The doctor called it hypoactive delirium, and it's apparently common in dementia patients in a strange environment. Someone could be ill, in pain, dehydrated, confused or suffer from medication side effects. So you have to try and find out what caused it and treat it, ie hydrate someone or do a medication review.
The primary cause of sleepless nights for those with dementia seems to be the changes that take place in the brain. Leading experts believe that as dementia changes brain cells, it also affects a person's circadian rhythms. When circadian rhythms get disrupted, the individual often confuses morning and evening.
Possible Medical Condtions. If you are struggling to wake up in the morning, it's important to rule out medical conditions such as sleep apnea, narcolepsy, and chronic fatigue syndrome. However, if you have been diagnosed with one of these conditions, your inability to get out of bed may be related to your diagnosis.
One reason for having trouble waking up is sleep inertia, a brief time when the body transitions from sleep to being awake. Sleep inertia can make a person feel groggy, disoriented, and even cognitively impaired immediately after waking.
Symptoms of sleep inertia most often occur with a sudden or abrupt awakening. That's especially true if you are in a deep or slow-wave sleep stage in the first part of the night. It's also more likely when you simply haven't slept long enough. Sleep deprivation can make it hard to wake up.
How can I stop sleep paralysis? There are no proven therapies that can stop a sleep paralysis episode, but most people who experience it routinely report that focusing on making small body movements (such as moving one finger, then another) helps them to recover more quickly.
Sleeping more and more is a common feature of later-stage dementia. As the disease progresses, the damage to a person's brain becomes more extensive and they gradually become weaker and frailer over time.
Excessive sleepiness in older adults is often multifactorial and may signal an underlying sleep disorder, chronic medical condition, undiagnosed mood disorder, or side effects of medications. It is associated with increased risk for cognitive decline and dementia in the elderly.
Signs of the final stages of dementia include some of the following: Being unable to move around on one's own. Being unable to speak or make oneself understood. Eating problems such as difficulty swallowing.
Signs of late-stage dementia
speech limited to single words or phrases that may not make sense. having a limited understanding of what is being said to them. needing help with most everyday activities. eating less and having difficulties swallowing.
Older adults need about the same amount of sleep as all adults—7 to 9 hours each night. But, older people tend to go to sleep earlier and get up earlier than they did when they were younger.
The average life expectancy figures for the most common types of dementia are as follows: Alzheimer's disease – around eight to 10 years. Life expectancy is less if the person is diagnosed in their 80s or 90s. A few people with Alzheimer's live for longer, sometimes for 15 or even 20 years.
Some sleep experts suggest that seniors actually need less sleep than other age groups. Most people need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep whereas many seniors can get away with 7.5 hours. Other experts believe that seniors need just as much sleep as the rest of the population.
Chronic medical conditions and mental health disorders are often accompanied by daytime sleepiness. Common culprits include depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, lupus, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, cancer, chronic pain, obesity. View Source , and hypothyroidism, among others.
Compared with younger adults, the elderly spend more time in bed but have deterioration in both the quality and quantity of sleep. All of these changes can lead to excessive daytime sleepiness, which in turn can lead to intentional and unintentional napping.
If you're over 65 and sleeping well at night, yet find yourself nodding off during the day, you may have a higher risk of developing new medical conditions like diabetes and cancer.
Insomnia in the Elderly
In elderly individuals, sleep‐maintenance insomnia and early awakening are more common complaints than sleep‐onset insomnia; this is likely due to the age‐related changes in sleep architecture and circadian rhythm described above.
A person will wake up from sleep paralysis naturally. While the occurrence can be frightening, it will pass with time. There is no way that a person can force their body to move out of a paralysis state.
Causes of sleep paralysis
insomnia. disrupted sleeping patterns – for example, because of shift work or jet lag. narcolepsy – a long-term condition that causes a person to suddenly fall asleep. post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Sleep paralysis can last from several seconds to several minutes; episodes of longer duration are typically disconcerting and may even provoke a panic response. The paralysis may be accompanied by rather vivid hallucinations, which most people will attribute to being parts of dreams.
Narcolepsy is a rare long-term brain condition that can prevent a person from choosing when to wake or sleep.