I am trying to get my father to know the difference between night and day. Any suggestions?

Sebring and LME, sorry but unless you have dealt with an alzheimer's patient, this is definitely sundown syndrome and you have no control over their thoughts of what time of day it is. I have even changed her meds to evening because it made her sleepy, given tylenol pm and stopped the caffeine and she still doesn't fall asleep, although its not as bad at night as it was before all that, but it still is bad because you don't know what they do while you are sleeping and you can't stay up all night to watch them. You just have to take it one day (or night) at a time and hope for the best. You have good days and bad days and hope the good ones out number the bad, but this disease doesn't get any better, it only gets worse.

Get visuals he can understand. You would think the sun would be enough;it seems he doesn't look that far out the window. You will need to go over things he can identify. I agree with medical side of this. If meds are involved you'll have to really be careful. Good luck

With my own miother, when you look out her window, you can see the mailbox. I told her every time she wakes up, look out your window, if you can see the mailbox, it's time to get up. If you can't see the mailbox, go back to bed. It helped because it gave her only one thing to look for.

JulieWI is SO right, this CANNOT be taken lightly, especially if the person does not have 24 hr care. My father was given Ambien so that he woud sleep at night - he slept for maybe 1/2 to one hour and then was wide awake.

Please be sure to check with the person's doctors and get any referrals to specialist needed to check into sleep disorders; which may require an overnight sleep study.

Also check on caffine intake during the day and the environment for sleeping at night, lights, noise, bed comfort, etc.

Because of my father's dementia he fought sleep tooth and nail. We will never know WHY he fought sleep so much; but he did. The only thing we could do was to keep him, and others, safe. Because of this and other issues he HAD to have 24/7/365 care in an adult foster home. Even there, he did mess around with the home's electric panel and turned off the breaker for another resident who was on an oxygen concentrator when he was wandering around the home in the early morning hours. sigh. They had to lock the panel door.

Keeping my father awake during the day for sustained periods of time in order to get him to sleep during the night was impossible. He had severe sleep apnea that required a CPAP machine, which he refused to use.

Please don't delay in getting medical attention for this issue. Your care receiver may be more responsive to ideas/treatment then my father was.

I have a similar problem with my mom. If she is bored, she goes to bed. Then she sleeps too much during the day and is awake at night. This is a problem since we don't have 24/7 care in the home to watch her if she wakes up. We've done what we can to make the home safe, but who knows what she'll come up with to do!

Is your father sleeping too much during the day? You may need to try to keep him awake so he sleeps at night. He may just also need less sleep now. You might want to talk to the Dr about some medicine to help with sleeping.

It is hard and it can be dangerous to them, so don't take it lightly.

If the person wakes up after a nap thinking it is the next day, and tries to take their am meds, when they had already done so, there could be major problems. If you give the meds, no problem. But I know several seniors who take their own meds and you have taken double am meds, etc because of waking up after a nap and not knowing what time of day it is. Also, I tell my relatives, if they are in their chair when they awake, then it is daytime. If they are in bed, they went to sleep during the night. If they wake up during the night and it is dark in the house, then it is still night. Works for them.

aww, you cant get mad at that, now, just look at it as a quirk, when he was younger, did he have to wake up at 2am get dressed and go to school/work? old habits are hard to break..try letting him do his 'cycle' of dressing, and see what he does. dont talk to him or let him see you, just watch him.. ill bet he walks outside, looks around, then comes back in and goes to bed...
i dont know, peole are creatures of habit, thats probably been ingrained him him sice he was a little boy, to get up, get dressed, .etc so he does..
it can be a good thing, at least he will be awake if he needs to use the bathroom..
good luck, but this really isnt something to get upset over, i dont think. so long as hes not walking off second story balconies or into traffic, if hes not in danger, let him do it..
lol.. ask him to set the coffe pot, see if he does..

Unfortunately, all I have is sympathy. My father had this syndrome, Sundowner's Syndrome. It is NO fun.