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Sleeping is increasing

blacksparky
blacksparky Member Posts: 204
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in Caring For a Spouse or Partner

My DW has been sleeping 10-13 hours a day. Until recently this sleeping has been all together. Bed at 5:00pm and up between 3:00-5:00am. Of course a couple of times each night to wander the house and return to bed. We were up this morning at 4:00am and it is now 1:00pm and she has already tucked herself in for the night. Based on her normal sleeping times, we will be up around midnight or so. Do you think our LO’s go to bed because they need to rest their brains or is it due to just boredom?

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  • starwood
    starwood Member Posts: 37
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    At first I thought the daytime sleep was due to boredom, but my DH will drift off in the midst of family conversation or even when seemingly engaged in a particular TV program. When I start waking him in the morning, he will appear awake and respond to my questions/comments, but will fall back asleep if I leave the room for a few minutes. I’ve decided the excessive sleeping is related to the disease progression. I read somewhere that as the disease progresses and the person becomes weaker, it takes much more energy and effort to sort out what’s going on around them, to do simple things like eating, talking, etc. At the end of the day almost every day, my DH will say he is exhausted or is dragging…even though all he’s done is sit in his wheelchair in front of the TV and have his meals.

  • jgreen
    jgreen Member Posts: 269
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    Hi @blacksparky

    My DH is also increasing number of sleep hours. I attributed most of this to him being around friends, change in routine, or reading technical documents and his brain is ‘tired’. When I did a quick ‘google search’ the few links I reviewed said this excess sleeping could be due to brain changes, meds, not being active, change in routine, and not getting outside in natural light. It could be a combination.

    Sources also noted this is common as disease progresses and affects the part of the brain with the body’s internal clock. And of course we need to take all of this with a little skepticism as sites were commercial (.com) and not a scientific source.

    If worried, check with your provider.

    Sorry about your interrupted sleep at night. Mine is interrupted too - DH carries on fairly long and detailed conversations with people in his sleep! He’s even jumped out of bed a couple of times in past few weeks to find his phone to take a picture! When I check his phone the next morning it has been a selfie!

    Always something with this awful disease!

  • SDianeL
    SDianeL Member Posts: 3,155
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    It’s common for people with dementia to sleep a lot, especially during the day, due to brain changes disrupting sleep cycles, increased energy needed for daily tasks, or medication side effects. I don’t think technically it’s due to boredom since they can’t reason.

    .

  • mwoolley
    mwoolley Member Posts: 18
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    I am seeing very similar issues with my wife, who has FTD. I wake her up most days at 5:00 pm to go to dinner in our senior retirement facility. After we return from dinner she will watch the local and national news with me but starts telling me she is sleepy and wants to rest in the bedroom. Once there, she goes to sleep for the night. She gets up in the middle of the night sometimes to watch TV then returns to bed. When I try to address her inverted sleep cycle she says she is just too bored to get up yet we have at least six community activities to choose from each day, and those change every day. I have read that this is how FTD patients die. They just sleep and eventually don't wake up.

    Friends and medical professionals offer suggestions on how to reverse her sleep cycle but she will not cooperate. She is in denial most of the time. I find that logical solutions do not work for an illogical situation.

  • CindyBum
    CindyBum Member Posts: 680
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    Oh yes. The increased sleeping, as I’ve seen with both my MIL and FIL who had dementia, is pretty common. From what I could see, it was exhaustion from trying to figure out the world and just getting weaker. For my MIL, I also think she got more and more depressed. She asked all of her children to help her die the last 6-7months of her life. She was just done with it all.

    Hugs.

  • El1942
    El1942 Member Posts: 14
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    my DH seems to require 12-16 hours of sleep a day. I am a restless sleeper anyway, so I am lucky to get 6 continuous hours of sleep whenever I can grab them. It’s lonely. But I try to get chores done, bills paid, quick 1/2 hour errands, leaving a note my his am pills. For caregivers, it is a study in living well in isolation. Family and friends have their own lives and do not understand.

  • Biggles
    Biggles Member Posts: 729
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    How true and wise all that you say is. Also I like and have taken on board “a study in living well in isolation” I’ve never thought of it like that but that is exactly what it is. Family and friends do have their own lives and don’t understand. Thank you for that insight.

Commonly Used Abbreviations


DH = Dear Husband
DW= Dear Wife, Darling Wife
LO = Loved One
ES = Early Stage
EO = Early Onset
FTD = Frontotemporal Dementia
VD = Vascular Dementia
MC = Memory Care
AL = Assisted Living
POA = Power of Attorney
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