Overnight your senior might find that dementia colors how she sees her bedroom and how safe she feels. She might feel more comfortable if you put some of these solutions into place for her.

Bed Rails Can Help

Bed rails come in a variety of styles, but the simplest slide between the mattress and the box spring. They offer a barrier for your senior while she’s in bed so that she doesn’t fall out of bed. They can also offer her a supportive place to lean as she starts to stand up from a seated position, too.

Clear the Path
Make sure that you do everything you can to reduce clutter in the bedroom, especially around the bed. Anything that might cause your senior to become disoriented or to trip needs to either be relocated or removed so that it’s no longer a hazard. During the day these items might not be a problem, but at night they can be confusing.

Use Plenty of Night Lights
Night lights are an excellent tool overnight because they give your senior just enough light to see what’s around her without waking her up too much. Try to get night lights that have sensors on them so that they automatically turn on when there are low lighting conditions. Using the ones that you have to manually switch on is too easy to forget.

Anticipate Why Your Senior Might Get up in the Middle of the Night
There can be so many different reasons your senior might need to get up in the middle of the night. Everything from being a little thirsty to needing medications or the bathroom can wake her up. If you can, anticipate some of those needs and try to account for them before bed. Keeping a bottle of water by her bedside can help with thirst at night, for instance.

Think about Using a Monitor
One tool you might want to consider is using some sort of monitor in your senior’s room. This can help you to hear her more readily if she calls you in the middle of the night. This can be especially helpful when your elderly family member is in the more advanced stages of dementia and isn’t able to communicate verbally as well.

There’s a lot that you can do to make bedtime more comfortable for your senior, even if she’s battling dementia. If you’re finding that your own sleep is getting interrupted a lot, though, you might want to consider additional solutions, such as home care providers who stay overnight with your senior.

Excerpt: Dementia creates changes in every area of your senior’s life, even her overnight hours.

If you or an aging loved one are considering hiring a Caregiver in Charleston, SC, contact Heart of the Carolinas Home Care at 864-991-3116. Providing Home Care Services in Greenville, Simpsonville, Greer, Anderson, Spartanburg, Mauldin, Seneca, Laurens,Charleston, Columbia and the surrounding areas.

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Edward Harrison

Founder at Heart of the Carolinas

Edward Harrison founded the Heart of the Carolinas Homecare in 2007 when he saw there was a need for caregivers that provide non-medical home care services, at a price that most people could afford. It was standard in the industry to require hourly minimums and it was common to be assigned a caregiver, not matched with one based on your individual personal needs. Edward understood that to make a successful relationship between caregiver and client, skills were not enough, personality and compatibility plays as much a role as do skills.

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