Sleep Issue

ljanebarton

Anyone have suggestions on how to improve sleep? My DH is awake often during the night. It doesn't generally disturb him (or me most of the time). If you ask him in the morning how he slept - he always says great, however he wears a fitbit so I can tell how restless he is. It's like he's awake for 10 minutes, sleeps for 10 minutes, etc. I don't want to medicate him, bit it's getting worse. He doesn't ask to get up and mostly just lays there, but then the next day it's difficult to keep him moving. Some of the things I've tried: Melatonin, meditation music (he's deaf in his left ear, so this doesn't work well), I put lavender lotion on the bottom of his feet before bedtime, I've diffused lavender, we've taped his vegas nerve (this actually worked for a short time). Kinda at the end of my rope.

White Crane

IJanebarton, I didn’t want to medicate my husband either, but it certainly does help. We’ve been having trouble lately, and I know he needs his dose adjusted, but adding melatonin to his Seroquel has been helping.

SDianeL

I give my husband a CBD isolate gummy (PCP & Neurologist said OK) and he takes the memantine & risperidone at night and that has been helping. The company I order the CBD gummies from is FAB. Be sure to ask his doctors.

Ed1937

Seroquel really helped my son, although he does not have dementia.

ImMaggieMae

If you don’t want to use medications, you’re probably doing all you can with meditation, aromatherapy and melatonin. Those didn’t work for us either. Risperidone, Gabapentin and melatonin keep him sound asleep for 8 to 9 hours.

ruthie

I can’t imagine not having meds for the night. Even with meds seroquel at times he sleeps only a couple of hours. It’s been rough

ljanebarton

ImMaggieMae - do those medications affect his daytime hours?

ImMaggieMae

Ijanebarton, before these medications he was agitated and bouncing off the walls for the better part of the day. (And night) His empathy disappeared. With them, Risperidone and Memantine in particular, his empathy returned. As far as other effects, we go to sleep about the same time every night and he sleeps soundly and wakes up about 9 hours later, pretty much like clockwork, regardless of sunrise. He’s ready to go downstairs and eat breakfast. He takes another dose of Risperidone mid morning. He also takes Memantine in the morning. When they first upped the dose of Memantine from 10mg once a day to 10mg twice a day, he would often nod off while sitting on the couch after breakfast for half an hour or so. He doesn’t usually do that anymore. He doesn’t take naps during the day other than an occasional nodding off for 10 minutes or so. Around 4:00 or 5:00 he has been sundowning for the past several months and gets very agitated, rocking back and forth, feeling cold and covering up when it’s warm in the room and often wanting me to sit and hold his hand. After trying Trazadone for the sundowning without much success, his doctor suggested a small dose of the Gabapentin which sometimes calms him and sometimes doesn’t do much. Having an early and substantial dinner often helps. Other distractions like walking or dancing don’t seem to help the anymore. Going for a ride doesn’t work either. But these things often change. The sundowning is usually over by 8:00 if not before.

These medications affect everyone differently, but while the memory loss is still there and progression continues, quality of life has greatly improved for us and for him.