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

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..