Sundowning and agitation

RetiredTeacher

Can anyone help me with suggestions to help this. My husband hasn't slept through the night in 9ver 3 yrs. He is up/down, up/down all might ling. He goes in the bathroom at least 15x a night. He's now on Flowmaster which helps during the day but he claims he doesn't actually pee every tome he goes to the bathroom. It's more of a restlessness thing. I'm not sure if there's anything the dr can give him but he is nor sleeping and neither am I. He never gets to REM sleep and he dozes off very briefly throughout the day because he just can't keep his eyes open. Any suggestions?? We need help!

M1

Yes there are a number of medications that could help. Sleep fragmentation is a very real part of dementia. My partner has taken a low dose of Seroquel at bedtime for over two years and it had been very effective. Definitely talk to his docs.

RetiredTeacher

Tysvm! We both need to be able to get some sleep each night. We are so sleep deprived it's difficult to function. Ty. Will ask this week.

mabelgirl

M mom was on seroquel and still would get up in middle of night. Her doctor told us to try melatonin and it seems to have done the trick.

Anonymousjpl123

My mom has taken melatonin at night for years and they just added a low dose of seroquel. It has definitely helped with her anxiousness and agitation. I will say, I have also noticed increased confusion and difficulty with words, but that could be the disease progressing anyway. She is much less miserable now that she is getting sleep, and her sundowning is so much less.

CajunMama

My Dad is on a sleeping medication and it helps him and myself greatly. I have medical problems of my own and need to rest at night or I'm not able to help Dad during the day. As is I'm having a hard time taking care of him. His symptoms showed up and got hard to deal with , within a few months after he fell a year ago. I hope things get better for you and him. I believe your husband will have better days if he gets rest at night. It's helped Dad a good bit.

Lynn24

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/68654/sundowning-and-agitation

I agree, Seroquel has helped my mother as well. It is the only medication that has helped her sleep. She has always been an insomnia even before developing dementia, but Seroquel helps her sleep 6 to 8 hours every night.

Smilescountry

I so hope that you find an answer. My dad had two falls and broke his neck in a couple of different places and also had to have a partial hip replacement. Almost a year later, the neck has not healed. Therefore, the doctors do not want to give him any sleep medication because it could put him at a higher risk of falling. The facility where he is tries to keep him awake as much as possible during the day so that he will be more tired at night, and that helps some. He does take a a medicine for depression and another for memory. Although the memory medicine doesn't seem to do much with the memory, the two medicines together do help keep him fairly mellow without putting him at a higher risk of falling. When you mentioned your husband having to get up several times a night to go to the bathroom but not being able to do anything, I thought of my father-in-law. Many men have that kind of problem, but my father-in-law's problem was markedly worse because he had Parkinson's disease. Might be something to discuss with the neurologist.

mrsabaldwin

My mom is not sleeping at night even with Seroquel. Yesterday was the date to give her an increased dose of Aricept. I gave it at the same time as Seroquel. BIG MISTAKE. Mom was awake all night and added 8 times of getting up and walking around, yelling and banging on things. I read online that Aricept can cause insomnia and the reason docs prescribe it at night is that it can cause dizziness. Apparently I also shouldn’t give it with her beta blocker as well. Mercy. I’d rather have her sleep than have an improved memory because frankly she’s at a stage where there’s no remembering! Also, the insomnia makes her even meaner. Nothing like adding the agitation of dementia to an already unpleasant person and then throwing a lack of sleep on top of it. And this is a person with hypothyroidism so she should be tired all the time!

I am going back to Seroquel at night along with melatonin and giving her the Aricept in the morning. My entire household is exhausted from last night. And I really don’t want to go back down that road again. She was doing this before and it was exhausting to say the least. If anyone has any more tips for getting her to sleep at night, I would appreciate it so much!

Anonymousjpl123

My mom has seroquel and melatonin at night (no aricept). She also has hypothyroidism, hypertension and diabetes. “doing well” is a very relative term, but overall she is not miserable, is healthier than she has been, and is not up all night. I would definitely give the aricept in the morning and, truthfully, it seems a lot of people here’s LOs have not tolerated that medication well.

scoutmom405

I understand the struggle! My FIL has had insomnia & fragmented sleep about 1 yr now. He was on a low dose of seroquel [12.5mg] but that only put him to sleep 1 hour & then he'd be awake all night. Dr increased seroquel [25mg], it helped for 2 weeks & then it stopped working. Next step Dr suggested time released Melatonin. Tried it for 1 month with 0 effect. Dr increased his seroquel [50mg] & stopped Melatonin. He sleeps for about 4 hours shortly after 8pm dose. Up a couple hours then back 2 sleep til 7am. Agitation has gotten a lot better & the couple hours he's up from midnight to 2am, he mainly rummages in his room. I wish he could get a solid 8-10 hours but I'll take what I can get bc I was getting worried from his lack of sleep & basically no naps during the day. It caused his agitation to be high.

Hope you can find something to help.

Lynn24

My mother has same symptoms. I give her 125 mg Seroquel before bed along with 10 mg of melatonin to help her sleep. She consistently sleeps 7 to 8 hours each night. I give her 75 mg in the morning and 125 mg before bed