New here and looking for tips

Bygrace

Hi, My mom, now 63, was diagnosed with Early onset. The symptoms became evident rapidly after May of last year. Honestly, I came to this forum shortly after that time in an effort to learn as much as possible and was instantly depressed by what I had been reading and felt like "I can't do this right now." Now, about a year later, I'm back. Perhaps a bit more tired and desperate then before. My mom lives with myself, wife, and 3 kids (two of which are teenagers...just to spice it up a bit). I'm currently looking through these forums for advice on helping my mom understand that it is time to sleep when it's dark outside. She had been in a nice routine for the longest time but then, about 2 months ago, she started to seemingly lose the concept of time altogether. We were all getting more and more concerned because she would show up on a few super late nights when the kids were up late in the house, fully dressed and ready to start the day around 2am. I have reviewed my concern with her to the extent she could understand and she was also ok with me putting a camera in her living room. (I built a suite attached to our house). We have had it for two nights and it is worse than I expected. She sleeps for about an hour and then wakes up, gets dressed, wanders around her suite a bit, sits on her sofa and stares, lays on the sofa and proceeds to nap for about 45 mins then repeats the process (minus getting dressed again, sometimes for less of a napping period). This happens until 4-5am and then stays awake for the rest of the day. Any thoughts on how to help? She says she feels fine and clearly has no idea what has happened the next day.

M1

Welcome to the forum. Fragmentation of sleep is a common occurrence with dementia and it has to do with brain damage to the reticular activating system in the brainstem that controls wakefulness. Medication is your best bet, it's not something that would respond to reasoning (and in general, she can't reason any more anyway so it's best not to try as it will just frustrate both of you). Talk to her doctor, there are several medications that might help. My partner takes 25 mg of Seroquel in the evening and it's worked like a charm for over three years now.

Bygrace

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/219366#Comment_219366

Thanks @M1, I appreciate the feedback and recommendations! I'll take a look at the Seroquel and keep discussing with the doctor. So true about remembering reasoning not only not an option but, in fact, a setback. Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

kblau

thank you! I just posted about something similar going on with my mom and I will look into seroquel as well.

Just out of curiosity does your mom sleep during the day now?