Sundowning

[Rustcookie]

Hi my mother law again sorry, she sun downs every day for about 4 hours at a night and it gets pretty full on. She cries, paces, moans, burps, and acts very weird for the entire time. My question is I have tried to distract her and to change the pattern but it never works she just continues doing it, so do I just ignore her outbursts or do I carry on trying to distract her as I feel like I am banging my head against a brick wall at the min.
Currently she is pacing and crying and moaning so not sure what to do, thank you

 

[Tin]

Hard one, When my mum was sundowning for hours everyday I just could not distract her, in the end I just had to ignore, sometimes go to my bedroom and hope it would stop soon, but it can be heart breaking to watch and guilt ridden thinking you should be doing something. So if you are sure that there is no infection causing this behaviour, try to ride it out and keep your head away from any walls!

 

[Rustcookie]

Thank Tin I thought I was doing the right thing ignoring it, but as you said it is so hard to ignore her especially when she does the crying thing. I will just watch as she gets unsteady on her feet the longer it goes on and then she falls, there is no infection she was only checked the other day, unfortunately it's something she does every day no matter how she is feeling xx

 

[Shedrech]

Hi Rustcookie
That's tough on everyone
Do you have some support?
Maybe see her GP in case a tweak in her meds or new meds would help her be more settled.

 

[Tin]

That's exactly what I do. Mum's sundowning is not as frequent these days, but when it does happen there are some physical things I have to watch out for. The kick start is a massive amount of wandering in and out of the house, I let it go until I see that there is some leaning to one side and so I lock the front door and keep an eye on her because she is at risk of falling over. I keep the tv or favourite divd on because this sometimes stops her in her tracks for a short time or at least keeps her in the same room with me. To stop the leaning, all she has to do is sit down for 5 minutes!!!!