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I also have one of the clips you place on her clothing and when she sits up it sets it off. It's very loud and annoying. I don't use it. None of those things will stop my little mom. She is so hard of hearing it wouldn't matter at all to her. But the rest of my family will not like it at all.
She is my little energizer bunny. I pray for you to get rest too. My respite is so close..and I am so looking forward to it. Hugs to you also..we caregivers need to stick together. Bless you.
The new adjustments in meds are giving me a little hope. I am still hanging on to her...not ready to give up yet. I love my sweet mom...and I don't want her to suffer I have mourned the mom I knew..i just hope and pray she goes peacefully in her sleep.
Be certain to toilet her before bed and even 30 minutes or so after she lies down.
Also make certain she's not getting caffeine as it has a dramatic impact on persons with dementia.
Some people have luck with a person who is getting up frequently by using a body pillow. This works because many persons from your mom's generation are accustomed to sleeping with someone. As a child it might have been a sister, as an adult it was her husband. The body pillow gives her something to wrap around and can make the nighttime more comfortable for her.
You also mention some pretty intense medications. Many of these medications have the opposite effect of older persons and on persons with dementia. They would make you or me sleepy, but can actually stimulate her. Your mother may also be taking medication for insomnia, when the issue might be depression or anxiety. Make certain her physician is treating the causation of her behavior.
You mention your mother's dementia is advanced. Persons in stage five or six can experience a flip-flop of their nocturnal clock and actually become more active in the night. Physical activity may help, but remember the times for activity are around 10 am and 2 pm. (Intense activity after 3 pm can increase Sundowning.)
I would avoid bed rails or padding on the floor. Bed rails are dangerous to persons with dementia because they can become tangled in them, in some cases actually strangling themselves. Floor padding or mattresses are used after a person is no longer walking, but may be rolling out of bed. The mattress protects the person from hitting the floor.
Unfortunately falls are a part of dementia. As the disease progresses in the brain, it affects the areas responsible for coordinated movement. This is called apraxia and it involves any skilled movement -- from walking to balancing to toileting to chewing and swallowing food.
Good luck with your mom and enjoy your respite.
She is also under medications to help her sleep at night, trazodone, ambiem, lorazepam, haliperidol, but she defies the odds and still makes attempts to get herself up. My bedroom is upstairs and I have a camera/monitor to keep tabs on her...course I panic when she is out of camera range so I stumble out of bed and shoot downstairs. This happens many times a night.
They have re-adjusted her meds again..and the last two nights it was only every two hours and one four hour stretch of sleep.
The light at the end of the tunnel for me is the 5 days of respite at the Hospice House in the first week of January. And now we will be receiving homecare help up to 20 hours a month through the Area Agency of Aging and Disabilities funded by the State of WA.
I really don't want to do the Nursing home...but if I can't give her the quality of care she deserves due to illness or sleep deprivation. It might be necessary.
My 89 year old husband with Alzheimer's used to wander incessantly but since we installed the rails he hasn't even trIed getting out. You don't need a hospital bed either. We use home style bed rails that work on any size bed. It's worth a try.
But you are killing yourself. The stress will take its toll. We are not taught as women to think of ourselves as much as others. But let me ask you this: What will happen to your beloved mother and your children when YOU wind up in the hospital? or lose your job because you are a wreck?
When I was in your position about five years into caregiving my mother, I called the doctor and she said " Wait until the next time she falls. We will transition her then to the assisted living" But you have to have the cash.
There is a bed pad that has an alarm attached to it that goes off when someone get up - about $400 bucks. But they don't work very well according to a recent hospital study because someone has to intervene with your mother.
How about you rotate your kids to sleep in your Mother's room at night? Get another bed, so she has to climb over your kid to get out. It will wake up your child, so the child can stop grandma and won't hurt grandma with a fall.
Just an idea. We need to be creative with the resources at hand. I was alone when caring for my mother.
You are a good daughter. Be good to yourself, too.