My mum's sleeping more and more

[lisa59772001]

Hello,
My mum is suffering from dementia and alzheimers and we've noticed a significant increase in the amount of time she is sleeping. She is waking up later each morning sometimes as late as 10.30am, she slept the whole time they were at a friends for afternnon tea and yesterday slept throughout a pub lunch. Is this a sign of a step change in her condition? Should we be letting her sleep like this? We're concerned that she'll start to confuse night and day which will not be great for my dad who is her full time carer and not in the best of health either. Any thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

 

[Izzy]

Welcome to the forum @lisa59772001.

I think it’s fairly common for people with dementia to be sleepy. My husband became very like how you describe your mum.

 

[imthedaughter]

I think it gets exhausting for the brain for some people, so they are tired.

 

[Pork Pie lady]

If she is still sleeping at night and there are no other new symptoms I wouldn't worry too much. It is better for her (and those around her ) to be asleep than be miserable and ratty because she is tired or stressed.

 

[MartinWL]

My Dad can rarely stay awake in the evening. I try to encourage him to go to bed earlier but he often stays up beyond 11 pm to watch TV but in fact is asleep in his chair. Getting him to sleep in bed rather than in a chair is a challenge but I don't see sleeping as harmful.

 

[Duggies-girl]

My dad could sleep for England. I used to make him get up because i thought that if he didn't then maybe he would not be able to get out of bed in the future..

 

[Starting on a journey]

Mum gets up around 8 am, nap time is 9:15- 10:30….
Social time is 10:30 -1:15
Nap time is 1:15 to 4:15
Up and about til 6:45
Nap time 6:45 to 9
Tv 9 to 10
Mum says she finds it so difficult to sleep.!!
It does make it a lot easier to look after mum and we don’t get bad behaviour as she is over tired.
She does have other health issues and she is 92, but it works for both of us

 

[yellow bunny]

my mum 88 who has dementia -altzheimers has started to sleep a lot
she goes to bed at about 10.00 and now sleeps to 11am 12pm, and falls to sleep during the day as well, today was a bad day. i arrived at 10.00 am at her house and she was very very unsteady on her feet, wobbly and sleepy, i put her back to bed and immediately she fell into a deep sleep, snoring. she got up at about 2pm, with my help(and my 88 year old dad) and i gave her some food which she did not want but eat and a drink i then put her in her chair and she again fell asleep, is this something to worry about or is this part of the disease. i have just today ordered her a riser chair , so that if she is sleepy we can just adjust the chair and let her sleep without moving her.