Lack of sleep

[Trevor 15]

Siesta time

Hi, we went through this and my GP had a brain wave.
He got me to make an appointment for our lass, during which he indicated that a siesta was most beneficial, next day at exactly 14:00 hrs up she got and off to bed she went,,, 2 whole hours to snooze or read or indeed sleep is now the afternoon norm in our house

 

[Mannie]

I feel like crying. My father - who has either vascular dementia, or mixed dementia, we are waiting for a final diagnosis - is obsessed with time. Today I have to take him to an appointment at 10.45. He woke me up at 06.45. I am so tired I can barely see.

He could no longer set his alarm clock, so I got him a simple one. He couldn't always set that either, so he asks me to check it every night. It had a bell like a fire engine, and he would get up before it went off, but wouldn't turn it off, so it would wake me when it went off and I would have to get up and turn it off. I changed it for a quieter version, but it can still wake me up. He insists on setting it every day, even on a Sunday. Even if I beg him not to set it, he says he won't and then does it anyway.

I know this is going to get worse. Dealing with him on a daily basis is tough, but this constant tiredness is making it worse.

Suggestion is exactly what others suggested, dont use the calender while u get it sorted.

Suggestion the right route is to visit his GP, and since they know he has dementia, then they can advise about this behavior. They should be referring you both to social services for an assessment, and also to Community Psychiatric Nurse for help and advice. When you visit they will then see that there is more urgency.

with my parent, when they got over anxious, we asked and got meds for treating anxiety. Ideally keep a private diary for a week or two, with details on frequency, exact behavior and triggers for why he is getting anxious. Those meds will come from your GP, if prescribed.

You need to emphasise that it is affecting your sleep and take your private diary of anxiety events that happened , since you as a carer have rights. But also it must feel aweful for your dad as well.

HTH

 

[Pingu]

My Dad (AD) had a habit of night-time wandering, mainly this was due to anxiety. He'd wake up and not know where he was and need reassurance that all was OK. He'd wander around the house saying "Is anyone there? Is anyone there?" many times per night. He was beyond any understanding of clocks or time, or even knowing the difference between day and night.

The solution was anti-anxiety medication, a pill before bed reduced the wandering by 95%, most nights were fine.

Edit: A couple of people have asked what anti-anxiety medication he was using. It was Lorazepam.

 

[tigerqueen]

Hi Elamorg

Just seen the latest posts to your problem of "time obsession". Have you seen the dementia clock which is like a digitial photoframe that states whether it is morning, afternoon, evening or night. When my husband was at a stage when he obsessed about time without having any real understanding of it, he was satisfied with one of these and for some time he stopped asking constantly what the time was. Maybe this might help your father to see that it's not time to wake anyone up yet.

I hope you manage to get a good night's sleep soon.

 

[helen4dad]

Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia

I feel like crying. My father - who has either vascular dementia, or mixed dementia, we are waiting for a final diagnosis - is obsessed with time. Today I have to take him to an appointment at 10.45. He woke me up at 06.45. I am so tired I can barely see.

He could no longer set his alarm clock, so I got him a simple one. He couldn't always set that either, so he asks me to check it every night. It had a bell like a fire engine, and he would get up before it went off, but wouldn't turn it off, so it would wake me when it went off and I would have to get up and turn it off. I changed it for a quieter version, but it can still wake me up. He insists on setting it every day, even on a Sunday. Even if I beg him not to set it, he says he won't and then does it anyway.

I know this is going to get worse. Dealing with him on a daily basis is tough, but this constant tiredness is making it worse.

I am not sure if my respond post have reach you at the time of your need, but here is what I did to cope with as caregiver work for my Dad, as he have Alzheimer's of dementia, and the first two month while I was caregiver to him, his night time routine was totally killing me, because he gets up every 2-3 hour, and asking for helping to get him out of bed just to doing something that he is actually not knowing what he is doing.
So after 8 weeks caregiver, it made me from size 12 down to size 6, I realized it is impossible to keeping doing like this, but giving him sleeping tablet is also not the option due to his allergic of those medicines.
So I finally figure out the way of manager myself to keep going, which is back to the “new born baby stage”
It actually worked, but with few extra hours to having someone comes to give me bit break.
So if you like to know more about it, please feel free to PM me.

Cheers

 

[Linbrusco]

This is becoming an obsession with Mum also.
She has a clock beside her bed, with time/date.
She has a calendar on her lounge wall.

A white board on her fridge, and a magnetic whiteboard calendar with Mon-Sun on her fridge. Mum now gets up from 3am onwards ( Dad says) checking and rechecking her calendar as to what is happening that day... that week.

She now checks her phone several times a day because she has just realised that the date on it changes every day. Ocassionally she presses all the buttons on the phone, which means when she puts it back on the charger, often you ring and the phone is engaged.
This checking her phone is a new thing in recent weeks, and although her phone says "August 16th" it actually means nothing. I think she is more fascinated with the fact that her phone automatically changes "the numbers" every day.

The whole day/date/time thing undoubtedly is causing her stress and anxiety but I think it would be nigh on impossible to throw everything away or change their phone to another model because this would impact on Dad also