My 83-year-old dad sleeps about 12 hours a day. Is this normal?

My mom is 86 and most days I would bet she is awake only 2-4 hours. She sleeps very late and then "naps" hours after lunch. Her doctor is not the least bit concerned. She claims she has nothing to do and is bored. No hobbies or interests of any kind. She has sitters everyday and this is the only reason she is awake at all.

He needs a reason to be awake. Let him get a job.

He may just need more mental stimulation. My mom slept all day when she was still at home, but once we had her in Memory Care, they had her on a schedule. She was up and dressed and at breakfast by 7:30, then they kept her in the common room where various activities were going on all day. She was in a wheelchair, so her location was at the will of the caregivers, but she expressed no desire to go take a nap with all the activity going on around her. She didn't necessarily participate actively, but there was always something to watch or music to listen to.

It's just about impossible to keep up that level of stimulation at home. Can Dad go to a senior center during the day to see if that engages his attention?

My mom (87) does this... she's got vascular dementia, broke her leg in two separate falls...had to move into AL 350 miles away from her very large home in another state to a very small 1 bedroom studio apartment; very lonely, extremely depressed, and actually bored. That's one reason she says she sleeps so much.

Mom has lost most everything that meant anything to her in her life....her husband, parents, friends (all are deceased), home, possessions, control over her finances, medical care, and her life basically. So sad... I think anyone in that position would just want to sleep to not have to think about it.

Her AL facility has all sorts of very good activities and things they offer for the residents to do. But mom isn't interested in doing any of them and typically refuses. Wants to just sit in her chair all day or sleep. She was brilliant but now can't remember anything sometimes even 5 minutes ago. Still has some long term memory, but it is fading.

Mom is taking medications for her depression and appetite etc. She does take vitamins, and we have her scheduled with three days of PT/OT/ST each week. She also is on the schedule for once a week to the salon to get her hair and nails done.

We do all we can to get her out and encourage her. I'm over there almost every day at least to take her to lunch and sometimes to dinner, out to enjoy shopping at Goodwill (she loves that), or just riding around to look at all the clouds and blue sky. Looking at family picture albums, etc.

But at the end of the day, unless she were able to go back and live in her too large and unsafe house with all her possessions by herself, nothing really satisfies her or makes her truly happy. We do all have a great relationship together and have had and are having some good times. But it will never be the same for her as it was. (We are actually in process of selling all the contents and her home now).

We are making "lemonade out of lemons", and doing the best we can to stay positive and encouraging.

I'm so sorry you and your dad are going through this. Hopefully you will find a good way to help him accept it and still enjoy his life some..sending prayers for that to happen.

What does his cardiologist say about it?

Often times, seniors nap during the day from boredom.

My dad would nod off all-day at home but, he was able to stay wide awake when engaged in activity or fellowship.

Type 2 diabetes doesn’t need to take insulin injections. Are you sure that he takes insulin, or is it Metformin?
My first thought is diabetes. Too much insulin makes us sleepy.
Heart Disease also can make us sleepy. I would get him to a doctor for a checkup and blood work. He may need a new doctor.

I feel I MUST respond to the "GPs never seem concerned with ANYTHING..." Most "GPs" nowadays are practicing in the specialty of Family Medicine, or general internal medicine. Family practice is a specialty and most are Board certified. Most care deeply about their patients and see patients from cradle to grave. If your family physician or general internist isn't concerned about the patient, then you need to find another. Be sure he or she is Board Certified and sees Medicare patients. Then CHANGE. Don't insult all for the failings of one.

my husband was sleeping all day then he had 3 stints put in and is much more awake and busy... Maybe a checkup

Take dad in for bloodwork at his PCPs office. Test him for anemia and B12 levels, things like that, along with the standard tests. He could just be tired, at 83 with multiple health issues at play. But if all the Nana Naps bother him, its worth taking him in for a check up. GPs never seem concerned with ANYTHING until we patients speak up and demand answers for why we're feeling out of sorts, seems to me.

Good luck to you and dad!

If everything else is "ok" (translation as ok as they can be at this point, rule out any medical reasons first) it is probably out of boredom and likely a tinge of depression as well. I say that from our experience from my FIL. He uses a CPAP so we can fairly reasonably track his downtime (time with the mask on) using the app that is attached and his daily hours in bed usually run between 10-15 hours a day. His average is about 12. He is 88. He has Type 2 (on insulin), his mobility is pretty bad, he no longer drives, his hearing and vision have declined dramatically in the last 18 months, and then there is the laundry list of other issues. For the longest time we thought he had dementia but his regular primary doctor and his VA primary can't seem to agree on that (he hasn't been assessed yet) - though he certainly has age related decline -and definitely what appears to be the mental decline that comes with isolation.

It is nearly impossible for us to get him out of the house due to his extreme lack of mobility and his size (he is over 300 pounds) and his dependence on a mobility scooter that is oversized (and doesn't fit in many public restrooms) and his walker usage in public is very limited due to small spaces as well (at home he has a "system" of using safety bars and furniture to navigate places his walker can't fit. So in order to take him anywhere it takes two of us and a lot of planning. As you can imagine - we are very limited as to where we can take him - and its not very frequent. So he is isolated at home a lot.

As a result- he has also CHOSEN to self isolate in his room. Its not a small room. He converted the large bonus room YEARS ago into his bedroom. So he has his computer desk, his tv, his electronic lift hospital bed, all of his accessible equipment from the VA(mostly reading and hearing equipment, extra tables, etc) plus some other furniture. But its upstairs and he uses a stair lift to get there. And he NEVER comes down unless he is leaving the house. He goes down the hall and back to get to the bathroom and that's it.

So HE has self limited what he does during the day to that room - literally. He is bored- and a little depressed (we've had that checked out) because HE chooses not to leave the room. We've encouraged him to get out on his scooter, go get his mail, ride around the neighborhood when the weather is good, sit downstairs, sit at the dining room table to eat, be in other rooms. He won't have any of it. He prefers just HIS space. He toggles between his desk and his bed.

And because of all of that - when he gets bored - he goes to bed. He will often sleep ALL day. And then stay up late into the night and nap off and on at night and the sleep all day again. It messes up his medication schedule and his insulin schedule. His doctor asks about his schedule and we just have to laugh. The most I think we have ever tracked is 19 hours in one 24 hour space. The least is 9 hours. And on the 9 hour days he will say that he didn't sleep at all.

With him, when he gets in the bed, he will say it is to watch tv. But he will lay it flat and put that CPAP mask on. That's NOT to watch tv because he can't even SEE it (sorry that's the honest truth - he can't see it over his belly). And once that mask is on...he's going to sleep - there is no question. We've suggested if he wants to be directly in front of the tv to sit UP in bed and not put the mask on and he looks at us like we have grown extra heads.

We have asked him why he does this. His response. "What else am I going to do?" We KNOW he is bored. He won't do what is available to him. And leaving the house, which is what he would like, is just not an option very often. So it's a catch-22 unfortunately. But sleeping is definitely a choice and not an illness response for him.