Sleep for Everyone but the Alzheimer’s Caregiver & Mother

When I read Kristina Chew’s article, Maybe Sleep is Really for the Birds, at Autuism Vox, I couldn’t help but remember caring for Mother.  She must have thought sleep was for the birds and everyone else, but not for her after she developed Alzheimer’s.

Mother had long been a “night hawk,” as we referred to people who liked to stay up late.  As she reached a more advanced age, Mother seemed to require less and less sleep, or took “cat naps,” then remained awake all hours of the night. This became very pronounced after Mother developed Alzheimer’s and came to live with my husband Jim and me. 

Sleep will be difficult

A friend remarked, just before I moved Mother to our home, “Mary, be prepared for little sleep.  That will be the most difficult.”  Evelyn had cared for her father who had had Alzheimer’s.

So true…Mother seemed hardly ever to sleep the hours I did.  Even when I tried to keep her from napping in the evening, she still would be up and down all night.  I learned not to tell her the day before if we were going somewhere the next morning after I found her at 3 AM taking a sponge bath and fixing her hair because we were going out.

Kitty was hungry

In the middle of the night I heard the refrigerator door opening and closing.  “What are you doing?” I almost shouted when I saw food spread all about the floor.  Mother’s cat was enjoying a feast and Mother munched on a piece of cheese.

“Kitty was hungry,” Mother replied.

Mother certainly was up at the crack of daylight with the birds as they sang in the woods around our home.  Kristina’s article reminded me that Mother probably thought sleep was only for them.