dream walking

baycity

I am new to this site so bear with me. My father in law has had multiple times where he wakes up, usually early morning, apparently from a dream and its like he is awake but still in dream.  Going somewhere, meeting someone, has to do something.  He will tell you what he is doing, communicates, but even as we tell him there is no one here it takes a while to get him convinced he is just dreaming.  Usually we get him to understand it was just a dream, and get him back to bed, he will sleep longer than usual. Seems to be having these dreams more frequently.  Haven"t seen any info on this on site, so was just wondering if this was connected to Alzheimers or something different. Thank you.

LaurenB

It's part of the disease process.  My mom will frequently tell us that she must have dreamed about something as a way to cover when she says something that my stepdad says never happened.  Their brains are doing the best that they can to make sense of the information that they are aware of.

Rescue mom

It’s the disease. You are fortunate, so to speak, to be able to convince him he’s dreaming. Many insist it’s reality, and to them, it is. Their brains are broken. They often have delusions or a different reality. You can learn how to deal and soothe them.

Paris20

People with Alzheimer’s process information very slowly. When my husband watches a TV program, he thinks the commercial is just a continuation of what he’d been watching. When the program is over, he asks me why I changed the channel because he wanted to see how the story ended. It may be that when dreaming, the person with Alzheimer’s has to catch up with the dream before reality sets in. I know that for some, especially at later stages, those distinctions can’t be made but I wait a few moments after the confusion sets in to try to recapture reality.

Julie12873

I feel so deeply for your situation as that is how things seemed to start with my mother and having delusions. 

For about a year now my mother would get up from sleeping and carry out tasks such as making coffee for my dad (who passed almost 6 years ago) or acting or continuing on with whatever was happening in her dream...

About 3 weeks ago thing suddenly got worse... My mother called me and told me that my dad was in her apartment and there were other people there and they were talking to her. She seen snakes and birds in her apartment as well. She would assure me that she knew they weren't real but it was bothering her.

Last week I get a call. The people in her apartment will not go away now when she tells them they are not real or she tries to touch them. I take her to her doctor who refers us to the ER ti have testing to rule out underlaying medical issue. They did blood, urine, and MRI and say all appears normal yet things remain the same. She even sees a bag moving and drawing u as though it is breathing while I am with her and insuring her that it is not. She tells the doctor that she can see and hear it, but that she knows it is not real.

Today she calls... She tells me my dad is under her bed with a kitten and she can't get him to come out or leave. She says she made him mad because she told him that she knows that he is not real. She says there are other people there too but the one bothering her the most is dad. She says she just wants him to leave because she knows he is dead and he would not have faked it and lied to her. She continued and then then asks... He is not really there, right? I know you will tell me the truth. 

So now she is questioning if it is real or not. I don't think the doctor takes it serious because she says she knows it is not real, but she is getting really scared now and it worries me as she lives alone, she drives, and everything. She will not come to my house as she says she doesn't need too. She says she has got to make sure the doctors know that she doesn't believe it is real because she doesn't want to be forced into a home. I am an only child so no real support other then my husband and my children who are just as lost as I am.

I am scared for her and the people in the apartments and on the roads around her but without the support of the doctors, I don't know what I can do about it. 

I hope that you have better support rom the medical community and family. I am looking for any advise or just the ability to share so I, and those who read my story know that they are not the only one facing this type of situation.

Wishing you well....

Srwill175

I'm new here too. And so many things in this post ring true to me. Mom got up in the night to use the bathroom the night before last..the one she doesn't usually use and fell. We had to call fire and rescue to help us get her up (So glad we have a Lifeline and that she tbought to push the button) When I asked why she used that one she said she was teaching a class next door. And she didn't get a chance to dismiss them. She was worried about the kids..said they had to be so scared. I just said the kids were just fine. Nothing to worry about. That seemed to calm her anxiety about it.  It's like a continuation of a dream that lingers when she wakes up. Some days she shakes it off easier than others. 

The comment about the tv commercial. Hit the nail on the head with that one.

 Honestly I'm an emotional wreck anyways. But hearing these things from other people that are exactly what's going on in my house..just made me realize I'm not alone. Friends that don't have parents with ALZ can listen but cannot really truly understand. Going to cry myself to sleep now and pray for a good day tomorrow.  

JJAz

What you're describing is highly suggestive of REM Behavior Sleep Disorder which is a symptom of Lewy Body Dementia.  If he has LBD, it's critical that it's diagnosed because these patients are very sensitive to certain medications (primarily neuroleptics) and serious problems can results.

  https://www.lbda.org/symptoms-2/#sleep