Stage : Mild Dementia
At this stage, individuals may start to become socially withdrawn and show changes in personality and mood. Denial of symptoms as a defense mechanism is commonly seen in stage 4. Behaviors to look for include:
- Difficulty remembering things about one’s personal history
- Disorientation
- Difficulty recognizing faces and people
In stage 4 dementia, individuals have no trouble recognizing familiar faces or traveling to familiar locations. However, patients in this stage will often avoid challenging situations in order to hide symptoms or prevent stress or anxiety.
Do Alzheimer’s Patients Sleep A Lot
Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative disease of the brain. It is characterized by thinning of the brain surface and loss of brain cells, which gradually ceases a persons ability to speak, express, or make decisions.
Alzheimers disease is the most common cause of dementia . People with Alzheimer’s disease first develop memory loss. Sleeping excessively is a common feature of later-stage dementia. The reason for the excess sleepiness may be one of the following:
- As the disease progresses, the brain damage becomes more extensive, and the patient wants to just lie down.
- The muscle weakness brought on my brain cell death and reduced movements may make the person inactive.
- The side effects of the various medications Alzheimers patients take may cause sleepiness.
- The depression may often accompany the diagnosis of Alzheimers, and this may manifest as increased sleeping.
- The general lethargy is seen in patients with Alzheimers due to reduced food intake.
As the disease progresses, memory loss worsens and problems with thinking, decision making, reasoning, language, or perception develop. Alzheimer’s is a disease with no cure, but there are ways to stop or slow its progression with medications and other therapies. These can treat symptoms and improve the quality of life.
Links Between Dementia And Sleep Disorders
As we sleep, we go through different cycles, moving between REM and non-REM sleep. During REM sleep, our bodies are temporarily paralyzed except for our eyes, which go through rapid and rhythmic movements. REM sleep is the time in which we dream and also when we consolidate memories. It also is considered one of the more restful parts of the sleep cycle.
For some people, however, REM sleep is not so restful. People with REM Sleep Behavior Disorder often are not paralyzed during this phase of sleep. They may talk in their sleep or physically act out their dreams. While sleep-talking and other sleep behaviors can be humorous or inconvenient, they also may predict serious diseases such as Parkinsons and Alzheimers disease in the future.
This is not the first study to find links between sleep and neurodegenerative disease. People with Alzheimers disease have disturbed sleep, even long before the disease has become apparent enough to be diagnosed. In fact, insomnia is both a symptom of the disease and a risk factor for developing it. Doctors increasingly believe that certain sleep disorders may be a symptom that the brain has already begun a disease process. In addition, the lack of sleep appears to exacerbate neurodegenerative disease, beginning a downward health spiral that can be difficult to stop.
Recommended Reading: Can Aricept Make Dementia Worse
Does Vascular Dementia Get Worse
Vascular dementia will generally get worse, although the speed and pattern of this decline vary. Stroke-related dementia often progresses in a stepped way, with long periods when symptoms are stable and periods when symptoms rapidly get worse. This is because each additional stroke causes further damage to the brain.
Dont Miss: How Does Alzheimers Affect Family And Friends
Things That Happen To The Body
One of the things that happen is that you are depleted of oxygen and this makes circulation slow down. This also makes the skin mottle and when it is extreme, the skin becomes cold.
Difficulty in breathing or noisy breathing is also witnessed. When circulation, breathing, and heartbeat stop, you are clinically dead. The biological death actually happens a few minutes later as the brain cells die because they are deprived of oxygen.
How death feels mainly depends on the way a person dies and this affects what we know about it. There are people who die because of illness and they may not be able to say what they are feeling exactly. This is because they can be too sick or too unconscious to say anything. This means that we can only observe.
Death is personal meaning that you may experience different things. Some of the things that you may experience include:
- You may feel as if you are dreaming
- You may see life flash right before your eyes
- You may still know what is happening around you
- You may be in pain depending on whether you are sick
- You may feel normal
- You may feel dizzy
- You may not feel anything and it may feel good to die that could possibly explain why some people die with a smile on their faces.
You May Like: What Color Ribbon Is Alzheimer’s
What Stage Of Dementia Is Incontinence
Toileting & Late Stage Dementia Loss of bladder control due to an inability to get to the bathroom or use it properly is defined as functional incontinence. Late stage Alzheimers is marked by the loss of ability to respond to the environment as well as a loss of ability to communicate and express needs.
What Can Help Someone With Dementia Sleep Better
Sleep hygiene is the primary treatment for sleep concerns in people with dementia. Sleep hygiene is a collection of practices and environmental considerations that promote good sleep quality. The following sleep hygiene tips may help a person with dementia improve their sleep patterns:
Some of these sleep hygiene practices may be difficult for someone with dementia. For example, it may not be possible to control the bedroom noise level in a nursing home or assisted living facility. Consider adding a white noise machine to mask outside noise. A person with dementia may also have a difficult time maintaining a regular bedtime due to napping or varied daily activities, but keeping wake time consistent can still help to stabilize the circadian rhythm. A physician or sleep specialist is in a good position to provide individualized sleep hygiene recommendations for a specific situation.
Also Check: Alzheimer Awareness Ribbon Color
Thereasons For Dementia Crying Are:
- External causes: Anoisy or a busy environment or any change in the daily routine of dealing withthe patients dementia.
- Mental causes:Reasons could be loneliness, boredom, anxiety, depression or delusions.
Crying can be a result of real stress, resulting from feelings of loss or flooding. Crying may also be caused less due to cases of grief, and more as a result of habitual behavior.
Dementia And Sleep: Tips For Helping Your Loved One With Dementia Sleep Better
Dementia and sleep problems often go hand in hand. The connection between dementia and sleep is a common source of stress for family caregivers. When your loved one with Alzheimers disease or another form of dementia doesnt sleep well, you probably dont get enough sleep either.
Read on to understand the causes of sleep problems in people with dementia and get tips for better sleep.
You May Like: What Color Ribbon Is Alzheimer’s
What Happens A Few Hours To Death
When death is hours away, your elderly loved one may:
> Refuse drinks or food completely
> Stop having bowel movements and peeing
> Scowl, groan or grimace from the pain
You may also notice:
- Their eyes glaze over or tear
- Irregular heartbeat and pulse or very hard to hear
- A drop in the body temperature
- The skin on the hands, feet, or knees can become mottled blue-purple
- The breathing gets interrupted often and gasps can be heard up until they stop breathing entirely
- Drift in and out of consciousness if not already unconscious. It is important to remember that the loved one may still feel and hear you during such moments and it would be nice to talk to them and touch them so they know they are not alone.
Drink Plenty Of Fluids Throughout The Day
It is very important that people with dementia stay hydrated. Drinking little and often is the best way to stay hydrated, without constantly needing the toilet. Dehydration can cause added confusion and illnesses such as urinary tract infections . It is best to encourage consumption of most daily fluids in the early and middle hours of the day to avoid getting up for the bathroom in the night. If the person you care for enjoys an evening cup of tea, try switching it for decaf.
Recommended Reading: Does Prevagen Work For Dementia
Close Connection Between Dementia And Sleep
Researches show that dementia and sleep are actually quite closely connected to each other.
Also, those with dementia usually develop bad sleeping habits which we need to take into consideration as soon as possible.
Sleep deprivation is known to have profound consequences on a persons health.
This can include tiredness and grumpiness as well as the risk of serious medical conditions like heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and shorter life span among many others.
Over the years, there also seems to be a connection between dementia and sleep.
This is even though scientists and researchers cannot conclusively explain how dementia affects a persons sleep.
Studies indicate that about 40% of people who have dementia experience sleep disturbances. For some individuals, their internal biological clock may be damaged, affecting their sleep.
Another logical explanation is that the parts of the brain that control whether a person stays awake or not may be damaged by the disease, which results in disturbing sleep patterns.
Before experts can give conclusive explanations, let us look at different aspects of sleep risk and dementia.
Other Sleep Issues In People With Dementia
Sundowning is a phenomenon in which individuals with dementia experience increased agitation later in the day and in the evening. The symptoms of sundowning include confusion, anxiety, wandering, and yelling. Sundowning can contribute to insomnia and other sleep problems when these behaviors continue into the night. Possible causes of sundowning include the circadian rhythm changes that occur in dementia, as well as fatigue, depression, and pain.
People with dementia may also talk, yell, or cry out at night if they cannot sleep. Some dementia patients have a tendency to wander away from their homes, which can be especially dangerous at night. In dementia patients with REM sleep behavior disorder, shouting, grabbing, jumping, and other behaviors are related to dream enactment during sleep.
Recommended Reading: Does Diet Coke Cause Alzheimer’s
What You Need To Know About Research Linking Sleep Deprivation And Dementia
Sleep deprivation has been linked to hypertension, obesity and diabetes and has long been suspected of having a connection to dementia. Now, a large new study has more clearly established that association by concluding that people who sleep less than six hours a night in midlife have a greater risk of developing late-onset dementia.
That doesnt mean middle-aged short sleepers should panic, according to experts. Although the study is an important step forward, much about the connection between sleep and dementia remains unknown, they said. Still, it cant hurt to work on your sleep habits while research continues, and youll find some strategies listed below.
In the study, European researchers followed nearly 8,000 people in Britain for 25 years, starting when subjects were 50. They found that those who consistently got six hours of sleep or less per night in their 50s and 60s were about 30 percent more likely to develop dementia later in life, compared with those who logged seven hours of sleep per night. That was independent of sociodemographic, behavioural, cardiometabolic, and mental health factors, the studys authors wrote. Findings were published in the journal Nature Communications in late April.
Ways To Help Someone Living With Dementia Get A Better Nights Sleep
As most of us will have experienced at one time or another, not being able to sleep, or not sleeping well can become literally a nightmare. For those living with dementia, not getting a good nights sleep can be particularly acute and really affect their quality of life, and that of those caring for them.This guide explains how to help dementia patients sleep. You can also find out more about common sleep problems, get tips on how to keep dementia patients in bed at night and read our helpful FAQs.
Shop from £22.
If you are finding it particularly hard to help someone with dementia with their sleep, and its affecting your ability to care for an elderly relative, it may be a good idea to share some of the care responsibilities with a live-in carer, like those found on our best live-in care companies page.
Also Check: What Color Ribbon Is Alzheimer’s
Combating Sleep Problems Associated With Lewy Body Dementia
April 9, 2019 by Norma Loeb
Lewy Body Dementia affects approximately 1.4 million Americans, and is most common in individuals over the age of 50. This disease is associated with a host of cognitive changes, and symptoms often include a change in sleeping habits. If your loved one has been diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia and is experiencing trouble sleeping, it may be helpful to try the tips we share below.
Sleep For People Who Have Dementia With Lewy Bodies And Parkinsons Disease
The type of dementia you have can affect your sleep.
People who have dementia caused by Lewy body disease, such as Parkinsons disease or dementia with Lewy bodies are often sleepy by day but have very restless and disturbed nights. They can suffer from confusion, nightmares and hallucinations. Insomnia, sleep apnoea and restless legs are common symptoms.
A person affected with these types of dementia may often unknowingly act out their dreams by shouting and moving around in bed.
They can even cause injury to themselves and/or their sleeping partner. This is called rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder or RBD, and tends to happen from the earliest stages of the disease onwards.
This can be exhausting and often leaves the person feeling like they havent slept at all, so they are very tired and sleepy during the day.
It can be hard to stay awake during the day after a poor nights sleep but, if possible, its best to try to limit sleep during the day to small bursts or catnaps. Otherwise the persons body clock can become very confused and this makes sleeping well during the night even harder.
You May Like: Bob Knight Dementia
Other Causes Of Sleeping Problems In Dementia
Other causes of sleeping problems may include:
- going to bed too early
- sleeping too much during the day
- overtiredness, causing tenseness and inability to fall asleep
- not enough exercise, so the person does not feel tired
- too much caffeine or alcohol
- feeling hungry
Dont Miss: Does Alzheimer Disease Run In The Family
Do People With Dementia Sleep A Lot
There is one question that comes up a lot when discussing dementia and that is do people with dementia sleep a lot?
It has been established that individuals with dementia tend to sleep too much especially those who are already in the later stages.
This happens at night and during the daytime as well.
Below we will tackle this topic focusing on the reasons that may cause persons with dementia to oversleep and what to do when it happens.
Don’t Miss: Oneirophrenia Dementia
Common Questions About Alzheimer’s & Sleep:
How Can We Support You
Sundowning delirium can be a painful, exhausting and troubling experience for caregivers. No one likes to see a loved one suffer. It is a troubling and common problem of middle-stage Alzheimers disease.
No one is sure why the transition period from light to dark is so disturbing. There are several steps you can take to reduce upsetting behavior. Keeping to a routine and encouraging good sleep patterns contribute to symptom relief.
Dont let sundowning behavior overwhelm you. Talk to others and avoid caregiver isolation. There are many other people also experiencing the same thing.
We offer custom-tailored programs of care to assist caregivers and give them a much-needed break. Contact us today to schedule a tour.
Don’t Miss: What Color Ribbon Is Alzheimer’s
How To Diagnose The Sleep Problems Of A Person With Dementia
Like many problems that affect older adults, sleep problems in dementia are almost always multifactorial, which means that there are usually several underlying issues creating the problem.
Multifactorial problems can be improved, especially if a family and the doctors are diligent about trying to identify as many contributing factors as possible. But youll need to start by helping the doctors understand what kinds of sleep-related symptoms and problems a loved one is experiencing.
Here is a list of questions that a group of geriatrics experts recommends, for evaluating sleep problems.