My aunt, who has been living with me since October, complains she is tired around 8.30pm, so I take her to bed and tuck her in. From half an hour after that, to when she gets up at 11am the following morning, she picks up her alarm clock every 5 minutes throughout the night to check the time. She does not have dementia, and is in fact very much all there, but I am wondering if this may be the start of it. At most she may get 45 mins solid sleep twice a night. I have a baby camera in the room in case she gets up and falls over because her mobility is poor. I ask her in the morning if she slept and she always says yes, that she has slept well. But if she Is not picking up the alarm clock, she is always touching her head with her left hand, and if not doing that, she is counting her fingers on her left hand.
She has started napping in the day, but wakes up shouting her dead sisters name and we have to calm her down. There is no way I can take the alarm clock away because that would cause an argument and she is always right (in her head). Has anyone else come across this odd behaviour?
It sounds like a phenomenon called "sundowning". Google that term and see if it fits.
I will Google sundowning. Thank you for that
That aside, you could get her a physical and ask the dr for something to help her sleep. There are many sleep aids that do not have 'next day grogginess' issues.
It sounds as if she is a little too focused on the passage of time. IDk what causes this--but overall mental slippage has a lot of things going on.
My MIL is on a low dose anti anxiety med during the day, which she takes when she gets anxious or upset (everyday) and at bedtime--about 9 pm, she takes a pretty hefty dose of Xanax and a small glass of wine. She sleeps all night long, most of the time. No one is there with her, so if she does get up, she is able to get herself back to bed. She sleeps about 14 hrs at night.
There is always the concern about the patient waking, getting up and wandering, but you kind of have to take the 'what if's' along with what is.
Your aunt it not hitting on all cylinders, and that's normal in early onset dementia.
IDK how many times I have heard "My LO is sharp as a tack' and then goes on to describe behaviors that are most assuredly NOT supportive of that.
Time for a cog eval and some judicious use of calming meds. If she's really waking all night long, she's not getting proper rest and that makes everything harder.
She may not sleep fitfully at night because of the napping. She's napping because she isn't getting sufficient sleep. It becomes a circular problem. Are you willing/able to find "tasks" for her to help you with during the day? We had my 100-yr old Aunt with dementia folding stacks of kitchen towels, reading to us out loud, pedaling a portable foot pedal machine while watching tv, walk to the mailbox, and play card and board games with whatever rules she wanted. This helped her get off of the Tylenol PM.
But I agree with others that you need to start with an accurate diagnosis and baseline check-up. Are you her PoA? If not, is anyone? She needs to assign this very important legal representative. You aren't obligated to be it, but if she's living in your house and declining fast, it will be necessary for her PoA to help make decisions legally for her because if she has no PoA and is not cooperative about leaving your home... many on this forum have been there and done that.
She should get checked for a UTI, thyroid problem, dehydration, vitamin deficiency, and other problems that have dementia-like symptoms but are treatable.
I find it interesting how there's almost a stigma around, about labeling the "dementia" diagnosis, and for our elderly LO's to hear that diagnosis. And even some doctors say " oh no, don't worry, you DON'T have dementia". ok fine, then they label it "mild cognitive impairment, not dementia". ok fine. but "mild cognitive dementia" then is meaningful too, and it means they have some issues, even if not called the "D word",.
Also, people talk about "dementia" sometimes as being an all or nothing thing. Even on this thread sometimes its like either someone is "no dementia" or "full on severe dementia". But dementia is on a scale, from mild to severe, and there are many types of different dementias too, from what I've been reading.
As someone else alluded, I think at age 94, even if very sharp overall, I would be surprised if someone at 94 did not have at least "mild cognitive impairment" type stuff if they were formally tested. That would be quite unusual to be at age 94 with no decline at all, no?