Sundowner dementia

13jane

Hello

I'm new to this and thank anyone in advance who takes the time to respond. It can be quite a frightening experience alone.

My mother gets very agitated at night. She's very restless. In and out of bed etc. She take quetiapine to help with agitated state. Does anyone have any trick to help settle their loved one or dementia client?

Jane x

ButterflyWings

Hi Jane,

Welcome to the club we wish we didn't need or belong to. But it is a super kind and knowledgable group so you are in the right place at least. We started with a 25mg dose of Seroquel at bedtime and it was quickly increased to 50 mg before we saw some relief for my DH. As for sundowning, he has to take the meds before it kicks in, or we have problems.

I also keep liquid Melatonin on hand and his neuropsychologist approved of up to 10 mg as needed, to calm his immediately, and even help him sleep through the night.

Others will come along with more ideas. I hope this info helps! 

M1

Hi Jane. Have you checked with the doctor about the dose? There’s a wide range, and hers may need to be increased. Or sometimes it may take a different drug-none work for everyone unfortunately

MN Chickadee

Sundowning and sleep disturbances are extremely common with dementia. I would say most of us who have some success on this front do so with meds. Sometimes it takes time to find the right one and dose. I would tell the prescribing doctor the current one is not working and see what can be done. It is very important to try to work this out with a doctor and find the right med. Both for her quality of life, because being that agitated every single day must really not be fun, and because lack of sleep does a number on caregivers. It is often a reason for either needing to move a PWD to a facility and/or leads to health issues for the caregiver. 

MattyBoy

this was QUITE a PROBLEM with my MOM...

in our case, the QUETIAPINE exacerbated the SITUATION, so we got her off of that...

what has come to work is... she takes MIRTAZAPINE at night... and we use a FEW DROPS OF LIQUID MELATONIN (sublingually!)...

i also... have an IPAD by her bed.... and i play YOUTUBE VIDEOS by the MINDFUL MOVEMENT... they have GREAT RELAXATION/SLEEP VIDEOS... (she doesn't watch them, she juts listens!)

this COMBO PLATTER (MIRTZ, MELA and MM) has been a HUGE HELP !!!!

i FEEL for you... the "SLEEPING THING" can be TACKLED... it DOES get better !!! and i NEVER would have believed that...

Mobile AL

Doctor started daddy on seroquel but after 2 weeks changed it to Haldol (haloperidol). It seems to work much better. Daddy was getting very agitated and restless, constantly pulling off his clothes and trying to get out of bed.

kyronae

My mom has sundowners as well. We started eating earlier, and making sure we got her daily meds and any visits in before 5pm. After that....unfortunately, it's very much trial and error. Sometimes, so long as she had enough food and her meds before it kicked in, she'd have an easy night and mostly sleep. Sometimes she'd become sad or agitated once it was later. Sometimes she'd walk.

Keep talking with your doctors and with your LO (as much as possible), and play with schedules and meds that help you both rest.

If you are able to bring in outside help, consider having them devote more hours at night instead of during the day, so if your LO is agitated they can watch them and spend time with them while you get some rest. If that's not an option, do try to give yourself time and permission to nap during the day if you weren't able to rest the night before because you had to be attentive. Sleeplessness is a real problem for caretakers and you can only help them if you're taking care of yourself.

I hope you find a combination that works for you, soon 

Farm Gal

Mirtazapine has helped tremendously.  Our neurologist increased the amount and he is up to 30mg at night.  I didn't have really bad problems with sundowning but enough that I called the neuro and hence the increase.  Eventually we will have to go with Serequel I am sure.  

However, we also have very calm quiet evenings.  We eat at 5pm and he takes his evening meds at this time.  No phone calls or visits after 4pm.  I have been blessed that this routine has helped us and we have mostly quiet evenings and he sleeps well through the night.  

live in daughter

Hi Jane, my Mom had anxiety which usually started at around 3:00 pm most days. We had her on Seroquel but the agitation was not reduced. We then started Risperidone which was better at relieving some of her anxiety and agitation. We would give the dose around 2:30 pm each day prior to when her agitation would start. We would give Xanax for breakthrough anxiety. We would have to get the Xanax in early with anxiety or her anxiety would escalate quickly. She would also take Mirtazapine about an hour prior to bedtime.

 We also tried a variety of other things as well. We had a diffuser with lavender oil. We would keep the lights bright in the living room to avoid darkness. We also found that sometimes programs on TV would upset her. She liked Family Feud. Music at times helped to settle her as well.

Know those nights of anxiety and agitation can be very long for her as well as you. 

Hope this helps.

tracy224

Hi Jane,

We are just beginning with the consistent sundowning symptoms every night after my dad was hospitalized with a UTI. He starts getting agitated around 2pm.  Today his primary care doctor told me to give him 1/2 .5mg Lorazepam at 2pm. Then try him on Dayvigo at 8pm.  If that doesn't work, we're going to try the other half of the Lorazepam at 9pm.  Right now we are in the trial and error phase. It's exhausting. We were also approved to get skilled care in to help with the sundowning for a couple hours at night. 

I hope you find something to help your mom.  I'll let you know if we find something that helps my dad.

Take care

Tracy