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      CommentAuthorCarolyn*
    • CommentTimeMar 13th 2010
     
    I know this has been brought up before but now that it's hitting me I'm wondering about it. My husband is in a nursing home now. They keep him in a wheelchair as he's a "fall risk". He's in good health except for AD. Lately all he does is sleep most of the time in the chair. He just can't seem to stay awake. Is this part of AD? I try to get him interested in different things, but he still dozes off.
  1.  
    Claude would doze off, sometimes while sitting at the table. Each one is different, but I do think it is part of this horrible disease.
    • CommentAuthorJane*
    • CommentTimeMar 13th 2010
     
    Carolyn,
    Make sure you find out what medications they have your husband on, this could also be the problem. As for the sleeping that is all my husband has done for the last 4 months, now all of a sudden he is sleeping none.
    • CommentAuthordivvi*
    • CommentTimeMar 13th 2010
     
    get a list of the meds they are giving him like Jane suggests. many of them have side effects that make them sleepy. and i know some NH do sedate some patients to keep them calm on top of their meds. double whammy. but do keep in mind too they do sleep more in later stages.
    divvi
    • CommentAuthorehamilton*
    • CommentTimeMar 13th 2010
     
    My husband has been in placement 8 months and he spends a lot of time asleep in his chair also but he was doing that here at home. He does sleep more than he did but I believe it is just the progression of the disease.
  2.  
    Carolyn,
    I ditto Jane's advice go check the meds. My GF whose husband is also now in a NH was in this sleepy sort of stupor...when the meds were changed or reduced he has become more interactive with her now. He is most likely a stage 6..in wheel chair, needs help with meals, in depends and does not always know his wife..but does know she is someone important to him.

    With myself and my husband whenever a med is prescribed I look it up to see what the side effects are as well as contraindications and I ask questions. If you ever had C-difficile Toxin from an antibiotic you learn to read up on any new med. My hubby is on about 13 tablets all related to diabetes, hypertension, TIA history, cholesterol etc. I worry about interactions. As a matter of fact at one time I was so concerned and annoyed that doctors were not listening I made a list of meds and side effects and had the spreadsheet out for the doctor who asked What is this supposed to tell me? I told him if he looked carefully he would see Ameoderone was the culprit.
    Sure enough the tests from the pulmonologist came in and directed that med be stopped to reduce the risk of Ameoderone toxicity! We have to be detectives too!
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      CommentAuthorchris r*
    • CommentTimeMar 14th 2010
     
    But I do think it is part of the disease. Think about it, How tired you'd get trying to retreive thoughts and memories constantly. Not being sure where the bathroom is, who that woman taking care of you is, how to answer the phone or the door. afraid to make a statement for fear people will think you're stupid. That's how my DH feels, and so, of course he's tired. Sleeping is the only time he's not struggling with life. BTW, my husband is home with me, and not overmedicated. I wouldn't give him Seroquel because he slept even more (I didn't think that was possible). Many doctors also say it's part of the disease.
  3.  
    Chris,
    I think you are on to something with your views. My DH is on a Cpap machine. Last Oct he was tested and sure enough it needed to be bumped up to 10 from 8. I do see he sleeps better at night and so do I without the snoring underneath the mask. I also see that while he naps a bit less in the afternoon, about 4 he does take that little snooze. He is on a lot of meds for other problems and I know he would hate adding one more. So would I. I kind of think, and others can confirm, that as the deeper into the disease process one is, the more sleepy times there are.
    • CommentAuthorJane*
    • CommentTimeMar 14th 2010
     
    It is true that the more advance the stage of the disease the more sleeping occurs. My husband until just this week has been sleeping so much you would think he was sedated into a stupor but he is on no medications. I just mentioned that medication could possibly be the cause. It could be a number of things. I still would want to check on the medications especially in a Nursing Home.
    • CommentAuthorThunder*
    • CommentTimeMar 14th 2010
     
    My Sharon sleeps 14 hours at night (we get her up to go to the toilet in the am around 8 but she is utterly disoriented so we let her sleep till she wake on her own around noon) She eats like a lumberjack and then "rests" for a few hours. She eats a big dinner and then rests till bed. She is only capable of walking on her own for a brief window in the afternoon. This has progressed incrementally over the last two years.
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      CommentAuthorCarolyn*
    • CommentTimeMar 14th 2010 edited
     
    The only different pill from what he has been taking is rozerem. I might not have spelled that right. It's a sleeping pill as they said that he hasn't been sleeping at night. Today the nurse said that they put him to bed but he won''t stay in bed.He gets up, so they end up putting him back in his wheelchair. I know they can't restrain them in bed and of course, they can't have then getting up and falling down. Does this remind you of when our kids kept getting out of bed?????
    • CommentAuthorehamilton*
    • CommentTimeMar 14th 2010
     
    Charlie went through a spell where he did not sleep much at all. 3 or 4 hours out of 24 if that. NOTHING would bring him down. He is in a facility now and does sleep through the night (without medication for sleep). Some days he goes back to bed after lunch and sleeps until dinner. Other days, he refuses to stay down and they have to get him up and put him back in his wheel chair, where he promptly falls asleep.
  4.  
    DH is sleeping 12 hrs. at night these days and I'm wondering if I should cut out the nighttime dose of Seroquel. He takes that and Namena morning and night. As long as he has the morning dose, maybe that'd take care of the daytime agitation. He also naps during the day. Any suggestions?
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      CommentAuthorchris r*
    • CommentTimeMar 15th 2010
     
    I spoke to the Day care Supt, dick couldn't get there today, I couldn't get him up. She made several suggestions, Just fyi, first does he have an infection (called the doctor, discovered his UTI had not cleared up totally), second, is he dehydrated? Answer to that is Yes, he does not drink enough (I knew that)... she suggested Gatorade, which contains the electrolytes he's missing. Third, of course is medication, anything new? Needless to say, I was more than a little disconcerted when I called and the nurse looked at his results (urine taken last Friday, the 5th) and told me he still had the UTI even though he had been on antibiotics ( or to give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe he has it again) So, to make a long story short, there are lots of reasons for the excess sleepiness, and maybe, one of them is the culprit.
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      CommentAuthorJeanetteB
    • CommentTimeMar 15th 2010
     
    My brother just sent me an article which seems to have been published in the Case I of T newspaper about the importance of bright light in the daytime. It was mentioned that lights in many institutions are kept low in the daytime, which keeps residents in a "biological darkness" which is bad for the circadian rhythm of waking and sleep. After brightening the daytime lights, Alzheimer patients did better at staying awake in the daytime and sleeping at night.
    Of course this applies more to the problem of disturbed rhythm (patients who get their days and nights mixed up) than to the fact that many patients simply sleep a lot in later stages.
    My dh does not sleep in the daytime, but I've still been paying more attention to keeping blinds and curtains wide open in the daytime for maximum light.