Is 'hearing things' a symptom?

[SussexDodo]

Good morning
For over a year now, my widowed, active 87 year-old-mother has been reporting disturbed nights caused by neighbour noise.

We have investigated as much as we can by contacting the Managing Agents of her leasehold flat and the local Environmental Health/Noise pollution office.

All checks and actions taken by both of the above agencies have come back with 'no evidence found' reports.

We are now wondering if she could be 'hearing things' but given her otherwise very mentally and physically 'with it' state, we are very puzzled.

Can anyone in here offer any help or guidance as to what more we can do for her. All replies most gratefully received.
Thanks.

 

[angelbee112]

Hi, welcome to the forum! Depending how you feel about it with regard to privacy, might it be worth setting up a camera or voice recorder in your mums bedroom at night? This way you can at least see for yourself if there are any actual noises, and take it from there if it doesn't pick up on anything? Best of luck!

 

[SussexDodo]

Hi, welcome to the forum! Depending how you feel about it with regard to privacy, might it be worth setting up a camera or voice recorder in your mums bedroom at night? This way you can at least see for yourself if there are any actual noises, and take it from there if it doesn't pick up on anything? Best of luck!

Thanks angelbee but that's all been done already by the Environmental Health people. Over a 2-week period, their recording equipment did not pick up anything which is why I'm asking if 'hearing things' could be a symptom.
Thanks for the welcome and good luck wishes.

 

[rajahh]

My husband often hears things usually at night, but I am not sure if it is in his sleep.

He usually hears someone saying Time to get up, or Let me in.

I have to persuade him to go back to bed and sleep. Not always successfully.

He also tells me he has been told something when I know he has not actually seen anyone during the day to have any sort of conversation with. Sometimes this can be connected to TV but not always.

It is very difficult when they are sure they have heard something and you know there is no voice at all.

Jeannette

 

[lin1]

Hi
Yes I have heard of dementia sufferers who have what I call Audible hallucinations,though I have no experience with this
but I am wondering if your Mother could be dreaming

hopefully others will be along soon with more experience of this or more suggestions

 

[AntheaC]

night time

you don't say how long ago she was widowed and this might be relevant. It could be part of her greiving process. If she is ahving disturned nights and suffering from sleep deprivation it could be stress and grief related. My dad often imagines my mum is calling to him in the night and ti is worse when he has had little sleep. He is her carer and when sometimes is so exhausted he falls asleep in the chair beofre he can get to bed then imagines her calling but when I've been there I know she hasnt.
On the other hand my mum who has dementia does see and hear things at night - but I would doubt it is dementia if she is not showing any other symptoms.
Have you tried having her to sleep at your house to see what her sleep patterns are like?

 

[lin1]

Me again
I have Just read your profile , Sorry I made a wrong assumption.

Bearing in mind I am no medic and am only an expert in how mixed dementia affected my Mum, IMO auditory hallucinations are not the first sign of Dementia.

During the time recordings were made, was your Mother still hearing those noises or did she stop hearing them, what I am thinking is, if they stopped , then your Mother may well be right that she is hearing noise from the neighbour and the neighbour stopped being noisy at night as s/he knew, had heard that recordings were being made.

 

[velocity]

Is 'hearing things a symptom'

Hi I dont know if this will help, but my Mum was reporting the same situation in the flat where she lived, she asked to move in with us after living alone for 45yrs because 'the man upstairs' was making noises she didn't like, she said he was working at home (he was a roofer) she has always been very independent, worked full time owned her flat etc. We were really taken aback, six months later she accused us of all sorts of things reporting us to the police etc, there is suspected AD (just changed GP)but she will not be assessed or helped in any way, she 'hears' us saying things we wouldn't dream of even thinking let alone carrying out!
Mum has been so convincing when at the GPs/family/friends, it was/is really upsetting.
I must say this Forum has been a life saver for me. So many people have helped me so much. A BIG thanks
Many regards Pat xx

 

[SussexDodo]

Thank you all so much.
Dad died January 2012 and Mum seems to have been coping very well.
She goes out every day (she lives a 5 minute walk from the shops) and goes to a club every week where she has some very good friends. I speak to her every day on the 'phone and my husband goes and gets her (she lives 10 miles away) for a day visit here every week.

Unfortunately, because of my own disability (I'm a wheelchair user) it is impossibe for me to visit her in her first-floor flat. Therefore, I cannot do a sleep-over at her place to check out the reported noise. Also, unfortunately, our home does not have the space for her to stay with us.

Having said all that, your replies so far are really helping us deal with what could be a problem, so 'thanks' again.

 

[SussexDodo]

Me again
I have Just read your profile , Sorry I made a wrong assumption.

Bearing in mind I am no medic and am only an expert in how mixed dementia affected my Mum, IMO auditory hallucinations are not the first sign of Dementia.

During the time recordings were made, was your Mother still hearing those noises or did she stop hearing them, what I am thinking is, if they stopped , then your Mother may well be right that she is hearing noise from the neighbour and the neighbour stopped being noisy at night as s/he knew, had heard that recordings were being made.

No probs Lin
The nice people at Environmental Health assured us that the neighbours do not/would not know when the equipment was installed, so again we're puzzled about the zero noise report. According to Mum the noise was going on whilst the equipment was there and is still going on.

 

[Bedelia]

These could indeed be auditory hallucinations:

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=1408

Scroll towards end, under "Hallucinations".

My mum would often be convinced that there were people "hiding" in the house or talking about her. If there is no evidence of any actual sounds, I think this is highly likely to be the true cause of your mum's distress.

(Unfortunately, there is no cure for it. But at least if you know what it is, you may be able to manage it better or at least save yourself and others the trouble of false accusations or unnecessary investigations.)

 

[Anongirl]

Hi SussexDodo. Right at the start of mum showing symptoms she kept saying she kept being woken by the doorbell. I couldn't figure out what she was hearing but she hasn't mentioned it now for several months so perhaps it has passed?

She still doesn't sleep well though but she can't give me a reason for it now. She just says she wakes up X

 

[fredsnail]

For several years before we got a diagnosis for Grandad he would say he could hear the radio in the middle of the night - it would play old songs that he would know and start singing along to, or play Christmas carols in summer. He would say to me "can you hear it" and I could hear nothing.

While he was in hospital he would hear military bands playing during the night which he said stopped him sleeping.

He still mentions hearing things occasionally although he is now virtually totally deaf (and has been for many years) and refuses to wear his hearing aids.

 

[Forestridge]

A couple of months ago my my Mum was convinced that someone was knocking nastily on her door at night between 11 and 12pm at night. Pretty sure that was audible hallucinations. Once it had been suggested to her it wasn't real by her SW, she stopped hearing it.

 

[Big Effort]

This must be very upsetting for all concerned.
I have had the occasional stint of hearing things - (I'm a carer, by the way) - and when it happened I was under a lot of stress. I literally 'heard' one of the kids calling out in the night, loud and clear, and upon investigation this was not the case. For me, this is a sign of stress.

It seems quite common here for people to have visual hallucinations, so I cannot imagine why auditive hallucinations wouldn't be possible. Your mother lives alone, the place may be very silent, the brain scanning for sounds if she is anxious, and then she 'hears' something.

I would try to be very laid back about it, reassure her non-stop. Perhaps you could 'invent' some quite noisy people who live nearby, so she can just ignore any sounds she hears, just the noisy neighbours? Maybe they listen to TV late at night..... something that doesn't make her worry about herself and her wits.

Just my thoughts..... sounds like you and your husband are doing an amazing job of caring for your Mum. Let us know how it all works out in the end, hugs, BE

 

[Anongirl]

Hi again SussexDodo, I too didn't read your profile or any of the replies before I posted!

I think if your mum isn't showing any other signs which alarm you I wouldn't automatically assume she has symptoms of dementia because of this. Grief can cause so many issues. I would keep a close eye on her.

Keep posting X

 

[SussexDodo]

Just an update:
We had one of those 'difficult' phone conversations yesterday when Mum was complaining non-stop and saying nobody knows or cares about the bad time she's been having!

Having heard this umpteen times over the past year, I get the feeling a lot of you will understand it when I say: I was again very hurt and had to bite my tongue hard not to rise to this complaint. Trying to reason with her and get her out of her (seemingly) default mind-set of 'Oh poor me' and near paranoia regarding the neighbours above her, just doesn't work. Worth saying here that she is financially secure; owns her own home in a very pleasant neighbourhood and can get out and about as and when she wants to.

On another positive side, she's seeing her G P next week. This is as a direct result of the zero findings of the listening device the Environmental Health installed. According to the E H Manager I spoke to yesterday, it's standard policy to report such things to the 'vulnerable person's' G P, so we're waiting to see how that goes.

As Pat said above, this forum is proving so helpful and I'm very grateful for your replies and knowledgeable support. I'm saving all your responses for future reference and will keep you posted on how things progress.

Big virtual {{{hugs}}} to you all and thanks for 'being there'.

 

[Anongirl]

It's good she's seeing her GP. It can be very hard to get someone to see a doctor if they don't believe there is a problem. At least this way the GP can instigate any tests, etc that may need to be done.

I've heard the "nobody cares" line so many times now! I know how irritating that can be when it feels like you are constantly trying your best to help!

Keep us informed X

 

[Rageddy Anne]

My husband is sure he hears things in the night. He often says he hears doors being rattled, dogs barking to be let in or out, people in the garden, doorbell chimes, telephone ringing. Often I'm awake before he hears these things and I KNOW he can't have heard anything.So I'm convinced these must be auditory hallucinations.

He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's over two years ago, and the night time disturbances have been going on for about two years. In the morning he thinks he has slept through the night.

 

[end of my rope]

My mother has auditory hallucinations as did her mother - often they are very detailed and include "facts" that could not be established by hearing something alone, so the auditory hallucination which is bad enough can be compounded by the need to make sense of it by the person and hence a confabulated story to cover/expaln the initial auditory hallucination.
One example: my grandmother who thought she heard a knocking/tapping noise at night (at the time I had to sleep at her house and there was no such noise)- however this auditory hallucination was always reported as a man, walking around outside the house tapping the windows with a soup spoon.
I hope your GP appointment goes well and your mother gets all the help she needs - both for your sake and hers.

Best love

eomr