Daylight savings can disrupt those living with dementia. Here’s how to help – National | 24CA News
As Canadians put together to set their clocks ahead, the affect of daylight saving time goes past the inconvenience of resetting watches and clocks. For individuals residing with Alzheimer’s and dementia, the delicate however important time shift can create disruptions of their every day routines, inflicting confusion and probably worsening signs.
Sleep disturbances are widespread amongst individuals with Alzheimer’s or different sorts of dementia, together with adjustments in sleep schedule, insomnia and wandering all through the night time, in keeping with consultants.
“Sleep disturbances can cause problems with cognitive function and memory consolidation,” defined Melanie Martin, an affiliate professor of physics on the University of Winnipeg. “With people who have Alzheimer’s and dementia… even that hour can cause sleep disturbances, which will keep them up at night and make them not follow their routine.”
This, in flip, might exasperate signs of Alzheimer’s, similar to reminiscence or cognitive decline, she stated.
Daylight saving time ends for many Canadians on Sunday, Nov. 5. This is when clocks fall again one hour. However, the Yukon, most of Saskatchewan and a few components of British Columbia and Quebec keep on customary time.
The concept behind the clock shift is to maximise daylight within the Northern Hemisphere, as days begin to lengthen within the spring after which wane within the fall.
But the advantages of this alteration are controversial, and the shift can have measurable impacts on well being. Some research have even discovered that the chance of strokes and coronary heart assaults could improve by seven per cent following the time change.
‘Disruptive to an individual with dementia’
Even with out the affect of daylight financial savings, Alzheimer’s sufferers already expertise disturbances of their circadian rhythms, that means they’ve issues synchronizing with the sunshine, stated Andrée-Ann Bari, an assistant analysis professor within the division of medication on the Université de Montréal.
“They tend to sleep a bit differently during the day. They tend to have really fragmented sleep, lighter sleep, and have problems with their satisfaction of sleep, depending on the advancement of the disease,” she advised Global News.
Sleep disturbance could have an effect on as much as 25 per cent of individuals with gentle to average dementia and 50 per cent of individuals with extreme dementia, in keeping with the Mayo Clinic.
“So any kind of further challenge to that is going to be problematic,” Bari stated. “It’s highly possible that people with Alzheimer’s disease are going to struggle more than most of us when there’s daylight savings time.”
The time change that occurs twice a yr is “most likely” not nice for his or her routine and their signs, she added.
One of the signs that may grow to be extra pronounced is a situation generally known as “sundowning,” in keeping with the Alzheimer’s Association. The group stated that is when a affected person’s cognitive and behavioural signs worsen within the late afternoon or early night. It could embody problem sleeping, anxiousness, agitation, hallucinations, pacing and disorientation.
“Sundowning is where they can have aggressive behaviour at night, and be more tired and sleepy,” Bari stated.
“So all of these symptoms seem to be worsened by variation from day-to-day sleep patterns” she continued. “This is hard for caregivers, to be confronted with those symptoms. And these could be worsened by unstable sleep patterns.”
Although one hour of change could not seem to be rather a lot, “it is really disruptive to a person with dementia,” stated Dr. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at Sinai Health and the University Health Network in Toronto.
Many individuals residing with the illness depend on indicators from the daylight to inform them it’s daytime and to be alert and oriented, he stated.
“But when we change the clocks and it gets darker a little bit earlier in the day, that can actually trigger… sundowning,” he stated, including many individuals with dementia could get confused when it will get darker exterior.
How to organize somebody with dementia for daylight financial savings
For caregivers helping these residing with Alzheimer’s by way of the challenges of daylight saving time, one key suggestion is to make sure early publicity to pure mild, Bari stated.
This may contain taking an early morning stroll or opening all of the blinds in the home, she continued, including that it’s also a good suggestion to attenuate publicity to mild in the course of the night hours.
“This could help almost everyone to synchronize themself a bit more with the new time.”
And if going for a stroll isn’t doable, there’s additionally the choice of sunshine remedy.
A 2022 examine revealed in Clinical Intervention in Aging discovered that mild remedy (publicity to synthetic daylight) can enhance nighttime sleep effectivity, scale back nocturnal wandering and alleviate night agitation related to Alzheimer’s illness.
Another efficient technique to put together for daylight saving time is to steadily regulate the bedtime routine a couple of minutes at a time earlier than the clock change happens, Bari stated.
“We have about a week now before this is happening, so change it a bit earlier this week so it’s less abrupt.”
Sinha suggested caregivers to take care of a constant routines throughout this era to facilitate a smoother transition.
“Otherwise, that internal clock gets really disregulated,” he stated. “It can be really disruptive to their behaviours and the way they interact with the world.”
— With information from Global News’ Michelle Butterfield
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
