Caregiver Training: Sleep Disturbances | UCLA Alzheimer's and Dementia Care Program

The UCLA Alzheimer's and Dementia Care Video series provides viewers with practical tools you can use in a variety of settings to create a safe, comfortable environment both for the person with dementia and the caregiver.

[laurakelly]

This is good advice. The problem is when you do it day after day after day it drains you of your own life because you’re just living for the person that you’re caring for all the time and that is very hard. We do things like this all the time or I should say, I do things like this the caretaker too. My mom has a perfect life. I’m the one that doesn’t have a life.

[trinnybop]

I wish this actually worked, none of these methods help because they just get back up from bed anyway. and no one in the house gets any sleep.

[hamstermunchies]

I wish more hospital staff were trained in Dementia care. The last time I had to stay on a ward this elderly lady kept wondering to and fro from the toilets, which were opposite my bed. The poor thing was very disorientated and kept going through my bag of clothes, probably thinking it was her stuff. She also thought my bed was her bed so she kept trying to get in it with me. I was too unwell to get up and lead her to her bed so I called a nurse to help her. The nurse just told her to get into her own bed and walked away.
After several more of the lady's expeditions the nurse ended up yelling; ''you're keeping everyone else awake, get back to bed and stay there!'' Needless to say none of this helped the confusion in any way

[dreamwalkerleah]

Ya make the actor of the caregivers 50% more agrevated. And it doesn't end with agreeing. It ends with the same scenario happening over and over.

[Cmajor]

These caregiver videos are so unrealistic. No matter how nice you talk to the patient, a lot of them are still combative and the same problems happen over and over. My mom wakes up in the middle of the night and won’t go back to bed until I get up and make her go back to her room. Sometimes she’ll just sit there and stare off into space. I’ve never been so exhausted in my life.

[Robert_L]

I appreciate the time and effort that goes into making and presenting these videos. For non-caregivers, it gives them some idea of what caregivers go through. I have three sisters (two of whom, say they "oh, I know what this is like" but have never spent a single minute caring for mom), all removed from the caregiving process. I mention this because there's a strong misrepresentation, among many, that dementia patients just sit in a chair and quietly watch TV all day. Nope, that's not even close to how it goes. I currently average 4-5 hours of (interrupted) sleep each night. A lack of sleep, I can deal with. Mom's increasing desire to wander and her refusal to stay hydrated - those are issues that I struggle to manage.


For all of the caregivers out there - Thank You!
For all of the non-caregivers who truly want to help - Thank You! Learn and educate yourself before you rush in and say to the caregiver "okay, I'm ready to help". The caregiver already has their hands full, they don't need to add training to their day.

[prennathalewis]

I have come to so many of these videos to see if it’s something I’m missing and to piece together knowledge from every one I run across: however the tips and approaches are certainly helpful but realistically the formula of information given isn’t working in real life at least for my case as a caregiver…… 😢 but definitely Thanks for the pointers

[Antonetish]

My mom is almost 90 and there are no activities she can do anymore. Keeping her awake in the daytime is impossible, night time is terrible for me as her caretaker, she wants to get up 10 times in the middle of the night for different reasons. She needs to be watched 24 hours a day, I can never leave her alone. She thinks she can still get up and go to the bathroom etc but she is to weak she will fall. I have never been so tired in all my life.

[toffeelover]

When my husband is in the throws of Sundowning it seems he is in his own world, and so determined to achieve his task at hand…it’s so terrible…we’re we live the weather is extremely hot, too hot to go out during the day for even as well as everyone else during the lockdown, now we face excruciating summer..so we are stuck in the house….no sleep at night…it is heartbreaking, while at the same time so upsetting and frustrating…..I am always exhausted…..This disease consumes the caregiver of any free time….I love my husband so much, and care for him with my heart, it saddens me to be taking this journey…..

[noneyabusiness]

The fact that the mom still thinks her son is a kid and is worried about getting him off to school is so bittersweet. Like she looks at this frown man and her dementia makes her think “oh he’s just a kid, he shouldn’t be up this early!”

[chrislim]

Don't know how you're all coping.
I became a caregiver for my father and it feels like my life is forever changed.
😔

[adondevas]

Nice sentiment but I agree with others on here that it doesn’t work when the dementia sufferer is non-compliant. Dad (86) will just get up again and again and will get irritated with us even when approached with patience and respect. He needs to go to a home but Mom doesn’t want him to for fear of abuse. He may end up burning our house to the ground one day though with his turning on the stove burners and forgetting to turn them off once he leaves the kitchen.

[princhipessa]

This is all nice & tidy but it’s not reality. Reality is that they wake up repeatedly and start being aggressive, angry and bored.

[BusinessMan]

My mother no longer trusts that the clock is accurate. She sometimes insists that the darkness of midnight is either 6AM or 6PM. Dusk or dawn.

[asavandyne]

The biggest tip I give you all is patience and understanding

[debraseiling]

This was a really good video that explains things that can lead to sleep disturbances.

[stevareno]

great if cooperative ----if turning into mean old person who will not listen and fights everything this is useless

[cradlecap]

This all sounds good advice. However the reality is nastiness, loads of naps in the day and not being able to stop it. Reluctance to go anywhere. 8 wakeups and back to bed. Anger at medication. Anger at the thought of a sitting service. Constant requests to end it for him.

[shaylagoogle]

Someone gave their parent cbd oil and said it worked and they dont yell in the night. They said it slowed the dementia down it was amazing they can carry a conversation. Someone suggested sleeping pills. Its good to ask ppl who are already going through this to get tips.

[GordanaStetin]

I have extreme dementia issue with grandmother, her son took her of medicine for dementia, diabetes, pills for calming down and for sleep. She sleeps in mornings, in nights she screams, beatens up my mother, keeps us all awake, she is hungry every 15 minutes. She can walk, but she keeps disturbing my mother to do things for her. We are dead knockered not having rest and sleep. I ask social office for help, but in my country Serbia social workers are careless. My father is making things worse for his mother. His wife which is my mother is having hard time sleeping couple of hours if at all, because grandmother always wants her help. Grandmother is over 90 years old, very active and very aggressive towards my mother. I asked and requested grandmother to be moved to old people facility, her son doesn't allow it. What to do ?