sleep patterns off

Elshack

DH has been sleeping off and on most of the day. When I put him to bed around 10:30 p.m. he gets up a few times during the night wanting to make coffee since he thinks it is morning. In addition to this he has explosive diarrhea from Crohn's disease ( or maybe because he is at stage 6.5 on the FAST scale) I just recently became familair with the FAST scale that is  used by Hospice to see where one is on the Dementia/ Alzheimer's scale. 

Of course this up in the wee hrs is affecting my sleep too. Any advice would be appreciated.

mommyandme (m&m)

Hello, I’m sorry you’ve not been responded to yet.  I actually haven’t experienced this issue but I know many here do.  Did you also post this on the spouse/partner caregiver forum?  I hope you can get some answers soon.

CatsWithHandsAreTrouble

I'm curious for some input too. Like how to know when adjusting their daily routine vs medication is needed to correct sleep issues. I just took a quick peek at the solutions resource and nothing seemed to mention sleeping. Which is odd there isn't a stand-alone section seeing how common across the board dementia disrupts sleep for everyone. Maybe I just missed it.

​fesk

Elshack, there could be many things affecting sleep. Review all medications to see if there is anything that the doctor can adjust so he is not sleeping so much during the day. Are there activities he can engage in to help keep him awake during the day? Is is possible that he can get out for fresh air and sunlight? Can he still walk or participate in exercise? The more active (physical and mental) during the day, the better the sleep will be. 

Also, you may want to look into cutting back on water later in the evening to help with not waking up too much at night. You can use lavender essential oil in the early evening too. I use a diffuser with this and it seems to help.

My advice would be to look at routine and medications and see what adjustments can be made. If all that fails, then I would speak to the doctor to see if melatonin can be added. If that isn't successful, the doctor may prescribe something else to help.