Caregiving "shift" ending at sundown and restarting at sunrise.

dancsfo

While each PWD is different and some stay up at any time in the evening, some PWD may want to go to sleep somewhat early, which is convenient if it avoids sundowning. So that may be around 8 pm in summer. This also gives a caregiver some time on their own later, in order to do personal tasks, such as paying bills, or household tasks that cannot be done during the day.

However, going to sleep early may mean waking up early, so a caregiver needs to wake up early too. This means your sleeping hours may be reduced, but there's really no way to avoid that.

A PWD may nap during the day too, so the total sleeping hours can be a lot in a 24-hour period. So I don't think we're trying to count the sleeping hours to keep that consistent.

Has anyone experimented with adjusting PWD waking hours to avoid sundowning, and to allocate yourself some personal time late in the evening?

One may need to make adjustments in winter, such as relying on lights since sunset is too early..

SusanB-dil

We go by her schedule. A PWD has their own sleep schedule. Although it would be ideal if we could adjust hers, I doubt it would be wise to attempt that.

dancsfo

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/213694#Comment_213694

Good point. I think it just happens that around 8 pm is the time for getting sleepy, but that just happens, and is beyond my control.

H1235

My mom lived with my brother who worked second shift up til a month ago. She was very much on his schedule. Didn’t get up til 11 went to bed very late. When we moved her to AL the schedule was much different. She has adjusted well, but we did not have any problems with sundowning. I think that might make a very big difference.

Quilting brings calm

This has been bothering me for a few days, so I finally decided to respond. Not all PWD go to bed early or stay in bed when they get there or get up at a decent hour. Lots of caregivers here are operating on little sleep and don’t have the free time to do those personal tasks you mention. Their ‘shift’ is 24/7.

dancsfo

Sorry, I didn't intend to make it a post that bothered you. I realize many caregivers operate on a "36-hour" day, as a book title says.