Managing Sundown Syndrome, pt. 1

You recognize a shift in behavior. Around 4 p.m. or 5 p.m., your Mom or Dad, who were calm at lunch, suddenly can’t sit still. Or your elderly client starts asking the same question over and over, “When is dinner?” even though you’ve answered five times already. Or your elderly parent insists someone stole his/her wallet and won’t believe you when you show it to them.

Welcome to Sundowning. And if you’re dealing with it, you’re definitely not the only one. It’s a good time to understand the syndrome and what can help.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, about one in five people with Alzheimer’s will experience Sundown Syndrome at some point. It’s not technically a disease itself, but rather a collection of behaviors that crop up as daylight fades. Think of it as the brain’s response to dimming light combined with exhaustion from processing an entire day’s worth of information with compromised cognitive abilities.

Nobody’s completely figured out what causes Sundowning. It seems to involve the disruption of our internal clock — that natural rhythm that tells us when to sleep and wake — which gets scrambled by dementia. Add in a full day of mental fatigue, shifting shadows as light changes, maybe some dehydration or unmanaged pain, and you’ve got a perfect storm brewing right around dinnertime.

Some seniors will pace hallways. Others get anxious or combative. Some elders are convinced they need to “go home” every evening, even though they’ve lived in the same house for 40 years.

The worst part? You can do everything right during the day, and Sundowning still shows up like an unwelcome dinner guest.

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