so tired!
- Thread starter tuffydawn
- Start date
My mum started to spend more and more time in bed during het last summer at home. I think trying to cope and keep going exhausted her. She had alzheimers ans vascular dementia. When she ended up in hospital she still slept more than 50% of the time.
Same here and has been for a long time. For example DH went to bed on Sunday night at 11 and I had to wake him at two on Monday. Went to bed at eight thirty on Mon night and got up about 10 or 11 on Tuesday and had to go back to bed around an hour later. Yesterday he got up at 11 and had a visitor from memory support in the afternoon. When she left at six he was on the point of collapse from exhaustion. I am getting very scared.. It's getting worse..
I have the same problem and the consultant was talking on reducing his tablets to stop the sleeping but do you think it is the tablets or the condition. He is on donepezil and risperdone.
Sent from my iPad using Talking Point
Sent from my iPad using Talking Point
My OH also sleeps more and more ....... when engaged with a visitor, or event he comes up out of it but soon gets tired, then retreats to bed again.
In my reading it seems drowsiness is a side effect of dementia caused by his brain disease ( Amaloyid Angiopathy not Alzheimers) and I read other people here write of people walk g out, getting lost, being hyper active and I'm glad my OH seems just needing peace, quiet and lots of rest.
It's like living through a death or a bereavement but the person is still here ... And I'm glad of that but the slow slipping away is very sad in a powerless disturbing sort of way.
Perhaps I shouldn't say this and it's always sad to see someone deteriorate but my OH doesn't seem to sleep at all - up at night, dressed (in a peculiar assortment of clothes, clean and dirty, mine and his) and ready to go at 5.a.m. He isn't able to do anything except wander round after me, asking if we can go out. When we do go out, nearly every day, he has no interest in anything, just wandering, walking and wanting to move on to "wherever we're going"! Exhausting beyond belief and I wish he would sleep (he is already on Zopaclone but that doesn't seem to do the trick).
Yanni, you have my sympathy as my late Husband was the same-a non sleeper. He could go for 48 hrs without sleep. When he eventually went to live in a CH he went 5 days and nights without sleep. I do agree that your OH needs a meds review. Do you have any contact with a CPN or Social Worker?
Love
Lyn T XX
Thanks to you both for suggestions. We have a memory clinic appointment in a couple of weeks - these appointments have always been helpful though now reduced from every six months to every nine months and I will bring it up there. His GP is not helpful - I know more about Alzheimers than he (the GP) does but the memory nurse has been supportive and positive.
Nothing, of course, actually addresses the problems of caring for an active 73 year old, who believes there is nothing wrong with him, and that I am an employee of a business he is running (and a not very satisfactory employee at that) and that he has meetings day and night which require him to walk the streets talking gobbleydegook to passers by. Aaarrrgghhh
Nothing, of course, actually addresses the problems of caring for an active 73 year old, who believes there is nothing wrong with him, and that I am an employee of a business he is running (and a not very satisfactory employee at that) and that he has meetings day and night which require him to walk the streets talking gobbleydegook to passers by. Aaarrrgghhh
Oh how I sympathise Yanni - you must be so tired.
As I've said, nobody in the Real World understands how exhausting it is caring for someone with AD like those of us on TP.And I absolutely agree about the knowledge of ones GP. John was first diagnosed with Multiple Systems Atrophy. I went to the library and scoured medical books, and found an MSA society, that gave me loads of information. Basically, it meant that as well as brain cells dying, eventually other organs would die too.
In fact, about 6 years down the line, when he first had a UTI, and then a scan, it was discovered that one kidney had completely atrophied, and the following year, one testicle went the same way. I had told my GP all this, and he had a detailed report from the consultant, but didn't show any interest.
It wasn't until John's last couple of years, that he admitted, during a home visit, that he'd never heard of it, and had "recently looked it up"!! I was quite pleased when he retired.
Let's hope that your husband's company thrives, and he'll give you, as a very valued employee, a pay rise.
Hi Yanni and Tuffidawn,
My wife is pretty hyper all day but more recently crashes early evening. I fight to keep her going until 9pm as I don't want her up too early next day. As the brain diminishes it seems logical to expect that it gets more exhausted - trying to process stuff with less capacity. I must say life has improved since she goes to bed earlier and generally stays there (last night was of course a blip - wandering up the hall shouting at 1 am - startled me so much I could not get back to sleep until 4!). That said of course as always mentioned on TP : Each case is different!!
Yanni - surprised we have not met iduring our / your Emsworth wandering. Guess you are at Emsworth surgery? There some docs there who do understand dementia and my wife's female doc is an absolute treasure. The nurses and consultant at the Havant Clinic have always stressed their availability in between the 9-monthly appointments, and I have found that they do mean it and respond. The consultant was very amenable to try different meds. The Altzheimers Soc Cafe at Hayling Island Community Centre is also a good place for carers to let it all hang out - meets 2nd Weds em 1330. An activity is organised for our "charges". (BTW what is correct term? Patients / sufferers / ?? I always get a bit stuck... How about "the beloveds?!)
Am rambling how - tiredness wins - blessing to all.
Frank68
Thank you Frank for your response. We go to the Alzheimer's memory café in Havant but OH refuses to leave my side. He has (under protest) one day a week at a day centre (I pay for this) and 2 x 3 hour sessions through the Take a Break Scheme in Hants. He goes to bed at 11.30 (has a sleeping pill) and is up at 5 a.m. He follows me around, difficult to go to the loo on my own, except when he disappears, without warning, for one of his rambles. I have a tracker so can usually find him but he has no interest in doing anything except standing about 6 inches away from me. I am at my wits end. I do get a visit monthly through the memory clinic but though they are very helpful, there is not a lot they can offer.
OH's GP is not much use and to get an appointment with the doctor I assume you are referring to we have to wait for 5 weeks. I know I sound negative but he has been diagnosed for nearly five years and because he has no other health problems I can see no end to this. I would welcome anybody's thoughts/suggestions. He also gets aggressive and shouts though he hasn't hit me yet, I think it's a matter of time. What to do?
OH's GP is not much use and to get an appointment with the doctor I assume you are referring to we have to wait for 5 weeks. I know I sound negative but he has been diagnosed for nearly five years and because he has no other health problems I can see no end to this. I would welcome anybody's thoughts/suggestions. He also gets aggressive and shouts though he hasn't hit me yet, I think it's a matter of time. What to do?
Tuffydawn I really feel for you. My OH feels the need to go to bed at 9pm and sleeps all night, apart from getting up to the bathroom around 3am, and gets up at 7.30am. By 9.30am he is absolutely exhausted and goes to bed and sleeps until lunchtime. By 3pm he is on his knees again and has to go back to bed, staying there until about 5.30pm. He had been taking Mirtazapine for some years for mild depression and as an aid to help him sleep. The doctor from the memory clinic decided that this medication was the cause of his sleeping problem, so reduced the dose for 4 weeks, another reduction for 2 weeks and now no medication at all. It has made absolutely no difference at all except that he does complain of feeling low and I have noticed that his memory is becoming worse. We have another appointment for a review in 6 weeks time, heaven knows what he will be like then.
I wish I could offer a panacea, but I can't. It's only here on TP, that we understand how difficult the life of a carer can be, and so utterly exhausting. Could you consider a second session at the Day Centre? I couldn't have carried on, without John attending Day Centres, eventually, every day except Sunday. And if I had found one open on a Sunday, I would have taken him there too.
I paid for these, but it meant I had a few hours a day to catch up on sleep, as otherwise I would have just burnt out. I think the aggressiveness and shouting is often due to complete frustration, confusion and fear, and my motto became "go with the flow". Sending cyber hugs xxx
That's all you can do is go with the flow really. My wife sleeps a lot during the day n is up all night, trouble is I have to be up at times during the day n night with her and our older cat who has to have medication three times a day for his hyperthyroidism n breathing n pain problems.
I did read somewhere that the sleeping patterns of of sufferers can change quite a bit n reading the above n together with my experience of it it seems to be very true.
I have to be there for both of them when they need me to be, so try to snatch some sleep when wife is asleep n 1st cat meds has been given! Tired n exhausted most of the time, but little sleep that I have seems to get me by ok.
Being happy n prepared to do what I have to for them both it gives me the strength to carry on regardless
Sent today
I did read somewhere that the sleeping patterns of of sufferers can change quite a bit n reading the above n together with my experience of it it seems to be very true.
I have to be there for both of them when they need me to be, so try to snatch some sleep when wife is asleep n 1st cat meds has been given! Tired n exhausted most of the time, but little sleep that I have seems to get me by ok.
Being happy n prepared to do what I have to for them both it gives me the strength to carry on regardless
Sent today
