Telling the time

[graybags]

Just wondering if anyone else has the problems that I do with my Dad and his increasing inability to tell the time, or more precisely to differentiate between am and pm !

Sounds harmless but results in endless calls, usually at about 6.00pm with my Dad asking me if he should be going to the papershop to get his paper. I've tried switching his various closks to displaying the time in 24hour format, have tried at length to explian the difference between am and pm and have also bought a speaking clock , but all to no avail !

Only the other day, I dropped him back home at about 5.00pm and within an hour he called to ask if he should be going to the shop to buy his paper.

I guess it dosen't help that with the longer daylight hours morning and evening can't be so easily told apart. I guess that logic just dosen't come into the equation any more and this is just another example of areas of my Dad's mind deteriorating, such a shame for a professionally qualified engineer who could probably still be capable of designing an aircraft wing !!

 

[BeckyJan]

One of the early signs of dementia with my husband was his clock reading. For ten past five, he would read twenty five minutes past ten - so he was mixing up small hand with large but not recognising the time of day.

Because I was with him it did not cause major problems but it must be hard for someone living alone.

Like your Dad my husband was also an extremely successful and competent man in his working life. It is so so sad.

 

[chucky]

Hello graybags, my dad was the same he couldnt understand why there was two of every hour in the day i.e. 2 x 1 o'clocks/2x 2 o'clocks,2x 3o'clocks etc and no matter how i tried to explain about am and pm he just couldnt grasp it. Time never registered with him and like you i would get phone calls at 2am asking for his dinner, or 6pm wanting to go to bed. I never resolved the issue. He has been in a CH now for 3 years and i have never heard him ask what time it is, im asssuming because time isnt relevant to him anymore. The only thing i can suggest is maybe turn the phone off at night, at least then you'll get some sleep although if youre like me, i spent the night wondering if he was in bed and still didnt sleep that well!

 

[Katrine]

Routine is the key

I haven't got an answer to your problem, as I suspect there isn't one. However, I notice with my MIL that although she has no idea what day it is, and that causes problems, she does manage to keep track of time to an extent by knowing that certain things in her day happen at specific times. Mainly meals, around which she structures her day.

When we have taken her away on holiday she has no idea of time at all, cannot remember whether she has eaten etc. because we have 'control' of her day. So even when we explain and remind throughout the day what has happened, Yes we had lunch at the cafe, now we're going shopping, then home to tea etc. she has no idea what is going on.

In her own home she just about manages, although she does sometimes miss meals if she falls asleep. My only recommendation for your Dad is to find a way to fix him back into his own routine once he gets home, or when you are leaving his house. So perhaps steer him towards whatever he would normally be doing at 5pm or 6pm. Surely he didn't go and buy a newspaper at 6am? It might even be worth creating a routine list (which you could laminate) giving the times that he normally does things, perhaps with an icon of a clock face next to the activity showing the relevant time? I know this might seem embarassing to you both, as if he is a baby, but he really does need to hang on to his routine.

We went round a few nights ago to MIL because she had pulled her telephone cables out of the wall and we needed to fix it urgently so she could use the phone in emergency. We arrived at 8.45pm and it was if if we were ghosts. She was moving round the house like an automaton, locking doors and windows, turning off the gas fire, etc. (all good by the way!) and was just dodging round us while she did these things. It was as if we weren't really there to her. So we left as quickly as we could while she was still happy to shut down the house before bed. We were so pleased to see that she was maintaining her routine, but it also made us see how easily we can knock it off track without realising it. For example, sometimes we have to phone her the night before a medical appointment to remind her. We now realise that we must do this before 8pm when she starts her shut down routines.

 

[Nebiroth]

Loss of time sense and an inability to read or comprehend clocks is quite common. We certainly went through it - my father would switch mornings and evenings, endlessly asked what the time was but would not believe what he was told - another common feature of dementia is that those with it will adopt a fixed idea of what is right and will not believe anything to the contrary.

I can tell you from experience that "practical solutions" like having easy-to-read clocks etc probably won't work, or if they do, it won't last for long.

The time-sense is gone, the ability to read and understand clocks is either gone or will go and it will all get forgotten anyway.

It's not for nothing that the MMSE examination includes questions about time and reading a clock.

It is one of the classic symptoms, being "lost in time" - not just day, month or year but time of day.

 

[Sue J]

Sense of time

Since having to give up work I have lost all sense of time, and yes I am aware it is not just because of that but because something else is wrong. I didn't want a watch, but as I am coming to terms with this I do want to do normal things - but really am struggling without a diagnosis and not knowing where to get help. I desperately want to get some sense of time and normaility back and the thought of that just deteriorating further is greatly distressing.

I do feel that if I was diagnosed and helped with some structured support and routine that things could be much better and I want to continue to be independent as long as possible - I need to - other prospects are too frightening.

The OT thread was interesting because I really do think there is much room for their skills in helping people to cope with these changes.

 

[sussexsue]

Most of the time my mum can still tell the time but cannot make sense of it. It is not unusual for her to go to bed and then be up and dressed an hour later.

However, strangley, if I write on her board that she has the hairdresser at 11:00 she will be dressed, coat and shoes on all ready to go. Likewise she has little concept of days, but on Monday evening she will keep asking if it is Alzheimers Club tomorrow. It makes no sense at all.

 

[graybags]

Hi, thanks for the responses, I'll give the list suggestion a try, hadn't even thought of something as simple as that. I think I'll also try and ease Dad to the 24hr system and swop his watch for a digital one set to 24hr mode so no danger of two 7.00am's etc. He does have a basic grasp of the 24hr system, but gets confused with that and more conventional time system.

 

[fredsnail]

Grandad has lost the concept of time - when we visit he always asks us what time it is and always replies - I thought it was nearly midnight - even though the sun is shining brightly outside.

He asked us one time and we replied 7.30 which he looked at the clock accross the room and said yes that says 7.30, then after a few minutes he said - see you said it was 7.30 that clocks wrong - that says 7.40.

He seems to understand what is a time eg half past, quarter past, but is unable to relate that to a time of day as in morning, afternoon or night. It does seem to cause problems at night because he creates a right racket if he thinks they've left him in bed past his normal getting up time and wakes the other residents.

He's recently decided that the clock accross the room must reset itself to European time and then change back to UK time when we arrive.

 

[graybags]

That sounds so much like my Dad, he can tell the time when it is on the hour,quarter or half past, but when the hands are between these sections he really struggles.

 

[xanadu777]

My wife has no sense of either day or time and I just accept that. The questions about both are endless (what day, what time?) and I treat each question as if it is the one and only and answer accordingly. When someone is severely memory impaired they live mainly in the present and each question, no matter how many times it is repeated, is to them the first time of asking. I have come to accept repetition as an inevitable part of our conversation due to my wife's illness and as what cannot be cured must be endured. I have learned to make my answers instinctive towards repetitive questions and this is a much less stressful way of coping. In a way it's a bit like someone saying Good Morning to you and you returning their greeting without too much thought taking place. Just a thought as it helps me and the easy replies makes my wife content.