My DH has LBD and is sleeping more and more every day. Even on days that he gets out of bed earlier, I find that the time that he is "really awake" is getting shorter and shorter every day. On an average day, he is really awake for about 3 hours. The rest of the time he is either in bed asleep or dozing on the couch intermittently watching TV, eating, and going to the restroom. The question I have is, in your opinion, is it better to let him sleep or doze or is it better to try to wake him up and try to get him to do something?
A while ago, I tried to get him to do things and he would do them. But, I noticed that he would be "really awake" either less that day (by going to be earlier) or the next day or two (by being groggier). A part of me wants to just let him sleep so he can be more awake when people come over, although I must admit not many people come over any more. Even so, it seems like he is better able to put a mask on when our kids bring our grandchildren over if I let him sleep. Again, we don't actually see them all that often - probably once every week or two.
My DH has AZ with LBD. He also has started sleeping a lot more the last 3 or 4 days. He sleeps well at night and also sleeps all but about 6 hours or so during the day. He sleeps in his recliner. I wake him up for breakfast and to change depends. Then he sleeps till I wake him for lunch. Often he will sleep a couple of hours in the afternoon also. He still has tremendous "sundowning" problems in the afternoon, until I get him changed and back to bed about 9:30 pm. I let him sleep. I guess it's like a toddler that sleeps so much. Besides, I have to admit, I enjoy the time "alone". As long as he is sleeping at night I don't see that it hurts anything.
I agree with you. I keep telling him that is ok for him to doze. He seemed concerned about dozing in the daytime. Oftentimes, he goes into such a deep sleep that his REM Sleep Disorder (moves during REM) becomes evident because he starts mumbling, groaning, and moving his hands and arms. He often hugs a blanket I made for him.
My MIL, 87, is concerned that we should be waking him up. Of course, this is her baby boy. No matter how old your children get (my DH is 52), your children are still your children. I hate to see her pain. And, when he sleeps to 2 PM, like today, it makes both of us concerned. We keep taking turns saying it is ok for him to sleep.
Even so, I know that, at least for LBD patients, sleeping longer and longer is often a sign of progression. It also seems that they are nearing the end when their "real awake" time gets down to an hour or two. I see how much more functioning others are and know that my DH has really progressed quite far.
My only concern would be that if he sleeps during the day he might be awake at night, but that does not seem to be the problem with your DH. Let him sleep if he seems comfortable.
I have mentioned before that my wife sleeps in her chair if nothing is going on (that's what she is doing now). Still she sleeps through the night with no problem and I have to wake her in the morning. I often wonder how long she would sleep if I let her.
I have noticed this problem in my husband when the meds became too strong for him. So, first thing is check the meds and talk with the doctor. It may be time to adjust them downward. If the meds are fine and he is sleeping through the night, let him sleep. Part of the disease is that as they go further and further into it, it is not unusual for them to sleep more.
I don't have any experience with UTI's and if they cause more sleepiness so maybe someone who does have the experience will be along and talk about that.
uti does cause excessive sleepiness general irritability and their behaviours can take a dramatic change. ie-a docile normal person can start cussing or lashing out at the spouse or general negative attitudes for just about anything. if you see any changes out of the ordinary including excessvie sleep it may warrant a urine check with dr. or at minimum one of the azzo strips to get an idea.
also, if a person has a reduced kidney function sometimes the elimination process of medicines they take can become sluggish and can have a buildup effect thus causing some symptoms/side effects as well. thats why fluid is important for both kidney and uti is important- esp if they take like sleeping meds etc and time released meds. my dad (RIP) had only one kidney due to cancer and his meds would cause all kinds of issues due to slow output. sometimes my mom had to decrease the meds in order to allow it to decrease effects. just a thought.
They sleep more and more as the dementia progresses and that is true for all of the dementias. My husband now goes to bed at 8:00pm. He wanted to go to bed at 6:30 yesterday. I don't know if he got up early this morning, but I don't think so. I found him dressed and asleep in the computer room on the couch with the blanket I keep there at 7:30 this morning and he slept for another hour before he woke up again. He hasn't nodded off yet today but we have been busy.
My husband has an event driven cardiovasuclar dementia. So even with that one he is sleeping at least 12 hours every day and sometimes more. He is early stage 6. There have been no med changes for almost a year now.
There was a time that my husband was sleeping between 16 and 18 hours a day. It took a bit of dectective work to even get that number by asking the aids and nurses of the various shifts questions. When I figured out the number, I went after getting his meds checked and determining if he was on too much. A few months before that he was sleeping about 10-12 hours a day. His meds did not change when his sleeping habits did, they just hit a point where they were no longer in the right dosages for where he was with the disease.
One lesson that has really been driven home to my by this disease is that if you want a doctor to notice something, it needs to be quantified in a way that makes sense to them. When I said 16-18 hours, the agreement was that where he was in the disease, it was too much.
My DH also sleeps a lot. He sleeps very well all night. Maybe gets up once to go the bathroom. Falls right back to sleep. But, he naps, dozes or sleeps several times during the day in his recliner. He'll sleep anywhere from 1-3 hours 4 or 5 times a day. It's hard to tell exactly.
This morning when I went to wake him, he didn't wake up. Scared the living daylights out of me. I ran over and spoke to him several times, each time getting more panicky, I finally touched him and he opened his eyes and said "happy halloweekn."
What was that all about? He does things like that every once in a while. Plays tricks. I'm fine now, but I was really upset for a few miutes.
Mawzy, after you get over the "fright", I would have been tempted to do him bodily harm for that trick. You have to admire the fact that in there is someone that can still do a trick and has somewhat of a sense of humor. They do pull some very interesting stunts sometimes.