Hi Everyone. Just a quick thought. A number of people on previous posts have mentioned sun downing. In fact this was mentioned to me when I first wrote, worried about my mum and her fits of depression in the evening and restlessness. We are now learning to deal with the situation and offer diversions etc. However, on a recent morning programme a homeopathic doctor was talking to someone with depression and mentioned a seratonin supplement that he thought might help. Has anyone else looked into this? Obviously I would check into its use before giving to my mum because of the hundreds of other medications she is on at the moment! Or am I taking the "sun downing" terminology too literally?
Sun Downing
- Thread starter Kerry
- Start date
I never really had a decent explanation of what sundowning is, though the effects for Jan were clear.
One Harley Street consultant had recommended increasing the lighing levels at home and perhaps to put in one of those special fluorescent panels as she thought Jan might be suffering from SAD. This was way before she was formally diagnosed with dementia, and before the sundowning began [as far as I recall].
So often I had to experience and interpret what Jan was going through because no-one else seemed to have any idea, and quite inappropriate text book passages were quoted to me by medical people who seemingly had never experienced someone with dementia at first hand for any period.
My reading on the sundowning was that it was related to Jan sensing the time of day somehow. As this happened summer and winter, I don't think it can have been the light levels. She was as far as I know pretty oblivious to reading clocks by this time. It never happened in the mornings, only ever between 3pm and 6pm. Maybe I should have varied our routines more.
When she sensed the time was getting late, I think her body would be taken over by a natural homing instinct - she had to try and get wherever she thought home and safety was, before dark. Despite having lived in our house for 10-12 years, that was not home any longer, she was certain of that. Often she would say that her mother and father would be worried about her. They had died many years before.
For me, diversions worked only to a point. Only medication worked, and that had to be something that could be slipped into a drink. In the later stages even the subterfuges I used to encourage her to have the drink ["wow, I'm very thirsty! Do you want a drink as well?"] worked only sometimes.
I think the dread of knowing that sometime in the next hour the sundowning would probably begin was one of the worst things. It happened very quickly, and there were no easy early signs from Jan. I knew I had to get that drink into her as soon as possible, and that it would take about half an hour to work. Until then I would have to batten down my hatches and accept whatever happened.
It is worth trying anything that is safe for the patient to alleviate the worst parts of sundowning, because it is sheer torture for them as well.
One Harley Street consultant had recommended increasing the lighing levels at home and perhaps to put in one of those special fluorescent panels as she thought Jan might be suffering from SAD. This was way before she was formally diagnosed with dementia, and before the sundowning began [as far as I recall].
So often I had to experience and interpret what Jan was going through because no-one else seemed to have any idea, and quite inappropriate text book passages were quoted to me by medical people who seemingly had never experienced someone with dementia at first hand for any period.
My reading on the sundowning was that it was related to Jan sensing the time of day somehow. As this happened summer and winter, I don't think it can have been the light levels. She was as far as I know pretty oblivious to reading clocks by this time. It never happened in the mornings, only ever between 3pm and 6pm. Maybe I should have varied our routines more.
When she sensed the time was getting late, I think her body would be taken over by a natural homing instinct - she had to try and get wherever she thought home and safety was, before dark. Despite having lived in our house for 10-12 years, that was not home any longer, she was certain of that. Often she would say that her mother and father would be worried about her. They had died many years before.
For me, diversions worked only to a point. Only medication worked, and that had to be something that could be slipped into a drink. In the later stages even the subterfuges I used to encourage her to have the drink ["wow, I'm very thirsty! Do you want a drink as well?"] worked only sometimes.
I think the dread of knowing that sometime in the next hour the sundowning would probably begin was one of the worst things. It happened very quickly, and there were no easy early signs from Jan. I knew I had to get that drink into her as soon as possible, and that it would take about half an hour to work. Until then I would have to batten down my hatches and accept whatever happened.
It is worth trying anything that is safe for the patient to alleviate the worst parts of sundowning, because it is sheer torture for them as well.
Hi Kerry,
may be this will help
http://www.alzla.org/dementia/sundowning.html
Kind regards
Charlie...
may be this will help
http://www.alzla.org/dementia/sundowning.html
Kind regards
Charlie...
Brucie said:
this is almost exactly what my mum has got. slightly different in that we have lived in the same house for 37 years mum goes on about bernard will be wondering where i am (i'm bernard), she goes on about how she can't sleep in a strange bed
this is getting harder to cope with. for a while I would take her for walks saying I was taking her home. now she asks me to keep on walking as home isn't much further.
what is the medication you refer to?
Hi Bernard
sorry to hear you are having the problems too.
Jan was in this situation 4-5 years ago and a lot has happened since then.... in other words, I'm not sure I will recall which we used, as I had a vast cabinet of different medications for her for a while. The medication had to be liquid for me to be able to slip it into a drink.
Absolutely the best bet is to explain the situation to her GP or consultant and they should know what would be most appropriate for her.
sorry to hear you are having the problems too.
Jan was in this situation 4-5 years ago and a lot has happened since then.... in other words, I'm not sure I will recall which we used, as I had a vast cabinet of different medications for her for a while. The medication had to be liquid for me to be able to slip it into a drink.
Absolutely the best bet is to explain the situation to her GP or consultant and they should know what would be most appropriate for her.
