Sun Upping

By Bud Focht

Hi, my name is Bud and one of the best days of the year for me is coming up this Sunday. Day Light Savings. The day we turn the clocks forward. There is nothing better than delaying sundown.

I have been doing a little reading on Sundowning lately, but I can’t find any information about Sun Upping.

Sundowning is a symptom of Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia. It is a psychological phenomenon associated with increased confusion and restlessness. It is common with Alzheimer’s patients for confusion and agitation to worsen in the late afternoon and evening, or as the sun goes down, hence the term Sundowning.

It has been two years now since my wife Terry was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease, and I am afraid she is creeping toward the mid-stage part of the disease. I need to help Terry with just about everything these days.  The mid-stage and advanced stages are when Sundowning is more common.

But I have noticed that is not the case with Terry. It seems as the day goes on Terry is more alert. It is in the morning when she sometimes has ‘accidents’ and does not make it to the bathroom in time. It is in the morning when she washes the dishes but doesn’t know where to put them after she dries them. It is in the morning when she is the foggiest.  

But in the afternoon when I come home for lunch she is alert and in the evening after dinner she can still enjoy and even solve some puzzles on the Wheel of Fortune.

She doesn’t suffer from Sundowning. She suffers from Sun Upping.

I am thinking that Sundowning is common with Alzheimer’s patients because most of them are in their 70s and 80s. Terry was just 54 years old when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

There are quite a few things I have learned to do as a caregiver to help Terry through her day.

I give her a list of things to do and it is almost always the same. Keeping a regular schedule helps Terry a lot. I have found things that she can still do, things she enjoys doing, and that is what we do.

Terry loves to go for walks and we do that as often as we can. They say Sundowning has to do with sleeping problems but Terry sleeps well at night. A change in the body’s circadian rhythms, or the sleep-wake cycle, can cause Sundowning, so they say to keep your home brightly lit in the afternoon and evening to help reduce the symptoms.

In Terry’s case, she loves to close the blinds when the sun goes down. I kid her that it is her favorite part of the day because she always asks me around 5 of 5:30 if she can close the blinds.   According to studies published in Clinical Geriatrics people who were exposed to more light late in the day showed less agitation. Light exposure helps your body recognize the difference between day and night.

I know I get agitated in November when it gets dark at 5pm!

Next week it will not be until 6:30, 7pm when Terry will ask about closing the blinds. I look forward to when it is 8:30 when the sun goes down.

Stress, frustration and fear play large roles in Sundowning. Now that our road trips are over there is nothing for Terry to stress about.  There was nothing really to stress about, but the trips were out of her routine and that worried her sometimes. But once we made the trips she always enjoyed herself.

She is comfortable in our home and if she is not at home she is with me, and she is always comfortable with me. Soft music playing in the house is suggested to create a calm environment.

Terry has music on all day. Either the radio if she is reading her Bible or the television watching Country music videos. The other day when I came home at lunch time she had both on.

I had the television muted before we went to bed the night before and forgot to unmute it. So when Terry put the TV on it was silent and of course she had no idea how to unmute it. So she kept the TV on for something to look at and she listened to the radio.

As Terry’s condition worsens, there will be more and more problems we will have to overcome. But so far, Sundowning is not one of them.  Not yet, anyway.

And now that the sun will be going down a lot later in the day, it marks the time of year when my hours at work ease up a bit. I will still be working every weekend until June, but half of those weekends I can work from home. I still work some evenings, but will be getting home at 8pm instead of midnight.

Terry and I survived the winter and are looking forward to the spring. We are looking forward to the sun not going down as early.

Until next time, hope the sun doesn’t go down on you.

Bud