he cannot remember any of it. It is almost like he is sleepwalking, cause you cannot reason with him when he is in that state. Last night he got dressed at 3amto go out, until I actually persuaded him to get into bed.
Single rooms is a dream, but he would probably come looking for me!

You say he is on sleeping tablets. What sort, and how long has he been taking them?
Father in law, was on Zopeclone (?) this made him very restless at night, to the point of being useless unless the dose was tripled, which put him at risk of falls till the effect took hold. Even the next day he was dopey to the point of falls.
We discovered he should have had these pills for no longer than 14 days, he'd been on them for years, the effect had long since worn off, and he was immune to them!
Our solution was to discover why he was getting up in the night, hunger.
2 slices of toast at bed time, and a supply of biscuits, just in case, settled him, for most of the night.

Bod

 

[MaNaAk]

Hi, I posted a while ago about my OH not sleeping. It is now a wee bit worse than that. After about 2 hrs sleep, he gets up and wanders about the bedroom, goes to the loo and gets back into bed, for all of a minute, and the process repeats. Last night it was for nearly 3 hrs. Is this normal ? This was despite have 2 sleeping tablets before bed, which I hoped would knock him out.
One of the weird things is the next morning, he cannot remember any of it. It is almost like he is sleepwalking, cause you cannot reason with him when he is in that state. Last night he got dressed at 3amto go out, until I actually persuaded him to get into bed.
Single rooms is a dream, but he would probably come looking for me!

I hope your husband is getting the upper level of the Attendance Allowance because I didn't realise that dad could have got this until he went to the care home. I was just assuming that with his long list of ailments he was getting what he could so do make sure that the DWP know that your husband is doing this!

MaNaAk

 

[Blondee]

I echo what MaNaAk says. I have 25 plus years of past experience as a DWP adjudication officer albeit not in Attnendance Allowance etc. I spoke to welfare right a few months ago and I knew mum would qualify for the lower rate but she qualified for the higher rate. Speak to your local Citizens Advice and tell them you wNt help applying. We all have the tendency to underplay. Don’t do that.