i guess its just part of the stages hun... my dad doesnt really sleep or eat very well, and i sty on his tail end trying... i get tired and exhaused too, but its sumthing we must do.. i was thinking of getting a home nurse in here to help out because the saying is true, no one person can do it by themself...
when u get the nurse in then theres sumtime to get a lil extra zzzzzzzz.

Fatigue is the one thing I cannot handle very well. After a couple poor nights of sleep I am shot. I am grouchy, feel hung-over, make mistakes,have numerous aches and pains an numerous other complaints.
I think it is imperative that caregivers get some solid hours of sleep.
Deb, talk to his Dr. Get something to knock him out for a few hours.
You need this for your health.
And, if you can get someone to sit with him - close the bedroom door and get a nap.
I hope you can resolve this soon before it makes you ill.

Yea, I am going to call his dr. We finally fell asleep around 3 and then POP he woke up at 7:30! WTF (sorry for the language) Usually he is a good sleeper at night, something has changed. I will get a nap today when my worker comes. He is SO restless. And we have been mldly active so I don't think it is lack of exercise or too much stimulation.

A couple of my sisters say this is the hardest time on them with my Mom not sleeping at night, as that means they can't get a good nights sleep. We can hardly keep her awake all day, she's so tired. Then in the evening around 8-9 pm she'll start to stir around - up and down until about 3 or 4 a.m. We've tried different medications, but in her case (with her bad liver) she's limited with what she can be given.

I've read (or heard) that sleeping pills either don't work or aren't given to Alzheimers patients for some reason(?) I'm a night person, so I'm ok to stay up until about 3 a.m. but after that I'm out and with alarms we've put on the door, a baby monitor, and tried to make the house child-proof - any wandering she does is hopepfully, not going to put her in danger...

You know, we all just do that best we can...

I would try every sleeping pill I could and then I would double it. You have to have your sleep. That would be awful. Ken would sleep all day and all night, if I would let him.

I give Mother Tylenol PM every night. She likes it..... she thinks it's her sleeping pill and goes right off. Until the past week, She's been up and down and back and forth.......... but really not bothering me much. since we sleep in separate bedrooms and most of the time she'll respect my light being off.
I do take little cat naps here and there though and they really help.

Come on Deb, that would simply be too easy and nothing about this disease is easy. My hubby was not sleeping for a few months and would wake up between 2am to 3am and carry on then go back to sleep. I would be so wide awake I would just lie there and be so angry at him when I knew in my head the things he was saying to me was not him but the dementia. Now he is sleeping pretty well since the dr put him on buspar twice a day and added Klonipin at bedtime which has really seemed to help.

It seems both of us are sleeping more now I think because we both are depressed.

The not sleeping thing was the deal breaker here and Ron got hospitalized to be put back on his antidepressant and anti anxiety which the previous (now fired) psychiatrist had taken him off of. the new geriatric specialist psychiatrist is very sensitive to this sleep issue and has said that he will put Ron on meds immediately if this happens again.

I was so strung out by this interrupted sleeping(I can't even remember how long it was) that my doctor was telling me if something wasn't done I'd need to be hospitalized. And as my dear friend reminded me...keeping people awake is one of the things that is done to torture prisoners of war!

Good luck with this and hope you find a doctor ho will help

As to the "why"....I've been doing a lot of research and studying on this disease so I could help my Dad more efficiently....it talks about sleep....some people with Alz end up sleeping 16 hours a day, and others sleep only 2 -4 (I'm talking a 24 hour day)....no one can guess who will do what....it's all a matter of their particular brain chemistry. It has to be hell for them. I have chronic insomnia myself and I go crazy when I lose sleep....at least a large chunk of it. I think I would talk to the doctor and see if there is anything in the sedative line that you could give him....try to start there, I wish you the best and MORE sleep!

Beckeroo

I have been in contact with a lovely person from our state Alz Assoc and I was talking with her about the crazy psychiatrist who took my husband off his psych meds causing suffering and havoc.

she told me that she believes from all the folks she has talked to in our state that there are maybe only 5 psychiatrists who do a good job with the meds.

Is there any way you could try to seek out such a specialist?

My thoughts are with you, this sounds like such a difficult and painful time....