Restless early riser - any advice please?

[Prospector]

My wife is in her early 50s and was formally diagnosed with dementia a year ago, though has been showing symptoms since 2009. She has recently taken to getting out of bed about 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. to go to the toilet (thankfully on target most of the time) and then constantly walks back and forth between bed (gets in and then gets out again immediately) and bathroom until I get up. She often brings the toilet roll with her. She has lost the ability to dress herself unaided, so rummages through her clothes and often puts a cardigan over her pyjamas as an attempt to dress.
I am still at work and cannot afford to retire yet, so I need to sleep and cannot really keep getting up so early.
Sleeping separately isn't really an option, as I really need to be with her in case she has any problems during the night - she wouldn't think to ask for help if I were in a separate room, and could get extremely distressed.
I recently put up blackout blinds, and although this has stopped some of the early rising, it's not 100% effective.
I try to keep her awake during the day with organised activities to try to ensure that she is tired at bedtime, but she will often take a snooze at some point during the day.
Please does anyone have some helpful tips based on their own experience? Thank you.

 

[marionq]

You need help that's for sure. Ask for a carers assessment and a care assessment for your wife. Contact your local social services as these assessments are a requirement that you are entitled to. Your wife may get help during the day to take her out or help her in the house. Sometimes it is quicker to go to your GP who can make a referral to social services for you.

 

[Beate]

I think you are on the right path already with exercise and clear definition between day and night. A Day Clock might help further? It would show night until about 7am though you can adjust that. It might just be a phase for now. Did she have to get up early for a job or anything when she was younger? She might be back in time and think she needs to get up for that again. If that's the case, probably not a lot will help, but my OH has gone through a lot of different night routine phases and is now back to sleeping right through.

 

[pamann]

Hello Prospector welcome to talking point, ask your Dr if you can have sleeping tablets for your wife, my hubby has them so that l can have a good nights sleep, it works well, l give them to him at 8pm he will sleep until 6 or 7am

 

[Chuggalug]

Same thing here, Prospector. Never could manage the situation, just watch over my hubby as best I could. I'm hoping for some kind of care package to be put in place over the next few days. Maybe that's an option you could look into and avoid a bit of stress?

Social Services might be able to advise.