Afternoon Confusion Agitation SUNDOWNING in Dementia ~ ABCs of Dementia FAQs

hey everybody its Vicki with dementia with grace how are y'all doing today today we're talking about the letter S in the ABC subdomain FAQ us and we're talking about a subject that I talk about all the time because I get lots of questions about it and it is sundowning it is not a diagnosis in and of itself it is something that happens to someone with dementia some people associate it only with with you know getting your days and nights mix-up or something like that that's a little bit more involved in that and we're gonna talk about we're gonna talk about it okay all right sundowning happens about the time the Sun Goes Down which is how it got its moniker but it can happen anytime from two o'clock in the afternoon three o'clock in the afternoon all the way up to 10 or 11 o'clock at night that's my experience then it can happen like that and what happens is we in your brain let's let's look at your brain like this way deep down inside right down there it's your pineal gland and your pineal gland is responsible for your is for it's responsible for making and regulating melatonin that that is the sleep your sleep hormone and people think about people with dementia are inside most of the time they're not exposed to the sunshine that pineal gland is not getting the same input the same data that it would get if you were out working a job if you're out taking care of your kids if you're in and out of the house if you were responsible for making you know all the routine decisions and all things like that I mean when you are elderly and have dementia usually you're in a home in your own home or someone else's home or in a facility and everything is kind of happening around you and you are not really you know participating in having to look at the clock and manage your time and manage your meals and all of those kind of things so you're not getting the input of sunshine and nighttime you're not getting those inputs so sensory inputs that you were getting at one time the other thing that happens is that you get really really tired during the day I want you to think about a computer with 15 browsers open and you've got all of this stuff in the background right everything's running in the background that's how our lives happen us with a intact brain we have we have all of our browsers open at one time our heart is beating I mean everything is happening we know about what time we're supposed to be somewhere we know what we're supposed to wear we know if it's raining if we need to take an umbrella all of those things all of that is happening in the background somebody with dementia if MIT is having all of that happen in the foreground for them they're having to constantly think Who am I who are you where am i where are you where are we supposed to be what is next who who comes next what you know have we eaten breakfast is it breakfast what is breakfast I mean oh all of those things are happening and so they are exhausted by the end of the day and sometimes you know maybe they have taken a little bit of a nap but that making them then they may wake up and think that it's morning time and so that's gonna get them agitated all of these things all of these sensory inputs are happening but they're not getting the same sensory input that we are through daylight and dark I suggest having all of the lights up up up up up bright bright bright in the morning have all the windows open have all the blinds open have all the lights streaming in all the lights and lamps on just all this input of it's daytime it's daylight any exercise that you can do in the mornings I like doing it outside in the mornings walk into the mailbox walking to get the paper you know anything that you can do with your person outside and getting that Good Morning Sun then in the afternoon I like to bring the lights down a little bit and maybe turn the blinds at half way so that the bright bright sunshine is not coming in but they're getting filtered sunlight so their brain is getting the input of it's you know it's it's later in the day and then of course when it gets nighttime all the blinds are closed all the overhead lights are off the lamps come on the night lights things like that so that they then their brain has the input of it's night time so that they can see the differentiation of the morning afternoon evening so that their body gets that input that maybe they heart they are not getting a lot of times when I first come into a situation the person maybe is sitting in the dark all day long and they get no sensory input about you know the difference of the daytime and nighttime or even afternoon they just get no no input on that and and that makes a big difference to be able to change that so that they are getting that that sensory input and the sundowning lessons there are medicines that you can use in the afternoons you know some people like to if they're going to if they're going to have an anti-psychotic if they're going to have some if they you have hallucinations in the afternoon and they contribute that to sundown and then they might want to do antipsychotic in the afternoon some doctors are that way and I understand that certainly if it's something you haven't managed but I encourage you if you are having sundown and happening in your person to get them exposed to bright bright sunshine in the morning and then lower it as the day goes on there are Sun lamps that are inexpensive that you can buy and I'll put I'll put a link or two down below in the description from Amazon really just like a floor lamp and it looks and functions just like a lamp but it's a Sun light that that gives that that needed information to your pineal gland that hey this price went into me awake and then you know you turn it off and then hey it's time to go to bed so that's handy if you have any tricks are hacks that you have used in a person with sundowning to make that time of the day a little bit better drop them down below sundowning usually happens in stage four and five I forget to mention things like that but people really are engaged in these stages and they like to know when things happen in six and seven they're usually not as active and you know they're just sundown and just doesn't seem to be as much of an issue in six and definitely not in seven so it's usually a four or five phenomenon so okay I enjoy doing these I hope that y'all enjoy watching these I hope that it's given you some some good stuff let's see st t will be treatment treatment will be our letter T on Friday and we will talk about behaviors versus medications and behavior management versus medications and the treatment of dementia okay all right I'll talk to y'all soon y'all take care

Channel: Dementia With Grace

Views: 5,313

Keywords: Dementia, Alzheimers, Lewy Body Dementia, Vascular Dementia, Alz, Alzheimer’s, Difficult Behaviors, Problem Behaviors, Caregiver Issues, Caregiver, Caregiver Help, New Caregiver, Care Partner, Professional Caregiver, Family in Crisis, Mentor Teepa Snow, Mentor Naomi Feil, Southern ASMR, Vicky Noland Fitch, Dementia With Grace, sundowning, sundowners, sundown syndrome, sundown, sundowning dementia, dementia faqs, frontotemporal dementia

Id: 5ETXJNmAQoo

Length: 7min 27sec (447 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 20 2019