One of the symptoms of dementia I’ve been dreading is the change in sleep patterns.

Jim already requires less sleep than I do and now he has trouble staying awake during the day and staying asleep at night. He’s not interested in exercise, and busy days have him snoozing before supper. (see the Alzheimer’s Society blurb on sleep)

For me, a person who needs at least seven hours of sleep a night, this can severely impact my ability to be patient. If I nap during the day, it throws off my equilibrium for two to three days afterward. If I go more than a few days without proper sleep my body stresses out. Then I sleep so heavily that it’s almost like passing out. Which also isn’t good when I have a dementia patient prone to investigating auditory hallucinations in the middle of the night.

I think part of Jim’s sleeplessness is causes by the longer hours of sunlight. I’m crossing my fingers that once the summer passes and we move into fall, the later sunrises and earlier sunsets will help trigger him to sleep better at night.