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As suggested talk to medical provider for medication / adjustments
Get bells on the mattress to alert you when this happens.
Get a caregiver in there at nights to monitor (expensive but perhaps necessary if you can afford).
* Be aware that wandering in the house could transition into wondering outside - can this person open the front / back door(s)? Have they tried.
Who is this person living with and who oversees their care?
Do not want for something worse to happen.
Start investigating nursing homes or other facilities.
Or get in 12/7 night care-givers.
Gena / Touch Matters
The onesie would deter dressing. If stairs are involved, a hook and eye will at least give you enough time to get to the door before she falls down them. Seroquel is nonaddictive and one of the top drugs prescribed for wandering.
These to inexpensive added methods has worked very well for me. Even if I go outside I can hear the alarm if she goes out another door.
Give this right after dinner or 6 or 8 pm
This will help your loved one get a good nights sleep
Have an overnight caregiver - so you can sleep. And for her safety.
Get 'bells' on her bed and/or on her body (ankles?) so you / someone can hear her.
She may start walking outside the front door.
What is she doing at night when wandering?
Making noise? opening refrigerator? walking up / down stairs? anything that could cause self-harm? Or harm to anyone else in the house (someone mentioned this below, i.e., stove or sharp objects.
Gena / Touch Matters
There are other ways of alerting the caregiver that the person they're looking after is on the move. Rig the doors and other suitable areas, so that an alarm is triggered for the carer to be aware of what's happening.
One good piece of advice I’ve read on this forum is that things change, once you figure out how to deal with an issue something else will become an issue. So bear in mind there is no end until the end.
And of course like others have said if the suggested interventions don’t work in your situation then memory care.
If they are having visual or audible hallucinations, then Seroquel may help control the visuals and voices which may allow them to stay in bed longer.
My FW has 2 seroquel scripts for sundowning that she takes every night at bedtime, a fast acting and a time released versions. She still wanders 3 or 4 times a night. But, not for very long and she's (most nights) not mean, hateful or scared.
I can usually just tell her to go back and get in bed before you fall down.
even if it’s a herbal sleeping aid
to help calm her mind
I think the other helpers are correct - your mother may need care home help
However, that doesn't resolve the problem of you missing out on sleep, nor of preventing your LO from wandering outside.
You can't lock them in or make the front door too difficult to open because they would be fire hazards.
Personally, if possible, I would consider a secure memory care facility, so that your LO is kept safe and that you have the rest you need to be at your best. You can't do everything, and you can't be the best caregiver that you want to be if you are sleep deprived.
I did place my Mom. She needed to be safe and I needed a good night sleep. The first night she was in AL I slept thru the night. Heaven.
There are stories all the time about dementia patients that wander off. There was one I read the headlines of yesterday in Florida, they found her, and she is ok but she was in a swamp.
There are lots of things you can do, alarms on the doors so if they do get the door open it will go off.
The stove and cooking is the next huge issue, which is not only a danger to the demted but to everyone in the house.
Their brain is broke you need to protect everyone in the house, you can't fix them, you can only try to keep them safe, or put them where they are safe into memory care.
At this rate, sooner or later they will leave the house at night.
What do you do when you catch them wandering at night?
What if they turn on the stove, or other dangerous activities?
Easier to put the hook and eye latch outside their door high up.
Hopefully they will try to leave and see they can't get out, and go back to bed.
Otherwise time for Memory Care.