Keeping my mother in bed at night

[Anonymous]

Help! My 88 year old mother is on eliquis because of strokes.

She does not stay in bed at night and has fallen a few times. The doctor put her on Trazodone 25 mg for sleep. It keeps her in bed, but then she is groggy all day and does not want to do her walking and so on.

Last night we skipped the meds, but someone had to sleep with her to make sure that she stayed in bed. She was great today, peppy and talkative.

I would like to eliminate the Trazodone. I tried lower doses, but that doesn't work, she gets up. Has anyone tried special alarm signals for when she tries to get out of bed? I heard that the ones on the market stink. I am thinking about restraints, but I know that is taboo. She liked her level of alertness today. Not sure what to do.

[Anonymous]

How active is she during the day? If she amped up her activity level, would that help her sleep? Also, what about bed guards on the sides of the bed? Would those be sufficiently daunting to her that she would remain in bed? Other alternatives would be a baby monitor or nanny cam in the bedroom, or some sort of pressure alarm (under a mat) for when she leaves the bedroom? You also could look into a permanent security alarm, with beams, be installed in her bedroom doorway to keep her in her room.

[Anonymous]

With my FIL we did bed rails and an alarm that played "Somewhere over the rainbow" if he wasn't lying on it. Both worked great.

[Anonymous]

Would she drink warm milk before going to bed? Would she be able to take some melatonin right before sleep? Also, lavender on the pillow is supposed to be soothing and help promote sleep.

[Anonymous]

Bed rails should do the job.

[Anonymous]

Bed rails may just cause her to fall trying to climb over them. I’d try the bed rails and sleep in her room for a few nights to see how she does. Sympathy, OP. I’ve BTDT with an ailing parent who would go a-wandering in the night.

[Anonymous]

OP, do you need to keep her in her bed or in her room? There is a difference. There are a lot of reasons for the elderly to want to get up in the middle of the night.

Is she sleep-walking or just restless? Is she in search of something? Is she getting up to go to the bathroom? Are her sleep patterns out of whack? Does she have a sleep apnea?

It sounds like your mom is reasonably cogent and alert. If you made her room secure, so that she couldn't leave (alarm on door, alarm on window, child-proof lock on window), would she happily stay in her room? If you put a mini-fridge in her room, gave her a recliner that she could use to stretch out in (those ones that lift you into a standing position are great but $$$), and a tv would that help keep her contented and happy to stay in her room where you knew she would be safe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, do you need to keep her in her bed or in her room? There is a difference. There are a lot of reasons for the elderly to want to get up in the middle of the night.

Is she sleep-walking or just restless? Is she in search of something? Is she getting up to go to the bathroom? Are her sleep patterns out of whack? Does she have a sleep apnea?

It sounds like your mom is reasonably cogent and alert. If you made her room secure, so that she couldn't leave (alarm on door, alarm on window, child-proof lock on window), would she happily stay in her room? If you put a mini-fridge in her room, gave her a recliner that she could use to stretch out in (those ones that lift you into a standing position are great but $$$), and a tv would that help keep her contented and happy to stay in her room where you knew she would be safe?

When she gets up, she is confused about what she got up for.

[Anonymous]

Talk her doctor about other medications that will enable her to be more alert during the day. We went through this with our father and it was tough to find the right combination/doseage. It's not really an issue of "tiring them out" with greater activity from what I understood - dementia and other conditions can mess up the body's sleep-wake cycle and you need to find the right formula to rectify this.

[Anonymous]

The stroke team for my great-aunt highly recommends ensuring that the recovering stroke patient get enough physical/mental activity during the day while noting that the concept of "enough" is highly dependent on the specifics of each patient. We've also noticed that her two evening medications have been adjusted to ER (extended release) while some of her day meds have been reduced. We certainly notice if she doesn't get enough PT or OT during the day but the real difference came with the move to some ER meds.

We have a night nurse for her and the night nurse has stressed with all of us how important it is that her evening activities be very structured and routinized, much like her day, until we get her Circadian rhythm back on target. To that end, we put in black-out shades and a white noise machine but we also got her one of those sun lights to use during the day and try to monitor that she doesn't sleep too much (even though she is supposed to nap because recovering from a stroke is exhausting!).

Have you spoken to her stroke team/doctor about the meds?

[Anonymous]

There are several meds to try. It took awhile before we found one that worked well for my dad. Bed alarms are good too , especially if you want someone to be there when she's getting up.

Also, why does she fall? Does she have lingering mobility issues from the stroke? Is she disoriented when she wakes.up? Are there things she's bumping into at night that aren't usually a problem during the day? .

[Anonymous]

Is her night wandering aside effect of the meds she status-post stroke?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are several meds to try. It took awhile before we found one that worked well for my dad. Bed alarms are good too , especially if you want someone to be there when she's getting up.

Also, why does she fall? Does she have lingering mobility issues from the stroke? Is she disoriented when she wakes.up? Are there things she's bumping into at night that aren't usually a problem during the day? .

she has mobility problems since the stroke

[Anonymous]

If she falls and is off balance maybe she should stop the eliquis