Sleep and dementia

[TonyD]

My wife has mixed dementia, Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia. She doesn’t sleep that well at night and often wakes quite early. But upon waking, she is often anxious and fractious, I wonder if there is a link between sleep deprivation and dementia. Does the brain need to rest as well as the body. Does anybody have experience of putting a partner with Dementia on sleeping tablets so that they get a good nights rest of maybe closer to 8 hours. Thanks

 

[sapphire turner]

I have wondered this myself. My husband has Alzheimer’s probably middle stage. He is on memantine, rivastigmine and melatonin. He sleeps badly at night, 3-4 hours (on Fitbit) and naps a lot in the day. I think a good night’s sleep would make him much more functional in the day. Sleeping tablets don’t work in the long term if taken all the time, although I am wondering if him having one 2-3 times a week might help? There is always a risk of falls at night tho.
I think our next move might be getting the doctor to crank up the melatonin dose (only 2mg currently- not doing anything) and if that doesn’t work, maybe considering a sleep inducing antidepressant like mirtazapine (although his mood is generally good). Or maybe poor sleep patterns are just part of the condition and we have to work around it? I would be grateful for other people’s thoughts, thanks

 

[Lawson58]

I was wondering what sort of medications your wife might be on. Apart from the risk of falls with sleeping tablets, some doctors are reluctant to add more medications into the mix.

My husband takes a rather large cocktail of pills and our GP feels that as he is already carrying a heavy drug load that unless it is absolutely essential, he won‘t add any more.

OH doesn’t sleep particularly well and used to get up a lot and wake me up. It took a few trues but I eventually convinced him that if he woke, he needed to stay in bed like everybody else. I believe that he is sleeping better which is a great relief for both of us.

 

[SeaSwallow]

Unfortunately poor sleep patterns are all part of the dementia story which makes life difficult for both the person with dementia and their carers. As has been said doctors are reluctant to prescribe sleeping tablets due to the falls risk. My husband has been prescribed melatonin and to be honest i do not think that it has made much difference.

 

[yoy]

It's all part of the dementia unfortunately. They seem to lose all sense of date and time. Before my mum went into her care home we had to stay with her 24/7 to keep her safe. She would wake and get up several times each night. I could say "mum go back to bed it's the middle of the night" to which she would reply that it can't be because I've just woken up i.e therefore it must be morning - the fact that it was pitch black was no clue to her. Apparently she still does all this 12 months later in the care home.
If you're living with this permanently you are likely to become exhausted, so make sure you can get some breaks to give yourself time to recover e.g consider respite etc.

 

[AnnRuth@]

My wife has mixed dementia, Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia. She doesn’t sleep that well at night and often wakes quite early. But upon waking, she is often anxious and fractious, I wonder if there is a link between sleep deprivation and dementia. Does the brain need to rest as well as the body. Does anybody have experience of putting a partner with Dementia on sleeping tablets so that they get a good nights rest of maybe closer to 8 hours. Thanks

My husband has dementia and regularly wakes up and wanders in the night. The doctor won't prescribe anything to help him sleep in case he calls over plus he's on blood thinners. He is on mertazapine very lowest dose. It worked great at the beginning but the effect seems to have worn off. I just have to get him to go back to bed best way that I can. He also gets lost in our park home and can't find his way either to the toilet or back to the bedroom so I have to direct him back. There just doesn't seem to be an answer to this problem.

 

[Saundj2]

I have wondered this myself. My husband has Alzheimer’s probably middle stage. He is on memantine, rivastigmine and melatonin. He sleeps badly at night, 3-4 hours (on Fitbit) and naps a lot in the day. I think a good night’s sleep would make him much more functional in the day. Sleeping tablets don’t work in the long term if taken all the time, although I am wondering if him having one 2-3 times a week might help? There is always a risk of falls at night tho.
I think our next move might be getting the doctor to crank up the melatonin dose (only 2mg currently- not doing anything) and if that doesn’t work, maybe considering a sleep inducing antidepressant like mirtazapine (although his mood is generally good). Or maybe poor sleep patterns are just part of the condition and we have to work around it? I would be grateful for other people’s thoughts, thanks