This is a question for those whose AD spouses have reached level 6 or 7, or at least are in a position to have observed "what comes next."
Mostly, my husband (who I would estimate is a 5) dozes in a chair. He has breakfast, then dozes. He performs his 1 or 2 tasks that he can still do (exercising with handweights or sweeping the back patio) then sits down and dozes. If he's not on an errand with me, he dozes. He gets up when I do (6 a.m. ish) then goes to bed by 8.
At what stage or point have others noticed this fitting into the scheme of decline? Of course, like most, I'd like an aerial snapshot of how this thing is going to play out, and we don't really get that, since they're all different. But it's information.
He still enjoys talking about "the good old days," one on one, with friends or family, and he still knows who everyone is, where he lives, etc, but intitiative is at a zero.
My husband does the same thing. Sometimes falls asleep after eating breakfast, while holding his coffee cup (with a lid) after just getting up. Takes a 3 hour nap after lunch & 30-60 minute nap after dinner, however, he even dozes in-between. This started with him about 2 months ago. I would say he is a stage 6, he does not talk about anything anymore & knows people faces, however, not their names, including me.
My husband has all of the stage 5 symptoms and a few of the speech and cognitive stage 6 symptoms and he is getting worse lately. He takes naps and dozes now and then, but he isn't doing the full scale dozing emily is describing. I think that the kind of dozing that emily is describing is a stage 6 symptom.
Mine WAS doing it, back several months ago. But then I found two things: trazadone, which cut down on the sundowning big-time and which obviously lets him sleep more soundly, and television - the PBS Brit comedies and mysteries, the stuff on Discovery, History International, and Netflix for movies. And now he seldom dozes until around 4 pm. I'll walk in and he'll be watching avidly, trying to explain to me what is going on (he can't, of course). Since he's really pretty unable to move around much, it has been a godsend. And he never used to watch TV much at all. ONly thing he can't stand is people talking over one another (think Chris Matthews or Bill O'Reilly). And he enjoys riding around with me on errands. Stays awake in the car, too.
i believe alot of the napping during off hrs can be medically induced. most meds we give have some side effects of this nature. even tylenol can make you sleepy. but yes extra dozing off/on comes with the disease and the more they enter stage 6-7 its more frequent. i used to worry about DH napping more but now i have learned to accept like everything else with this disease its just part of it. seems no matter how active you maintain them during hrs of the day when its downtime the nap is back. divvi
Emily, your husband sounds just like mine. He dozes after each meal and would sleep for hours if I let him. I try to interest him in activities and take him with me on errands and walks. We have dinner with friends in restaurants and he is anxious to get home. He is very impatient if we don't leave immediately after he is finished. He does not contribute to conversation and gets very confused if I try to explain anything to him. He needs to be in the room with me and will even watch me while I am cleaning bathrooms. I think he is stage 5. He is healthy except for some arthritis and Alzheimer's. He takes cholesterol medication, blood pressure, razadyne, and vitamins C and D. He does not chores except to make the bed.
I have mentioned before that all DW does if nothing is going on is sit in her chair and doze off, as she is doing now. She has done this for the past several months. If something is going on - driving, at church, etc. - she can stay awake most of the time. Sometimes she will watch TV, but others she will doze off during the show. I can't determine which shows she would prefer. Last week the people at her day care center said she was more alert. She is in stage 6.
My Dh has moved fully into stage 6 in this last year, and his resting, napping, sleeping has increased greatly. Long ago, when first dealing with his mental illness, his Dr. told us that as long as he was able to be up when he had to be--going to Dr. appt.--the schedule he kept didn't have to conform to "the norm". There is nowhere that it's written that we will get up at 630, eat lunch at noon, supper at 6m, and bed at 10 or 11. It would be nice though if he'd sleep more of the night, instead of getting up and trying to send me to bed.
the doctor said the sleeping is pretty normal for many of his AD patients. Partly boredom, because they can't make their own activity, and partly tiredness from just trying to hold it together because they are so confused. He wasn't concerned about it, just saying take him out during the day if he'll go, maybe it will perk him up. I know when we do go out, he wants to just sit in the car, not walk around a store, or mall. and as someone just said, if we go out with friends he offers nothing to the conversation because he doesn't know what anyone is talking about. and then he's anxious to go home. It's pretty sad inasmuch as he was always and active social guy. he's just disappearing from himself.
Ok, so I guess it sounds like a 6ish symptom, but altogether I'd say we're still more of a 5. Got all the 4s, many of the 5s, and, here and there, a small incursion into 6. The only thing "normal", as we all know, is the randomness.
My husband is at about the same stage. I have attributed his dozing to boredom—nothing else to do. He doesn’t read or initiate any activity. He dozes whether or not the TV is on—never laying down to sleep but just dozing in his chair. He enjoys going out—shopping, walking, eating out—and when with friends follows the conversation even though he contributes little.
I have wondered if finding things that would stimulate his mind would do anything to delay the progress of the disease or if it would just be another exercise in futility. It’s a lot of work to find things for them to do.
My DH never dozes during the day. He is up around 6:30 a.m. and goes to bed around 7, but watches a little TV before going to sleep - and gets up a couple of times for a bathroom run. Most afternoons, he plays games on his laptop. Don't know what I would do without that laptop! Loves his golf game and the card games. Very little exercise except for walking the dog at least twice a day - about 2-3 blocks. I always watch him - because his walking is not steady anymore. But I want to keep him moving as long as I can. He complains of his legs hurting and walks very slowly, but at least he's up and about some. He loads the dishwasher, unloads it (and then I can't find stuff); he will do the vacumning, if I ask him to. He is 86 and I think does a great job of trying to stay busy. He keeps saying this disease is "not going to get me down". He is declining though - I can see it.
Lori says: I have wondered if finding things that would stimulate his mind would do anything to delay the progress of the disease or if it would just be another exercise in futility. It’s a lot of work to find things for them to do.
Yes, me too, but when he DID start attending to the TV, or I'm sure for Vickie with the laptop, he seemed so much more alert the rest of the time too, that it's been worth it, easier to get him to do things, etc.
My DH supposedly has FTD and his sleeping all day/night started years ago, very early in the course of the disease. He still does it most days, morning nap, afternoon nap, evening nap, asleep between 8-10 pm till 7 am but has more awake time now. I've noticed his short-term memory seems worse lately. We are fighting the driving issue right now and I think that agitation has helped keep him awake more.
This has been talked about before and if I summarize it: they initially start this dozing out of either boredom (and probably depression) and/or meds, then as the disease progresses it just keeps up. As many have said, 'when they are sleeping/dozing you don't have to worry about them getting into trouble.'
For a long time dh would play rummicub with me after supper and that would help to keep him awake awhile; I thought it was good for his mind. I played with different rules for myself and let him win about every other game but I think at a given point he realized he was not doing so well anymore and that's the reason he doesn't want to play now. He was always very competitive with games, would seldom let the kids win. I think I'll push it again and see what happens.
We have a pinball machine that I love but DH would never play after the first few weeks (we originally got it for the boys, so this was years before dx) because he decided this was a game he could never be very good at. After the boys left home I became addicted to it for a while and worked at it until I WAS good. He will still play ping pong occasionally but has lost the knack of keeping score (or is he afraid of losing?) so we just bat a ball back and forth, which is not nearly as much fun as playing to WIN, as we always used to do.
DH was never a game player, as in sit down and play board games or cards. he tells me he used to play gin rummy, but we've been together 38 yrs, and I've never seen it. Even before AD he didn't want to learn bridge and never played any board games. Trivial Pursuit was the only one he'd actually play, and of course, with his loss of memory, that's out. He tells me he enjoys basketball, well, when did he play basketball? 75 yrs ago. He did get into the pool once this summer with the grandies, but that was it (would have liked to have put some soap in the pool, but it's a community pool so I think they would have frowned on that. The times he stays awake are when I play 40's music or old musicals, but he even has difficulty following the plots of those. The Fred Astaires don't have too much plot so that goes OK. He's now into moving furniture, so I'd just as soon he'd stay asleep (grin)