Cycling behaviors

Allisonh74

My 91 year old father takes care of my 93 year old mother with dementia. For the past few weeks every afternoon at about 3:00 she starts a cycle of behaviors. First, she talks for 30 minutes, not making any real sense. Then she gathers some clothes and other items and tries to leave. At this point she doesn't recognize my dad as her husband. She has some sort of mission she has to go on and is adamant about leaving. This goes on for 30 -45 minutes with my dad blocking the door to keep her from leaving. Then it's like a switch flips and she is back to "normal" telling my dad how great he is. What is this? Any ideas to break the cycle? I thought my being there might have distracted her, but it did not.

SusanB-dil

Hi Allisonh - welcome to 'here', but sorry for the reason.

This behavior is called 'sundowning', and is not unusual. Sometimes it helps to distract with either some activity, or music, or even more natural light. Sometimes, unfortunately, I can't find anything that works, either. ugh.