Do any of you have experience with your loved one having jerking motions when sleeping at night. This only happens at night and it is somewhat like when you have a dream like you are falling out of bed and have a sudden jump. Jim is doing that, he jerks and jumps all night long. What would this be? It is not seziure activity just jerking and jumping in his sleep. He is now to a stage where he will sleep constant during the day if I were to let him. This stage is also upsetting me. Never would know he is on the place if you did not constantly talk and try to keep him awake. Someone Help us, where does it sound like we are? He only walks from the chair to the table, from the table to the chair.
Jane, my husband did that a lot for a few years. I had to jump out of bed to avoid being hit. One time he hit my eye and broke a blood vessel. It is one of the sypmtoms for Lewy Bodies, which has been a slight consideration for my husband. I don't know why, but he doesn't do that anymore.
Jane what you are describing sounds to me like like myoclonic jerks. My wife suffers from this also. They seem to have increased in her case as the AD progresses. You could ask your neurologist about it. I know they have medications to help control them if they get to bad.
Click "search" at the top of this disussion board, and then type in "twitching". There are a lot of posts under that topic that relate to what you are describing.
It's interesting that my DH used to do this years ago way before he had signs of Alzheimers. I thought it was notable that by the time the symptoms appeared, the nighttime jerks completely stopped. I always suspected there was some connection, now even moreso.
Divvi, my DH does this weird thing with his legs in the evening. It is not really jerking or twitching, it is more of a shake. If I knew better, I would think that he was doing it on purpose. He tells me he is not. It is usually both legs. They will shake for 10 seconds and then stop. Then shake again. He doesn't seem to notice unless I show him. It is really driving me nuts.
also if there is a history of Parkinson's in the family it could be this causing the jerking. my dh's grandpa had parkinson's and we think he does also.
mary my DH still does it with his hands during the day and nite. moves them exactly as you say yours does his legs. like a nervous shaking at times. he can stop it at will. i think it may be motorskills related. sort of a spastic type voluntary movement. it doesnt worry me anymore. you may want to ask his dr about it to make sure its not anything more serious- divvi
audrey- alot of drugs used for other specific causes like neurontin or gabapentin like briegull says, are used off label for other things. my DH took neurontin for his jerks and a very low childrens dose of only 100 mg worked well and then they adjust to that dose and then we increased as needed by 50mg. neurontin is also used for diabetic leg pains i believe as well. keppra is anothe drug used for the jerks. if your DH has alot of jerking you may want to ask his neurologist about maybe trying one of these to see if it could help. hope this helps. divvi
My husband does it too, recently, just his hands. He can stop it if I hold his hand. So today I heard him roaring at himself and went to see what was going on. He was holding (with his "death grip") onto one finger of one hand, to stop it from shaking! Apparently he couldn't persuade Hand A to let go of Hand B. Guess we gotta increase the Neurontin!