Hello all. I just have a question that I am sure has been addressed before. My DH who has never had a problem sleeping anytime and anywhere (even in church:-) has begun to have sleeping problems. He goes to sleep as usual around 10:30 pm but wakes up at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. Many nights he talks about a terrible dream that he has had and is very upset. I know that sleeping problems are common, but the nightmares are something he has never experience often in the 35 years we have been married. Have others noticed their LO having nightmares?
Sandy, does your husband take Aricept? I have heard that nightmares can be a side effect of that particular drug. Sometimes if they are taking the dosage at night it can be changed to the morning.
I am sure others will have more and better answers than this.
Yes, he is on Aricept and has been for about 4 months. In fact I just read some articles on the Aricept to see if that could do it and it says it can. My only concern with moving to the morning instead of at night is that when the nightmares wake him up he is so weak and unsteady and tends to fall alot anyway, I am concerned that if he takes it during the day it will increase this problem.
alot of different meds have sleeping disorders as side effects. try googling them and see or call the dr maybe they can switch him to another one that doesnt cause it. my DH was having hallucinations just in the last 6mos from enablex a prostate med so we took him off and he has had no more. divvi
Thanks for the responses. It is nice to have people to talk to who understand and are going through the same things. My DH does see the neurologist next Thursday. You know being a nurse doesn't always help when your loved one is the patient. My nursing observation skills sometimes get tangled with my heart.
Several spouses have had this problem and we have all experimented with different drugs to find out what will help them sleep through the night. Work with your doctor on one at a time until you find the right one. For my husband, it is Ambien. Without it, we wakes between 2 and 4. He used to get up, get dressed and want to go into the den...thinking it was time to get up and I couldn't convince him otherwise. Now he is too weak to do that, but he does start shaking all over and sitting up in bed without the Ambien.
My husband, with Lewy Body Dementia, has REM Sleep Behavior Disorder where he acts out his dreams. He takes Clonazepam for that and also Clonidine for sleep (has for years because of ADHD).