Sundowning in Mother’s Alzheimer’s Life
October 4, 2008 by Mary Emma Allen
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Yesterday I explained Sundowning in Word of the Week. I began thinking about Mother’s sundowning experiences. This wasn’t a big problem with her, but some crisis situations did occur in late afternoon.
I found her sundowning activities usually were connected to something she customarily did in late afternoon in her earlier life. When I delve deeper into other patients’ sundowning, I’ve realized this often is connected with an afternoon event of former days.
*Feeding chickens - When I was growing up on the dairy farm, we also raised chickens and sold eggs. We fed the chickens mid-morning and again in later afternoon. After we discovered Mother regularly feeding invisible chickens in her back yard during her Alzheimer’s days, I finally realized the timing was that of her chicken raising days.
*Catching the bus – One day Mother slipped out of the nursing home and went to a nearby fast food restaurant where they also had a tourist information booth. She tried to buy a bus ticket (of course, this wasn’t a bus stop) for her hometown. Upon considering this, I realized that she often caught the bus home from her first teaching job on Friday afternoons after school was out. She spent the weekend with her family, then returned by bus Sunday afternoons.
*Sneaking out of the nursing home -Another time she stuffed some clothing into her suitcase and eased out the back door of the nursing home. Again this was late afternoon and she was looking for a bus to go home. (After that, they hid her suitcase!)
Does your sundowning family member have an agenda that ties in with something they did at that particular time of day in earlier years?
(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen
