Excessive Sleeping

May 4, 2012

I know everyone who's loved one with dementia probably goes through this point,

but my Mom, who has dementia(not confirmed LBD but I suspect it is) is sleeping

pretty much all day into the early evening. Sometimes she doesn't get out of bed

until 10:30 in the morning. It takes her an hour or so to eat breakfast, then

she is washed up and dressed by her aide, then she sits in her recliner chair in

the den and sleeps there. She is woken up for lunch, again takes a while to

eat(either soup or egg salad sandwich) goes back to sleep after lunch until

dinner, then after dinner goes back sleep or just has eyes closed...she gets her

pajamas on after dinner, but then the last couple of weeks she is more alert in

the later evening, she can now stay up until 10 or 11 pm. My dad says she is

awake, I don't know just how awake she is, but I guess she opens her eyes more

in the late evening..during the day she is either sound asleep or eyes closed

and out of it. When I come in during the day, she barely even says hello. Or

its just hello and back to sleep. No talking. Even in the evening she is barely

talking. She watches only one show, Army Wives. Its really the only things she

will attempt to see, and she's seen them all over and over and over again.

The Dr does not want to mess with her medication dosages because every time that

happens she takes a turn for the far worse. She can become delusional and

hallucinates, becomes OCD etc. But there is just no way to wake her up...no

matter how much you ask her to stay awake she just can't. What has anyone

experienced with this kind of situation?

I have suggested to my Dad that now is the time he will need 24/7 care for her,

the aide leaves before she goes to bed because she has been there so long...my

dad feels bad and lets her go home, but then he has to handle the bedtime

routine alone and it is getting difficult for him to handle. He is exhausted.

Then he needs to get up early to do his own activities and let the aides in.

I would welcome any advice. Does this sound like end stage symptom? She is also

totally incotinent. She only wakes up for meals because she is made to. I don't

think she has an interest in eating.

May 4, 2012

This sounds very, very familiar to me. My Dad sleeps about 18 hours a day;

we wake him for meals, otherwise he'd probably prefer to just keep

sleeping. His schedule goes something like this - up at 9:30 for a

breakfast that takes about an hour for him to get through. He needs total

help with all of his ADL's and then goes back to bed from about 11:30-2:00.

We get him up for late lunch (another hour long process) then I do light

exercises with him before he goes back down for a nap around 4:00. We wake

him around 7:00 for dinner, then he's usually back in bed by 9:00, at which

time he sleeps all night with very little moving or waking until we get him

up again the next morning to go through the same routine all over again.

A little more background - Dad also has very severe macular degeneration

and is legally blind, so at times doctors etc. attributed his withdrawal

and wanting to sleep to boredom. I now know that so much of that

withdrawing and sleeping is the disease. I get tired of people trying to

tell us we should offer more stimulation and try to keep him awake. It's

just not possible, he's practically nodding off in the middle of activities

and just can't stay focused on anything. He does get interested in

listening to certain sporting events, but even that is becoming less and

less. He never remembers the outcome because he's usually half dozing.

I've been very quiet here but read this forum daily. I'm just so deep into

the caregiving that I don't have time to post - this, however prompted me

to make time because it's the first time I read of such a similar sleep

scenario.

Is your Mom able to ambulate on her own? Dad isn't, so that means that he

only gets up when we transfer him.

I think I'm needing this forum more and more so will take the time to

formally introduce myself soon. Until then, know that I'm (unfortunately)

part of this roller-coaster club. Thank you to all who take the time to

share their experience.

Debbie

May 4, 2012