My Oli

[Bugs]

I know sleeping is part of dementia but just how much sleeping can one person do?
Last week he slept 20 hours out of 24. I thought it was a one off but this week he’s not much better. This morning we had to go to the local hospital to get new tubes for our hearing aids. In the way home we stopped at a tea room so only got home about 12.30. My Oli went straight to bed and fell fast asleep until 3.30. He was then awake for about half an hour then back to sleep again until 6.30pm. He’s now been awake for an hour but I expect him to only manage 8pm before he’s off to bed. Similar happened yesterday.
I have noticed he seems to have moved further along with his confusion and memory too. Fortunately he seems happy enough when he is awake but I wonder if this is the next step along the way.

 

[jay6]

Think they do sleep a lot more. Mines asleep on and off all day, at home, in the car, while out, but awake as soon as I move. Doesn't sleep for 20 hours though. That seems a lot.
Wouldn't mind if he did sleep that long though, give me some peace!

 

[jennifer1967]

mines the same, sits in a chair and eyelids close.

 

[smithdee]

My dad is the same - sleeps all night, all day in the chair have to wake him up to eat and some days he will just close his eyes and ignore. He sleeps in the car, and can fall asleep with a whole load of noise going on in the background too. I'm lucky if he's awake for an hour or two on and off every day now.

 

[jay6]

Mine even fell asleep while we were away for a short break with grandkids. They couldn't stop laughing at home asking in the kids club 'how can grandad sleep with all this shouting and music'
Obviously he wasn't asleep, just resting his eyes not!

 

[Bugs]

We are starting a new regime to see if we can keep my Oli more mentally stimulated which is something I struggle with. We have a home carer who comes from a local care home. Until recently he had been taking Oli out to the local gym for some exercise but this has fallen out of favour.
We started last week and his carer took Oli ‘to see where he worked’. They went down to the care home and he joined the residents there to watch a really good singer who regularly sings there and Oli loved it! He told my daughter that he and all the other people had been dancing😜
I realised that I was the one who had been trying to protect him from the world of dementia. If I kept him safe at home then I could keep the beast at bay. It took our Dementia holiday in the Lake District to show me that he was comfortable and content and felt safe with other dementia sufferers and their carers. Today he has another outing with his carer. They will be baking cookies, do chair exercises the. Have lunch and after that they will watch a shortened version of Lawrence of Arabia which is only an hour long.
As they deal with dementia patients all the time I know things will be gently organised giving everyone plenty of time.
I fully expect him to sleep through that! I also fully expect him to sleep all day tomorrow.
He left home at 10am and will be home after 3pm. This is the longest time we have been apart in years. I have enough today to keep me busy so I don’t miss him too much.

 

[jugglingmum]

That sounds a really good place you've found with just the right level of activity.

Hope you learn to enjoy your free time.