Many older adults with Alzheimer’s or other types of dementia often experience symptoms of sundowning. Although sundowning isn’t a disease, it can affect a person’s behavioral pattern and lead to aggravated feelings of anxiety, confusion, and aggression.
Due to this fact, caring for aging parents with sundowning symptoms can be challenging. Your aging parents may show sundowning symptoms, including disrupted sleep schedules, repetitive behaviors, mood swings, pacing, or yelling, which can negatively affect their quality of life. In this article, you will learn the important steps to take if your aging parents show sundowning symptoms.
Take Note of Their Behaviors and Patterns
A vital step to managing your aging parent’s sundowning symptoms is to track their behaviors and look out for patterns in them. Generally, sundowning affects older adults during the later hours of the day. During this time, they often become restless, agitated, scared, and disturbed. However, the timing may differ from person to person. Take note of the time your aging parents experience sundowning symptoms, their activities during that moment, and their environment. By doing this, you can pinpoint a pattern in their behavior, identify their triggers and help to minimize or avoid them.
Take Care of Their Basic Needs
At an older age, it may be difficult for your aging parents to express their needs or attend to them. Meanwhile, unmet needs can trigger sundowning behaviors, causing your aging parents to be anxious, restless, irritable, and agitated. To help, you can ensure the basic needs of your aging parents are taken care of hours before their symptoms of sundowning usually start. The basic needs may include:
- Eating snacks and meals at appropriate times
- Using the toilet when needed
- Taking appropriate medications
- Quality sleep at the right time.
Make Them Feel Safe
You can help your aging parents manage their sundowning symptoms by ensuring they feel calm and safe in their environment. Fear triggers sundowning behavior and can worsen as daylight fades. During the later hours of the day, dim lighting, reflections, dark corners, and shadows can increase anxiety levels and fear. You can help aging parents feel safe by:
- Minimizing the volume of music, tv, or sound system
- Turning on lights and closing curtains before sunsets to hide shadows and reflections from outside
- Limiting all distractions and noise from other people
- Avoiding noisy chores like blending or vacuuming
Establish Routines and Schedules
Unpredictability tends to increase stress levels and feelings of insecurity. You can help your aging parent cope with sundowning symptoms by introducing them to a simple daily routine they can follow. This structure helps to create a balance for them, improves sleep, lessens stress, and ultimately helps to reduce sundowning symptoms. Below are routines you can establish for your aging parents
- A set time for mid-day naps, sleeping at night and waking up in the morning.
- Scheduled meal and snack time
- Scheduled time for proper hygiene and exercise
- Scheduled time for visitors, outings, and appointments
Ensure you establish their daily routines while considering their triggers and when they are likely to feel their lowest or best.
Supporting Sundowning Symptoms in Our Retirement Community
At Discovery Village At The West End, we recognize the challenges faced by older adults with memory-related conditions. If your aging parents show sundowning symptoms, you can rest assured that we have well-trained team members and medical practitioners onsite to support them through their episodes. Our goal is to ensure your aging parents receive full medical care, wellness support, personalized treatment plan, and daily assistance so they can enjoy a peaceful and happy life.
