Screams At Night

CindyBum

My DW has now had a few loud screaming events at night. She doesn’t remember if she has had a nightmare, but thinks she has.

None of her meds list this as a side effect. Is this another of the joyous things that can come with dementia? Anyone else here experience this and found any solution?

Cardenas1816

My DH with EOAD has night terrors about 3 times a week where he punches, kicks and sometimes yells. I was told that often times pst traumatic events resurface with dementia.

CindyBum

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/245766#Comment_245766

Yeah. I was worried about that. I’m just glad she doesn’t seem to remember them.

SDianeL

my DH would wake up having delusions and hallucinations. He would jump out of bed. Not sure if he was dreaming though. I would speak to the doctor to see if they should change her meds. One thing I did read was to limit TV and movie watching to calm things for dementia patients. Don’t have the news on or watch movies with too much action. I think that might have triggered my DH hallucinations.

GothicGremlin

I'm sorry @CindyBum — my sister did this as well. It didn't start until sometime in stage 6. The only thing that helped was anti-psychotics and we didn't want to do that too soon, so we endured. Like your DW, my sister didn't remember her night time screams.

@Cardenas1816 - we wondered about that with my sister too. She was also EOAD. If there was past trauma in her life, I was unaware of it. Our childhoods were unremarkable, so if anything happened it must have been when she was an adult. In the end we never figured it out.

Iris L.

I echo avoiding the news and all scary or dramatic TV content. Surround your PWD with calmness and comfortableness.

Iris